Thank you.

Hope you have a great time away!

An outstanding answer.

Love the photo. Where is cat?

And I’m sure that you are loved for it, Sarah. You are awesome!

The view from the mow of our barn, looking west across one of our verdant hayfields. A soft yellow light washes everything, like the brief rain shower that preceded this photo. Shasta’s Howe is visible in the field. Trees and the Coast Range are in the background. The sky has layers of whitish-grey clouds with occasional openings. Near the horizon, the clouds are lit with yellows, oranges, and some pinks.

A friend took this photo on our farm yesterday. The sunset was stunning here yesterday (clearly), with rain showers, a radiant yellow sky, and even a rainbow all in the same breath.

I hope this photo and alt-text can convey some of the wonder.

#SmallFarmLife

Photo courtesy of Claire Harper.

That is indeed a chart. And it charts things. About eels. Yes.

The alt-text, FTW.

<reads the Wikipedia article about dragonfruit>

Hmm. It is an interesting plant….

Wut???

This wins the internet today. 🏆

Thanks, Marcella. I will.

The trees always remember, in their own way, the fleeting presence of everyday life going on around them.

Sounds like a fine bird!

Huge heart and a quietly impish sense of humor (if you can believe that). Couldn’t have asked for a better first horse.

Yay!! ⭐️

An grey Percheron horse grazing in a pasture with little white flowers, with his left eye toward the camera. A clear blue sky in the background

Same. This was my first horse, Boulder.

I didn’t choose him because of his color. But I also didn’t *not* choose him for his color. :-)

I get that. I don’t have a physical disability, but ADHD? Oh yeah. 🙄

I’m thrilled when I have a productive day. (I have also redefined what “productive” means for me over the years.)

Speaking which, time to go get some shit done. :-)

Happy stock-making!

I will. ❤️

Thanks for talking about Shasta with me. I was hurting, and it helped.

Sounds like a damned productive day, disability aside.

Elf is a goofball. He’s my riding horse.

Shasta was Kim’s riding horse. She was also trained to drive.

The goal was to have Shasta help me train Elf to drive, too, but I ran out of time.😢

Horse power for the farm is a major part achieving of our net-zero carbon goal, but we have a long way to go.

Our Shasta was on the small side for a Clyde: 16.2 hands at the withers and about 1650 lbs. when she was in good health.

Our gelding Elf is 18.2 hands and over 2000 lbs. when he is in good muscle.

Draft horses (including ours) generally have gentle temperaments. Personality varies, of course. :-)

Mound of earth with tubes of grass on it on the middle of a hayfield, with hills and forest in the background.

“Green and long grew the grass on Snowmane’s Howe…” —JRRT

Shasta’s grave, in our hayfield in between a couple of tiny oak seedlings that we planted as acorns.

When my wife and I and Shasta are gone and forgotten, the oaks will shade her and the grass will ripple in the breeze.

#SmallFarmLife

Thanks, Bill.

She really was. And smart and sensible.

I can’t math, apparently. She was almost 29, not 30.

She would have been 30 years old next month.

Shasta was born at Anheuser-Busch’s Warm Springs Farm in Missouri. She was sold at about age two because she was too small for their breeding herd. Her registered name was Belleau WS Tanya.

A day at the beach with Shasta and my beloved Percheron horse Boulder. That’s me in the background near the waves on Boulder (all white) and Kim in the foreground on Shasta, a classic bay with a white blaze and four sets of beautiful white feathers.

Shasta looking over the fence at the farmhouse (white) with a field of green grass in the foreground. In the background are hills and half of a rainbow.