January

We are well into January and it is supposed to get very, very cold tonight. After dusk I am going to make sure Sparrow-hen is snuggled deep into the hay nest I made for her under the dog ramp to the front porch. She has been sleeping in the pear tree again now that the pears have stopped bombing her during the night. She should be ok under there. She is the sweetest little pet. When I sit on the front porch reading she practically crawls in my lap. She sits beside me and coos and bok boks and makes the sweetest little sounds. She isn't one of those chickens that loves to be held or anything, but it doesn't make her any less nice to have around. She comes when called any time of the day.

I have been feeding her on the front porch. I made her a mix of chicken feed and wild bird food. I am going to mix some flax seed in her food tonight. And she helps the wild birds eat the suet blocks I set out. She also helps clean up the horses spilled pellet feed. There are lots of good feedstuffs and vitamins in those for her. So she should have enough warming food in her gizzard.

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(Bah, I lost a lot of this post while trying to edit a mistake ... I have no clue what all got lost =( A whole bunch of nice things have happened since I last posted to my blog. My computer friends from Yorkshire, England sent me a link to their PhotoBucket pages of a walking tour of Herriot's country. It was wonderful seeing the fabulous scenery and listening to the sheep bleating, the dogs barking, and seeing my good friends having a great time. I enjoyed it so much. Torvy, Rad and E!

Steve has been working lots and lots of hours working on some project at work.

Another trail ride ... Shari on Dancer her lovely Quarab Palomino, Kimberly on Little Raven, and me on Solly rode the whole Brushy Creek, 6 miles, in Bankhead. I was nervous because I was afraid the trail would be too slick under the leaves, but it wasn't. And the trail was up and down and through little hollows and it followed a creek for a while and went beside an enchanting little waterfall. The horses also enjoyed the trail because there were no long, long uphill bits. That loop is my favorite in the area, at the top of my list with the Piney Torch Trail.

Steve bought two boxes of blank bisque tiles for me to glaze from Dick Blicks. Man oh man, I am enjoying painting them, but I am extremely apprehensive about how they will look once they are fired. I have done two Fjordhorse tiles and am working on an Australian Terrier tile. Hopefully, the Aussie one will raise some money for Shari's little Aussie's eye operations. He has cataracts and is rapidly going blind. Gimli, Shari's Aussie is the darlingest thing, a BIG personality in a small package! I am not a Terrier person, but he sure put that breed tops on my small breed wish list, should I ever need something smaller than a Labby.

We went to a dinner party at the friend of our friends. We had a grand time. There were folks from all walks of life and from many countries and ethnicities. And the food, wow ... Fun for all!

Then we had a party at our house, we cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill and baked beans. I think my South African computer friend calls it a Braai (pronounced 'bry' rhyming with dry). (I didn't know how to pronounce it until I saw the clip "South African Braai Etiquette" on YouTube)

I will post some photos of my pup, Kyffin, and some of the people and horses I mention tonight.

Laters all