BOOMER REVOLT

So I wrote one essay to add today and then deleted it. Why? I'm going to lead a revolt...a BOOMER REVOLT! We were the ones who brought Rock and Roll in to the world. We peed in a field at Woodstock and started protests over a war that shouldn't have been. Time a Boomer started something else.

I'm not going to watch any TV for a year, read any news that I don't want to or listen to Rush Limbaugh spew his vile.

I have a confession. I'm already doing that. I'm just trying to keep it simple, remember?

This Christmas one of my sons came home for the holiday. He drove in on Wednesday. His most significant other flew home to see her folks on Monday. They were both lucky. They just missed having to travel in the GREAT BLIZZARD OF 2009.

It was the real thing too. More than 12 inches fell out here with winds blowing at more than 40 MPH. It wasn't quite a whiteout, but pretty doggone close to that. We had the classic White Christmas.

On Christmas morning Big R (my son) and Big J (my husband) came down to the barn with me for chores. The horses are always glad to see the guys...lots of nickering and uh-huh-huh'ing going on. I love it when all my men, four legged and two, get along so well!

The Big guys were in the shed stall, talking over fences, tools and other guy stuff while they mucked it out and I was in the paddock, checking Lucky's hooves. They get ice balls on the bottom of their hooves this time of year when there's snow on the ground, so I like to knock the ice off once a day and check to make sure everything is A-OK. Mostly they walk out of the ice balls, but it's still a good habit to keep up with. You find them everywhere out in the pasture...these big, round, dirty ice balls the shape of a hoof. I call them hoof cookies. But I digress...and that's not SIMPLE.

I was under Lucky, checking his legs and knocking off ice when I heard this burst of laughter, so I stood up to see what was going on. Apache, my 5 year old Bashkir, had closed the lower half of the shed door on R and J and closed them in, latched it too! I need to set the scene for you though.

The shed has a big, heavy half door that closes and latches. The only time it's used that way is at grain time. Lucky stands on the outside, at his grain bucket mounted on the fence and Apache walks into his stall...always voluntarily, I might add...and I close the door between them. It keeps them from feeling the need to compete while eating. I like a nice, quiet, orderly meal time.

When the door is open, there's a hook on the back of it that keeps it in place to prevent it from blowing around in the wind and hurting one of them. The hook is placed so that it's hard for me to get to, much less a horse with it's big, sweet blocky head.

Apache thought his way around that! He figured out that if he bounces against that door just so, the hook will come undone making the door fair game. He swung the door shut, flipping the latch up and over and closed Big J and Big R inside the stall!

Think about the generalization that horse had to go through. He's watched me open and close that door for years, but always from the inside. He had to reverse the idea...the way it looked...then swing it closed and lock it. And he did it without being able to reach the hook on the back of the door, not to mention without hands.

Brilliant! Best part was that I had been sending stories to my ever patient family for years, telling them about the funny things that happen out here. They always took what I had to say with a grain of salt, knowing my skills at slight exageration when I tell a story. This time I had nothing to do with it. It was Apache all the way!

When I opened the door and they came out, Apache did a little victory lap around them too! That horse is a total hoot!

He vindicated me with one funny action. Thanks Apache! He's my super horse.

Keep it simple. Keep it natural!

Nancy,head back and laughing