Metamorphosis at the Mother Ranch (newsletter)

Remember how last week I saw my first tree frog in the wild, like, EVER? This week I saw another one! What?? I know, I was as surprised as you are!

It was just laying there on the path but so flat that I thought it was dead. I got a shovel and went to scoop it up and toss it into the woods when it suddenly moved! It's also an interesting color, kind of the color of my office before I painted it pink. Chartreuse maybe. I gently scooped him into my shovel and placed him among some bushes. Then I found a terra cotta saucer from an old pot, filled it with water and put it near him. It was a little cool this morning, maybe he was too cold to want to do much hopping and climbing.

So, I decided to hop on over to my favorite animal symbolism site and search out the tree frog. From 52 years of never seeing one (and I lived in NC for 20 years before we moved to CO) to 2 in a week, well, maybe they were trying to tell me something!

Here's what Avia has to say:

When the frog jumps into your life it may indicate now is a time to find opportunities in transition. We see animal symbolism of transition with the frog in its unique growth cycle. The frog undergoes incredible transformations to reach the destination of full adulthood, and so do we as humans.

A quick-list for animal symbolism of the frog is a good place to start as you connect with this amazing creature.

• Luck
• Purity
• Rebirth
• Renewal
• Healing
• Dreaming
• Fertility
• Opportunity
• Transitions
• Intermediary
• Metamorphosis
  

More Western and European views focus on the Frog’s three stages of development (egg, tadpole, fully formed amphibian) to symbolize resurrection and spiritual evolution. For these same reasons it is also a common Christian symbol for the holy trinity and resurrection. It is often seen in Christian art to express this symbolism.

Frog energy is also considered to be a link between the living and the dead. An interesting ancient Asian custom was to place a jade frog in the mouth of the deceased to insure his/her spirit would pass safely into the spirit world. This custom was believed to allow the spirit of the deceased to speak more clearly to loved ones still living.

“Frogs remind us about the importance of change in order to

achieve the best version of ourselves.”

~Avia  

I love this! The end of next month we celebrate our 1 year anniversary of moving to our North Carolina farm and starting my coaching/neurofeedback/art business anew. I really resonate with the rebirth, renewal, healing, opportunity, and metamorphosis parts. It's not always easy to be reborn onto a new path. In fact, it's often really, really hard. I've doubted myself a lot over this past year, can I start over completely in a new area? Should I even try? It's a lot of work to start marketing from scratch, especially on a budget! Who am I kidding LOL, my budget is no money, just time ;-) But things are in motion. Things are changing and growing and I can feel the stuck wheels starting to turn a bit. Thanks to my new tree frog friends for pointing that out to me.

It was manicure and pedicure week and isn't that the tiniest foot you've ever seen?

Sweetness hates getting his feet trimmed. He will fuss and fight and rear and yank me all around so I have to tie his lead rope to a post before any of that starts and then he does okay—not great but okay. He does better when Brad holds him. 

I love how Wynter and Rayn came over this time and quietly stood close to him. Eyes half mast, they went into super grounded mode. Everyone was working together to support Sweetness, helping him stay calm even through he was afraid.

I gave Rayn a turn in the mama goat's pasture on Tuesday. I was hoping she would eat some of the stuff that they didn't want. Goats are browsers not grazers and they are way pickier than anyone realizes so they are leaving a lot of things uneaten. Rayn did a pretty good job of mowing it down a bit but I will still have to take a mower to it soon.

Eventually she got sick of being in there by herself and started pawing at the gate.

And then Sweetness came over to keep her company until I let her out. Sweet boy.

GOATS:

I love watching how the goat's relationships develop. I bought Piper (far right) as a yearling doe and she came into the herd on her own without a friend. She and Marbles (the light colored goat) are close in age. Denali is the black goat on the left. She's 5 this year and is Marbles' mom. They always sleep together at night. Apparently Piper is now a part of their little family :-)

And it seems that Charlotte (spotty mom) is becoming a little less of a loner and often spends time with Mama Alaska. I guess they are bonding over their beautiful babies! I love how the babies like to curl up in feed pans, so cute!

