November 22, 2010 Emanate.. Got That Feeling

November 21, 2010  Nature EMANTES God's life within us.



Lilies from last summer

      Here in Wisconsin we are experiencing our gloomy season.  Many dark cloudy days, rain, wind, and cool air greet us most times with a few
 sun warming the soul days, mixed in between.  As fall slides into winter, I look forward to our first snow.  It gives me that giddy feeling like when a flower emits its fragrance as I walk by, brushing shoulders with life itself.  A God life, EMANATES to me His creation wonderland push...  It brings my soul up front to His majestic wonderland.  Like the lilies above when they first bloomed I got that giddy feeling smelling their fragrance as I weeded below them, putting on mulch after the area was cleared.  My eyes gazed up at the miracle of life from my Creator, the scent filled me till smiles burst out with rejoicing similar to Easter Day.....they EMANATED their beauty into my inner soul.
     The first snow does that to me too!  I love it when I wake in the morning and open my eyes to a whole new world!  The tree limbs hold a graceful covering in the stillness of the white miracle. The tips of Pink cone flower seed,  sway to the wisp of wind with hats of fluffy white.

     Even the sputsy (plain sparrow) have more spark, flitting in to get their spot on the bird feeders.  The Blue Jays look more intense in there dress of blue, touched with black, the Red Poles almost meet the beauty of the bright red Cardinals against the snow.   Ahhhh  the beginning of winter.  The gray squirrel, a bushy -tailed rodent that lives in trees soon makes his appearance knocking the patches of snow off branches as he sails from limb to limb and finely arriving to be king of the feeder.  Flitting his tail and peering around as though he is making sure everyone knows who is in charge of the prize sunflower seeds.  No one challenges him but they line the trees  of black with white giving it the look of color in  a Christmas tree.  The jays start first demanding their spot on the opposite edge of the feeder.  My soul EMANATES  Joy from the high jinks of nature.  The weather man has promised us Thanksgiving day will begin this pleasurable experience of our winter wonderland.  I can't wait!!
                           Another wait holds anticipation of our new puppy.



Puppys have to stay with their mom until week before Christmas.




I can't wait for my surprise .....  We ordered a new Airedale puppy to join our now aging Gilly who is eight.  Gilly is short for Nigelia a lovely flower that resembles the Airedale the way the edges curl out.  We get Gilly groomed and bathed at Jolee Aire kennels about 2 to 3 months.  She is non shedding and I do brush her but not all the time.  I like her mussie look when her hair gets a little longer.

 We bought Gilly from Jolee Aire Kennels one of the best breeders of Airedales since the 1970's.  Joanne's Airedales are not only champions they are bred for a gentle temperament.  Gilly is the most gentle dog you could set eyes on and yet she has that spark and energy of a terriers.



Gilly taking a walk with Dick down our long driveway to get the mail




Gilly when she was half grown up.  Gypsy our lab in the background is all tuckered out but not Gilly, she is still ready to go and seems to be laughing all the time.  The joy radiates out of her to me, making me feel just as energetic as she is.




Gilly when she was a little puppy

  Airedales are called the giants of the terriers but their graceful stance give you that EMANATE giddiness when your eyes set upon them.  There is no other dog that can generate that feeling but then I can be a little prejudice I suppose..... Joanne's web sight is as follows or give them a call at 920766-6775 and she can give you oodles of information on these beautiful terriers!                                        http://joannesinc.com/

Joanne has been sending me pictures of the puppys as they grow up while I wait on pins and needles for the day I can go pick up my fluff of love.



 


  Airedales are extremely smart, fun to live with, excellent with children (our grandkids love our Gilly)  Our cat mossies up to Gilly to have her ears rubbed,  and our sons dog follows her around like a shadow when we babyset their Cocker Spannell . As you can tell I have an everlasting EMANTED FEELING FROM my Gilly!  We could not bare to live without an Airedale in our lives so decided to get a puppy before Gilly gets too old to handle one.
Future blogs will most likely have many updates on our progress.

    That EMANTED FEELING  also comes from quilting material and yes buttons that I am collecting.  I get a lot of my new material from   http://fatquartershop.blogspot.com/ which has her link to her quilt shop.  I get her email every week and it is like a kid in a candy shop temptation.  I hold it down to my favorite material Moda, and try to stay in the range of colors and patterns that I can match my all ready waiting stash here at home.  The latest temptation I fell into full force after my gaze of EMANATED FEELINGS held with the picture of Imperial Collection 6 Vintage large Scattered Flowers pictured below from Fat Quarter shop.  I got other material too for the quilt blocks I am working on now.  But I just never saw anything so beautiful as this.

