A beady-eyed burnt-orange sun crept over a smoky horizon, and it’s hot-air balloon season in Colorado. Juxtaposition: A new day dawns, but the same destructive fires continue to destroy homes, kill animals, and upend lives while others carry on as usual. My hay guy just delivered a load, $2.50 a bale more than the last … Read more
Yes, it’s a proper word. I didn’t make it up, but I wish I had. Quanked is in the 1893 Glossary of Words Used in the County of Wiltshire. It means overpowered by fatigue. They didn’t say emotional exhaustion, but I’m not alone here. I needed a word that was as old as I feel. … Read more
I traipsed across Minnesota and North Dakota through factory farms and cemeteries this summer. Trying to link childhood memories with physical locations, only to find they were gone. The only building standing seventy years later was a big white barn. Is that how long it takes for things to become unrecognizable? The span of a … Read more
Coming home, the washboard road is as close to a drumroll as we’ll get. We are bleary-eyed and dog-tired. I have a class to lead in three hours. Jolene needs to zoom in her yard like an Indy car. Mister sweeps the farm for stray cats who might need to be barked at. And the … Read more
Road trips have a feeling of being unstuck anyway, but this trip to the land of my people was like slingshot time travel. Glancing at a cloud, a memory starts foggy. Wait for the shy, buried parts to emerge. But then all the memories explode straight at you. Both slow motion and at blinding speed. … Read more
Mister has a big all-day chewy and doesn’t even come out to wave goodbye. Mister would like you to know that he is a dog that knows things that are not visible. Don’t hurry back on my account, he says. Half of my heart stays with him. I would prefer to hide out on our … Read more
We’re on the road at 6:30 AM on a Sunday, and the first vehicle we passed was a horse trailer. I don’t recognize the driver, but I have been her, so I wave. Then I realized that sitting in a truck doesn’t make me look like we’re compatriots, but we are both off for similar … Read more
Just a reminder, dear reader. I’m a horse trainer using all I know to raise a puppy. If your horse’s trainer uses methods that would be bad for a dog, please reconsider. It gets worse. I’m a horse trainer who believes we should train donkeys as a prerequisite to horses. Donkeys demand special skills that … Read more
Jolene says, hurry up, would ya? I am not dawdling. I’m getting my hearing aids, looking for my outside glasses and the remote mic. It’s Thursday. She has her harness on, and that means something. I’ll tell you what that harness means to me. It’s her eighth harness and the most expensive one. Also, the … Read more
Last week I raved about my beautiful but desolate riding arena at the front of my little farm. My other favorite place is the pond at the very back of my farm. Waterfront property on the high desert prairie of Colorado was a major selling point when I chose this dilapidated farm. It’s fed by … Read more