Morning Hair Pony

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Holga Horses

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Spring Musings

I’m sitting at Apache Creek below the horse pasture.  It’s sunny but cool.  Creek is flowing well and the horses are frisky.  Solid blue sky.

White and Yellow Sweet Clover are beginning to sprout from wintered roots along the banks of the creek.  These plants (kept in check here by my horses) are originally not from here.  They are from Eurasia and are now considered naturalized.  This issue is a book in itself, not a blog post  topic.  But if you’re interested about that sort of thing, go HERE.  My horses don’t mind; although I won’t feed them alfalfa or clover for health issues, the amount they nibble along the creek is really a non-issue.

The Cottonwoods and Willows have fat bursting buds and the wild Apache Creek Mint has begun to push its way up through the moss and last winter’s flood debris and old vegetation.

Prescott Lupine leaf clusters the size of dimes.

Tiny unopened mossflowers.

Yarrow the size of my pinky.

The various emerging spring vegetation is allowing the horses more browsing on the 80 acres.  They eat less hay now and I find them on the far side of the pasture eating some very strange (to me) things.  Hackberry twig ends, Scrub Oak tips, Willow and Alfalfa roots and, strangely, dirt.  Yes, the are supplied with various free choice minerals I buy at the feed store.  However, there is something in the clay/dirt that they obviously must not acquire in the store-bought minerals.

I wish we still had this intuitive sense to know what minerals, herbs, twigs and roots to eat at what times of the year.  Sometimes, when I’ve been sitting with the land and creek long enough, I feel I might be getting a grasp.  Then, I get rushed and caught up in our busy “human” things and it’s lost.  The wisdom that is so close is lost.

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One More Reason to Love this Land

~How can I let go of a place that shows me this beauty every day?~

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My Chica, Snow, & Writing for the Internet

The snow always makes me ever so grateful for a roof, a warm woodstove,

plenty of wood,

and large colorful jars of dry beans and rice.

 

 

When I lived at Walnut Creek, I was grateful for being “trapped” by the snowy/muddy roads.  We would just wander around for hours in the snow taking pictures and not seeing anyone.

Silence.

My world has changed and I am not coping well.  My horses are 45 miles from me and I am living where I hear CARS all day.

Sure, I go out to Walnut Creek two or three times a week, but I am a visitor now; a tourist, not a native to the land as I was for the last five years.

And, I need a job.

What am I good for?  Gardening?  Yes.  Helping my kids be good learners at home (and now school?) Yes.  Running Solo in the Wilderness?  Yes.

Taking pictures?  Sometimes.

Writing?  Sometimes.

But these skills aren’t buying grass-fed beef for my family, or putting gas in the car, or paying for my daughters violin lessons.

or maybe they can.

*******

I have been approached to write for money on the internet.  It doesn’t pay much at first, but eventually (I’m told) it will.  Most of the time I can write about whatever I want.  Sometimes I have to decide whether to write about what they’ve assigned or to decline the assignment.  Sometimes I just add links in my post about certain things.  Like for instance I will tell you that if you need a consultant for anything, go to this certain site.  We may all need consultants for something someday, right?  Like if you need an illustration for something, you might go to site recommending different illustrators.  Or if you need a new website you might go somewhere to find a web designer.  I would do a search on the internet and find exactly what I needed or go to a place where consultants are all together on one site.

Maybe I can make some money doing what I love.

 

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Free Range Horse

An amazing and playful horse:  My Chica.  Taken with my phone as I didn’t have my camera with me.  She is a very free spirit and very much her own girl.  Here she wanted me to play like a puppy; so we chased each other around and I caught some good shots. (Low quality but fun.)

 

 

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Through the Trees

Because it is still very difficult for me to write about leaving the land I love, I will be posting (mostly)  photos that embody Walnut Creek and my life there in the wilds.

~Bunny enjoying new snow a little while back~

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Four friends repeat

This photo was chosen for the Yavapai College Juried Student Art Show as First Place 2D.  Thought I’d post it again to show how I edited it differently.

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Four Friends

There really are four horses here.

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Mama/Daughter Photo Shoot

Kiva and I went to see the mare band together.  They were not shy with us;  they are handled more regularly than the young gelding herd.

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