The farm is beginning to wake up. The signs have been sporadic but picking up steadily. A young duck family is swimming in the small pond, the sound of the peepers at night is getting louder and of course the horses and donkey are shedding.
I have the urge to open up space, find order in the gardens and find some balance again. The horses seriously need baths and the pale grey horses are as dark as the bay horse.
Snow and Ice – Repeat
The winter was a tough one. The frequent storms left a lot of snow and a lot of ice. I was stuck on the farm roads more than once and grateful for a husband who would show up with a shovel and a smile. After one ice storm in particular, my truck slid down the driveway and right into a deep snow bank. It was too icy to climb back up and when my husband came out to help dig my truck out the only way down the driveway was on his backside. He’s a good sport so even though it was just after sun up on a Sunday morning, he sat on the shovel like it was a sled and he was in the snow bank with me in a nano second.
I felt less guilty that I never got around to taking the burlap coffee bags out of the back of my truck since they were as useful for getting traction under my stuck tires as they were pretty in the garden as paths.
Winter and Wild Horses
The work wasn’t just in the barn keeping the horses and donkey happy and well or making sure my elderly neighbor was happy and well but the fight for the very lives of America’s wild horses and burros was a 24/7 job. My cell phone and laptop were on call round the clock and the stress was high.
I accomplished a goal I had set for myself which was to get the information, photos and videos from the obscure roundups out to the public in as close to real time as possible. With current information the public could use it to get help for the quickly disappearing wild horses. We got very fast at moving information and as soon as the info came to me, it went out to the public on the Grass Roots Horse blog (http://blog.grassrootshorse.com ) sometimes in the wee hours of the morning and oftentimes I posted several times a day. My mantra became “let us make it through Antelope” (Antelope was allegedly the last roundup until the roundup at “Triple B” which was scheduled for the peak of July heat in Nevada and the height of foaling season.) I made it through but I am forever changed and as the saying goes, “once you know, you can’t not know”.
Life will never be the same which is why my thoughts now are on finding a peaceful place for my mind to rest as I continue to fight for the wild horses and burros.
New Directions
Spring is welcome now. Dead wood is being removed in all parts of my life. The shrubs that suffered too much damage from the winter storms need whatever help we can give them. It’s time to cut back the ornamentals and uncover the pathways again. Clean the paddocks and repair the fences. Those are great things to do while my mind has space to connect the dots and see the patterns that need to be connected and uncovered so real change can happen for the wild horses and burros.
I have faith that the new direction that Grass Roots Horse is focusing on will bear fruit. New projects are opening up for me personally as well and the seeds of past creative projects are bearing fruit after being dormant.
Now if only the pear tree in the vegetable garden will bear fruit again……. stranger things have happened……