I have no idea of what I am going to do with it, but I loved it in the newsletter and love it even more now that I can gaze at it in person.  Any suggestions?

Pictured below is a couple of blocks done and need to be framed out for my quilt.  They also radiate to me EMINATE JOY!

The chicken was appliqued with a zigzag stitch on my Viking sewing machine.  the material it rests on, will be cut to frame it.  The pattern I bought from Florine Johnson Designs.  She has lots of rosters in all shapes and sizes and many other patterns.

 This block is embroidered and appliqued by hand. I used button with beads on vines  It will be framed with the material it is resting on now.  I will be embroidering and adding things like in a crazy quilt but it will be all cotton. The block is an idea I found on the Internet but cannot find the blog to get permission to use her idea.  It is a blog from France I think.  If I find out i will include it in next blog.  I always like to give credit to the one who had the idea first.  There were no patterns to buy or I would have sent for them...

Corinthians 1:3-4 is perfect for Thanksgiving.....
"Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I thank my God always concerning you
for the grace of God which was given to
you by Christ Jesus"

May your lives Emanate this Thanksgiving to all you touch tomorrow as you celebrate life, love, and our great country that has given us all these opportunities to behold.

Kate





OCTOBER 20, 2010 Wispy One Minute, Windy Another Moment

October 20, 2010  WINDS OF FALL........

Wispy Winds of Fall gently playing with the leaves held tight on their stems, Windy and Rainy  Another  Moment, whipping the leaves to the ground.


Fickle Fall never knowing if a jacket is needed or an umbrella.

   Today Within Nature presents us with 30-40 mile an hour winds.  Rain tearing at our skin, jackets, umbrellas useless as they bellow out backwards instead of sheltering us from it all.  Sad in a way because the kaleidoscope of color in recent days has disappeared.  The tree limbs are exposed, the sky is gray, rain keeps me in the house.  Horses are stuck in barn, because they are old and needing pampering away from the windy cold rain that is soaking one's clothing, and soul in minutes.

But what prevents me from enjoying one thing will give me joy another way .  Time to sew, time to read a novel, set aside in spite of its exciting turn of fate.  No time on sunny warm days to read until the last pages, giving me that happy ending......
   Time to write a blog.....now that I am held captive by the Wind and Rain

   Lets go back to the Wispy days of Fall that I enjoyed just a few days ago.  A walk in the woods listening to the crackling of leaves beneath my feet.  Coming across Mushrooms on our old Indian Marker Red Oak that is now dismembered of its pointing arm. (Check out my other blogs on the story of our old Oak.)

Grape Ivy covering an old arbor Dick made years ago.  Nice to sit in its shade on a hot sunny summer day.  But in fall it gives you permission to sit a bit, look around, notice its beauty in other ways.  Looking up you see a neat design which you never bother looking at covered in green summer growth. The golden yellow leaves seem to soak in the sun rays

Katsura tree reflects that same sun tone hue. Almost looking like Christmas lights Ahhh the beauty of fall!

Fall teaches you patience.  Its a waiting season in between glorious days of winter and summer.  Taking a deep breath from life, learning to wait until the next season starts.  Patience does that.  Like waiting for a plane at the airport that is late or canceled.  Can't do a thing about it, no steaming mad, no nervous agitation changes it, so patience comes to the rescue.  Take a deep breath and put your mind onto other things, like those glorious days of white snow blanketing all this drab gray that is now staring me in the face with fall.  Then when it is nearing spring taking another deep breath and thinking of all those buds opening into another glorious summer of flowers and scents of heaven....
taking away all the endless long cold days of winter.  Our mind plays tricks with us, so might as well trick the mind.....push the pause button, think of something else.  Practice makes perfect and a little help from our great Creator above, asking Him for the gift of patience.  Like yesterday when babysitting for our dear little Cooper our baby grandson.  I arrived, family left, Cooper went into panic with a howl that would scare a pack of wolves.....  :)  But with a quick prayer for patience I thought of bringing him to the window and say whats that?  Of course it switched his mind from family marching out the door without him, and he gazed out at the things I pointed out to him.  He smiled, we sat on the floor and played with his comforting toys and then his nap brought that beautiful personality out and he glowed the rest of the day.  Patience, taking a deep breath, tricking the mind to something else, using God's blessings to form our day......

