Need Some Encouragement?

~ back porch sitting with homemade strawberry lemonade ~

“To begin, begin.” Peter Nivio Zarlenga

“Your time is limited  

so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.”

Steve Jobs

“Information is pretty thin stuff, unless mixed with experience.”        Clarence Day

“The total history of almost anyone, would shock almost everyone.” Mignon McLaughlin

“We stand on the backs of others or on the shoulders of giants.” SKB

“If everything seems under control, you’re not going fast enough.” Mario Andretti

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” Winston Churchill

“It’s a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense.”         Robert G. Ingersoll

~ Snowman, my beautiful Percheron ~

“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.”            Albert Einstein

“Price is a crazy and incalculable thing, while value is an intrinsic and indestructible thing.” G. K. Chesterton

“How small a part of the boundless and unfathmable time is assigned to evey man? For it is very soon engulfed in the eternal.”              Marcus Aurelius

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” Philo of Alexandria

“There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.”  Marshall McLuhan

“What we have before us are some breathtaking opportunities disguised as insoluble problems.” John Gardner

“The most wasted day of all is that on which we have not laughed.” Sabestien de Chamfort

~ Ellie, my grand-neice, and I ~

Hopefully, your year is going well, with minimal disruptions or hardships. All is well at Thistle Cove Farm; the rescued beasts are finally settling in. Gussie, the Belgian, has safely gained weight and while she looks her ancient age, she’s healthy, as much as we (vet, trainer, me) can tell. Sassy Cassie, another Belgian, is beautiful and patiently stands while being brushed and sprayed for pest control. Snowman is gorgeous and has responded well to treatment for an infected tick bite. He is HUGE and gentle and beautiful and kind. He is coming to terms with safety, food, shelter, love and responding in kind. Honey, the Ridgeback, and Bella, the lab mix, are still puppies, roughhousing, playing, getting into mischief and Daisy Mae, the neighbor’s beagle who has adopted the dog bed in front of the fireplace, is snoring gently as I type. All cats and kittens are holding court around the house, porches and barn. Tea, another neighbor’s Lab, visits daily because she’s 2 years old and mine are 16 months old and I have a pond. I am Doggie Day Care and love it.

Parents are doing well and at 93, Daddy is still on the tractor, gardening, mowing and farming. Mom is 87 and although frail, she still cooks meals. Siblings and I, mainly Beloved Sistah, bears the brunt of keeping parents straight and she pulls me in for doctor appointments, etc. She lives closer to parents and, as the youngest, has assumed responsibility for primary care giver.

Life is good and I am grateful. This place, this new Thistle Cove Farm, is marvelous; well located for both town and family and I am happy. I’ve made a few major improvements to the farm…a dock on the pond, screened in the back deck with a lovely copper metal roof, added to the equipment shed and barn as well as bringing a building on site for the studio. There’s more than enough to keep me busy and there are three teenage boys who sometimes come and help.

A while back I spoke to Abba and said it would be nice to have supper with a man or go out for coffee, etc. but nothing romantic. God sent Chase, a  smart as a whip, handsome teenage boy who called and “wanted to be a farm worker”. While he didn’t grow up on a farm, his elder brother has a farm and has schooled Chase in equipment of all sorts. Not only that, Chase knows electronics and anyone who knows me knows I am NO tech so this is a match made in heaven! He brings his buddies, KJ and Isaiah who are like Chase…smart in all sorts of ways and I treat them all like grandsons. They work here, they fish here and every now and again, I take them out for supper. We work hard but we laugh just as hard and I love them all.

The last picture is of Katelyn, trainer/farrier, who works all the horses and is a gold mine. She brings her friend, Brandi, who is learning and they both love their work and I am grateful Katelyn accepted me as a client; it helps she loves my horses (especially Snow!) Katelyn is not very tall, neither am I, but as I’m older I can’t get in the saddle without a ladder. Katelyn can stand on the ground and get in the saddle (!!!) but not me and when I do get in the saddle, it’s like standing on the Empire State Building and peeping over the edge. A lllooonnnggg way down! Even so, I’m looking forward to climbing on Snowman even if it’s just for a walk around the round pen.

Cassie, Gussie and Snow were rescued from a kill pen where they were waiting transport to Mexico to be slaughtered for food. It’s horrible and if you want more information, you’ll have to search because I can’t save them all but these three will never want for anything. People have asked why, at my age, have I taken on three more horses and my response is, “God has given me the ability to take care of what He’s given me. He gives me the strength, the patience, the good help and the money; it is my privilege to have stewardship over what He’s allowed me to have. I give to church, missionaries, and an organization that saves children, horses and puts them together, and I save His animals.” As anyone who has visited my farm knows, no one leaves without hearing about Jesus because without Jesus, nothing else matters.

Bless Your Name, Abba and thank You.