One month

Friday, March 13, 2020 started social distancing/quarantine - whichever you want to say.  It's technically social distancing but everyone has started calling it quarantine. Including me.  Not technically a full quarantine, but enough I suppose.

Today is Wednesday, April 15, 2020.  One month (and two days).

I've had to do another big shopping trip. I could have put it off longer, but for what I wanted to make I was out of some ingredients for, so off I went in my homemade mask which fit better than the ones Robert found in the garage that he had for woodworking projects.  The CDC recommends people start wearing one in public to prevent the spread of the disease, just in case they're sick but don't yet know it. I feel it offers some protection against catching it too (even if it's so small of an amount that it doesn't really "count" - it counts enough for me).  And it definitely reminds you not to touch your face in public.

It feels weird wearing a mask in public though, even with more than half of the rest of the people out and about wearing one too.  It will probably get more common and easier with time.  I took some alcohol wipes with me to wipe my hands, purse, wallet, phone, and car afterwards and washed my hands after returning home thoroughly.

The CDC (I believe, this might just be something someone said) also recommends you wipe down your groceries with a disinfectant wipe too, but I'm not doing that.  The majority of what I buy goes into the pantry for days/long enough for the virus to die on the surface and the produce gets washed before use so I think it's enough.  Our reusable bags go into the cupboard where they're not touched again until next trip.

We still go to the barn, and Carus is having her lessons with Martha still. I'm no longer holding baby Trask for the lessons though, just in case. I couldn't bear accidentally getting a baby sick. I don't want to accidentally get anyone sick.  Carus and I covered chores last week as Jessica got sick and had to wait for her COVID19 test results to come back - negative.  Just a cold.  She works at the jail so essential worker so chance of exposure.  The barn has put out bleach spray to wipe down common areas, stall picks, wheelbarrows, and feed containers. We're all being careful, especially with Linda as she's older.  The dynamic is the same, but different just enough that it feels weird.  We paused donkey lessons after Heather was potentially exposed on a trip into Portland for work, Justin came down with a cold, and their boarder Sarah had potential exposure at work too - they put themselves on quarantine (actual quarantine) just in case.  It's now been 3 weeks and Justin is better and no one else got sick. We'll probably pick up donkey lessons again next week.

School news:
Adam's doing okay with his online classes for this semester. He goes to the video classes and does the work and is managing his schedule well.  He's having some struggles with calculus, but it's calculus so expected.  Up until he started college, he was able to just skate through school and pull As and Bs, but in college he has to try harder, sometimes a lot harder, so it's different for him.  He's still doing well and passing all of his classes, just having to work more for those grades.  He hasn't left the house since this started, except one trip grocery shopping with me for pho supplies.  We're planning on making chicken stock and canning it soon. And then maybe we'll do beef stock too.  I love that all he and his friends can easily game together online both video games and D&D.

As for Carus, she's officially a graduate.  Class of 2020.  When they canceled school for the year, they also started getting plans together for what requirements would be needed to pass the grade the kids were in.  All Seniors that were passing classes by March 13th, would pass the class without additional work.  Carus was passing. She had some outstanding work sample stuff to turn in - it was mostly done, but had to be finished and could only be done in class with the teacher - so that was marked completed. And that's it. Senior projects got fully canceled. I did say we could still do the video and save for ourselves, or share with friends and family or even with her teachers. She passes on that for now.  Graduation ceremony is still up in the air, but I'm not holding my breath.  Come out of quarantine and cram 1,000+ people into an auditorium? That's a good way to get put back into quarantine.

Still hoping though.

Pre Fair and Fair are still planning as if we'll go ahead with them. I'm more hopeful there.  End of June and end of July are a long ways off still.  Spring Classic has officially been canceled for the May dates.  It's currently being discussed if we'll move online (hard to do for Horse Bowl competition though) or if we'll postpone until September.  We'll hear more on Sunday - Julie, the coach, has started practices back up on Zoom meetings since we can't meet in person.

Robert is still working, normal schedule.  They've sent all non-essentials to work from home.  Well, except for one lady who refuses to go home and then spends all day talking quite loudly to someone else or herself and disrupting everyone. Robert is quite annoyed with her volume.  I'm quite annoyed they haven't made her go home if she isn't supposed to be there. It's just another infection vector, especially since from all she's loudly said, she is not keeping her distance from anyone and is not staying home.

