Sheeps… Or Things to Do While Mourning
Mister, who is the voice of conservative reason and common sense, looks me in the eye. What starts as socializing...
Jolene Meets the Grandfather Horse (Who Has Been Dead for Years)
I wasn't thinking, really. The car was packed the night before. I got dressed while Jolene walked me, room to...
Authors, Literary Dogs, and Artificial Intelligence
A beady-eyed burnt-orange sun crept over a smoky horizon, and it's hot-air balloon season in Colorado. Juxtaposition: A new day...
Totally Quanked and in Search of Our Own Personal Pickleball
Yes, it's a proper word. I didn't make it up, but I wish I had. Quanked is in the 1893...
Horsewoman, Has Your Neighborhood Gone to the Dogs?
I traipsed across Minnesota and North Dakota through factory farms and cemeteries this summer. Trying to link childhood memories with...
Falling in Love All Over Again for the First Time
Coming home, the washboard road is as close to a drumroll as we'll get. We are bleary-eyed and dog-tired. I...
The Cemetery of My People, Part Two
Road trips have a feeling of being unstuck anyway, but this trip to the land of my people was like...
Traveling to the Cemetery of My People, Part One
Mister is barking in a steady rhythm. His metronome bark. Consider it a warning siren. He knows. There is a...
What Jolene Knows That I Don’t
Mister has a big all-day chewy and doesn’t even come out to wave goodbye. Mister would like you to know...
Mister Says More Praise Please
I got the clean go-to-town coat off the hook and Jolene started the truck dance. Mister had a look of...
Shhh… We’re Being Watched.
The week started with a needle in my forehead. You just knew it was going to improve. Then each day...
Jolene Says, Lock Up Your Sheep (While I Flounder On)
We're on the road at 6:30 AM on a Sunday, and the first vehicle we passed was a horse trailer....
Jolene Stars in a Walt Disney Movie
Last Thursday morning, we left for Texas as four bald eagles were circling high above the farm. I've never seen...
Jolene Gets a Job. Not the One You Think.
We were in a different pen than usual, and it was horribly windy. That’s the excuse you might make if...
Jolene Says, Doesn’t My Title Entitle Me to Something?
Jolene expects that we will have an adventure every single day. Mister hopes we don't. He likes to keep it...
Jolene and the Healing Quality of Dog Spit
I can't remember having leaves so early on our high desert prairie. Shade is scarce since losing our trees. There's...
Jolene Just Knows the One Word
I'm starting to look like Garrison Keillor. You know, if I dyed my hair brown. I'm not bragging, just stating...
Jolene Learns the Meaning of Competition
That morning, we got up at the usual time, but I didn't go out to do chores. Instead, I took...
Mister Shares A Health Tip That Dogs Know
The farrier came this week. Every year or so, he suggests I quit my day job and hold horses for...
Jolene Says It Isn’t Easy Being My Dog
Be Brave Enough to Suck at Something New the meme said. Well, sign me up. Who knew it would be...
Jolene’s Year of Living Joyously
One year ago, my friends were expecting a litter of Swedish Vallhund puppies. After gaining titles in conformation and performance,...
Egads. Now We’ve Received a Complaint From a Cat
We have received a complaint from a cat in England. Rita says she reckons you cannot trust a woman who...
The Dog Barn and Literary Lounge
Just a reminder, dear reader. I'm a horse trainer using all I know to raise a puppy. If your horse's...
We Don’t Recognize Jolene
Jolene says, hurry up, would ya? I am not dawdling. I'm getting my hearing aids, looking for my outside glasses...
Being Cantankerous Because I Feel Like It
Last week I raved about my beautiful but desolate riding arena at the front of my little farm. My other...
To Have a Dog Like Jolene
Mister is trying out his new self-appointed position of Joy Police. Someone has got to put a stop to...
Jolene Gets the Girl Flu
I didn’t know whether I should mention this. Is it too private to share? For questions of social etiquette, I...
Hungover, Jolene Meets The Weather of Her People
The leftovers are gone, the pie plates back in the cupboard, and Parental Peas, Parker and Penny, have headed back...
Family on Thanksgiving: Jolene’s Heart is Full
Remember that Thanksgiving painting by Norman Rockwell? With a jovial white-bread family leaning into frame with smiling, delighted faces? A...
Writing a Letter About Books and Ordinary Days.
Here on the high desert prairie, the grasses are a flat dry tan, and we won't see green again all...
Jolene’s Teen Angst and Roller Derby Bravado
Saints preserve us. This weekend, Jolene is having her friend, Tachi, sleep over. I'll believe the sleep part when I...
Tug of War: Jolene and I Ponder Our Options.
I have a too-cute collection of plush dog toys Jolene thinks are silly and beneath her. I understand; I didn't...
Jolene Has Lacey Bloomers
Jolene is changing faster than the fall colors. It isn't just that she's grown lacey bloomers on her backside. Sometimes...
A Love Letter to a Tree and a Hero
My farm has a cathedral. It started as a tiny chapel, one of five deciduous trees on my prairie farm....
Bitey-Face and the Secret Passageway
We turn into the driveway and the umpire flings his arms wide and yells, "Safe!" It's the feeling I get...
Jolene. Jolene. Jolene. JOLEEENE!
Sometimes, change sneaks up behind you when you least expect it, knocks you down, and drags you off, kicking and...
The Gnawing Bite of Anticipation
It felt like a militant act of self care. Like cutting your hair really short or tossing out jeans for...
A Radical Act In The Midst of Uncertainty
I’m not the sort who wakes up in a cheesy rom-com. Even when I was young and my body parts...
Nipping at the Heels of Despair
My horse sister called to ask how I was. It wasn't small talk. We tell each other the truth and...
Can We Talk About Our Gray Mare Future?
I've been pondering two conversations about horses lately. They aren't very cheerful and I always know, no matter what I...
Thanksgiving Traditions: Both Light or Dark, Please
Over the river and through the woods, To grandmother’s house we go. The horse knows the way to carry...
The Pendulum of Change Doth Swing. I’ll Be In the Barn.
It started snowing the night before last and snowed all yesterday. The wind speed was higher than the temperature. That...
Halloween: Twenty-Five Years on This Farm
It's a special day here on Infinity Farm. I signed loan papers on this property on the last day of...
Grumbling and Stumbling Toward Change
I'm coming up on the anniversary of moving to my farm twenty-five years ago. It coincides with my dysfunctional affair...
Nube: The Final Chapter
Over the next thirteen years of retirement, Nube napped with friends, ate well, and stood quietly for the farrier. I...
Recording the Arc of Your Horse’s Life
The foal's name was Sunny, his registered name Sunbrite Sunset. This photo was taken just before we met. The rest...
Travelblog: Mister Has a Dark Night of the Soul.
Dogs. We rescue them, buy them, inherit them. They are irrepressible puppies, midlife couch-partners or milky-eyed elders with wonky ears....
Travelblog: How I Stole Paris
I woke up introspective on my last full day in Paris. It's the same way I wake up at home....
Travelblog: Paris is Like Visiting an Old Lover
Paris is a city full of statues of horses. They're everywhere, I noticed on my first visit. The statues are...
Travelblog: Late for the Funeral. By Three Years.
Words about friendship and death ahead. There, you're warned. I'm still on vacation, but I'm going to talk about grieving...
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