Goodbye and hello

In early November, on a warm sunny day, we said goodbye to an old friend.



Dallas was my first horse, and he’d been with us for 12 years. He was a race horse when he was young. We know nothing about his racing history as his registration papers were long lost. Like all race horses, he had a lip tattoo, but it had become illegible.
After his racing career he was taken to a horse auction, and probably would have ended up going to slaughter had he not been rescued. He was then retrained as a riding horse. He taught me a lot about horses and being a horse owner.
He was 24, which is fairly young for some horses, but old for a thoroughbred who has been raced. I am very glad that we were able to make his later years pleasant and easy.

As sad as losing Dallas was, we were happy to welcome a new addition to the family.



Twilight is a 4 year old palomino quarter horse. Only 14.2 hands, which is small for a horse. Almost large pony size. But perfect for kids, and not too small for an average sized adult to ride. He is very sweet and gentle, and amazingly calm for a 4 year old horse. He will be my 9 year old daughter’s 4H project this summer.

Another snowstorm 1/28/09

Once again we are snowed in. Steady snow started falling sometime last night, and is expected to continue throughout the afternoon. The whole family is home today, so it's kind of cozy.
A lot of people in Ohio complain about the snow all the time. Although I'm not a big fan of driving in it, I actually like it otherwise. Snow is beautiful. Winter does get tedious after awhile, but so does everything else. When I lived in southern California, the sameness of the weather got really old. I would get excited on those rain occasions when we got a nice drenching of fragrant acid rain. Just for something different. I'm just a 4 seasons type of woman I guess.
Our neighbor plows our driveway for us, and pushes all of the snow into one big "mountain" for the kids to play on. They had an awesome snow fort going last week. The horses have thick, furry coats and getting covered with snow doesn't seem to bother them one bit. The dogs are in and out all day, rolling around and playing.

Winter can seem long at the time, but time always flies. Especially the older I get! Before long, it will be spring. With seasons, there is always something new to look forward to.

Poor St. Francis. He is pretty well buried. We have to have a St. Francis statue, because we love animals, and because my husband is Italian. He said that as he got older, he felt a genetic pull towards lawn statuary.