My hours were cut starting April 1st. I lost an average of 12 hours per week per the schedule, but with Erin doing labor pool and Marcia calling in sick yesterday, I've gotten back some of those hours. I'm not worried - I have plenty of PTO to use to fill in the gap.  I'm actually kind of looking forward to some of the half days or completely off days I have in there. Last Friday I worked 4 hours in the evening to cover Erin's labor pool, but during the day I was off and Robert and I completely cleaned our room pulling out furniture and vacuuming and shampooing the carpets well.

I guess that's all I have to update and share. I want to be sure this time is documented, even if it's just for me. This will definitely be a blip in history that gets studied. Was the quarantine helpful or not helpful? Did our leaders handle things appropriately and timely? What was life like? Etc... we know all of those questions will be asked as they're asked for previous pandemics... Maybe my grandkids will ask me about it?  I feel this is a trauma on us and our personalities and quirks will be affected by it.  How many will hoard certain supplies for fear? Who will continue to wear masks in public even after this threat is gone? How many people will have germ based phobias - big and small? Will the conspiracy theories win out? (The most ridiculous one - COVID is spread by 5G. Like wtf?) I don't know what it will do to me yet - make me more of a homebody is my best guess. The anxiety I have of going into public and seeing people is REAL ya'll.

OOhh, I forgot to share! This is something related to the times, but not particularly this pandemic. I want this documented so that hopefully when it gets better, and I need to believe it will get better, I can look back and see how far we've come.  At the grocery stores around here, I occasionally come across some latinx people and it breaks my heart when they look at me in fear. Not always, but sometimes. It's always older people, generally a couple, and they look absolutely terrified that they might inconvenience me making me mad or something. I'm white and I'm middle aged, which makes me the demographic of those that hate them/wish them dead.  I always try to smile reassuringly, making sure my eyes show how genuine that smile is, and often that relaxes them enough to remove some of the terror from their face.  But with a mask they can't see my smile. That hurts my heart.


Oregon cumulative totals per Oregon Health Authority - 8 a.m., 4/14/2020 (yes, yesterday's numbers, but it hasn't been updated for today yet)

Positive:  1,633
Negative: 30,730
Total person tested: 32,363
Total deaths:   55

Spoke Too Soon

Yeah, I spoke too soon.

Oregon will not be returning to the classroom this year. 

No official news yet on graduation but I'm not expecting it to happen.

Sad, frustrated, angry, disappointed, and heart-broken for Carus for all those missed milestones she would have at the end of her Senior year. And for Robert and I too. We got a kid through to adulthood and they're a pretty damn decent human being. It was also our celebration. 

*Sigh*

Highs and lows. Right? 

Life keeps happening

I keep feeling like things will slow down next week or next month; and then next week or next month arrives and everything is just as crazy and busy as it was before. 

Or it feels more crazy and busy than it really is and I'm just losing my marbles. I don't know anymore.

The horse that Carus started the 4H year with, Caly, didn't work out.  They weren't connecting and it just became a battle of wills between a young horse and a frustrated kid. We were sad as Caly is a sweet horse that Carus did enjoy riding, but it's not fair for her or Carus to keep trying where it wasn't working. 

Also, I had incredible amounts of anxiety over quitting too early.  I do not like to "give up" even if it's in my best interest and I'm more realistically just moving on.

We asked around a little and quickly got a few geldings to try (Carus insists that she can connect to geldings better cause mares be crazy).  

Introducing (sort of):  New lease horse, Chester.  (This is totally old news if you're on Facebook.)

So far Chester is working out great.  If you ask Carus how it's going you will get no words, but instead some excited squealing while she clutches her hands to her face and/or bounces up and down.

She hearts Chester.  

She's still finding school tough to navigate this year; mostly the 2 AP classes and 2 honors classes have her feeling a bit stretched thin, on top of the emotional lows of losing Scout.

My washer motor broke a few weeks ago.  The direct drive motor is not supposed to break EVER but yeah mine did.  Thankfully I have a handy husband who was able to get the parts ordered despite the customer service reps saying "yeah, no the motor can't break it's not the motor" and then got them installed. I was only without a washer for a week.  Surprisingly...not surprisingly?  I was anxious about not being able to do laundry for a week. Cause I'm a weirdo. Or I have issues.  Both?

