Posts Tagged ‘wishes’
December’s Here!
Crashes and spinouts. That is what the first significant snowfall produces for commuters. My hour-long drive to work yesterday morning almost doubled in time due to the first wave of snow that flowed over the region. Wave two, which started last night, added enough new depth that I expect the trip to work today will be slow once again.
That’s okay. It’s December!
Time for wish lists and holiday parties, gift planning and benevolent scheming. Bring on the holiday good cheer.
Sadly, our sweet doggy isn’t feeling very cheerful today. No sooner did we get her back to her normal old self, when she suddenly returned to vomiting again last night.
Is this the same issue or something different? Hard to say. Cyndie did recently give Delilah a couple things to eat that were not her ordinary fare. That will be curtailed entirely while we nurse her back to normal. It may be that we will need to restrain her to a strict diet indefinitely.
In honor of December, I’m including this picture of a wreath that Cyndie made this year while horsing around with some ribbons and tree branches.
Makes our place look festive, as if it were the holiday season or something. Of course, that was taken back in November, before all the white stuff blew in. Maybe I can get a new shot of it this afternoon while I am out plowing the driveway.
I’ll want to get things cleaned up and ready for the big melt that is forecast to be following this snow event.
Happy December!
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Be Careful
Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.
We dearly wanted to improve the muddy situation that our horses face during the wet spring meltdown. Last fall we excavated an improved drainage swale, cleared out the overgrown drainage ditch along our southern property border, buried drain tile along the uphill borders of the paddocks, and applied several loads of lime screenings on the hill around the barn for improved footing.
We have been anxiously awaiting the thaw to see if our improvements worked the way we hoped. That thaw is almost complete now, and we are standing by to see how quickly the soil dries out.
What we couldn’t control was the amount of moisture we would be forced to deal with by the weather. Our mild winter left us with a below average snow cover and we have been without precipitation for over a week. The effectiveness of our improvements is hard to gauge because the ground is already too dry!
There is still plenty of time to receive some spring rain, but for the time being, we are experiencing what the meteorologists are phrasing as “pre-drought conditions.”
We wanted dryer conditions for the paddock footing, but this is not the way we would like it to occur.
It is interesting that the changing climate seems to be putting us at risk for dryer, drought-like conditions overall, while at the same time unleashing more copious dousings of precipitation from individual storm events. We get too much all at once and then not enough in between.
I am a bit concerned about how that will impact our intentions of growing hay. Over the last two years we have been unable to get more than one cutting in a season, because the spring and early summer have been too wet, and the rest of the growing season has been too dry. We haven’t had enough growth after the first cut to allow for a second batch of bales.
This year we are starting out dry. Who knows what we’ll get in the months ahead. I’m hesitant to wish for more moisture for fear of then getting more than we can handle. Wishes are not to be waved about carelessly. We should be clear about what we want and what we don’t want.
What are the rules again? I can’t wish for more wishes, but can I wish for a precise outcome? Not less than we need, and not more than we need.
Be careful what you wish for.
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Times Change
This morning, sunrise occurred at a new time, under the change to Daylight Saving Time in the U.S.
I saw a poll yesterday, that indicated the majority of people would prefer that we not change the clocks at all. I am included in that majority. I think it is a useless annoyance.
Something about it makes me feel like a helpless kid. I have no choice in the matter. Why do we change the clocks? Because we do. It’s just what we do. It has been in practice for over a century.
“It saves energy.”
“It helps the economy.”
“It does not.”
The debates I hear even sound juvenile to me, but that just may be the mode I’m in. I keep having thoughts about childhood, lately. Maybe it is the many times that my recent experiences on our new property are bringing remembrances of my formative years on my family’s farm property in the 1960s.
I have reduced my hours at the day-job, and spend more time here at Wintervale. I don’t have to get up and get ready to go to work everyday. When that work-day arrives, I look in the mirror and discover I have been doing less daily grooming. I don’t enjoy spending time in front of the mirror. (Maybe that is because I am seeing my reverse image.) Last week, I thought, ‘I never had to spend this kind of time when I was a kid.’
That got me to thinking about the pros and cons of being a kid:
Pro: The only grooming required is, your mom licking her hand to fix your hair.
Con: Your mom licks her hand to fix your hair.
Pro: You never have to drive yourself anywhere.
Con: You can’t drive yourself anywhere.
Pro: Your friends make you laugh.
Con: Milk comes out your nose.
Pro: You get to go everywhere with your mom, and people fawn over you.
Con: You have to go everywhere with your mom and strangers try to talk to you and pinch your face.
Pro: You get to go outside and play games with your friends.
Con: You have to register for a team and wear a uniform and be driven to an official field for games with parent coaches and kids older than you as referee.
Pro: You get to be the center of attention.
Con: You have to learn you don’t always get to be the center of attention.
Pro: You get to go to school for free.
Con: You have to go to school.
Pro: You are always learning new things.
Con: You have to learn every new thing.
Pro: The world of possibilities lies before you.
Con: There are an incomprehensible number of possibilities you must face.
Pro: You don’t have to plan each of your days.
Con: You don’t get to set the plan for your days.
Pro: You are encouraged to wish for anything you want.
Con: You might get what you wish for.
Okay, so that last one might not be a con. I got Wintervale, didn’t I? No wonder I feel like a kid again. That, and the fact I had to change the clocks today, even though I didn’t want to.
Relative Something 