Countdown to barn construction commencement in 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . .
FarmWife and FarmHusband have arranged for their girls to play at a friends' house today. My breakfast was enjoyed to the soothing accompaniment of a snapping tap…
Stools (and I don't mean for sitting)
This is a photo of me patiently waiting for my opportunity to carry the smallest human around and around and around the yard. The yard, I have been disturbed to learn, is populated with slimy landmines.
It turns out that dog feces are rat…
A place strangely like home
FarmWife is a journalist, and one of the wonderful things about that line of work is that she gets to know a great many interesting and inspiring people. Today, she went out into the Cascades to meet a wonderful gardener/farmer/activist, …
Something's fishy
I kept my eyes peeled all night long and never did see Blitzen and his homies, but then FarmWife showed me this photo:
Apparently, three carrots and two celery sticks materialized, along with a lot of candy canes, on our Christmas tree las…
The tree
Clover has appeared with a report on the state of the human dining room, wherein there sits a noble fir.
Beneath the tree, she reports having seen several dozen wrapped parcels, one big box of canned cat food, and a diagram of a very attr…
I'm getting a shed for Christmas!
Here is my current shed, a 16x16-ft. space filled with cluttered goat housing and labyrinthine corridors. My hay and tack live 150 feet away on the house porch. I get groomed and tacked up in the rain next to the mailbox. Behind my shed, w…
My thoughts on Christmas
I love getting gifts, I love giving gifts, I love decorating, I love cooking, and I love singing traditional songs. While I do think that Christmas has become too commercial and too drawn out (the marketing starts at Halloween now? Really?…
Solstice and an open door
Winter, I greet you. You are welcome here! I've given it some thought, and I've decided that you and I can try this thing again.
I know we've had our ups and downs. There was that muddy mess you made in my paddock last year, a…
The twelve days of Christmas
They're not here yet, but I'm getting ready for them. A little positive thinking can get a mule anywhere, right? Here, then, is my projection for next week:
On the first day of Christmas, FarmWife will give me a magical carrot-cak…
Caroling 2011
Caroling 2011 was a festive and mulish event, though our cheerful and assorted group only managed to knock at about ten doors before we went, winded goats and all, back to the farm for cookies and nog.
This year's rental reindeer/co-ho…
Live. Love. Bray.
I've been a Celebrity Mule Blogger for two years now. They have been good years: I've been healthy, hearty, and hale. I've made new friends and kept the old. I've learned. I've grown (if not taller, then at least wiser)…
Goat wrangling
FarmWife could have been a neurosurgeon, so skilled is she at removing the small, bad things from amidst a teeming mass of life. Mucking out the paddock is a delicate dance, a to-and-fro of sharp instruments and tender bodies. The goats d…
At least SOMEONE'S riding me!
FarmWife has slacked off a bit on her "ride the mule whenever possible" pledge. In fact, she's been so busy with work, family, and life that we've hardly gotten out at all! Still, I get tacked up and ridden at least a cou…
Presents
I don't really need much of anything—I've got my health, I've got a blanket that mostly fits, I've got my paddock and my shed and my Christmas bells.
FarmWife says that Clover is getting one of these for Christmas, which ge…
Merry Christmas!
I'm just about positive we can't top last year's Christmas gift for these girls of ours, but we expect a merry holiday anyway. Clover, the Christmas chihuahua, turned out to be the BEST dog for our family! I'm so glad the A…
Everything but the Horse
Book review (warning: spoilers ahead). Everything but the Horse is a picture book by Holly Hobbie. FarmWife read it in the library—a big mistake, because in libraries one is supposed to be quiet.
FarmWife got to the surprise ending and her …
The power of the sneer
From my horse mother I inherited the power to make my nostril large. Very large. Large enough to inhale great breaths of desert wind, to fuel the sprint of my hotblooded forebears, to power the raging furnace of my athlete's heart.
Fr…
Footing
Dear friends,
My footing is maaaaahvelous this year! Our neighborhood tractor guy did a simply splendiferous job of spreading my gravel in an even, sloped fashion. The drainage is wonderful, the mud is nonexistent, and the hoofies are feel…
Foliage
Word has come down from the housepets: FarmWife and the humans have a noble fir in their living room. Neither the dogs nor I know why they have it. It's dead (though it doesn't look it—they have it propped up in water like a great…
Did I ever tell you?
Did I ever tell you how FarmWife went to the National Sporting Library and Museum in Virginia last month, and how she was at the Chronicle of the Horse headquarters, and how she got her picture taken next to the Civil War horse sculpture o…
The Maintenance Blues
Forgive me if I've said this before, but I am the best mule for FarmWife. There is not another mule in the world better than me! I know it, and more importantly, she knows it.
Fifteen years ago, FarmWife had a special horse named Dura…
Second Annual Caroling Party
You are cordially invited to attend Fenway Bartholomule's Second Annual Muletide Caroling Party in Wickersham, Washington on the afternoon of Sunday, December 18th at 1 PM.
Bring hats, mittens, scarves, your most festive seasonal outfit, and …
Truly Taupe
I love paint samples. I could spend hours holding Svelte Sage against Urban Putty , comparing Macadamia with Sea Salt , and nestling Dromedary Camel into Quietude . I wonder, sometimes, if it stems from my childhood. When I was eight, my mom m…
Freedom!
FarmWife FINALLY fixed my fence yesterday, and I enjoyed a good five minutes of cantering about once I was turned out in the pasture again. A week of paddock time and a bit of hand grazing doesn't quite cut it for a fine robust fellow…
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