Put Some Spring in Your Step

It's funny how this one hour time change can really make you rethink your daily routine.  It seems a luxury and a burden at the same time.

Opting for the luxury and in light of sleeping in until 8:10am, now known as 9:10am, and the weather that is changing on the hour, I'm officially declaring today as my day off.

As much as one person who must feed and care for 2 dogs, 1 cockatiel, 4 horses, 2 goats, 12 hens, a rooster, 6 cats, 50+ Mallards, and countless wild birds, can take a day off, I am.

My day off began after the morning feed, putting rain sheets on the horses because the next few days call for on and off wet weather, washing out a hoof wound on Kenna (no easy feat,) defending my friend Duncan from my spring-bitten goats, selling another dozen of eggs, and cleaning Pooker's cage.

I came in the house, lit some calming Indian incense, and sat down to an enjoyable bowl of hot cereal with fruit and walnuts, a hard boiled egg, prune juice and delimateliciouslatte.  Pooker sat on my shoulder chirping to let me know when she wanted the next bite of her cereal.  I looked out onto the pasture, watching my animals pick at the greening grass under the changing sky. My breakfast was accompanied by the gurgling sound the hens make as they get comfortable in the sun under my window and by the songs of the Red Winged Blackbirds visiting the feeder.  Pleasant.  I am liking this concept of a day off.

On a day off, one has so many options.  Where do I start?  Feed the hens some cantaloupe.

Then, as it is my day off to do decadent things, I would try out the DVD drive for my new MacBook Air so I can load the new Microsoft Office and transfer files from my ailing HP to the Mac.  As a result of this silly choice,  New Rules #43 started brewing.

The product key for Microsoft Office used to be on the box, remember this? 

Now, I must go on-line to Microsoft's "getkey" site and use the PIN code on the back of the box, cleverly hidden under a scratch off box, coin required, which after I enter a long series of letters and numbers brings me to a Windows Live window, which I only logged in to one other time long ago when it was required for something I can't remember, so then I have to go to my old email account and search for a Windows Live email which would have my password information, which I can't find so I must request a new password, wait for that email to come, then log in at Windows Live to change my password, but I must log out and log back in from the Microsoft window otherwise it does not bring up the product key that I have been trying to get for the past 10 minutes.

Whew.  Product key found.  Now to the Mac to enter the long code, a series of numbers and capital letters, using the top row of numbers because the wireless ten-key pad that I bought hasn't been installed yet. 

Time for a nap.

What are we Doing Wrong?

The interest in the western channel started sometime around Thanksgiving with a Cheyenne marathon--but that's beside the point.

Have you noticed that in western movies, except for the bad guys everyone else is pearly white clean? They travel by covered wagon across the wilderness, they don't bathe or change clothes for days and yet they are still so clean! Riding across their Ponderosa to check the fence line, rushing off on horseback to find someone lost from the trail, hoisting the lost soul up on the rescue mare for a safe return home, no matter what, they mount their horse or carriage and they arrive...yes, you guessed it, clean. Crisp even.

We walk out to simply say hello to the horses, no feeding or riding or rescuing involved, and we come back dirty. If it's not being instantly covered in horse hair because it's the time of year for shedding, or mud on our jeans or jacket because we were greeted with a dirty muzzle, surely it's just some run of the mill dust from the ranch. But it's something, I assure you.

Are we still ranch green? Or are we just bad guys?