Anna Blake It blurted out the end of my fingers before I knew it. “Eventually I learned how to keep hay out of my bra. Can’t imagine what took me so long.” I was writing last week’s essay and if I focus too much on what I’m trying to say, my fingers freeze up. So my writing … Read more
It started snowing the night before last and snowed all yesterday. The wind speed was higher than the temperature. That means snow drifts over a foot tall. Then it snowed all night (another five inches) and all today. But the real snow accumulation will be tomorrow. Am I boring you? Well, if you live in … Read more
It’s a special day here on Infinity Farm. I signed loan papers on this property on the last day of the month. Good for escrow. It was a full moon on Halloween, October 1999. It had been a rough few years, and I had lost so much that I thought I had nothing left to … Read more
I never thought I’d say this. Me, of all people. But do you ever think we might need some balance about the dog and cat thing as the world seems to come apart? I know I’ll get in trouble for even suggesting it. World politics and the extreme suffering of those caught up in war … Read more
The first video is of a Mustang, proud and breathtakingly beautiful. He’s a burnished smoky buckskin, with a massive neck and a straight face that shows more strength than refinement. He’s a horse’s horse. Standing in his pen, he is still, his lips tight and his eyes dark. The horse is waiting for … Read more
I’m coming up on the anniversary of moving to my farm twenty-five years ago. It coincides with my dysfunctional affair with technology. My first night here was a full-moon Halloween. I know this because I wrote important dates on my calendar. This means that at the end of one year, I hand-copied it all onto … Read more
“I am not sure why horse people are especially prone to doing things the most difficult way possible, but it’s a habit that dies hard,” she said. Agreed. I hope we’re the worst, but it is an addictive habit. Edgar Rice Burro thinks it’s just our normal condition. Actually, he puts it this way: you’re … Read more
This is my neighborhood. That’s Pikes Peak peering over the horizon, exactly where it was when I bought the farm. It feels like everything else has changed. Now high-tension power poles are cutting an ugly swath across the land from the wind turbines twenty miles east of here. I’ve given up photo-shopping them out. The … Read more
Over the next thirteen years of retirement, Nube napped with friends, ate well, and stood quietly for the farrier. I always knew some undiagnosable thing wasn’t right inside him, but there were more good days than bad. He didn’t worry, and neither did I. We both tried that, and it didn’t work. Equine pros need … Read more
When I got home after school, I walked in the front door, dropped my books, and walked out the back door to see my horse, King. I called him a strawberry roan because I was in love and he was a sorrel with a smattering of white hairs. That day, he wasn’t grazing, which was … Read more