Gorgeous day for a trail ride
at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Here I am on Sonny, a
friend’s horse. Don’t you wonder what he’s saying???
My friend Deb rode Ivy to check her out on the trail. She passed
the test – must have had lots of trail experience in the past.
This kind of exercise must be good for my bones – all that trotting
gives a certain amount of impact. Probably won’t be able to
walk straight tomorrow.
Now that we have a horse in
the pasture, people who know us are dropping in more frequently.
Sunday Pete and I were out there fixing a gate when a truck drove by
real slowly. We waved and soon the truck pulled in our
driveway. It was a neighbor from across the road and down a
piece. She had her grandkids (city kids) with her so I asked if
they’d like to have a little ride on Ivy. Of course they would so
we had fun doing that and giving the dogs some love. The funniest
thing for me, though, was when the neighbor was telling about
discovering that we had a horse. She said, “I was looking out in
your pasture one day and thought to myself, ‘Boy, one of their dogs got
really big all of a sudden!’ So then I got my binoculars out and
looked over there again and realized, ‘That’s not a dog, that’s a
HORSE!’” The part I thought was so funny was the “then I got my
binoculars out” part. It strikes me as hilarious that she’d admit
to us that she’s watching what’s going on over here with her
binoculars! 
Oy weh. Guess we’d better keep our noses clean, huh?
I just spent over 4 hours out
driving around to all the homes in our township, collecting signatures
for a petition. It is a petition to the governor expressing our
opposition to the road that is threatening to cut a swath through our
rural/residential part of the county. I don’t consider myself a
political activist and I don’t enjoy knocking on people’s doors and
asking them to sign the petition. But it’s one small thing I can
do to help. It’s been very interesting, meeting so many people
I’ve lived near for many years but never really gotten to know.
Out here in the country people don’t always like to answer the door
after dark but tonight being Halloween, most people thought I was a
trick-or-treater!
Some homes are opulent, many are very nice, some are very modest.
But everyone cares about their home and their quality of life.
Everyone is opposed to the road. One little house I went to was
particularly interesting. It was an ancient little old farmhouse
with all kinds of sections that had been added on through the
years. The roof had about five different levels and all kinds of
crazy angles. A very nice little old man, a widower, lives there
alone with his dog. As I drove up I noticed all kinds of stained
glass hanging at the windows. I asked him about it and he
smiled. He just collects old windows from auctions or wherever he
finds it, repairs them and sells those that he doesn’t have room for in
his house. Every window in the little old house has stained or
leaded glass hanging over the window. You run into magical things
in the most unlikely places.
It’s raining here tonight – something that’s been very rare here in the
last 9 months. Nice to hear it pattering on our roof. A
fire in the woodstove warms the living room – a welcome retreat after
my ramblings.
Goosebusters
We were jarred
out of a deep sleep this morning by the phone ringing. It was the
neighbor. She wondered if the huge gray and white goose sitting
inside their fenced-in back yard belonged to us. I groaned.
Yesterday morning our blood pressure was jump-started by someone
driving by and honking persistently. That usually means only one
thing – one of our animals is out on the road and yesterday it was the
two young dogs who had escaped through a blown-open gate. Two
days in a row?
Pete and I threw on clothes, ran out and checked the pasture to
discover that all occupants were present and accounted for…except one
goose. Dang.
Off we roared to the neighbor’s house. And sure enough, sitting
in their back yard as placid as could be was our errant goose. We
were astounded. He had to fly over a 4 1/2 foot fence to get out
of our pasture, cross a 5 acre field to get to their place and then fly
over their 4 foot fence to get inside their back yard! We finally
cornered him and carried him honking and protesting back home.
He was apparently missing the company of his female companion and the
male duck. Those two have taken permanent refuge from our two
foolish, teen-aged Great Pyrenees dogs by hiding inside the chicken
house. I put Gander in the chicken house with Goose and Duck and
they were joyfully re-united. The dogs have the unfortunate habit
of chewing on the chickens and other fowl who aren’t quick enough to
get away from them. They don’t really hurt them – just pluck
feathers and carry them around like chewy toys. But I can see
where such undignified treatment would get on your nerves.
Apparently Gander had had ENOUGH last night and took a way of
escape. Totally bizarre, though, how he fenced himself in at the
neighbors.
When I got back and got everyone fed I stood there talking to our horse
for a minute as she munched her grain in the barn. I heard a
funny, very muffled clucking and looked around for the source.
Here’s what I saw (note dishevelled feathers due to dog-plucking):
One of the hens had burrowed into the horse’s hay and was getting ready
to lay an egg. A few minutes later, this was the view:
Two of the cats have become quite smitten with the horse. They
must have been around one at some point in the past, before they
wandered into our realm. Here’s Dancer, shortly before he lost
his balance and landed in the haymanger:
Becca and I laughed so hard we could hardly stand up. He was quite miffed at losing his dignity.
