A suprising week...

With age comes wisdom. At least, we hope that's the case. Certainly, age gives us the kind of "I recognize this because I've seen it before" kind of insight that sometimes means even the worst of times can be viewed as a temporary hiccup in the otherwise rhythmic pattern of life. Weather and the seasons are just one example. It gets warm, we get excited; cold returns and we get crabby. I've seen this before. It's called March.

But every now and then, like you, I am struck by something I hadn't expected. Like on Tuesday, when I looked at the rippled landscape and saw diamonds glistening where for months, there had been nothing but flat, gray ice. Tuesday was ice-out day on the lake. Its arrival, so early in Spring, was a surprise to be sure and a welcome one I hadn't seen coming.

Also on Tuesday, hubby came home from volunteering for Habitat for Humanity to tell me his buddy wanted to give us his mini-horse. I'll tell you, folks. Here's one I hadn't seen coming. The horse, standing about 36 inches high, would be a great pet, its owner said. He's very lovable and hardly any trouble at all. (I've heard THAT before!)

Now, I admit that while I've been in mourning over Farm Dog, I have been entertaining notions of another pet. The when, what and how haven't formed in my mind yet, but I was sort-of thinking that my next pet (call him Farm Dog II if you want) might be more of an outside, kennel kind of dog and less of a couch potato like the original Farm Dog. I even figured, if I was patient, a stray dog would eventually wander in and I could tempt it to hang out on the property. Or maybe, the next pet wouldn't be a dog at all, but a lower-maintenance cat.

But never ever could I have dreamt or imagined (and I can imagine a lot!) that my next dog might be, well, a horse! And a mini-horse, at that! At least it wouldn't track mud into the house.

Hubby's buddy said the mini-horse is low maintenance and would just quietly eat up the grass in the pasture. Yeah, I've heard that before too. Remember the obstinate sheep?

Hubby has a soft spot for animals, to be sure. Farm Dog used to get a share of his morning toast, bread that now finds its way to the chicken coop. I'm recognizing all the signs; I've been here before. This issue is far from being settled, and I sense that I will need to throw up a lot of objections to mini-horse moving in, because if I don't, this may be chomping grass in the back pasture by May. Maybe if I agree to more baby chicks, this idea will fall by the wayside. Chickens may not be as pettable as mini here, but at least chickens are edible!

Postscript: The mini-horse debate is being shelved until after our vacation, which we are about to embark on. I'll return to minding the blog after Easter. Until then, remember that Resurrection doesn't just happen once a year; it can happen anytime.