In Fall my eyes reach upwards to the sunshine, brushing against the clouds.  I drink in the beauty of the racing art work of Nature to console my need for beauty instead of looking at the drab dress of late Fall.

The sun was just rising in the morning. Notice my  heart tree in center has lost half its leaves.  Two different oaks, one hangs on to its leaves longer than the other

One of the nicest things about fall is that I do not mind being in the house at all.  I love to sew, quilt, and write.  Below is my chicken I have been working on.  The pattern is from Florine Johnson Designs.  I bought three.  This one is called That Radical Rooster Rupert



  It kind of reminds me of my roosters that I have had.

Silver Laced Wyandotte rooster and hen

The roosters are all different.  The above rooster is meek and mild.  He lives in the barn where we store our hay.  He won't fight so gets too beat up by other roosters.  The same with the Red Rhode Island Red in the top photo but the blond Orpington  rooster would always run the place including me if he could.....  He is no longer a residence in my flock.  I want peace around here.

Talking about chickens......they are all molting right now.(loosing their feathers)    Feathers are  all over the place.  Picture below is one I call Dotty, I think she is a Brahma and she looks a mess in this picture a couple weeks ago.  She really dropped her feathers and her pink skin was showing.  But in a couple weeks she looks like new with her new winter coat.

Dotty in front of picture, with her new coat of feathers after molting and Custard the new chick from last springs hatching.

 With November just around the corner our Nature is beginning to rest.  The field in back which we rent to a local farmer has been harvested of its soybeans, the leaves have fallen to the ground to be decomposed to new soil for next Springs planting.  The skies are also getting to look more like winter skies.  The sun is rising in this picture that I took this morning, its more south, putting a different coolness to our earth. Wisconsin is getting ready to accept the blanket of white, with frost killing most of its growth, it lays waiting for Winter..

 Bird feeders are out again.  We have to put them away in the summer because the Raccoons destroy them trying to get the seeds.The hardy birds of Wisconsin winters, cluster about the feeder both on top of the large feeder and on the bottom ground below.  Little Finches now colored a dusty  brown instead of their bright yellow and black of summer flit about the many thistle feeders available.

The hunters dressed in their bright orange will be the only color we see out in the back 21 acres of  the picture above.  The deer will be moving a lot, as the bucks  search out the does.

 Our grandson got his first buck in the picture above  dressed in his camouflage hunting clothes for bow and arrow hunting out back in our wild nature. They set up deer stands and sit and wait.  he spent many a day out their patiently waiting.  I wonder what he thought about up high in that deer stand.   His patience won out because he finely  got his buck, a 6 pointer.

The hill behind our home in fall 

Keep patience tucked under your arm, close to your heart, enjoy the nature around you and there is always tomorrows joys waiting in the outskirts of our busy lives.

God Bless

Kate

October 5, 2010 The Old And The New

Tuesday October 5, 2010
What Was Old Is Now New

What Was Done Is Now Begun
Superseded Into One

     Seasons.......times taking place.......Summer is officially over, but there still remains some days like summer, warm and sunny.  Still lingering not quite giving up.  Fall breezes in, forcing jackets on, insisting it is time for Fall!

      Old age.....68 (my age)  is young for some, old for others.  It is in the mind, attitude, that judges the moment.  I don't feel old, but there are tale time signals that tell others I am old.  Little wrinkles poking up here and there, birthday cakes with lots of candles, and maybe standing next to my young grandchild :) .
The old becoming new in the genes of our generations ahead.
     In nature you can see the signs of fall.  Here in Wisconsin we have the blitz causing  plants drying up, cool nights bringing on the colors of trees, also the fields becoming bare from farmers harvesting their crops. The old dying back in fall, no longer showing its beauty of youth, but hidden below the ground is the new, the next years new growth hidden for a season.  Spring bringing back the new birth of another season of life never being exactly like last summer but with pictures of the new added to the old.


Plum Ash Near Our Home



 The Plum Ash above is the prettiest Ash there is.  It is so full of different colors,  looks like it is glowing.  Here in Wisconsin the Ash are dying from the Ash borer.  So far there is no cure or predator that will get rid of it so it looks like we will be loosing the Ash trees like we did the spectacular Elm that died out years ago.  This saddens me because my woods hold a lot of  the plain Ash out in the wild areas.  Our trees are such treasures here in this world of ours.  It takes them so long to grow and seem so fast to be eliminated. They produce that oxygen we breath in using old that we breath out.  The now falling leaves will enrich the earth it lies on as it deteriorates into rich brown soil.  Superseding from old to new.



