I LOVE YOU!

Jul 01, 2023

Good morning and happy July 1st!

I had a fun bit of communication with Rayn Friday morning and wanted to share! The horses and donkey were in the upper pasture overnight and I didn't give them hay because I thought there was enough grass. This morning as I was walking Rayn and Sweetness down to the lower pasture I kept seeing hay images in my head. I told Rayn that I had opened the larger girl goat's pasture so they could eat that grass.

Hay.

I wasn't yet paying close enough attention so when I let them into the lower pasture, Rayn walked over to the open gate to the girl goat's pasture and just stood there for a moment, looking into it. Finally she went around to the back side of the coaching barn where I normally hang their hay bags.

I watched her do this and heard: Not enough.

Then she went over to the boy goats to see if there was any loose hay over there.

"Ok, I hear you missy." I went back and got the hay bags and hung them. I called her over and said, "I brought you hay!"

She lifted her head, whinnied, and then ran past me, gave a little rear and a head shake and then ran over to the bags and started eating. She blew out of her nose softly: Thank you.

I watched her pulling tiny bits of hay out. These bags have small holes designed to slow the horses down so they don't inhale their hay. The idea is to mimic the way they normally eat, a little bit at a time.

I heard: Faster. More.

LOL, ok! I went back and got her a loose flake (a flake is about 4" thick) and gave that to her so she could get more hay in more quickly.

Several soft blows: Thank you. Yes. Yes. Not enough. (The grass wasn't enough.)

Sweet girl. I so appreciate her clear communication.

And we still do this:

I've been asked several times this week when I knew I could communicate with animals. It's always been there but Rayn was the one that brought it to the forefront. Even in the beginning, when I first bought her as a green 5 year old, she was clear. I could hear her and she could hear me and it was completely natural and effortless. I still remember my friend Mary hanging out at the barn with us one day and asking, "When did you know you could communicate with animals?"

And thinking: Wait. What? And then: Oh, right, yes. It is animal communication. Of course.

With Rayn it always feels like a little chat with a friend—that relationship where you can finish each other's sentences and have a type of short hand. The one where you know her feelings and she knows yours.

And just so you know, just because you maybe can't "hear" animals doesn't mean you can't communicate. Check out what's known as the "clairs"—maybe you will find what your superpower is!

•••

THE GARDEN

I had a couple of college age people come help me in the front garden this morning and it was so lovely to chat and work together—thank you Simona and Ariana! I will take a photo of it soon, when it's just a little further along. I've decided that this garden, the one under the gorgeous old Japanese Maple, where my fairy houses live, and Mom's hostas that I dug up last week (all are still alive!)—this is going to be The Hoodie Garden. If you've been following along, you know Mom loved to garden and passed that along to me. Mom's nickname was Hoodie Honson (Judy Johnson). I don't know where and how and when that crazy name popped into my head but it was one that stuck lol. I will need a plaque :-)

We had a tiny frog friend that stayed with us while we worked. That is a zoomed in but typical sized fairy light—that's how tiny that frog was!

•••

ALL THE FEELS

Haha, you guys get to hear both, for better or worse 😁:

I had a call with my energy worker at the end of last week and we cleared a lot of the anger surrounding my dad and the end of Mom's life. I'm so thankful for her work and now, a week later, I feel like a new person. But before that I had a tsunami of grief roll in, I felt like I was drowning. It occurred to me in a much needed neurofeedback session on Monday that maybe I was holding onto the anger to keep the grief at bay.

The next day I had a scheduled session with my grief counselor and told her my thoughts and she agreed that anger is a much easier emotion to feel than grief and that this is a common occurrence.

For now, the grief isn't as intense as when I let go of the anger and I feel more even keel. There are little Mom things that make me smile right now that made me bawl earlier this week. I've charged Mom's phone and connected it to our WifFi. It still gets her news and facebook alerts quite a few times throughout the day and gives a soft little chime when it does. It feels like a tiny, "Hello!" from Mom :-)

THE ART

I've been talking to a friend who knows a lot of owners of local breweries. She's going to introduce me to a few to see if they would be interested in me holding some "paint and sip" classes—how fun would that be! Starting with asking the Fainting Goat Brewery because, you know, goats. I'd do some shorter classes, maybe 1.5—2ish hours with this style:

So fun and easy to do and all abilities would be welcome—even complete beginners! I'll let you know! I think I will also hold these easy classes here at the ranch too. Dates coming soon.

THE RANCH

7 years ago this week I was posting this on facebook—the 24 hour countdown began: