Posts Tagged ‘petty complaints’
Big Change
Things have changed dramatically from too dry and dusty to nicely soaked after two days of a mix of occasional rain and constant drizzle. It was just cool enough that Cyndie chose to put a rain cover on Mia, as she rarely receives a gracious welcome from the other horses who shelter under the overhang.
Since the horses were showing little interest in walking out into the rain to get a drink from the waterer, we provided some temporary buckets near each placemat. It’s interesting to see how often they choose to dip their snouts in the bucket while eating when it’s convenient. Has us thinking we should wet all their food, not just Swings’. She has been getting softened servings as the eldest mare because she has lost some teeth in her advanced years.
The muddy slurry of lime screenings is almost as annoying to navigate and poop-scoop as the overly dusty conditions. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I didn’t have some complaint to make about the conditions. Hey, I’m just reporting what I see.
Cyndie made use of the inclement weather to take care of some overdue cleaning of stencils under the entry to the shop door while Asher and I stood watch, occasionally handing her something that I thought might work better for her task.
There wasn’t much else to do in the soaking wet conditions. I ended up doing some rudimentary sweeping of the concrete shop floor.
Yesterday, I resorted to watching college football on television while Cyndie ventured to Minneapolis to add all the clutter she had scrounged from our basement to the yard sale that our friends, Pam and John, hold annually.
The sun is making a re-appearance this morning, and all the growing things look really happy about the return of hydration.
In just a few days, we have experienced a big change. Here’s hoping we don’t need to swing to such extremes every time a new weather system takes hold. For today, we are blessed with a pretty reasonable balance. We will be sure to appreciate it for as long as it lasts.
Maybe the next weather complaint I come up with in the future will be about how perfect it has been for such a long, long time.
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Eventual Success
We finally got the break in our weather that allowed us to deal with all the leaves on the front lawn yesterday. How many weeks have I been whining about this issue?
You don’t have to answer that. It was a rhetorical question.
I am well aware of how long this dilemma has been dragging on. I have been looking at it every day since the big oak tree over the driveway suddenly let go of more leaves all at once than in all the previous years that we’ve lived here.
It was a big year for acorns, so maybe the two things are related. The tree put so much energy into growing acorns that it let go of the leaves in greater volume than usual? Yeah, that’s stated as a question. I have no actual knowledge on the subject.
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We had some help on the project yesterday. The chickens were very interested in all this scratchin’ that was going on and came up to check things out. If I wasn’t working fast enough for them, they would step into the leaves and start clawing away themselves to get at the goods.
It looked to me as though they just peck at the ground after invisible nothings, but pausing to crouch down and get up close and personal with one of the Australorps, I was surprised to see it pick up a big fat green caterpillar that I had no idea was there.
I sure hope all the pecking they are doing is reducing the tick and fly population that would otherwise emerge to trouble us next spring. The current brood of nine are covering a surprising range of territory with impressive thoroughness, based on the cute little scratching circles they leave behind throughout our forest floor.
The weather finally warmed above freezing enough that the ground surface was just pliable enough to give up the leaves, but the annoying push-up tunnels of moles and voles were still solid. It made for some all-terrain raking complications.
Unfortunately, some precipitation moved in with the warmth, so after we barely finished with the front yard, it started to rain. Now the ground is frozen beneath a thin slippery wet layer to give us something else to chirp about.
Will I ever be content with the way things are? Eventually.
Beyond the surface of petty complaints I am so deft at plying, I am more content than ever. Just yesterday I was pointing out how much simple joy the chickens bring every day. I had no idea how much pleasure they would provide.
Regarding the art of reframing all my petty whining, I am visualizing eventual success.
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