Baby spoons and ice cream bowls

Happy Saturday friends!

Let's start with my silly ponies and donkeys! I sent the video above to my fellow TBAH (Touched By A Horse) coaches, many of us have these heavy foam filled cubes for our coaching work. The cube lives under that pavilion and lately I've been finding it all around the lower pasture:

I figured one of the horses or donkeys had to be doing it, probably the donkeys since they are so playful and enjoy carrying toys around. Never could catch them until this week!

And then, not to be outdone in funny naughtiness, the ponies (probably Tori) decided to pull hay out of the storage area. Half a loose bale and then an entire bale with it's strings on. They drug it like 12 feet out!:

Brad had forgotten to close the gate the night before. Tori was like, "What?":

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It's garden bed building time again! Except this time it's at sunrise :-) This one will be called the "balloon bed" because I'm painting a hot air balloon garden pole and it will go in this bed. This one will have a ton of native plants in it and is the biggest so far: 50'x12' but it has to be to have American Holly as a back layer. Actually I'm not sure it's deep enough, but I'll start here!

I talked Brad into helping me and we started last Saturday morning, you can see the sun just peeking up:

I'm building a hugelkulture bed again, starting with logs (absorb rain like a sponge and then release it slowly), then sticks and leaves (that I scooped out of the forest), dirt, wood chips. This creates a bed that needs less watering and with the logs, sticks, leaves, creates a compost rich bed over time all on its own. Because these logs were not decaying yet, I drilled holes into the biggest to help speed that along. I wasn't sure about taking the grass up, would the logs roll around if we didn't? Decided to do it (fairly quick work with a tractor) but wouldn't do it again—more work, and I think the logs would have been fine.

When you use a backhoe, this is the way it's set up, the front bucket (or forks in this case) on the ground as a stabilizer, the rear stabilizing backhoe legs down, and then the tractor is hoisted into the air. It made me laugh a little. It's floating!:

As always, lots of steps:

The logs came from pine trees that Brad cut down in the spring. They were growing on the dam and it's not safe to have trees growing like that. If there is a storm and they go down, they could leave a hole in the dam. Now they are being repurposed:

While Brad was scooping logs and dropping them into the bed he found a copperhead hiding away in a solar panel:

And this skin which looks really long but, from owning snakes in the past, I know their shed skin does tend to stretch a bit as they slide out of it:

I got to this point:

And then the next time I went out, the tractor battery was dead, argh:

And then it started to rain for several days and that was the end of that for now. NOT complaining!

Last week I shared this pic of the edge of the pond:

But with the several days of rain we've had/are still having (looks like about 4" so far), this same area now looks like this:

A couple of feet of shore is back under water! Yay! That feels so hopeful!

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We harvested 59 pumpkins from our volunteer pumpkin bed. It's very early for them, but being volunteers, they got an early start. So, they are in the lower garage curing (hardening up their skin) for now.

Next year I'm going to grow, or attempt to grow Rouge Vif D'Etampes. If you're a lover of pumpkin pie and you're local, I'll probably be giving away a bunch of them. Years ago, we belonged to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and they gave us one of these delicious pumpkins. Brad and I still talk about it! We made pumpkin creme brulée for Thanksgiving that year and it was incredible. Did I mention this before? Probably. That's how yummy it was.

ODDS AND ENDS

The rain is bringing a bunch of mushrooms :-)

I love the way new canna leaves come out:

Look closely, do you see the deer?

Got up late on Thursday morning because of the dark clouds, nothing woke me up :-) I walked across the bridge that goes from my bonus room bedroom to the stairs and this is how dark it was at 9am, sooo much rain, lovely:

Everyone getting in their electrolytes :-)

Paused my garden pole painting to make myself some plant markers, aren't they fun!

I'm really loving the catmint, the deer stay away from it and they are such nicely mounding plants!

And finally...you will laugh...but that's ok, it makes me laugh too:

The search for my childhood spoon is finally over! When my brother and I were babies, my parents had several "baby spoons" that they used to feed us. As we grew up, these were our favorite spoons to eat ice cream with. When we left the house, they were still with Mom and Dad but somewhere over the years, they disappeared and Michael and I were bummed. A couple of years ago I searched for them online but only ran across short fat ones (ew) or plastic ones (double ew). But this week! OMG! I found them here, they are called "Oneida feeder spoons" and they look EXACTLY like the ones we had growing up. I also bought these little 8oz bowls to use with my baby spoons and was ridiculously happy this morning when I had my yogurt and granola!

