Home Is Where Your Donkeys Bray

New sign for the barn - I love it! Holly at Count All Things Joy on Etsy made it for me. Go check out her shop - she is wonderful to buy from!

Here's the LINK.

Latest on Clinton Anderson, whose status as asshole is up for debate

Terrific blog post here:

https://www.writingofriding.com/in-the-media/clinton-anderson-ass

I was wondering why my blog hits were through the roof this week and now I know why. People are madly googling to read more after Clinton Anderson's new video was released and he has apparently had his own characteristic CA rant at the end which is inciting fury all over the Internet.

You can read more about some of that here:

https://annablakeblog.com/2016/07/15/defending-horses-with-words-and-money/

Read and follow the links to let CA's sponsors know exactly what you think.

For the record, abusive sociopathic narcissist is closer to the mark.

Travelogue, continued: the road to Santa Cruz

When we left Palo Alto I wanted a nice drive west to Highway 1 so I used the Google Maps app and asked it to avoid highways and tolls. We ended up on what I think was Highway 84, which took us past a huge and amazing horse park. The rolling hills were covered in golden grasses and I spotted what appeared to be a cross-country course as we drove past. It was very different than what we have here in North Carolina, mainly because the landscape in California is so different. But it was nice to see that even Silicon Valley has space for horses!

84 wound up and through the hills, and we took hairpin turns through redwood groves. I couldn't stop exclaiming. It was a drive that required constant attention but it was delightful. At one point I was behind a huge flatbed truck piled high with square bales of hay and again I was happy to be made aware of the presence of horses.

We passed horse farms and I wondered how anyone could trailer in and out on 84 but I guess if you do it enough you get very good at it.

Eventually we drove out of the forested area and into a hilly area comprised of golden hills and open sky. 

And then, suddenly we came to a stop sign where you could either turn left or right. Ahead was the Pacific Ocean.

It was wonderful to think: take 84 and turn left at the Pacific Ocean!

This is what we saw:

I wish I had more photographs of the coastal highway going south to Santa Cruz but I was busy driving and exclaiming and listening to the customized soundtrack my son was creating from his iPhone. It was an amazing drive.

When I was 30 I made a drive with my dad from Austin, Texas to Los Gatos, California with my two cats and all my earthly belongings. It was one of the most amazing road trips of my life. The next year I drove the coastal highway south to Hollywood and that too was a wonderful trip. So as I drove this summer, age 56, with my son, the previous trips layered in and it felt like time had become an accordion, stretching in and out. If anyone doubts that time travel exists, just ask a mother who remembers her own childhood, her young adulthood, her child's childhood, and the journey into her child's young adulthood. 

I can't accurately capture the magic of this trip but it was there every mile of the way.

Real Milk Paint Company and my projects

Just a quick thumbs up to the Real Milk Paint Company's products and instructional posts and videos. I'm using milk paint for porch screens, the cat tunnel, shelving in my psychotherapy office, and will be trying it on a wall very soon.

I have never used milk paint before but I love the ease of mixing, the lack of strong odor, the easy clean up, and the beautiful chalky matte finish.

It is easy to work with. 

I'm looking forward to using the tung oil/citrus solvent mix over the milk paint on the porch screens and cat tunnel. I have more places I want to use it as well but my little chore stove is full right now. Stay tuned for photos as I complete these projects.

November Hill farm journal, 11

It's the time of year when it most resembles a jungle here on November Hill. The trees are lush and green, all manner of shrubs and grasses and weeds are trying to take root with us, and the regular rain we're having is keeping the pastures very green. The focus becomes managing all these growing things. They can quickly get out of control.

In the midst of this our old weed eater died so my husband had to go buy a new one. The old one had been repaired many times but it had heavy use over the past years. We try to get the longest life out of our things but it was clearly time to let this one go.

We've also had some stormy weather with wind and lightning. We've removed the red maple trees from the pastures proper but there are some big ones behind the back pasture fence. We keep a close eye out when storms blow in and often simply close that field off until the weather clears again.

Two weeks ago a friend had a red maple come down in her pasture and her two horses ate the wilting leaves, which is when the toxins are the most dangerous. Both horses made it but have been in the vet clinic for two weeks with multiple blood transfusions and one having heart damage that has made recovery tricky. 

Around the same time we had a huge storm with some very scary wind. A downward gust snapped one of the big red maples in back in half and the crown folded over like a giant hinge. It wasn't exactly in the back field but it was hanging just along the fence line and husband spent an evening getting all the leaves well away from horses and donkeys. 

Sadly my marker tree tipped over from the root bed in that same gust. It was a huge tree that had previously (years back) been hit by lightning but it seemed to survive and even thrive so I was surprised and very sad to see it had toppled. There is a lot of work to be done now behind the back fence - getting these trees cut into firewood. This chore will likely wait until fall when it's cooler and bugs and snakes are dormant.

The interesting part of all this is that I have long wanted to build a writing studio behind the back fence, with a front porch that literally opens into the pasture so the horses and donkeys can join me there. We have plenty of room for such a thing but it would involve cutting down trees and I am loathe to do that.

I would never have cut the marker tree so had eyed other (less nice) sites along the back fence, but all had some issues so I have never proceeded with my plans.

In the past few years we have lost several trees to lightning strikes back there, but the marker tree was still living and right in the center of the prime site. Now that it's fallen the way will soon be clear to consider taking down those big red maples and truly clearing that area for the writing studio. It's not at the top of the list by any means but it is definitely in my mind again and without the obstacles from before.

This happens often on the farm. There are aspects to the landscape that I become attached to while at the same time consider possibilities that would require changing it. And then suddenly nature herself swoops in and makes the decision for me. We so mourned the clear cutting of the 11-acre forest next door to us. It was hard to stop calling it the 11-acre wood and refer to it as a field, but now, three years later, it is becoming a forest again. It is thick with young sweet gums and a haven for the deer herds. 

Meanwhile in the garden we have pulled out all the various squash plants after having a good harvest for two solid months. The squash bugs were taking over and it was time to clear the ailing plants out. Now we're harvesting garlic and tomatoes, still eating rainbow chard, and watching melons grow. The blueberries are ripening and the two cucumber plants have won this year's award for most amazing producer. It's always fun to see which plant goes beyond all expectations. One year it was okra, another peppers, last year it was sweet potatoes. Unless something else goes crazy, the cucumbers are well ahead. I'm eating cucumber every day at least once!

Following up on existing projects, I have tested the French gray milk paint color on the cat tunnel roof and it appears that Stillwater gray is still the best choice. I have everything ready to paint and oil the screens but need a run of dry days so that everything can cure properly. And I have my machete tool for working on the wattle fence. Slow progress but I'm glad to be moving on with these things.