Sorry—can't blog now! I'm far too busy to get my ears rubbed.
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Saving you trouble one post at a time
I'm reading your Facebook comments, kind fans. I really am. I don't log in often (a bit of self-discipline now that the weather's nice, and FarmWife and I do outside things together rather than online things together for severa…
My poor, long-suffering husband
My poor, long-suffering husband is doomed, so long as we live at Bent Barrow Farm, to have raspberries on every birthday cake. A midsummer birthday has its perks—outside gatherings, sunny picnics, and fruity desserts among them. We've b…
Thoroughbred mares
FarmWife loves little brown mules. This much is true, and there's no denying it. Still, I'm willing to acknowledge that she has, in past, had her flirtations with cob geldings and draft stallions, with horses and ponies, and with …
First sight
It was almost, but not quite, love at first sight for me and FarmWife. On her end, it was like at first sight, at least. She saw my pretty black tail hanging out the back of her neighbor's rusty old trailer the day he bought me, and sh…
Minister of Disengagement from Threatening Articles
I suggest that Bif meet Sheaffer, if he already hasn't. Bif, if you don't remember, is a pleasantly plump mustang from Ohio who blogs at www.iamboyfriend.com and Sheaffer is a sophisticated donkey gourmand who blogs at http://sheaf…
Fenway Bartholomule, stadium jumper
I, Fenway Bartholomule of Wickersham, Washington, am officially a jumping mule. I'm not talking clearing a brush heap or hopping a log out on the trail—no, I have jumped a real course. In an arena. Except . . . um, it wasn't really…
Saddle fitting nightmare
I wonder if they had to pay a saddle fitter to tell them the Schleese didn't fit.
FB http://www.besthorsestuff.com/ShowAd/index.php?id=4deed0d102f85 For Sale: 18 inch Schleese Jes Elite dressage saddle with Flair Air panels. This saddle …
Shopping for a girly version of me?
Here's your gal: http://bellingham.craigslist.org/grd/2516317803.html
She's got my good looks, my amazing shine, and my magnificent auricles. We don't have to talk about the fact that she's five and a half inches taller than…
This was me
This was me trotting over the dried mud in June. It is now July, and not much has changed except that the mud is no longer dry. It is sort of medium-wet.
I'm not complaining, only conversing. Rather too wet than too hot.
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Dear Santa
Dear Santa, I know it's a little early in the year to be asking, but I found the perfect Christmas present. Are your elves any good at dismantling structures? Thanks, Marnie 1913 ORIGINAL BARN - $65000 (BLAINE) Here is an original farm barn…
You are sweet, but you lack courage
"You are sweet, but you lack courage." I hear it often, or sometimes its more positive variant: "Fen, PLEASE try to be brave."
I went with FarmWife to the Cowboy Campsite the other day. I got in the trailer nicely, I g…
I want a girlfriend (in addition to Katie Scarlett)
and I want this one: https://www.blm.gov/adoptahorse/horse.php?horse_id=4481
It's something about her sweet face.
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A bad truck/good truck story
I think you should go over to http://www.brayberry.net/welcome/how-many-trucks/ and read this adventure about the Howard family getting to Shelbyville with four mini donkeys. It's a grand adventure (and everyone makes it home safely in…
Coloring pages
There is a tradition in my human family of the children asking the mother for coloring pages, and then the mother (FarmWife) taking her fat black sharpie and outlining some sort of pastoral scene of an animal mother and child—the young one…
Freak of nature
And I mean that in a good way. Grandma Missy, who tended to violently butt her grandkids away from her udder until just ten or twelve days ago, has taken pity on poor overwrought B.G. (the triplets' mother) and begun to let them suckl…
Public Service Announcement
When you do a Google search for "mule panty hoe" and somehow (I don't know how) get a link to Brays of Our Lives, I will be able to tell. My stat tracker will show me that you did this search, and it will give me your IP addr…
Craigslist trauma of the day
Hey, look! You can have a "not neutured" horse with a hoof infection! He can "bearly" walk! (He can lumber along looking for berries and grubs?) What a deal. Oh, and he can breed with female horses. Yippee, skippee!
Now…
There are horsemen and then there are horsemen
And Michael Etherly is a serious horseman. He's an incredible rider, a committed athlete, and a true artist. He rides with the kind of poise that most of you humans can only dream about.
