This is it – the year of the fire horse. It is slowly dawning upon me that this is my year, is Raudi’s year, is Tyra’s year. How fortunate I am to own them. How fortunate they are to own me. I am going to make this a good year for us all.

We are now heading in the right direction. I got out of the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel at a reasonable hour – 4:00 p.m. because I got assistance from our volunteer coordinator and his wife Hanna. The place looks good. We are only lacking in books right now; could use some more. That’s it. Financially, we are doing very well. Every few days we do get donations – and we have gotten a lot of community affirmation.

I talked to Logan, our videographer, this morning, and he said that he will be at our Bleeding Heart fundraiser. And his wife Lyndsey will come up with a poster for our April 19th Mat-Su Orchestra Concert event.

And I heard that we were on Big Cabbage Radio this morning. Now historians are going to scratch their head when they read the previous sentence and wonder why my thinking that getting on a Big Cabbage Radio is so momentous.

Yesterday, when I was riding, I remembered that I am hoping to go to Iceland in September and participate in a sheep round up. Yesterday, when I rode Raudi this seemed to me to be an impossibility. I am going to have to do a lot of riding and develop a fearless attitude. I could have been fearful because of the cold.

I would like to have enough money on hand to purchase an Icelandic horse. The problem is, of course, that if I rode in Iceland, I’d be sure to fall in love with a horse and not have the funds to purchase her or him.

I need a windfall. I would name the horse windfall, which in English is unexpected good luck. There are numerous translations, English to Icelandic Ovaehtur, Grodi, Happafengur, Skydigrodi, and I like this one – Hvlreki, which means beached whale. Go figure. Happafengur is good – Skydigrodi could be shortened to Sky.

It’s a good idea, to keep dreaming and never cease to dream. I have a cold – I am draining – but dreaming is keeping my spirits up.

Wouldn’t it be something if my book proposal was accepted, immediately? On the first send out. Now if this does not happen, I will begin looking for another publication source. I will not waver. I hope this takes a few days because I don’t want to have to start another search just yet.

I must keep reminding myself, this is the year of the fire horse.

Next: 48. 2/17/26: Last Night