• Ramblings

    We Took Small Bites at First but Then We Ate It All

    When we improved our diet by cutting out all processed foods and/or anything with ingredients that could easily be confused for cleaning products (Butylated hydroxytoluene anyone?), we immediately noticed a huge improvement in how we felt. We were eating what we were supposed to be eating and our bodies were happy. I had more energy, I felt better about myself, and I had a much shinier coat. Wait, what? We made the decision that if we were eating better and feeling better, we should offer the dogs that same chance. There was nothing wrong with the food they had, we weren’t feeding them the bottom brand and meat was the first ingredient, but the…

  • Ramblings

    These Here Are My Desires

    When Brian stops anywhere he will always text, asking if there’s anything I want. My reply is usually, “Yes, horsies!” Sometimes it’s “Yes, his irks,” because the more predictive my phone gets, the lazier I get. Sometimes I don’t even look at the screen, I just tap around near where I believe the letters are and hope for the best. We have a rule against correcting auto-corrects though, so whatever comes out has to stay, which is how things like “You ruined of schillings with trucks to stop it!” and “You’re so graphic with the teddy grahams,” get captured and sent to the whole family. Today Brian surprised me with a couple his irks. When I…

  • Creatures,  Ramblings

    I’ve Got the Sky, the World Is My Home

    It’s been a while. I’ve been trying to be better about posting more regularly but there are times when I just don’t have anything to share. I’m certainly fortunate to live such a peaceful life but it doesn’t make for very good blogging. “Today was another beautiful, endlessly sunny day. I watched the mule deer chew their way through a neighboring pasture and listened to the magpies squawk as they took turns stealing Pickwick’s food.” Repeat daily. Today I saw something else. The first time we pulled into the driveway, to decide whether or not we wanted to rent this place or buy a camper and make that our home for a…

  • Food,  Ramblings

    I Spread It on Bread, on Crackers, and Toast

    Marmite. A product so known for having a love it or hate it flavor, the company has it written on their website. I’ve never been more nervous to try something. I once had dinner at a tiny Chinese restaurant, let’s assume it was called The China Wall, since most of them are, in a strip mall between Lancaster and Mountville, Pennsylvania. It’s not there anymore, I checked. They had a little buffet where I had my first encounter with egg drop soup. I wasn’t quite as adventurous with food back then but eggs and broth didn’t seem like a gigantic leap out of my comfort zone. That egg drop soup…

  • Ramblings

    And I’ll Find Strength in Pain

    This weekend we started repairing the pasture fence. Some of the poles were bent over so far that half the barbed wire was touching the ground. How does that happen? Brian was in charge of disentangling the dangerous barbs from the railroad tie corner posts. Whoever put the wire up was extremely thorough. They twisted and wrapped it in every direction, tying it a dozen times around each massive chunk of wood. I was in charge of removing the wire from the poles and then removing the poles from the ground. Those that the stampeding elephants plowed through were easy enough to remove, popping out of the ground without effort. The rest… Not…