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February 26, 2018: The Day in Photos: Morning Chores

It is appearing as though its going to be an ideas day. This morning, as I was out taking photos of Pete doing the morning chores, I had an idea which is to have another subject header in my dispatch series. The first two are “The Writing Life” and “The Horse Life.” The newest one is going to be “The Day in Photos.” I am simply going to take a photo or two and write about it. I used to have students do this – it produced some really good first drafts. Now I am going to do the same.

Pete (good man) is now downstairs, making pancakes. I will know that he’s about done when I smell the batter cooking. This will be a signal to me to finish up what I’m doing so that I can eat my breakfast before it’s cold. I didn’t used to care about such things, but Pete has always cared, and this has rubbed off on me. I now find cold cooked food to be less appealing than hot food.

If it’s not a snow day, it’s a snow morning. We woke up to see the predicted 6-8 inches of snow on the ground. Rather than groan, I laughed. I will mutter under my breath later, when I have to assist in moving it. But right now, this is adding verisimilitude to our day.

I was the first out the door – I went down to the horse pen with slurpy bucket in hand, opened the gate, and gave Tinni his mixture. He was most appreciative. He became even more appreciative when I gave him some hay. I then tossed the grrrrrrrrrrls some hay, right over the gate. Next, I picked up the camera and began taking photos. Pete appeared behind me, walked into the horse pen, and spread some of the hay out over the paddock. Raudi and Hrimmi continued to eat the hay that Pete left unattended, and Tyra, wise Tyra, ambled out into the open area and began eating the supposedly better stuff.

I continued to take photos while Pete dragged the sled around, and with shovel and rake in hand, picked up the manure. He did not get it all, because roughly half of it is buried under snow. This is an instance of semi-deferred maintenance. In the next few days it will stop snowing and what’s out there now will surface, adding more to the day’s haul.

Moments before he headed uphill with the snow-encrusted load, Pete handed me my gloves, which I had set at the base of Tinni’s stall.



I suspect that some of my growing readership is wondering – why is it Pete’s doing the morning chores and I am taking photos? Rest be assured, this is not a common occurrence. I usually do the morning chores while he makes breakfast and prepares to go to work. This then gives him a chance to get caught up on current events, via NPR. The answer is that he is just a really good guy. He foresaw that hauling the manure sled (which now has two large holes in the bottom) around in the freshly fallen snow was going to be difficult so he opted to give me a hand.

This was our morning, now recorded in written and visual form.

Next: 58. 2/27/18: The Writing Life: The Selfish/Unselfish Balancing Act

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