It Has Been a While

We had a lovely holiday season, but now it is time to get back on schedule. I'm looking forward to settling into a routine once more.

After Christmas, Annie, Daddy and I began step one of renovating the horse barn. We started with demolition, and that was a lot of fun. One doesn't realize how entertaining it can be to cut, rip, hammer and pry out lumber. We really tore into the barn. The reconstruction was an interesting project as well. We rebuilt the divider between Buddy and Rusty's stalls, and we did the same between Poco and Peg. Buddy and Rusty lived in very large stalls, which required large amounts of bedding. To gain more space in the aisle and save on pine shavings, we made their stalls smaller. Resizing Rusty's stall left us with a strip of the aisle that was bare dirt, so the next task was pouring concrete. Now we are finished with our first project in the barn. Annie and I feel very blessed by our better barn every time we go out to do something with the horses.

We had to move some of our horses into different stalls after the barn project. One of the rearranged equines was Jack. He found his new home quite interesting. Jack especially enjoyed playing with his gate latch, which was different from the one in his old stall. One morning before Annie and I had been to the barn, Daddy opened the outer gates to release the dogs. As he continued on his way to his workshop, he thought he heard one of us letting the horses out. Soon I headed outside to feed and care for my horses, only to see Jack and Rusty happily grazing in front of the barn. We determined that Jack had opened his own gate and then freed Rusty. Jack's best buddy, Peg, was mad, because Jack didn't help him escape. I captured the mischievous Houdini and put him back in the barn. His gate now sports a double-ended snap that he cannot open (at least, not yet).

We have a real soft spot for animals in trouble. Momma, Annie, and I were driving home from a trip to the grocery store and the feed store one morning with 150 lbs. of feed, 250 lbs. of pine shavings, and our own groceries. There, standing beside a busy intersection, was a beautiful Great Dane. She was thin and had a sad, lost look about her. We passed her, then turned around and went back. One doesn't see a Great Dane on the side of the highway every day. After convincing her to climb into the car, we drove home with her. Annie was in the back seat, so she got most of the slobber. We got the dog home , named her Bella, and found her to be sweet, loving, and extremely strong. Thankfully, Abby's walking harness fit her, so I put it on. It took Annie and me with two leashes to hold Bella when she pulled on us. I suppose she'd never had a leash on before. Momma called several veterinarians to see if anyone had lost a Great Dane, and one vet's office knew the dog. :( They told Momma where Bella lived and that she wanders frequently. With that information, we loaded the dog into the car and took her home. She made it clear that she'd rather stay with us, but we left her there. Her owners were not home, so we never found out her real name. We enjoyed having Bella around.

Annie and I are horse-sitting for our neighbors while they take a trip to Colorado. There are four horses, and we feed them twice a day. We drive down in the morning, because the horses get grain and hay, which takes a little while. In the evening, Annie and I ride down there bareback on Buddy and Peg, and we give the horses hay. We like to help our friends in this way. These particular horses are quite well-behaved and easy to manage, and that is an added blessing. Their names are Stretch, Lady, Julie, and Tux. Lady is my favorite, but they are all sweet. Stretch is a big clown, and he likes to pick things up in his mouth and wave them at you. He'd like to eat my scarf, but I won't let him. Horses are entertaining creatures. I'm glad God has blessed us with so many opportunities to be around them.

Here is today's memory verse. I have been blessed by reading Psalm 51. It is filled with spiritual meat.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Psalm 51:17 KJV