Home Grown

I like:
John Wayne movies (McLintock is my favorite! second only to The Quiet Man)
Andy Griffth
Stewed tomatoes
Anything pickled
Coconut
Marshmallows
Chocolate
Coke

Steve dislikes:
John Wayne movies
Andy Griffth
Stewed tomatoes
Anything pickled
Coconut
Marshmallows
Chocolate
Coke (Steve likes Pepsi – yuck!)

Chocolate and marshmallows = 2/3rds of a moonpie and he doesn’t like those either.

When I woke up this morning I was a little eager to get things done – meaning kids out the door and off to school. Last night was the first episode of the new season of Downton Abby and I set the DVR to record it. Let’s face it. I am no longer a night owl. I am often in bed before 8pm these days. We hibernate a bit in winter. Cold and dark outside means it is time to get in pj’s and go to bed.

I spent two lovely hours on the sofa sipping coffee in front of the fire and focused on the show – which was everything I wanted it to be and more. OMG! Why is Thomas bad??? He is worse than a bad penny!

Anywhoodle -

Within a few minutes of the show ending it started to sleet and snow. Yayy! Not!!!

I threw on my clothes, ran out the door and started throwing on horse blankets, piling hay, filling stock tanks, dragging hoses and filling waters while tossing out feed for ducks, geese, turkeys, etc. In the rush I forgot my coat and my arms were nearly freezing by the time I finished and made it back to the house. My flannel shirt was soaked and so was my hair but the horses are warm and dry.

Jack and Diana are warm and dry because of the wonderful generosity of those of you out there who took a moment to donate to their well being and care.

When Diana came she came with a waterproof sheet with no insulation. Because Jack has grown in a fairly thick coat of hair we gave Diana the thick blanket of his and used her blanket for him. It was fine. She was warm. He was warm. It worked out well. Then the weather took a turn and warmed up and they didn’t blanketing every night. Then last week the tables turned and we had several nights of weather in the low twenties and the teens. Jack, dressed in Diana’s thin sheet shivered in the 18 degree morning. I knew he couldn’t go through the winter, keep his weight on and continue to heal his leg. That meant he needed his heavy blanket back.

Diana has been gaining weight consistently and the 90-inch blanket of Jack’s that she has been wearing had to be let out several inches to close around her belly. With her weight gain the rear end of the blanket was coming open and letting the cold air blow right up her fanny. Thanks in part to all of the donations toward their care I was able to purchase Diana a new winter blanket.

Both Jack and Diana are wearing a StormShield Big Fella Heavyweight 1200D waterproof insulated blanket. I am very grateful that you all have made it possible for them to be toasty warm and dry in the harsh winter weather. Jack’s blanket came from Schneider’s Tack but when I had enough money saved to purchase Diana’s blanket they were all sold out of the big sizes. 94-inch and 96-inch horse blankets are pretty hard to come by. Diana’s blanket is due to WarmbloodTack.com. Thank you so much to their staff and the lovely lady on the phone who sent the blanket second day delivery so neither Jack nor Diana had to spend another night shivering.

Thank you all for being generous and giving to the care of two horses that were neglected and thrown away by others.

Are you ready for spring gardening? I am! I have been enjoying the new seed catalogs that have been arriving in the mail. I have some lists made for seeds and can’t wait to dig in the soil and get things started all over again.

One of the things that gets a garden off on the right foot come spring is adding composted nutrients back to the garden soil.

My compost is cooking. Every time I walk past or look over the back fence and see the steam rising it makes me smile.

Or grin. A big wide faced grin because my spring garden is going to rock when I amend my soil with this batch of compost.

Are you doing anything in anticipation of your own spring garden?