So how was everyone's Christmas and New Year? I'm gonna assume you're still all alive and well, and no one was involved in any New Year's-related incidents. Good! We're all great here, we and our extended families, the friends who say, "You're not friends to us, you're folks!" (But that's how they are in the south, God bless 'em, and they truly mean it!) No sick animals, no more paramedics taking Daddy to two different hospitals, and Mama's still rolling around on her "little wheels." She doesn't actually have wheels mind you, but she's such a go-getter, run, run, run from the moment she opens her big brown eyes until she beds down for the night I've always said, "Here she comes, on her little wheels," something I find precious. I did have a sick horsey on 29 December, my Snickerdoodle. We thought he was colocking so Daddy gave him a pain injection and we set to walking, walking, walking him but I could hear no gut sounds out of him. Ordinarily, if a horse colics his tummy will roar and I told Daddy, "I just don't think this is colic." But I didn't know exactly what was going on except that Sir Snickers just didn't feel well. For me, the eyes give it away. I once predicted one of our horses was going into colic from the look of his eyes, and I was right -- didn't take very long. Well, my boy's eyes just didn't look good and I knew something was going on but I didn't know what. On one of my trips back and forth as I walked Snickers in the stable Daddy stopped us, said it looked like he had a swollen area near his flank. I looked and sure enough, he had a lump, and when I palpated it he turned around and looked at me so it was definitely tender. No doubt he'd gotten kicked -- which happens w/ horses, either in play or by a moody mare (in our case) but he was swollen and tender and even though I offered him treats including his absolute favorite, carrots, he wasn't having any of it. So we walked him more and pretty soon he reluctantly took a carrot, then he began snarfing the carrots as well as apple treats. After that, we stabled him for a few hours and gave him only hay but when we next went to check on him he really wanted out of his stall to be outside w/ his buddies so we turned him out and he's been fit as a fiddle ever since. Thank God for that! As I've said previously, horses are magnificent, powerful animals but in many ways they're also very fragile. Remember Barbaro? Excellent example. Barbaro will walk w/ a tremendous limp for the rest of his life, and it was only his heart that pulled him through. He had the best medical care, true. But the boy got heart and he just wanted to live, so between that and constant prayers, Barbaro is hale and hearty, albeit w/ tremendous difficulty walking which he'll never recuperate from.
Christmas on the ranch was lovely as always. I mostly made Thanksgiving dinner so Mama returned the favor on Christmas and that little girl has some specialties that'll make you cry. Or in my case, drool and make such a pig of myself I probably regained five hard-lost pounds. *sniff!* November was a busy month but it was dead in the water compared to what December turned out to be for me, but that was a very Good Thing. I decided to make a gazillion Christmas cookies and after I burned up my poor mom's mixer doing so she ran right out and got me a big MixMaster and you'll never believe this one: IT'S RED! Are you even believing that? My kitchen has that color appliances -- toaster, microwave, coffeemaker, etc. I suspect she could have found something comparable for less $ but you'd have to know my mom -- she gifted me w/ something special. That's the kinda girl she is, which is where I got that tendency my own self. So that actually was my first Christmas gift and the Good Lord knows, I'da been one happy girl if that's all I'd gotten. Oh my stars, it's fabulous and now I can make homemade bread -- which is the first thing Mama said to me when we unpacked it. She tickles me sometimes! So we baked cookies and oh my stars, she was a tremendous help to me! Once baked we set to decorating. Now, I'd already strongly suggested to Daddy that he could help decorate and he sort of went along w/ the program however, on the evening we were to do this, he decided he'd go to a horsey doin's. Uh-huh. I told him he was risking his Christmas w/ Santa Cow (Santa Cow comes to our house, right down the chimney!) but he paid me no mind, and evidently he was a very good boy last year because he had a lovely Christmas -- we all did! Christmas is the only time of year I really get to spoil my parents terribly, and even if I do say so myself, I did admirably. But they're no slouches in that department either.
It's a Wolf Moon tonight -- but that's nothing special since I own a Slovakian Wolf Dog. She howls anytime she feels like it, doesn't have to be a special occasion either.