Our woods we look out on in Fall.  Heart tree to the left formed by two oak trees.

      My gardens look sad too.  Things are drying up, nature is cooling down drying up the perennials, in readiness of the long cold days ahead.  I use to water and try and keep everything alive but nature is doing what should be done.  If the plants are too vibrant and green they will freeze out because they have not regressed to dying off the tops, the bottom roots stay alive with hardy perennials.  The zone for my area is 4, and there are maps out there called zone maps that will tell you what your area is.  In spring the resurrection of life begins again.  With the warmth, spring will trigger those roots to start shooting stems up.

Back to the old, becoming new......    I love to collect things, buttons, material, plants, horses (4),  Indian pictures and artifacts plus things like old linen embroidered, antique hankies to be used on pillows I want to make. Books full of old ideas I can use to make something new.   Taking the old and making it new.  Like the perennial plants in the frozen ground waiting to be made new, my collections wait to be made into something new.

Above is a picture of my button collection I save in glass vases, bottles.  The east sun makes them glitter as it comes up to start my day making me feel glad to be alive. Second picture shows other buttons in baby food jars and old hankies sit in a pile on counter. The wood boxes hold needles, and things I need for sewing.  The round wood box an old carpenter , a friend of my dads, made and gave to me, and most others were finds from rummage sales.
 Allen my cat snuggles into my material below which I collect.  I had spent a night going through my collection sorting colors for my new quilt. Picking up the pile and putting it into the basket so it is handy as I need it. Some of the material was found at rummage sales, estate sales, and some bought new.  All being used to make new out of old.



Other material is sorted in colors and saved in clear plastic containers ready to be chosen for future quilts.  My book collection is garden books, quilt books, and in our library in a different room, novels and horse books fill the shelves along with numerous other books we collect.



These collections are found in my computer room-sewing room.  And what an amazing collection of ideas we find in the computer!  It superseded at such a fast speed from when it was invented to now.  God has blessed man with such beautiful minds to image His very own.  But how mute ours are to His, YET, if we go to Him, He graces us with what we need.

The picture to the left is my granddaughter's baby quilt I made her 13 years ago.  Not too old but well worn by now.  Katelyn has been coming once a week for sewing times with me and decided to make a new lap quilt using the same figures on her baby blanket but using the Turnstile pattern instead of the the tiny blocks pictured on the left.  Below is the two blocks she completed this week.  She   chose to embroider the figures instead of doing them in applique.  We went to my sister Pat's house on Saturday to learn Embroidery stitches Katelyn wants to use on the seams after she is done.  The quilt is pieced by machine by Katelyn and will be embroidered by hand.



Hope you will all share with me what are your old Superseded Collections that you are turning into new...............

Above image found on Internet but do not know where.......beautifully done by someone....



Just Living in the Overflow of God's Love.....
Kate



 

Entrance and Tenacious Within Nature

September 9, 2010

As with many things in nature it is very common with our lives.  Each day is an entrance.  Every time we go into Nature it is an entrance. I got to thinking about entrances, and the huge choices it beholds for us.  Going into this entrance above it, says Bless.  But when I get into the garden beyond it leads me to another entrance which is my Vegetable garden.
 Because I was so enraptured with flowers I didn't bother much with vegetables until a couple years ago.  The call to go green by every program and add on TV bombarded me with the danger of chemicals on our produce.  I must have eaten thousands of bad chemicals on my meals without even being aware of it.  I heard two years ago how the grocery stores spray all their produce to get rid of the fruit fly and other bugs that might have slipped into the store unnoticed.  I was stunned.  I saw those crispy clean veg and fruit but never thought what could be on them unseen as I prepared meals for my family.  I wasn't aware of how old those eggs were and that what was in those eggs was what the chicken was exposed to and ate.  Geepers !  Now my chickens eat the best organic food, get lots of vegetables, dandelion leaves and bugs they find while they are scratching and pecking at soil not an empty cage they are crammed in with several other chickens like the store bought ones.

