Happy Birthday Jason and Carrying On

I've managed to give myself a head cold and lose my voice crying off and on over Poco the last few days. I have to be honest in that I'm surprised at how hard this one has been for me. I've certainly been through this before and Poco and I very much had a love/hate relationship. Poco was ALL pony and quite the little stinker to deal with. He never seemed very appreciative about his sudden reversal of fortunes on that fateful flea market day. Rather he seemed to think it was about time that someone had finally begun supporting him in the manner he felt he deserved. I guess it is that he had the biggest "larger than life" personality I think I've ever experienced with any horse or pony. There was nothing meek or submissive about Poco!

Thankfully I've started coming to terms with the situation and hopefully I'll get my voice back soon. I think Jason has at least enjoyed the silence if not all of the circumstances leading to it. Sparky the donkey does seem to be having a difficult time with things. When we've had horses pass away (this is a retirement farm and it does happen unfortunately) the horses left behind never seem overly bothered and just carry on with the rest of their gang. However Sparky was extremely devoted to Poco (and vice versa) and he is definitely grieving. We're trying to decide what the best course of action is for Sparky. In the meantime I am optimistic that hopefully Sparky will bounce back in the near future.


Today (Sunday) was Jason's birthday. I felt pretty bad that after the way this whole week ended up going I had done NOTHING to prepare for his birthday! Jason thankfully saved me from looking completely uncaring by saying he wanted to go to a nursery and pick out a tree or shrub to plant for his birthday. The outing did me some good as well, even though when Jason would ask me questions about what I thought of different plants it was hard to answer when you've lost your voice. Jason really enjoys horticulture and landscaping and had a few ideas of what he wanted and we ended up coming home with a crepe myrtle tree. It looks like we'll be going back to the nursery to get two more of them later this week.


Planting the tree was a bit more challenging than it should have been. We managed to pick a spot that was apparently all rock. Many places on this farm you can dig all day and never hit a rock but you can also pick the wrong spot and we managed to do that! Somehow Jason managed to dig through it all and make sure there would be plenty of room for the roots to grow as well. He definitely looked like he had been working after planting his crepe myrtle though. At least all of the rain has the ground soft and it made the digging easier.


Otherwise things have been pretty quiet and routine around here the last few days. Gwen the farrier was here on Friday and Amy and I had another bath marathon day as well. Yet again we both looked like we had been in the shower as well!

Jason thought this sign was funny Digging the hole

Jason looking pretty tired and Bear looking pretty perky

Almost finished

Ogie and Faune grazing

Harmony in the back, Buffy, Missy and Cuff Links

Mina helping herself to a Frito

Asterik and Faune

Sebastian scratching an itch on the fence

Trillion with Asterik in the background

Dustin, Ivan, Baby and Apollo

Chili, Lucky, Snappy, Clay and Lightening