Relative Something

With the possibility of our first solid frost showing up within the 10-day forecast, we decided we shouldn’t put off final winterizing steps any longer. Cyndie and I kept a stiff upper lip while tackling the multiple remaining tasks on a dreary, wet afternoon yesterday.

I blew out the underground waterline that runs from the house down to the labyrinth garden. Cyndie did a final cleanup of her produce garden. She wrapped the two decorative evergreens in the labyrinth with burlap. I pulled the pump and filter from our landscape pond. We covered the pond with netting to catch falling leaves. Cyndie drained the rain barrel. I rolled up our last garden hose.

All these steps have been put off until now because the weather has been remarkably warm. It perfectly suited my tendency for procrastination.

With our work gloves wet from working in the constant drizzle, we headed down to the barn to feed the horses. Cyndie again held feed buckets for Mix since the mare still avoids walking as much as possible.

Mix had been standing in the sloppy muck long enough that we decided to force her to move to dry ground under the overhang. Getting her moving required Cyndie urging her from behind while I pulled from in front.

When Mix took her stuttering, limping steps, she stomped a foot in the muck each time, squirting the slop all over my pants.

We tried brushing the mud off, but there was still enough stuck to the fabric that I didn’t want to run it through our washing machine. Too bad we just coiled up the last hose.

I decided to leave them out in the rain for a pre-rinse before we put them in our machine.

The coloring on that boulder outside our front door made for a funky image with the tan pants.

Speaking of color, HOW ‘BOUT THAT BLUE TSUNAMI?!!

Two years, we’ve been waiting to do that. No one I know has admitted to me that they support the racist energy stinking up the Republican agenda under this current administration, but of the people who do support it that I’ve seen and heard about, I find it hard to believe they may have suddenly changed their allegiance. That suggests to me the swing of votes to this significant degree probably means people who didn’t vote in the past must have finally shown up.

Regardless of how it happened, the pendulum is swinging back in a more loving direction. There is a LOT of work in front of the newly elected Democrats. All of us who love the possibilities need to be patient and hope for the best, and demand the best from our representatives.

It took a while to sink as low as this country has, so it will take a while to repair all the damage that has been done. Among many other things, I’m looking forward to a time when our neighbor to the north, the people of Canada, will have found a way to forgive the US for every negative thing that has happened between our two countries since the current administration came to power after the 2024 election.

Here’s hoping the work ahead of us won’t be as sloppy as the messy surface Cyndie and I are coping with in our paddocks.