Night Shift

I love working nights at the farm. Once you get past the way the land drops off into total blackness just past the fringes of the barn, it's actually quite magical.

When I have finished feeding, stall cleaning, and breezeway raking, I love to sit and listen to the night. It's so still this time of year; nothing but the sound of horses chewing and coyotes howling. The coyotes mate for only a brief time between January and March, and last week the blackness of the forest was filled with a loud and eerie chorus of howling. Pretty darn cool!

From my view in the breezeway, I can see Miss Scarlet starting to doze off out on the loafing shed.

The loafing shed is the figurative equine water cooler basically. They all hang out there and socialize.

Leo is the new kid on the block, and he's so super sweet.

And this is me hoping Cowboy doesn't decide to turn around (in his signature move) and bite Buckeye on the butt, sending a scattering equine assemblage in my direction while I'm camped out hoof-level on the loafing shed getting just the right shot. :)

And thus ends an evening at "work." Though it isn't really. Okay, well, sometimes it is...when it's freezing cold, or better yet, freezing cold and wet. But who's counting!

Good night.

Sleep tight.

******

It occured to me when I was posting these pictures that some of my very favorite horse pics were taken at this very same time last year. If you missed it, click here!!!

Mush

Someone was looking out the window and mistook an upstairs sibling's noisiness for thunder...seriously, those eyes, they reduce me to mush!

Okay. Camera down. Sugars (aka kisses) and hugs commence!

Cast On / Cast Off

I'm playing a bit of catch-up here once again, but what else is new?! It's been an eventful and busy last week to say the least. One of the main events however, was that Princess A got to get her cast taken off! She is all healed up and good as new.

She was not a fan of the big stranger approaching her with a noisy miter saw and grinding away at her arm!

Nevertheless, she sat very still and let him do his job. She is super cooperative about those sorts of things!

The first thing she did with her newly freed arm was hug "J-Duck" very very tightly!

She then proclaimed to everyone within a 10ft radius, "DON'T TOUCH IT" regarding her still stiff and funny feeling arm.

It took a day or so to work out the stiffness, and then she was excited to have gotten her cast off.

Indeed, she told me so.

Which leads me to a side note: I am so impressed with Princess A's verbal skills! Little Sis was the youngest and most proficient talker of the bunch, but she never really put her feelings into words the way PA does.

Princess A has been telling me all kinds of how she feels about things!

She told me that she was happy to get her cast off...that the doctor came in...the doctor "hurt her cast" (presumably by cutting it)...it was too loud...it was scary...she feels all better now...etc etc.

I just love listening to her talk!

We took her cast home to save with the other one of course!

And just in case you wondered how Daddy signed Princess A's cast this time, here you have it!

That's right, Princess A!

No more breaking arms!

Sweet Sugars

Monday Morning

So this is the way Monday morning begins in Younger Brother's world; at least it did this week anyway...

Seriously, it's pretty much impossible to predict what I will see upon entering Younger Brother's room - on any day!

This day had a little more flair than usual.

What in the world?!

Was he discovering his tribal roots?

I could only venture to guess.

But surely there must be some stupendous explanation for this extensive misuse of the Tattoo Pen Grandpa got him for Christmas...right??

Sure there is!

He was waiting for his sister to come play tic-tac-toe.

Of course!

Did I mention that HE is the tic-tac-toe?

...multiple games

...all ready to go

Did I also mention that this ink, being that it is 'tattoo' pen ink, does not exactly wash off in one day...or four?

Yeah.

I might have attempted to lecture him.

But I was forced to concede that I simply could not keep a straight face while gazing upon all of his creative glory, thus rendering my parental clout effectively useless.

Oh, Younger Brother, how dull would my days be without you!