Happy Birthday ManChild! (Newsletter)

Happy Saturday friends!

First off, more new art! This piece, "Andalusian Queen" is a 16x20" acrylic on canvas. I have to say, I'm kinda in love with it ❤️  If you have the perfect spot for this and think it should be hanging in your house, please contact me.

It was a big week on the ranch, but not with ranch things—my brother Michael and his partner Nic came for a visit! And why were they visiting? Why...it's ManChild's 15th birthday! OMG! The older he gets the less he wants to be "featured" on my newsletter darn it. Next up: driver's permit! Job! College! I may be getting a little ahead of myself.

But the driver's permit will be happening soon enough. ManChild at 8, learning to drive the riding mower for the first time. Since then he's learned to drive the Kawasaki Mule, Muletta, and the Ford F150 (on the farm only of course):

THE RANCH:

This week, Rayn somehow managed to crack her cheekbone against something, leaving it swollen and scraped:

My sweet girl also has Uveitis (also called Moon Blindness) and doesn't see as well as she used to so I wonder if it was an accident or if she and Wynter were playing or even fighting.

Every day for about 5 days I went out and cleaned it up with water and paper towels, then put Purification and Tea Tree oils into the palm of my hand along with a little Immune One Healing Balm. I applied that all over everything except the cuts, and then just straight balm over the cuts. I'm happy to report that the cuts are healed and the swelling down quite a bit. If you've been following me awhile, you know that Rayn is a clicker trained horse so I'm able to clean her eyes and doctor booboos pretty easily because of it.

The balm is amazing and I'm hoping they are making it again. They had a death in the family a couple years ago so the business is taking some time getting up and running again. If you get a chance to buy some, it's pretty much a miracle worker. It has all kinds of good stuff in it, including colloidal silver. I first used it on Sweetness years ago, back when he was a little hellion. He and his mini donkey friend Light were ungelded when they came to us and they were like tiny wild stallions! So much fighting and playing. One time, Light bit Sweetness so hard on the neck that he had an actual wound. Being the yearling wild ones that they were, it wasn't possible to get a halter on him and clean the wound so I fed him treats and was able to get a good glob (it's very thick and sticky) of the balm on his quarter sized booboo. I smeared down the edges so it was stuck to his fur and crossed my fingers. The next day it had dirt smushed into it but it was still on. The following day he had pink skin showing through. Miracle right?? Love that stuff.

Miss Lucy has been spending more time with me in my office, playing with toys and keeping an eye out on the farm:

There are still 4 baby geese and they are teenagers now without a shadow of a doubt. The other day I was in the back pasture and the baby geese were way out, almost at the end wandering around and eating grass. The parents were at the top of the pasture calling them, much honking and carrying on, and the babies were completely ignoring them. Yesterday when we were leaving to see the new Jurassic World movie, we only counted 3 babies in the grass, oh dear...but no, one was out in the pond paddling around all by itself!

Don't they look like baby dinosaurs?

I guess they are big enough to not get eaten by turtles anymore. We have some big, dinner plate sized turtles here but I've only been told that by B-Rad and ManChild. How have we lived here almost a year and I've never seen them?

But on ManChild's birthday I happened to be walking by the windows and saw something move in the grass. It was a strange looking blob but then a head poked out of it! My dad, uncle, ManChild, and I went out to see it:

I come by my love of animals from many people in my family, my dad being one of them :-)

And while I don't love spiders, I do find them interesting, especially when they are outside and not in my house. Isn't this a cool web?

I found it on these pretty flowers growing in the woods. Anyone know what kind of bulbs these are?

And just because:

I'm thankful everyday for the ponds in my little neighborhood. It enables me to see the sky and keeps me sane. I'm a big sky girl and while I no longer have the Rocky Mountains in my view, I can at least see this beautiful view :-) What pretty clouds!

We have had some scorchers lately. Last week there were 2 days that were 100 degrees and with the humidity you can just imagine what the heat index was. Ugh. The horses were just dripping sweat. I took them into a shady spot and tied them to the fence and slowly, slowly began hosing them off starting with their feet. They were not fans at first but eventually they settled down as the muddy water began rolling off of them. Horses will just naturally roll when they are wet, so when they get super sweaty, they roll in the dirt to dry off. It just doesn't work here. They continue to sweat and their bodies are just muddy and gross. Miserable. The hosing cools them off but also gets them clean again. Funny, they don't roll after being hosed off during an extra hot spell. When I'm done writing this, I'm headed back out again because with the heat index, the temp is 108º today. I've never been so thankful for air conditioning! I wish I had an air conditioned barn for them to go in too!

We did buy a huge 42" floor fan for my coaching barn this week, I'm hoping on the super hot days I can just leave it on to blow to the shady horse side so they can stand and cool off. Wherever possible I will be scheduling coaching clients in the morning and late evening for awhile.

I think the heat is making the boys a little grumpy:

But it doesn't seem to bother baby Dancer or really any of the girl goats:

I don't understand why the other girls allow her on their backs! This is Piper that Dancer is on and she seemed to enjoy the little back massage she was getting by Dancer's itty bitty feeties.

MEMES OF THE WEEK:

If you are in my area (Apex, NC and surrounding areas) I'm offering a special deal for you to come try out neurofeedback and/or coaching!

Half off your first neurofeedback session ($30 for 30 minutes instead of $60)

$25 off your first Equine Gestalt Coaching session ($100 for an hour instead of $125)

Please take me up on these—and yes, you can have both, in fact I encourage it! Doing neurofeedback before a coaching session puts you in a regulated state which the animals love and is ideal for the work. Doing neurofeedback after helps you process your session :-) so it works either way. The coaching setting is beautiful with the horses, donkey, and goats and in my air conditioned neurofeedback room you have a view of the pond and the wildlife that surrounds it. We are in a covered barn for coaching so are in the shade and out of any rain or weather.

You can read about neurofeedback here!

You can find prints and my original watercolors in my Etsy store!

Thank you for reading :-) My blog is reader-supported—that's you my wonderful friends! The best way to support my work locally (Research Triangle area of NC) is:

I'm a life coach and partner with horses to help people heal—schedule an Equine Gestalt Coaching session.
Or, schedule a NeurOptimal Neurofeedback session.

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