Get Pretty and John Deer and the Honorable Y Chromosome - All in One Place!

Pretty girl!  No longer ill, and definitely not paralyzed nor with a back injury!  

My beloved little red mare on her feet and beautiful as ever! I am thankful she is well again. You cannot imagine how much I would miss her bossy attitude and her demanding ways. She simply will not brook any foolishness. I wish I could ride her - wish I was supple and strong and physically confident the way I once was. She would have been a perfect horse for me. I am simply glad to have her now. Maybe she was a queen in a former life and reincarnated as a horse that would have to tote humans around to balance her karma. Instead, she is queen once again. All she has to do is eat, sleep and boss Wally and me around. Good work, if you can get it.

John Deere Gate!  Niiiiice!

Of course I wanted a real farm. I wanted to recreate that time in my life when my mother and father were alive, when they were young and busy with life. I wanted to have a barn with a hay mow, and horses, just like when my grandparents were alive and happy and busy tending to the work at hand. Life was once yellow and golden, slow and sweet, surrounded by a large family I loved and who loved me in return. I was safe and cared for and looked after. Those times were torn asunder when my father died and from that day forward, it was one enormous loss after another, in some manner or fashion. And then I was responsible - for everything. For raising my children and paying taxes and buying tires and going to work and dealing with all the responsibilities of adulthood. Instead of cousins, my kids had day care. We did not live five miles from their grandparents. They never went fishing with their grandfathers. I took them fishing but it was not the same. So... I grew up, bought some land and got the horses and the tall grass and a goddamned set of John Deere gates! Close enough.

Look at this!  Notice that there is a stack of missing junk - a missing big pile of huge logs - a missing assortment of limbs and other detritus - and missing trash cans?  More man power happened!

I have often extolled the virtue of the mighty Y chromosome. It is what causes men to grow into handsome humans of the male gender. They do amazing things that womenfolk swoon over, like saw big trees into firewood. Build fences. Own and operate expensive machinery that tames the wild prairie. They heal big animals and small. They build houses and barns and posses amazing knowledge of furnaces and electric switches and car engines. And the best thing of all, if they can not fix something with their intellect, they are strong enough to "manhandle" a beast or machine or a problem into submission! So... yes, beginning with B cleaning out the old garage with 18 years of junk and in it - with my son and my good friend K hauling a ton of junk off - it ended with the fence guy coming back to saw downed limbs and carry them to a huge burn pile and cleaning up the last of the trash. I like looking out the front window again! Of course, NOW all I can see is the work still needed on the old garage building. It needs a new garage door installed and a new door on the north end. It needs new boards under the roof replaced, too. It will require a LOT more Y Chromosome!