 I give them sunflower seeds in the morning and nite as scratch feed, insuring omega 3 in their eggs.  They get oyster shells ground up for grit making their eggs shells nice and firm. In the video you can see them pecking away at home grown cantaloupe I threw in for a change of menu.  The blue umbrella gives them shade along with the two white shelters shown that Dick built last year to keep the snow and wind off them when they braved the cold pen.  Summer shade shelters them also along with the weeping pine tree that use to be part of a garden before we put up the pen and coop.  The video also shows a better picture of Dicks metal art on the entrance to the pen and coop.

Below is a picture of my egg basket Dick gave me last Christmas.  I don't think I will ever fill it up but they are more than enough for my family and friends. It was mid summer but now the chickens are molting and the egg count has gone down to half of what I got then.

This is one of the chicks from last spring.  Turned out
its mother was Goldy, (a cross from Rhode Island red
and an Orpington) the father the Silver Laced Wyndott.
She was the only hen, her three brothers, roosters,
went to our grandson who is now married
and have two children.
They said they never tasted  chickens so tender.

   In winter they have two cabbages hanging in their coop to peck at which gives them the greens they love, plus any other veg. that I have in the house to share.  Diatomaceous - Earth powder is sprinkled on the clean coop floor which is covered with wood chips a couple inches deep.  It is a natural preventative of insects and keeps lice off the chickens.  You can even put it in the chicken feed to prevent intestinal parasites.  It will not hurt earth worms or beneficial soil microorganisms.  It is non-toxic   I could write three blogs on this good stuff but I will refer you to the link: DIATOMACEOUS-EARTH.NET.  I buy a big sack of it at a local feed mill. Does wonders for roses too.

Back to entrances.....the Chicken Coop  and Pen.....I walk through this entrance several times a day.  Let the Chickens out in morning and put away at night.  Throwing greens to them, checking eggs also can be several times a day using this entrance to this pen. I think there a couple hens eating my eggs!  So do check often trying to beat them to the fresh laid eggs.   Dick did a little metal art on the doorway when he built the pen two years ago.  In the winter the snow blower just makes it between the opening. This has been a total BIG experience for me and I needed lots of  "TENACIOUS"  will power to continue this project.  It is time consuming, has some draw backs like cleaning the coop, culling the flock like when there are too many roosters or there is a bully that won't let up picking on hens.  It has been also rewarding because the bounty of fresh vitamin rich eggs makes me so much healthier. At 68 I can see a great improvement in my memory since I started to eat many of the eggs. 

And I still enjoy watching these critters as they race to get the best peace of greens and then run with it, with the flock right behind it, dropping their prize and then joining the flock to chase the next winner.  I keep bales of hay in the pen to give them something to peck at, sit on, and crow while up there, or just snap up the bugs when I turn it over each day.  Just a couple days ago there was a fat black lizard curled up under it.  A Rhode Island Red hen grabbed it and the race was on.  I think that poor Lizard was exchanged at least 5 times before the last hen found a good hiding place to eat it. 

Entrance to horse barn. 
Been going through that door everyday for 19 years, first thing in the morning letting the horses out and than for sure in the evening to put the horses and outside chickens away for the night.  And in between numerous times to get the horses ready for grand kids to ride.  Cleaning the barn stalls, throwing out the dirty water and and bringing the pails all cleaned back into the tack room.  There are two sliding door in the front of the barn to the right of the picture that we are in and out of thousands of times. The experience like getting the chickens, getting the horses has been a tremendous responsibility.  Horses were a dream come true for me but never dreamt I would need Tenaciousity to carry me through this project of a lifetime.  They will be with us until they are too old or we are too old.....  That Entrance has given us so much joy, heartache, excitement, satisfaction, fear, pride, again I would not trade it for a million dollars.

Entrance to our home for 25 Years.

   Even after 25 years walking through this entrance has been a bit of heaven.  I was 43 when we built, and started the adventure of country living.  I had been what they call around here, a city slicker.  I made lots of flower gardens at first, then went to horses, chickens, and vegetable garden were added to my plate that was plenty full of other activities, like working part time, being in a lot of activities in the city, but which are now a thing of the past.  I love being here, enjoying nature,  27 acres of God's gift to me. Three of my five children lived out their teen years here, and now married and into their own careers, plus children of their own.  Lots of Grand children have enjoyed this green space.
We needed lots of Tenaious fiber in our souls over all those years here.