Oy weh – these animals do keep us amused.
Random news items from my life:
I have a sinus infection and feel really yucky. 
The weather has been PERFECT for the last couple of days and I’ve been enjoying every minute, even when I feel yucky.
I’m busting out of my rut: I bought “dangly” earrings last
weekend. How out of character for this “inconspicuous little
pearl earrings” woman!
Pete and I went to Wisconsin for two days last weekend and it was
blissful. Beautiful scenery, gorgeous weather, fresh apples from
the orchard and wonderful Wisconsin cheese and sausage.
Yum. If we lose the farm to the highway and have to move, look
for us in Wisconsin!
We have a new resident on the farm:
She’s a sweet little old Arabian mare. We call her Ivy.
She’s been shifted around from pillar to post for the last few weeks
and in need of love and attention and fattening up. Very sweet
natured – we took our first ride today. And she patiently endured
her first bath here. We’re hoping to give her a good home for her
“sunset years.” A great horse for us to learn on.
Becca and I were going for
our walk one day last week, down our quiet country roads. About a
half-mile from home Becca leaned over and said, “Oh look!” This
is what she picked up:
It was a tiny baby snapping turtle, probably just hatched. He was
on the road, obviously having come from the creek. The creek is
bone dry and he needed water so we took him along with us on our walk
until we came to a culvert that had water in it. He was happy
there. We could tell.
On the return side of our walk at almost the exact same spot Becca
again leaned over and said, “Oh, look! I just knew there would be
another one!” Sure enough, the brother/sister to the first one
was also on the road looking for water. We brought him home with
us and put him in a bowl of water until the next day. I was doing
water testing in a deep creek and gave him a new home there.
I’m no fan of snapping turtles but these little guys couldn’t have been
more than a day old and somehow I couldn’t bring myself to just let
them die from lack of water.
Fall officially arrived this evening with the first fire of the season in the wood-burning stove.
Pete (Statdad) looks so happy because I am in the kitchen making waffles with ham for supper – his favorite comfort food.
Here’s the blaze when it got going good:
Can you feel the heat? Makes you relax so that it’s hard to move anywhere else in the house.
Joel arrived with some of his Xanga co-workers yesterday on their way
to U of I. I introduced myself to them and said, “Hi, I’m
Becky.” They grinned and just said, “Statmom.” I don’t know
why I was so taken aback by that but I was. Like that’s not the
real me – my flesh and blood person is the real me. I’m not quite
comfortable with this cyber-reality.
Tonight we sat through a two
hour meeting sponsored by IDOT about where they are in the
decision-making process about the proposed Prairie Parkway.
Earlier in the day I had received a link to an article by the Aurora
Beacon and we were giddy with joy at what they reported: the
Parkway is going to go in the original protected corridor. To us
that meant: It’s not going through our farm and home!
Unfortunately, the south end of the Parkway – the part that affects us
- is still very much up in the air. So, we basically learned next
to nothing from this exercise and we are right where we have been all
along…with our neck (and farm) on the block.
This is one of those times when you just want A DECISION so we know
where we stand. But, that is not going to happen for
awhile. IDOT said it could be a few months or up to two years
before the final decision is made. Knowing that “God is the
blessed controller of all things” really helps at times like
this. There are no “second causes” – God is the only and ultimate
reality so we take the uncertainty from His hand and live with
it. I am not forced into an unpleasant situation by some
government agency. My Father is allowing this circumstance in my
life and plans to use it for my best good. I can relax and trust
Him not only with the ultimate outcome but with all the days in between. “And be thankful.”
Obviously, these truths run counter to my nature and I have to
continually be reminded of them. God has to rebuild my thought
processes and values and He’s using the sandpaper of life to do
it.
Things People Do While Driving
I once heard
this “trivia” question on the radio: “What do 70% of all people
say they have done at least once while driving their car?” The
answer when they gave it totally floored me…”cut their
toenails”! In all my years of driving I had NEVER seen anyone
doing anything I would even remotely associate with cutting their
toenails. But surprise, surprise. When we were living in
Baltimore we took a bus trip to NYC one weekend. Sitting there on
the New Jersey Turnpike I looked out my window and there in the car
next to me a man had his sock and shoe off and was cutting his
toenails. I was dumbfounded.
What brought this to mind was crawling along the Stevenson Expressway
this morning, taking Pete to the airport. (It took us 2 hours to
go 50 miles, by the way). There in the car next to us I saw
someone doing something else that I’d never seen before: flossing
her teeth while driving.
I’m all for flossing but doing it in your car??? Blechhhhh….
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