Oh, fine, I confess—this is mostly FarmWife tal…
I promised you a picture of Missy
Here she is, feeding her granddaughter Briony Bluebell! Yes, Missy is lactating. I wasn't sure, but today I got a steady stream of fresh white milk out of her baggy old udder. B.G. appreciates the help, and Missy has impressed me all t…
FarmWife's new raincoat
When FarmWife was cold and wet in October, she thought she should get a proper raincoat. When she was cold and wet in November, she thought she really should get a proper raincoat, but then in December she was busy with family and in Janua…
Flowers
Before I was a writer I was a nursing assistant, and before I was a nursing assistant I was a farm hand, and before I was a farm hand I was a tutor and a nanny and a florist. This was when my oldest daughter was in preschool and I was not …
Imagine my disappointment
Last year, the children had a trampoline. It was black, with a blue pad around the circumference, and it was about the right size for the humans. Three feet across, maybe four, and no bigger around than a mule's belly. They jumped on …
A friendly patch of sky
FarmWife and I found a little opportunity yesterday—a window in the rain, just an hour and a half before she had to leave for an appointment—and we seized it. We sauntered down the road, and then we hustled up the trail and we whipped aro…
A goat update
Missy—strange, strange Missy—has been the subject of much discussion these past months. You remember her "stroke" in August, don't you? That's what we're calling it, though it was never diagnosed. She woke up one morn…
Boasting retracted
It is raining.
It has been raining all week, and it is expected to continue raining.
There is mud five inches deep in front of my shed—where the gravel was, and where the woodchips were, and where the landscaping fabric was laid down in o…
My humans are all different
I have five humans, plus spares (various friends and neighbors whom I call into play when FarmWife vacations). They have varying opinions of me, ranging from true love to disdainful tolerance.
One finds me heartwrenchingly wonderful. She …
My, what big hooves you have!
The draft world of our region seems to be dominated by a handful of families, families who've had working horses for generations and who have now established beautiful, flashy, and well-outfitted teams of eight plus spares. They turn…
Zoological gardens
The children made a zoo and I got to be in it! If you look closely, you'll see that the children have chimpanzee, zebra, leopard, jaguar, platypus, bat, sugar glider, tree kangaroo, and mule habitats. Not only am I the biggest and shi…
Selfish, selfish woman
FarmWife says "no hooves on the keyboard," and unfortunately this means that my internet time is limited to her availability. While she really enjoys transcribing my daily blog posts and keeping up with my fans via comments and …
But losing the fan page hurts . . .
If you've looked for me over at www.facebook.com/didgery and come up empty handed, blame Google+! I'm taking a Facebreak, and this is why: I looked at Google+ yesterday, and I thought, "well, this is sort of silly. Any of thes…
And I thought MY hoof trims were bad!
I have four hooves. Paisley has sixteen (four tiny ones on the end of each leg). I thought MY hooftrims were bad . . . half an hour of three-legged balancing while FarmWife props one hoof after another up on her metal stand for a pedicure.…
After the rain, a rainbow
It was a lovely rainbow in person, but somehow it didn't come across in this photo. In fact, I had to torture this photo to within an inch of its life just to reveal something sort of arc-like in the sky. You'll just have to belie…
Go away!
Today was supposed to be a fantabulous day for a ride. Today was the day when we had hours free—hours in which to explore the verdant hillsides and to meander down the dappled roadways of Wickersham. Today was supposed to be sunny.
Instea…
What is wrong with our culture??
http://consumerist.com/2011/07/woman-faces-jail-time-for-growing-veggies-in-front-yard.html This woman faces fines and possible jail time for trying to grow vegetables in a neighborhood where yards are required to hold "suitable, live …
Espionage
I have sent my super-secret hoofspy on a super-secret hoofspy mission, and this is the report:
It is the same temperature inside the house as out. Stories of a giant blazing furnace full of wood are false—there was a metal object in the l…
Don't tell FarmWife
Don't tell FarmWife how good I look with her 11 year-old daughter aboard. It just might make FarmWife self conscious about being a long gangly woman with a squat little mule. We'll keep it a secret, you and I, and hope she never no…
This is terrible news!
Here is some terrible news: the camping trip was WONDERFUL! It turns out that Clover had great weather, beautiful trails, delicious food, fabulous scenery, and not a single mosquito bite during her stay with the humans in North Cascades N…
Sound the trumpets!
I have a proclamation to make: I am the mother of National Park Service Junior Rangers. We have just returned from the first successful camping trip of our lives as parents, one which followed a disappointing series of botched outings with …
Guest blogger Briony Bluebell
The humins leaft and im in charj of kiping uncel fenwai happe wile thay ar gon. i dont haf to ware splents eny mor cuz im geting vari stronge now. im as big as mi bruthirs. uncel fenwai is buzy steeling ar hay and he sez i can hav hiz bla…
Tragedy
I try and tell myself that if it (he? she?) hadn't died in our garden fence, it would have killed itself somewhere else: trapped under a root. Drowning in a puddle. Stuck in an owl's talons. Still, it's hard to absolve myself o…
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