And since Charlotte is more used to Dancer finally, she has for the most part, stopped trying to bite her ears or head butt her when she's around:

A close up of Alaska and her baby Dancer. She's such a good mom! I caught Dancer standing on her mother's back the other day, and sweet Alaska just let her do it. I remember the days of being the favorite jungle gym for ManChild :-)

And sometimes Dancer just likes to spend some time by herself:

ODDS and ENDS:

You guys. Lord. I thought it was funny to watch ManChild giggle and put down "ass." I never saw anything else. I posted this on Facebook this week and my Nichole promptly informed me of what I was missing. I didn't even see those two words together! I'm getting old.

I went over to my parent's for Mother's Day and caught this photo of my dad and his sweet little Maltese Willie:

Tessa is still shedding. And showing no signs of stopping. This was a great place to brush her though, the birds were out there all day picking it up and taking it away!

Another beautiful weed:

I never paid attention to how pretty clover flowers are:

Since the pandemic started, I can count on one hand the number of times I've eaten inside a restaurant. If we eat out, we get takeout and bring it back to the safety of our home. It's always good. But I had forgotten how hot it is, how fresh everything looks, when I eat at the restaurant. ManChild said, "Wow, the drizzle on yours looks good, it's not congealed!" LOL!


But, even this was eaten on the restaurant's outdoor patio. I've known several people to get covid recently, sounds like it's on its way back.

I was at Target and saw this license plate, how fun!

We started to get a little concerned when we hadn't seen the goslings in a few days. We thought the turtles maybe ate them. And then we were driving down our driveway and there they were in the upper pasture! YAY! I know so many see them as annoyances: the poop, the honking, the poop, they dirty up the ponds, the poop, they're so loud, THE POOP. But come on, how can anyone say anything bad about geese when they give us such cute little babies???

It's getting ready to rain for the next few days so Brad and I were getting a few extra things done so we didn't have to do them in the rain. We stripped the barns and put in new shavings and scrubbed out water buckets and stock tanks. Under the horse tank was this little guy. I just love that bright blue tail—such a beautiful color! Google says it's a Blue Tailed Skink. The name makes me happy :-) I bet he is well fed, there were all kinds of bugs under that tank!

This girl...sigh. Doesn't she look so worried? Poor thing. She's petrified of loud noises.  ManChild was going to take her out for a potty break and throw her ball for her. He had her on a leash, there was a gunshot in the distance and somehow she managed to slip out of her no-slip collar and take off into the woods. Brad, ManChild, and I took phones and leashes and fanned out—we've done this before. Nothing. She's nowhere to be found. There is a big forest behind us that eventually comes out on a 4 lane highway. She's rocket fast and scared, God only knows where she will go. As I was hiking along, I was posting on Nextdoor, just in case. Minutes after I hit send, ManChild called, he had found her. Thank God.

This is her normal look, when the noises aren't out to get her:

She is a sweet and funny dog who loves people and I would be so sad if something happened to her! On the short list is creating a nice big fenced in back yard for her!
MEMES OF THE WEEK:

When we lived on our Colorado ranch we ended up with 3 Border Collies (I only wanted 1—really!) and then suddenly we had 2 livestock guardian dogs so, seriously, 5 it was ;-)


As more and more research comes out about women and ADHD, I'm coming to the conclusion that I've had it all my life and never knew until a few months ago. I always just figured something was very wrong with me. It can present SO differently from boys so no one knew they needed to look for other things. Pre kids I could hyper focus like this (this is just one of many things I didn't know was ADHD.) Not making meals—sandwiches for dinner, just cranking along on something that I was passionate about, no interruptions. I don't get this anymore and it's HARD on me. Can anyone relate?

GIVEAWAY:

This week's winner of the baby goat print is Mary Green! Keep an eye on your email Mary!

See all of the prints of my original watercolors in my Etsy store!

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