HOW TO WORK WITH ME

Equine Partnered Coaching! With horses (early morning appointments in the summer), without horses, or online, your choice.

Neurofeedback Train your brain to calm and ease. The most common response I hear about neurofeedback is, "I'm so much less reactive in my life!" It really does smooth out the sharp spikes. Super helpful if your world feels harsh and spiky right now.

Reiki Another way to facilitate relaxation, calm, healing. If the weather is nice, you can choose outside, or outside in the herd (this is an early morning appointment) and of course in my office is always available :-)

And Women's Circles! I've updated my website yet again so read up and then contact me if you want to talk about joining my Women's Circles!

Wednesday Women's Circle has a waiting list, I will add you to it if you'd like. Newer people do indeed get in occasionally, as sometimes the people higher on the list end up with upcoming vacations, too busy at work, or just life is life-ing.

Tuesday Women's Circle, runs 11am—1pm, Aug 4—Sept 8, the 6 weeks is $210, contact me if you're interested, there is one more spot left!

Monday online art class via Zoom. Ongoing, every Monday, 7:30-9pmET. $35 There isn't a public link for this one but you can contact me for the supply list and link here. I teach you something fun in watercolor or mixed media. It's a low key, jammies kind of class. Right now it's small so you get more one on one instruction if you want it.

This coming week 7/27, we paint a little 5x7" koi:

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If you want the full post (with all the funnies), sign up for my Saturday morning newsletter here, it's free!

Hope you all have a great week!

Thank you for reading :-)

All of my art and writing is made with human intelligence!

If a friend forwarded you this post, you can subscribe to my full version of the Saturday morning newsletter that will be emailed to you by clicking here.

"And lo, they did proclaim..."

Happy Saturday friends!

I'm gearing up for 5am starts this weekend, I am so over this heat. I have a bunch of stuff that I want in the ground and I'm debating: do I want to get up extra early and start the process of creating my next big garden bed or just give up and wait until September? As you know, gardening is an extreme sport to me but, how extreme? My body got used to moving and working again and it doesn't like the idea of stopping!

Last weekend, I picked up a bunch of new native plants from home growers around the area. So much better deals than if you go to a nursery! Mountain mint, false blue indigo, saltmarsh mallow, sweetspire, spiderwort, the list goes on. I also found three more varieties of canna because I'm so in love with Mom's giant orange one (which is close to 10' now!) I'd really like to get all these into the ground, this pic shows about three quarters of what I need to plant:

Brad said he would (begrudgingly) get up with me...

Mom's cannas now:

I've water propagated some of my huge perennial lantana. With the drought they don't have the masses of flowers they usually do:

But someday the rain will return right? Right??

Here are the babies:

I'm excited to plant another big bed of them this fall, well, what will eventually become a big bed anyway!

The "Native Plant Police" will not be happy with me but pffftttt 😜 my farm, my flowers, bug off! I can't post butterfly pics on the lantana Nextdoor anymore without someone stating the obvious, "Not native."

Yes Brittany, you are correct. 🙄😁

Remember Game of Thrones when they paraded Circe naked through the streets with Hannah Waddington's character clanging the bell and chanting, "Shame. Shame. Shame." That's the Natives Plant Police silent mantra lol

😂

Speaking of natives, I found out that these cannas might be! There are only a couple varieties that are and I assumed they weren't. Dug into some research, because that's how my brain likes to roll and found that they have the flowers that are like a native Golden Canna (canna flaccida) which sometimes have spots in the throat:

and the seed pod shape of a Water Canna (canna glauca):

So, either there are two varieties and I've never noticed, or they are some old unknown non-sterile hybrid, or the two natives married and had a baby. All a possibility. I will be keeping an eye on them to see if I can figure out this little mystery.

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Walked out of the garage to the sidewalk along the house and almost stepped on this plain bellied water snake. It zipped off when I jumped back. Big but harmless!

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Had another visit from my umbrella loving tree frog. It fell out of the umbrella once again, so now I tip it over first before opening. Of course it's not been in there again LOL

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We have great blue herons all the time at our pond, but rarely snowy egrets:

Maybe it's happier that the pond is shrinking and there is a little beach now? We've been here five years and have never seen it this low:

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When I was out watering one morning I was visited by a five lined skink who seemed to be interested in the water I was spraying:

I sprayed a perimeter of water around him and he stayed still. I let the water mist over him lightly and he stayed still. It's been soooo hot. I sprayed more water around him, enough to pool a bit in the brick grout. And then he did this a few times:

He scooched his head in the water! Awwwww! When I posted it on Nextdoor someone said they did a little research and found that they do drink water but they also absorb it through their skin. Cool. I also filled up a little plant saucer with water, just in case it was too far to the pond for them.

