november on the hill

We've had several days of rain now, with gray skies and misty fields. The brilliant splotches of deep color and the rustlings of various creatures in the woods. Each time I walked down the labyrinth path with a wheelbarrow load, a small flock of birds (Eastern Kingbirds?) flew up and then settled again, their tiny wings batting the drying leaves and making the most lovely sound.

Yesterday my daughter and I spent hours keeping stalls clean and comfy, while the geldings cavorted in the drizzle of the back field, rearing and bucking and squealing like hyenas.

Salina paced and fretted whenever her donkey pair ventured from one end of the barn aisle to the other and she couldn't see them. We put her on the far side of the barn so she could walk and stretch her legs more, and the Little Man ended up on the near side for the evening.

Redford has convinced Rafer Johnson that rain is not so bad, and the two donkeys made a number of forays in the rain: one to check up on Salina, another to the round bale (which was woefully covered, so they made that trip for nothing!) and a final one to visit the pony through the arena gate.

Ken and Marty sent Rafer Johnson a beautiful new (and larger) halter, in black, and I know it is going to look so handsome on him.

I also got a call yesterday from Patsy with Cody's kinesiology test results. He has low digestive enzymes and a kidney stone! She sent two supplements to address these things and I updated her on Keil Bay and the pony. I'm relieved Cody has so little going on, and intrigued that the kidney stone could be the culprit for some hind end weakness he has sporadically.

Everyone is doing so well right now I rescheduled our chiropractic visit until December.

On other fronts, I hit the flow with the novel over the weekend and as of this morning have re-sequenced the entire 325 pages. Later today I will try and squeak out all those pages on my just-starting-to-fade printer cartridge and begin the page edits I've been wanting to do for two months.

As is usual with my creative process, it happens in layers, and I often don't know why I'm drawn to peel one layer away when it presents itself. It's only after I trust myself enough to do what presents that I realize I had to peel that one away to get to the next one down.

I've also been having some personal hormonal chaos, and I think one thing I've learned is that for me, soy is like a medication and I need to use it judiciously. I'm now reading food labels and focusing more on what I put into my body.

The other thing I learned, or more accurately, remembered, is this:

No riding, no writing, crazy me.

Let's reframe that.

Riding, writing, balanced me.