Another cold day here, we awoke (again) to subzero temperatures. My heart is always in my throat in the mornings, when I open the door to the chicken roost/goat shed area. Neither are heated, so I’m always fearing that one or several of the chickens or one or several of the goats have suffered the consequences.

So far, all have been okay, as have the horses who also don’t have a heated enclosure. I would love to have a heated barn in which I could keep all the animals in weather like this.

My good friend Fran lives in Fairbanks, where it’s on an average 20˚F to 30˚F degrees colder than here. That she has to deal with far cold temperatures in the winter makes me as think that my high level of anxiety is for naught.

But once again, today the sun was shining brightly. I’ve been getting the horses out on their daily walks between sunrise and sunset, when it’s the warmest. Movement is good for them; it keeps their digestive tracts functioning. If these tracts cease to function, they could colic and die.

I am generally deep in thought on these walks. If I’m in the midst of a writing project, then I think about what I’m working on. As I’ve said often, every piece of writing of any worth has a problem that must be solved. A case in point: I am working on a piece for the local rag called The People’s Paper. Much of the quality of the writing is generally sub-par, so I could just do as others do, and throw some words on a page and call it good. But my own high standards won’t allow for this. I can do better, and I will.

I’ve had it in mind to write an article about the Bright Lights Book Project in which I rely heavily on the use of analogy. The phrase that has repeatedly come to mind is “Build it and they will come.” The original reference was related to baseball, so I went with it, and wrote a draft in which the BLBP volunteers were ballplayers. The event was the Festival of Books. This morning, as I walked, I realized that casting everyone as ball players wasn’t going to work. Instead, I thought, I would use their BLBP titles, and in this way indicate that all are team players.

Yes, I was deep in thought all afternoon, as I walked the ponies, all of whom were glad to be out. My musings were interrupted on the final walk, when Raudi ran off. Pete, walking Shadow and Ryder was with me. Of course, for the twenty minutes she was missing, all the angst that goes with dealing with a lost animal came to mind. I was right finally in thinking that she knows the trails and would come home. We found her in the yard, going through the pickings in the compost station.

After, I resumed thinking about my article.

Next: 336. 12/5/21: Seeing the Light