This little one visited right after the bigger one, they have blue tails when they are young:

This is just a short post for this week, maybe my brain is too fried to think and it's too hot to take a bunch of pics! It might (because who can trust the forecast) cool down into the high 80s next week, fingers crossed!

Oh, wait! Did you guys see that there is a remake of Little House on the Prairie? OMG! My Grandma Johnson (Dad's mom) was a third grade teacher and when I was in third she gave me the set of Little House books. I was in love. Still have them. It's no wonder I felt so at home when we moved to Colorado ;-) This sweet series brought back all the feels 💜

HOW TO WORK WITH ME

Equine Partnered Coaching! With horses (early morning appointments in the summer), without horses, or online, your choice.

Neurofeedback Train your brain to calm and ease. The most common response I hear about neurofeedback is, "I'm so much less reactive in my life!" It really does smooth out the sharp spikes. Super helpful if your world feels harsh and spiky right now.

Reiki Another way to facilitate relaxation, calm, healing. If the weather is nice, you can choose outside, or outside in the herd (this is an early morning appointment) and of course in my office is always available :-)

And Women's Circles! I've updated my website yet again so read up and then contact me if you want to talk about joining my Women's Circles!

Wednesday Women's Circle has a waiting list, I will add you to it if you'd like. Newer people do indeed get in occasionally, as sometimes the people higher on the list end up with upcoming vacations, too busy at work, or just life is life-ing.

Tuesday Women's Circle, runs 11am—1pm, Aug 4—Sept 8, the 6 weeks is $210, contact me if you're interested, there is one more spot left!

Monday online art class via Zoom. Ongoing, every Monday, 7:30-9pmET. $35 There isn't a link for this one but you can contact me for the supply list and link here. I teach you something fun in watercolor or mixed media. It's a low key, jammies kind of class. Right now it's small so you get more one on one instruction if you want it.

---

If you want the full post (with all the funnies), sign up for my Saturday morning newsletter here, it's free!

Hope you all have a great week!

Thank you for reading :-)

All of my art and writing is made with human intelligence!

If a friend forwarded you this post, you can subscribe to my full version of the Saturday morning newsletter that will be emailed to you by clicking here.

The goats escaped & more sweaty escapades

Happy Saturday friends!

I don’t even understand how it’s July already. When I was young I remember grandparents saying that time seemed to fly by but nowadays EVERYONE says it, even the 30 somethings in the Wednesday Women’s Circle say it now. What's going on? So, of course I went searching and found this explanation:

There's real psychology behind why it feels that way, and why it feels that way earlier in life now than it used to for previous generations.

A few things going on:

Proportional time: When you're 5, a year is 20% of your entire life. When you're 50, it's 2%. Each year is a smaller slice of the pie you've already eaten, so it feels like it goes faster relative to what came before. This part really is just math and it's been true forever.

Novelty makes time "thick.": Your brain lays down more memory when things are new, first horse, first job, first heartbreak. Routine days barely get recorded. So a summer packed with new experiences feels long in memory even though it flew by while you were living it, and a summer of the same errands and routines feels like it vanished. This is likely why more people report the feeling younger now: modern adult life, especially once you're past the first-decade-of-adulthood milestones, tends to be more routinized and less novel than it used to be, more scrolling, more sameness, less genuinely new stuff happening to mark the calendar.

Less unstructured boredom: Ironically, boredom stretches perceived time in the moment. Constant stimulation (phones, notifications, tasks) compresses it. So even 30-somethings, who in past generations might not have felt the "time is flying" thing until midlife, are hitting it younger now partly because their days are more packed and more mediated by screens.

So it's not the clock changing, it's your brain's bookkeeping. More new, textured experiences (the kind you get planning a whole garden bed or watching a herd of goats do something ridiculous) slow the felt sense of time down, even if the actual days pass at the same rate they always did.

So it's even more reason to get off my phone and play!

Speaking of playing, I have just one more spot in my upcoming Tuesday Women's Circle, if it's yours, contact me here.

