Sevens

We lost a great horse today. Sevens first came into my life about 9-10 yrs ago. I was helping out as a trail guide at a farm in NH. They got a bunch of their horses off of a tractor trailer truck coming from god knows where. The truck would pull into the yard, full of a ton of horses and we would walk & trot them up and down the drive way. The owners would say keep or not. Some stayed some went back onto the tractor trailer to I don't want to know where.

Sevens stayed. Then my friend Denise decided to buy him. I remember my first ride on him. Sevens certainly wasn't a small horse. Probably about 16-ish hands. And Denise and I went out on the two horses she was thinking of buying from the farm that came off that tractor trailer. I was on Sevens, she was on a smaller bay...I can't remember his name. We galloped through the woods on these very over grown windy trail. I just stuck close to his neck and hung on. He soared over those trails. He was an amazing trail horse.

Sevens came back to me almost 5 yrs ago now. He was older (the vet guesses mid-late 30's) and starting to get a little arthritic but he was still a great trail horse and full of energy. But as the years moved on he became more arthritic and harder to keep weight on. He got a pretty bad cold part way through winter & just couldn't get rid of it. His nose was still running into the summer. The last few years we've been able to turn him out on green grass during the summer and get him nice and fat going into the winter but this year he actually lost some weight.

Erik and I have been thinking about putting Sevens down for the last 2 yrs. We are so afraid that he will go down hill fast and end up suffering. With his condition this summer we decided that we just couldn't put it off any longer. One of the hardest things I've ever had to do. It was especially hard because he had started to grow in his winter coat...so he was actually looking pretty good. That's one of the not so fun parts of horse ownership. You can't always wait until they are obviously sick to let them go. There is a great poem that I just love.

I'm not sure how the first 30-ish years of his life went but he was always a kidn thoughtful horse with us. Even today when I went out to catch him in the field for his last visit with the vet he just turned his nose to me and nuzzled into me a little, hoping for a little snack I am sure. Always the quiet, kind, patient old gentleman.

Horse's Prayer

I'm only a horse, dear Master, but my heart is warm and true,
And I'm ready to work my hardest, for the pleasure of pleasing you.
Good corn and hay and water are all that I wish to ask,
And a warm dry bed to rest on when I've finished my daily task.
Don't strike me in needless anger if I'm slow to understand,
But encourage my drooping spirits with a gentle voice and hand.
Finally, O my master, when my health and strength are gone -
When I'm getting old and feeble and my long life's work is done -
Don't sell me to cruel owners to be slaved to my latest breath,
But grant me the untold blessing of a quick and painless death;
That, as you have always found me a patient and loyal friend,
The years of my faithful service may be crowned by a peaceful end.
I plead in the name of the Savior,
Who cares when the sparrows fall,
Who was born in a lowly stable and knows and loves us all!

- (Author Unknown)

Rest in peace my friend. I know you will enjoy enless green pastures with fresh mowed grass, the way you liked them best.

My Little Pirate

Aiden has been a total pirate addict lately. It is too funny. I am not quite sure what brought it on but it is here. So, I just recently earned $100 in free books from Usborne (one of the many perks of selling their books is getting some for free...plus my commission!). We bought just about every pirate book that I thought Aiden would like from our catalog. And they are too cool! The see inside the pirate ship with lift the flaps, pirate jigsaw book and the Pirate things to make & do are favorites. We have plans to make all kinds of things from the Pirate Things to Make & Do book in preparation for halloween. :)

Well, we stopped into Walmart on Monday to pick up some poster board and of course all the halloween isle are right up front and low & behold what is on the very end of one of those isle for a Pirate loving 3 yr old to see as we walk by...a pirate hat and kit with the patch and hook. And when he brought it over and I saw that it was only $4...how could I say no. When we got home he wanted to wear everything so I put the eye patch on (which didn't stay on for long) and he was walking around say, "Arrrr I'm pirate Aiden." It was the cutest thing in the world!! He even did it for Erik when he came home from work.

What an imagination this little boy has. He is just so much fun!!

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You have to check out this website. Great information about birthing and other issues surround babies, midwives, breasfeeding, etc. It is excellent!

Common Ground Fair

Now that I have rested and recovered from the Common Ground Fair I figured I'd jump on to share a few quick photo's.

These are just a few shots of the children's area this year. We had some great happenings and all in all the weekend went well. The nail banging as always was very popular. Kids and hammers...you would think more people would have gotten hurt but we only had a few mishaps between hammers and fingers or hands. It is amazing that when you let a young child play with a toollike that...they really do use it appropriately.
One of our new crafts this year were newspaper hats. They were amazing. Thanks Mary Ann and girls. They came up with this idea. We also had lots of donations of material and yarn which the kids used their creative genius and made some most amazing hats. I was very impressed and also saddened that I was not able to take a moment to make one myself.

Friday & Sunday we also did pinwheels for peace. That was also a huge hit and we even put the pinwheels around the children's area as decoration.

The last crafty thing that we did was we received a donation of brown bags from the Hannaford in Belfast. We asked the kids to decorate the bags and leave them and we would return them to Hannaford and they would use them to bag groceries. How cool was that! And the management at Hannaford was so excited when they got them back! They all wanted to look through and check out the bags.

All in all it was a great time. We had some great performers and some ...well not my favorites. And fave painting. Wow...what lines we had at times.

The boys enjoyed it. unfortunately no pictures of them at the fair. I never seemed to have much time when they were there. No coordinator for me next year. I will volunteer but I want to enjoy the fair with my family!