The master bath is still not done.  We had to save up to purchase the vanity and then we decided the shower stall was beyond cleaning up so we had to search for new glass walls and doors that would fit our the insert which took forever.  Since the new floor was already in we were not replacing the whole thing.  Then, the granite counter top we like is now out of stock.  We found a new supplier so now just saving up a bit more so we can order because it's more expensive than the first one was.  (And yes, all of the we's in that above paragraph refer to Robert. He's doing all the leg work and hard work. I'm in charge of painting.)

Adam is now coming up on the end of his second semester of college and seems like he's floating along.  He is still doing a general transfer degree with plans to transfer to a 4 year college at the end of 2 years of community college and still isn't sure what the end goal is. Occasionally I panic for him and start worrying that he hasn't figured it out yet. 

Struggling

We lost Scout this summer.  He had been dealing with a runny nose for several months and was losing weight.  Antibiotics, expectorants, upping feed, etc - things were tried and not really helping much.  Imaging was done and a mass was seen in his sinuses.  He could have a surgery and they might not even be able to get the mass, he would have trouble with the surgery, if he survived, and because of his history of cancer, the mass was probably cancerous... the decision was made.

We took Carus out and she rode him and loved on him and the next day her and I returned. We bathed him and put flowers in his hair and had one last photo shoot with his girl. Robert helped take him to his appointment the next morning.

We ended up canceling the lease with Dusty too so we sort of lost both.

About a month or so later, we started looking at lease options and one kind of fell into our laps with someone moving into the barn we'd been at for a couple years.  They were joining our 4H group and looking for a partial lease on their horse. Their kid is junior level and they saw Carus as a senior level kid as an opportunity to put some valuable miles on and finish their horse for their kid.

We're about 3 months into that lease and it's going.... not perfectly but not a disaster. I don't know. Carus is just not connecting with this horse. She thinks she's holding back a little to keep from getting hurt and is trying not to hold back but just can't help it. I'm not connecting with her either. I don't really like her - she's not a bad horse or anything. It's just not.... something.  Something is off or different and I don't know how to fix it.

I was scrolling through pics today looking for some landscapes for Carus for her art class and got far enough back that it's just a bunch of her with Scout and Dusty and I'm just struggling.  I miss both of those horses, especially Scout, and the connection Carus had with them.

So yeah, now I'm crying because I miss those damn horses, I feel like I cannot make the right decision for Carus to allow her to participate in and do good in 4H and showing, and I am just a flipping mess...

Leaders Show 2017

It was a very eventful and busy Saturday. 

Carus has started doing English classes at shows, and those are first in shows, which means really early.  Most shows start between 7:00 and 8:30 in the morning. You have to factor in getting up and ready, getting to the barn and feeding breakfast, loading and hauling to the show grounds, getting set up there, tacking up and warming up, and it all makes for VERY early mornings.  

We made it with plenty of time, but found that Dusty lost a shoe somewhere between Friday evening when the farrier came out to our barn to replace a loose nail and the fairgrounds.  We ended up finding it in the trailer, which means she lost it on the way to the show.  The farrier was able to make it out and did an urgent shoe replacement and the rest of the day was....less eventful than that morning.  

Carus did 3 classes with just one shoe (Dusty was moving fine and didn't seem to notice that she was possibly lop-sided) and missed one class (by just 1 minute - seriously, if we had been able to re-bridle her just a smidgen faster, they would have made it).

This is post showmanship green horse - 4th place! They did very well and placed in most of her classes (the loping/cantering ones need a bit more work) - earning two 2nd places, a 3rd, a 4th, two 5th places, and a 6th place.  

Robert being a horse show dad and holding Dusty when Carus ran to the restroom.  ❤❤

He's not a horse person and doesn't have any interest in being a horse person, but he holds horses, occasionally helps with chores or picking up food or supplements, cheers Carus on and helps support her during shows, and is going to be hauling to shows and events. Not because he's becoming a horse person, but because he loves us.  ❤❤

Dusty was definitely done near the end of the classes and let Carus know with some refusing to move forward and spinning and little hops and threats to buck. Carus rode it all out and worked her threw it and her last class ended with the judge asking her to just stand while they finished the class (probably as a precaution to keep the judge and ring steward safe as well as the other competitors and Carus) and on our way back to the trailer at the end of the day, the ring steward approached us to tell Carus that the judge was very impressed with her sticking with Dusty and trying to work her threw it and not giving up.  I really appreciated it.  It had been a very long day and Dusty did great for her third show ever and a lot classes, several really close together.

