Monday, June 27, 2011

Seriously? The end of June already?

It's been an absolutely crazy busy month, as I knew it would be. Seriously, people. The workload? The end-of-school shindigs with the kids? One kid's birthday? Little League wrapping up? The two events at which I've been a vendor for the past two weekends? It could drive a girl to desperation.

But it's winding down, all of it. I've had fun peddling soap for the past couple of weeks, first at a rodeo that's in its 30-somethingth year and then at a benefit for a local state park that's struggling financially as most state and national parks are these days.

And maybe, just maybe, in only handful of days from now, I'll get to enjoy an actual summer vacation for a little while among family and friends. I tell ya, the thought of sitting poolside with a good book and my iPod (and sourdough and blueberries and hummus, all from my beloved Trader Joe's) is one of the driving forces getting me out of bed in the mornings lately.

That's all to say that posting may continue to be light for a while...or maybe not. I'll leave it up to the fates and the summer sun to decide.

See ya!

Thursday, June 02, 2011

hey y'all and yee haw

Wake up and it's the last day of school for the younguns. Drag my tired butt out of bed and head toward the kitchen for some tar black coffee the consistency of river mud - just how I like it. Hand the kids their lunches, drive them to the bus and head back home to feed the foster dogs I recently took in. (Anybody need one or two sweet, smart and cool ranch-type dogs?)

I throw hay for the horses, eat a little breakfast myself and then batch some soap for the Cowpunchers Reunion Rodeo coming up in a few weeks (I'm a vendor this year, so come on out, y'all), fielding phone calls and emails the whole time. After a while I hear a major clang from outside; it's Butthead (the gelding who shall otherwise remain nameless) knocking over the big steel water tub to let me know it's empty. I go outside, water the one tree I planted last fall that actually survived the winter, fill the horses' water, turn butthead out into the arena and then head back inside to check on the soap.
Not a minute later there's a ruckus outside, and l look out the window to see the other gelding (Zzari) wandering willy nilly around the back yard, munching on weeds I haven't quite gotten around to whacking yet. Apparently, I didn't close the arena gate all the way. I go outside to round him up, but the dogs are all riled because of the seasonal cattle that came visiting on the Forest Service side of my fence a little earlier.



Dogs start chasing the horse who trots away from me, alarmed. Meanwhile, Butthead's having a meltdown in the arena because his buddy broke out, and now he wants to be free, too. As I finally catch up to Zzari and reach under his mane to lead him back into captivity, I look up and see what appears to be a forest fire starting up east of us on this dry, windy afternoon.

And it's here that I want to say this: even though I wasn't raised country, I've spent half my life doing the rural living thang. So I think I've earned the right to say that, at least for today, I totally fit this profile.