TENACIOUS:  Holding Fast, Stubborn, Persistent, Holding fast together, Not Easily pulled apart.  descriptions from the dictionary....Holding fast through thick and thin like the tendrils on a grapevine.......on our deck.  almost impossible to get off. 

Tiny feet of the grape vine, tendrils, holding fast.

Life was not always heaven here.  Like everyone else living on this beautiful world of ours, we fill pain, work through it and again taste the joy.  But the important thing is we hold fast, to our beliefs, our dreams and don't become bitter because of our destination.  As with the seeds we drop into the soil, we have to die a little to what we demand, go with the flow and the gentle green pushes its way up to new life.  Our life with resentments laid aside.

I get Max Lucado a famous author blurps for the day on my email and this is one of them I want to share. 


The following quote by Max Lucado   I love his writing, so humorous so fun.

Resentment


Posted: 11 Sep 2010 11:01 PM PDT

“This is my command: Love each other.” John 15:17

Resentment is when you let your hurt become hate. Resentment is when you allow what is eating you to eat you up. Resentment is when you poke, stoke, feed, and fan the fire, stirring the flames and reliving the pain . . .

Revenge is the raging fire . . . Bitterness is the trap that snares . . . And mercy is the choice that can set them all free.

So..... above is the entrance to my new day.  I happen to glance up from my computer and see out of my window the son rising behind what I call my heart tree.  Two oaks in my woods with what looks like a opening in the shape of a heart.  It reminds me to use my heart not my head in dealing with my day!

                                                         Kate

HOW CAN IT BE? SUMMER HAS FADED INTO WHAT WE CALL FALL HERE IN WISCONSIN

Rudbeckia sees summer out by brightening up a dark corner with Black Ninebark bushes and Hillside Black Beauty - Sambucus in background.

Ever hear the words "It looks kind of seedy?"  Well, that is what my gardens description is beginning to look like.  The vibrant colors reflecting the summer sun on a sleepy warm day are now going to seed.  No matter how much dead heading (removing seed heads on flowers) that I do , the beautiful flowers refuse to bring back their budding growth.  instead things look seedy!  Like the pink cone flower in lower picture.  The rudbeckia, a smaller version of the above picture is what I call Black Eyed Susies, is still going strong for a few more weeks

                                                    

Teddy Bear Sunflowers brighten up a spot in my Vegetable garden.

Phlox, more Rudbeckia,   still sprinkle a little color in the fall garden.  The Dasie and gay feather in the lower picture are now gone but the potted containers still hold their own. 

Our many trees that we planted the past 25 years are giving up their fresh look too.  I see shades of Carmel, dusty browns and pale greenish gray leaves falling.  The exciting blush of Wisconsin's fall leaves have not begon and already the Cottonwood trees are nearly bare of growth. I gaze out the many windows in our house and see a peach tree bare of fruit, crab apple trees laden with their red berries that will gift the tardy Robins a late meal because they have failed to leave for warmer states like the swallows that now line the telephone wires getting ready to migrate to a warmer climate.. 

Bonariensis Verbena are almost as tall as I am and the cosmos are sprinkled in between.  They are annuals and will seed themselves in spring but oh do be very careful because they come up late and if you are too thrifty with your weeding you will dispose of them before they can arrive the next summer.  Leave that area for last in spring cleaning.  I let the stalks stay up all winter ensuring that the seeds will fall and replenish my next batch of Bonariensis Verbena .

Today our farrier for the trimming of the horses hooves came.  He is the best farrier I have come across in the 18 years that I have had my horses.  My old mare Refa was in pretty bad shape before Mark R. Albright (markralbright@yahoo.com)  (cell: (920)379-5003)  started to trim her feet.  She was very sluggish and in a lot of pain.  I had thought I would have to put her down (meaning vet giving her a shot to end her life) but Mark has done remarkable things with her.  She can again gallop, and often trots happily out to the back pastures as if she is a youngster again, when I let her out of her stall.  Mark is so patient with my older horses, even my Moose who hates his feet picked up. 

Refa waiting to go out to back pasture.

Mark Albright trimming Ginger our pony's hooves.

He has a gentle spirit about him which my horses can sense

and it calms them as they get worked on.  Mark is from up by Green Bay but drives even to areas near Milwaukee because he is so good at what he does.

Wishing you the ride of your life this week!

I leave you with this quote ......

Kate

"Finish each day and be done with it.  You have done what you could.  Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in;  forget them as soon as you can.  Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense"   RALPH WALDO EMERSON *****