New Shoes

One of the first things I did when I retired was to gather up all my professional clothes and take them to Goodwill.  The pile of my past filled the back of my 4Runner to the roof, preventing me from using my rear view mirror.  Someone hit gold when they discovered what I dropped off that day.

In the last 3.5 years I can count on one (half) of a hand, how often I've had the need to dress up.  I live in jeans (shorts in summer), t-shirts (add a hooded sweat shirt in winter or a tank top for summer) and tennis shoes (muck shoes for wet barn time and cowboy boots for riding).

I don't buy many clothes these days.  It's usually an annual event to replace jeans, boots and tennis shoes.  I pick up t-shirts whenever I see something I like.  I live in comfort, dressed and ready for the life I love.

Recently I replaced my tennis shoes.  While I was having my morning coffee (with my feet up on the living room table since nobody else was home to see me), I looked at those new shoes and wondered where they'd take me on my travels.

Later that day they took Hank and I to our cabin in the Cascade Mountains.

Now that spring has arrived, Hank and I have been heading up to the old mill town by ourselves during the middle of the week, with family joining us for the weekends.  I love my farm home but there is something so tranquil about being in the quiet of the woods.

Yet as much as I love the cabin, something in "me" is missing.  Like a ticking clock, the longer I'm gone the bigger the hole gets.  The emptiness fills me, causing me to return to lower elevations.

I miss my horses.  They are such a big part of "me".  I miss them so much that I decided to do something about it.

Years ago, when wonderful horses (now gone) blessed our lives, we used to take them with us to the cabin.  They stayed in the old mill corral.  We were able to leave them at the cabin during the summer thanks to the generosity of those who live there full time.

Our lives changed when we moved out to the country.  We didn't go to the cabin as often and the horses remained at home.  Now that we've returned to our home away from home, I want to also return to the days having our horses with us.

Hank and I walked down to the old corral to check it out.

Each fence post should have three hot wire insulators on it.

But with over 5 feet of snow in the winter, almost all of the posts were missing insulators.  I would need to replace over 60 insulators.

The weight of the snow has also broken boards that make up the corners of the corral.  The old 1900 tub will be replaced with a 2013 stock tank (which holds more water).  You can see the old mill train (green caboose) in the background.

The next day, with Hank exploring around me, I got all the insulators up and drug downed limbs and branches into piles.  One more day of pulling and trimming brush along the fence line and I think we'll be able to hang the hot wire.  After that it won't be long before horses once again graze in the corral.

It felt good to work on something that was horse related.  At the end of the day both Hank and I were tired but pleased.  We returned to the cabin, fixed dinner and settled down for the evening.

:)