We're the luckiest people on earth!!

And here's why...

A sunset from home:

Front walk in Spring:

Watching 1st steps:

And a backyard view that's beyond beautiful...

Don't want to make everyone jealous, but thought maybe it would spur a few of you to come visit. It's even better in real life. :)

Gifts of Spring

Tiff and I are totally exhausted... Her mare was due to foal any minute so we wanted to be sure to check on her during the night as her pen is easily accessible by the geldings (who, by the way, are VERY hard on colts. They think they're cool, moving chew toys - it's really quite horrible). Anyway, come 1:30 this a.m., sure enough, things start moving along. And who could ever sleep when there's a colt to be born? And then when she's born, who could sleep before seeing her stand up for the first time? And then... before she eats for the first time???
Long story short: it was a long night without much sleep, but such, such fun! I've never witnessed such a lovely little miracle - and in fact few folks do as mares are so good at having their babies.

She's a beautiful, perfect little thing and already loves people since we've been part of her world since the very first.

Here's her photo during the first minutes of life:

This is Utah - the 2-year-old colt I mention in the post below. Hard to believe he's gone.

Sometimes I wonder...

Why? That's what I wonder.

Friday I took my 2-year-old colt out to help work cows - something he doesn't exactly love, but something he's getting the hang of. Slowly. We thought we'd tie him in close to the cows we were working so he'd get ... oh, I guess "acclimatized" is the word. Well he was terrified. So much worse off when tied than when being ridden. Well anyway, long story short, he was so panicked that when a cow (admittedly a crazy one who likes to jump fences) came too close, he twisted to the side so forcefully he actually broke his leg. Truly, truly unbelievable. Tomorrow the vet has to come put him down and I am left to wonder why on earth I let myself get attached.

But then it's good to have these experiences that stop you in your tracks and make you think, "why am I so worried, so concerned, so sad, over such a shallow earthly thing?" Yes it's okay to be saddened - we'd be pretty harsh folks if we weren't - but to let it consume us to the point that it affects our living? No, not a good idea.

Do I have a point? Oh, probably not. Just thinking and typing and trying to keep the right perspective. :)

Musings...

Well here we are - - joining the blog community. Shocking really, since it wasn't very long ago that I heard the word for the first time and was too embarrassed to admit I had no idea what it was. But, like Columbus, I'm forging ahead into the new world where words like blogs and posts and HTML are part of the native speech.