Crazy dream!

Mockingbird 👆🏽

Happy Saturday friends!

Boy, this was so real feeling!

I was outside and sitting on a chair with my legs loosely crossed when I felt something and looked down to find a Copperhead had climbed up my leg and slithered into the opening between my knees. 

I froze, barely breathing, and felt my heart rate pick up. In case you don't know, Copperheads are venomous snakes. The snake could feel my panic and flattened his head. 

Oh jeeeeezus...

No one was around. I had to save myself. Quicker than quick, I grabbed his entire head in my left hand and clamped down as hard as I could. I could feel its nose pressed hard into my palm. With my right hand I grabbed his neck behind his head. I could feel his body thrashing around under my leg.

And then I woke up.

My heart was beating so fast. I could feel it throughout my body, even my face was thumping and it wasn't slowing. I did some breathing exercises...still going. Finally it stuttered and then suddenly started slowing down. 

My GOD. What in the world?

A few hours later, when I was out watering the garden, I grabbed something with my left hand and the palm of my hand hurt. I looked down to find a bruise from where I had gripped this thing super tight:

This was the snake's head in my hand LOL.

It's a trigger finger splint. Ever feel like the tendons in your palm get a little "sticky"—like your fingers might stay stuck down? I started having that in the spring after working with my hands in the garden for days at a time. You sleep with these on, so you don't curl your hands and they just stay relaxed. It helps a ton. But that night, it was a snake's head and seeing the size and shape in my hand, that would be about right wouldn't it? Phew, so glad it wasn't! I wonder what that was about...

THE RANCH:

I opened my patio umbrella one morning this week and heard a “splat” sound as it went up. Looked around and found this girl (Google says boys are smaller, girls are larger):

I love these little tree frogs and hoped the fall from 6+ feet didn’t harm her! I knelt down nearby and she didn’t leave but she did look fairly annoyed:

I thought I’d let her be for a while so she could gather her senses which must have been scattered across the patio at that point. I kept an eye on her while I watered my pots. Movement caught my eye, I looked over and she was mid hop, yay! I went back over to her and she froze in the best position:

I told her she was safe here and I was glad she was okay. Back to watering. When I looked over again, she was on the leg of this little side table:

Maybe this is why I like Creeping Jenny so much:

It’s a similar color to the tree frogs :-)

•••

Monday, June 29th marked the 10 year anniversary of living on a farm! 5 years in Colorado and 5 years here in North Carolina. I was so excited that I was posting nearly hourly as we got within 24 hours:

I love this pic of us, man we were so excited! This was the evening before we signed the papers:

This was at closing and was one of Mom’s favorite pics:

She used to say, “If that face doesn’t just say it all.” It really does, doesn’t it??

That farm was as incredible as this one, in completely different ways. The views were breathtaking! From the kitchen window at sunset—the "Fourteeners" (14,000 ft tall) Meeker and Long's Peaks were under those clouds:

Sunrise out on the plains from our bedroom windows:

If you want to see pics of our Colorado farm, click here!

•••

We have officially hit the part of summer where, no matter the temperature outside, it’s just miserable. We are still in a drought but last week were getting almost daily thunderstorm warnings that brought just a spit of rain, just enough to raise the humidity to even more intolerable levels. All gardening has ground to a halt other than what’s necessary. My body is like: aaarrrrgh! I want to move my limbs! Let's go! :-( 

I did mark off the new driveway cut off, but it will have to wait until it cools. Friday-Sunday will be 100+ days dammit:

We were able to put up the six foot peace pole I painted recently. It seemed fitting that it went up on our 10 year farmiversary:

It's a 4" square pvc pipe that I painted black and then painted color all over it. I found a solar light that fit in the top perfectly too! 

Brad pounded in a tpost and we just slid the pole right on top. Love it. I think I need more with bird houses mounted on top!

•••

In amongst the yellow cannas on the pond bank:

I found a new daylily on the property, a type I've never seen before!

Someone told me it's name is Kwanzaa. It's very different from a "ditch lily" you see in the ditches on the back roads of NC. This one has triple petals. I want to dig some of them up in the fall and move them somewhere closer to the house but I will have to seriously gear up. Do you see the background in the photo? FULL of poison ivy. Gulp.

•••

Finally the echinacea are blooming! They are all stunted from being munched on all spring by the deer but I have plans to plant them amongst huge mounds of herbs next year. I noticed that my peony was never touched and it's planted in the middle of a bunch of lemon balm. There is hope!

•••

Something is also munching my volunteer pumpkin/gourd patch (probably some sort of squash borer bug) which enables me to really see down inside the mountain of leaves. Look what I found! Both kinds are not quite the size of soccer balls now:

Google says the white ones are probably either the hybrid Icicle or Snowball and are good for pies or decorating:

•••

At least she's eating something she should be for once:

•••

Our irrigation water for our sprinklers comes from our pond. I've decided to stop watering the area you see in the pic above but continue hand watering the perennials. Brad found this awesome little water pump that runs on Dewalt batteries:

The black hose is what I drag around to water. The grey hose runs from the pump:

to the water sucking part which is attached underneath that piece of floating wood:

I'm shocked at how well it works. It clogs a nozzle so I just let it run out the end of the hose, makes it easier because I can more quickly gauge how much water each plant is getting. I have 100 feet of hose attached but needed 200 feet to reach the lantana. You know it's dry when you have to water the lantana! I haven't had to in the 5 years we've been here. Wasn't sure if it would pump that far but no problems at all. So thankful for this simple tool. And I think the plants are loving the nutrient rich pond water too.

•••

And finally, yes, I still have ponies and mini donkeys :-)

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 inside, outside, or outside in the herd (this is an early morning appointment).

And of course Women's Circles! 👈🏽This whole section 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 stuff. 

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. 

This next week, Monday, 7/6, we'll be playing with stick figures! This made me smile and feel like a little kid :-) People will often tell me, "Oh, I wish I could join you for your (fill in the blank) but I can't even draw a stick figure!" 😂 Maybe you should join us and let your inner child out to play:

I was surprised by how much expression was possible with just the most simple marks!

•••

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Hope you all have a great week!

Thank you for reading :-)

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

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