Details:

Tuesdays

11am—1pm

August 4—Sept 8

$210 for the 6 weeks

This is a smaller group, just 6 total, and only two hours instead of three, a great group to try if you're neurodivergent, introverted, or want to dip your toes in but tend to feel overwhelmed easily. The format is the same as the Wednesday night Women's Circle: out with the herd if the weather is good (we are Goldilocks—too hot, too cold, too polleny? We are inside :-)); short grounding meditation; circle time where each woman gets to share as much or as little as they'd like in a safe space where no one interrupts or gives advice; back inside for something I've baked (cookies, brownies, etc—or bring your lunch) and then we paint something fun and easy. I will lead you through it step by step and will break things down into bite sized chunks and simple shapes.

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I have a friend who comes out to visit the farm a few times a week and has been icky from the heat. We talked about the heat and humidity this week and some things I do to, you know, not DIE.

It's been interesting to see the differences in temperatures in North Carolina since coming back. I was out running errands last Saturday and my car informed me that the temp in the Target parking lot was 111ºF. Not "feels like" but actual. It's always cooler at home, since we are surrounded by natural things, SO much cooler at...104º. I don't remember highs like that in 1983.

So, lets talk about how to keep cool in humidity when you have to, or want to be, outside.

First, shade is non-negotiable. There is no working in the sun. Giant hats aren't enough, you need a giant stand umbrella—I drag this one all around the yard with me when I'm watering.

Next, water. Not plain water though, water with electrolytes. My current favorite is Nuum tablets. I put 1.5 tablets in my 40 oz Stanley and drink 20-40 oz just doing morning chores and watering.

And ice. In your drink of course but I'm talking about on your body. I have this ice neck thingy and this ice vest if I'm staying out longer. It seems like overkill until you experience the humidity. There is no evaporation to cool the body. You just get hotter and sweatier, with no evaporation and no breeze. Everything is very still in the summer here until the afternoon when a thunderstorm rumbles through, throws some rain and wind at you and raises the humidity even more.

Finally, pay attention to your body. Now, this is really hard for those of us 🙋‍♀️ with "uneven interoception". So, a work around is using a timer instead of waiting to feel too hot. Your body may not tell you when you need to drink (you need to be constantly drinking in the heat), or when you've done too much work, or when you need to stop and sit, or when you need to STOP AND GET INTO THE AIR CONDITIONING. Our bodies don't tell us until we are almost collapsing. So, set a timer on your phone for 5 minutes (and just keep hitting "repeat" or whatever your phone says to make it time another 5 minutes). Drink and check in: Do I feel weak? Is my heart beating normally? (Mine feels either sloshy or rapid or stuttery when my electrolytes are off) Do I feel nauseated? Am I just continuing on because I think I "should" or my brain likes to see the thing done? I've learned the hard way that when I get a case of the "shoulds" I STOP.

THE RANCH

I don't have pics to go with this one but Sweetness is on the naughty list for a while now :-/ I let him out to graze in the yard last weekend and he decided to wander off to the farm next door! Luckily someone was there to help me block him from taking off down the driveway to the road, which he was trying to do. WTF. OMG! And he wouldn't come to me to be haltered either. He's never acted like that before. So, he's stuck in the pasture with the rest of the herd.

Interestingly, just a few days later I had another experience where I was reminded how useful it is to have animals who have been trained to both stay in certain areas and come when called (usually):

I took I Love Lucy out to play frisbee around noon on Monday and looked down into the lower pasture to find the horses grazing in the goat pasture. Jaffee was actually in the goat's nighttime pen, so, gulp, where were the goats?

That was not how I left the setup when I finished morning chores. I went down to the pasture and into the goat barn. No goats. Into the little pasture behind the goat barn, no goats.

😳

Looked out into the forest, didn't see any of them. Looked up on the dam, there they all were, happily grazing right outside their pasture where I often let them go anyway :-) See them up on the dam?

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Spider Conversations: I walked into the kitchen this week to see a spider walking across the floor. I got a napkin and laid it in front of him and said, "If you walk onto this napkin, I will take you outside where you can be safe." It didn't move. I told Brad to watch it while I went to get a glass to trap him with.

He said, "Never mind. He got on the napkin, I'll put him out."

You can't tell me they don't hear and understand us.

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Lots of creating happening over here lately! Last weekend I painted another peace pole, or garden pole. It's shorter, 39" so it went a lot faster. Plus this time, instead of using craft paint with bad coverage, I used my Golden acrylic heavy bodied paints, so thick and creamy. I was debating on using them on garden art but decided art is art and went for it. It made a huge difference in vibrancy and speed.

Cuteness.

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The Crocosmia are blooming! I've only ever seen these bloom at Mom's. I knew I had some here when we moved in but with the trees, nothing. Now:

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Lot's of thunder and lightning lately and while the humans are so happy to get the rain, I Love Lucy isn't :-( Hiding and panting in ManChild's bedroom:

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The ponies allowing The Duchess of Cashmere and the donkeys to work with a coaching client last week:

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Decided to straighten the pantry again. It's weird how messy it gets, as if no one knows where things go, grrrr. Maybe I should get some sort of labels for those baskets ;-) I wonder if there are any with hooks that would go over the side? Little tiny chalkboards would be cute!

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I have this little 4" pot on my front porch with nothing in it right now. A baby five lined skink decided to take up residence. It was all of 2" long:

Mom's huge orange cannas have gone to seed, proving that they are some old variety and not the newer sterile versions:

So I will:

- Let those pods dry completely on the stem until they're brown and papery - Harvest the seeds -- they'll be hard dark brown/black round seeds inside - Save them in a paper envelope in a cool dry place - Plant next spring after soaking seeds in water for 24 hours to soften the hard coat - They may not come true to the parent (seeds vary) but that's part of the fun

I can't wait to see what I get! I will let some of the seed fall as well, as I could end up with seedlings the old fashioned way too.

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So, you know how I want to create a pollinator garden in the area between the house and the pond? I need soooo much dirt to do it because I don't intend to plant every area flat—I want to create berms too for some height. I have compost and that's what I've been using so far but what I really need is topsoil to mix with my compost. Turns out my neighbor clears land for developers (a lot of that going on around here) and I was able to get topsoil for much less than at a landscape supply. I got 30 yards delivered this week:

I remember getting 3 yards of mulch delivered at our suburban house and feeling so swamped by the amount. Now, looking at 30 yards, I can say that it's not nearly enough but it's a good start. It's very sandy which is nice as that's what our native soil is here too.

But once I take the compost:

And mix it with the new topsoil, I end up with this nice looking darker stuff to plant in:

I'm aiming for a 50/50 mix. Doing a little mixing in the evenings with the tractor when the sun goes behind the trees, that way I'll be ready to create beds when it cools down in September!

When I came in from mixing last night and jumped in the shower, I caught the herd out my bathroom window💜:

MEMORIES

My Raynie and me, back in Colorado:

I had a long talk with Tori this week. Each time I do, I'm surprised at how quickly and clearly she responds, so much like Rayn. She has magic words of wisdom and clarity as animals often do. I think I've been holding off a bit with her, my heart still feels tender after losing Rayn. I'm a little scared of connecting so closely for fear of the losing part. I didn't realize that until this week. Mulling that over and not liking what I find...

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And a little jump scare for you:

He was a nice corn snake :-)

HOW TO WORK WITH ME

Equine Partnered Coaching! With horses (early morning appointments in the summer), without horses, or online, your choice.

Neurofeedback Train your brain to calm and ease. The most common response I hear about neurofeedback is, "I'm so much less reactive in my life!" It really does smooth out the sharp spikes. Super helpful if your world feels harsh and spiky right now.

Reiki Another way to facilitate relaxation, calm, healing. If the weather is nice, you can choose outside, or outside in the herd (this is an early morning appointment) and of course in my office is always available :-)

And Women's Circles! 👈🏽This whole section of my site is just a mess right now, outdated. Contact me if you want to talk about Women's Circles!

Wednesday Women's Circle has a waiting list, I will add you to it if you'd like. Newer people do indeed get in occasionally, as sometimes the people higher on the list end up with upcoming vacations, too busy at work, or just life is life-ing.

Tuesday Women's Circle, runs 11am—1pm, Aug 4—Sept 8, the 6 weeks is $210, contact me if you're interested!

Monday online art class via Zoom. Ongoing, every Monday, 7:30-9pmET. $35 There isn't a link for this one but you can contact me for the supply list and link here. I teach you something fun in watercolor or mixed media. It's a low key, jammies kind of class. Right now it's small so you get more one on one instruction if you want it.

---

If you want the full post (with all the funnies), sign up for my Saturday morning newsletter here, it's free!

Hope you all have a great week!

Thank you for reading :-)

All of my art and writing is made with human intelligence!

If a friend forwarded you this post, you can subscribe to my full version of the Saturday morning newsletter that will be emailed to you by clicking here.