Video of her green horse showmanship pattern - she placed 4th in this class. 

Spring Horse Classic 2017

Carus went to the State competition this weekend to compete in Horse Bowl - which is a trivia type competition where they answer questions about horses, how to take care of them, the equipment used with them, as well as riding and showing horses and other 4H rules.  Our county competition was delayed by a month thanks to all the snow in January, which gave us one less month to prepare than the other counties had.

She was on the Intermediate team - and they got 4th place out of the 12 competing counties!  Washington County's Senior team got 3rd place out of 10.  The competition was fierce and each round quite intense.  In one round, Carus buzzed in to answer the last question - the deciding point!  It was quite a difficult question with multiple parts that had to be just right.  The whole room focused on her hard while she answered, and as she said the last words, she froze in place.  Her hands still held up mid gesture she was making while speaking using her fingers to list each part out.  The whole team was leaning forward and perched on the edge of their seats.  Everyone in the room, from the score keepers and timers, to the other team and all of the parents in the audience, seemed to collectively hold their breath.  As soon as the judge nodded and said, "that's correct," Carus and her team collapsed into their chairs with relief and the room let out an audible, collective sigh.  Carus's was the loudest.

Our last round was against Clackamas county (who came in 2nd) and we tied with them, then lost the tie breaking round by 1 point!

We watched the final round, and Carus and her friend were bouncing in their seats at each question because they knew the answers! It was quite comical to watch their dramatics of not being able to scream out the answers -- but you know, some of those answers came to them so easily because they weren't in the hot seats with a buzzer in their hands anymore.

I've never been to Redmond/central Oregon before.  Goodness, Oregon is pretty all over!!  The views coming over the mountain were gorgeous, and I kept getting awestruck at the view of the mountains from the fairgrounds.  I'm so glad the weather was nice - kept the drive uneventful.  And I'm glad I was able to take her to this event!  We drove down early Saturday morning, and headed home Sunday afternoon; just over 400 miles round trip in one weekend! I'm still a bit knackered, but oh so proud of her.

Carus update

How about an update on Carus?

Sounds good to me.  

Carus is doing amazing! She's making Freshman year look like a piece of cake and I'm so proud of her.  Her grades are great and she's being silly with retaking tests in the high 80s and low 90s to get even higher scores. She wants the highest As possible.  I think the only area she is struggling in is French, but learning a second language can be hard. She is becoming an awesome young woman and I'm seriously so proud of her every day. 

With 4H, she's doing great too! This last weekend was Horse Bowl (like Jeopardy for horse and 4H questions) and she answered enough questions correctly to get 3rd place, she faced her anxiety about public speaking and did a presentation on Stretching for Your Horse and she got 4th place of all Intermediates in Presentation, and then literally volunteered last minute to do an Impromptu speech and got 5th place in that! (5th place ribbon needed to be ordered.)

(Impromptu is where you are given a topic and you have to prepare a speech in 2 minutes, and then give it. The speech must be between 2 and 5 minutes.  Her's was just under 2 minutes on "What class would you add to fair if you had a choice?" - she choose At Liberty Training (where you have a horse do showmanship and other tasks without a lead line).

With that 3rd place in Horse Bowl, she qualifies for Spring Horse Classic!  That is the State-wide Horse Bowl (and speech and presentation) competition. It's at the end of April and we're not sure if she is going to go yet.  She has to want to, and we have to be able to afford the 4-ish hour drive to Redmond, Oregon, and the hotel stay from Friday to Sunday. When we get a bit more information about it, we'll make the decision.  I hope we can make it happen if she wants to go. 

Her working with Dusty is really paying off and Dusty is starting to trust her, and Carus to trust Dusty.  Her appaloosa and smarts get in the way sometimes still, but so much progress has been made. Lessons are going well and Carus is excited for the rest of the shows they have picked out to do this year (one in March, one small one in May and one big one in May, then the main event, Fair, in June!) and I'm less worried about Carus getting hurt on this head-strong mare. 

She got on bareback for a little bit the other night - first time on Dusty bareback.  At first, Dusty tensed up like she was going to start throwing a fit about it, but once she figured out that Carus was just going to love on her and I was going to walk her around she calmed down.  

Last week, while Carus was riding with the other kids at the barn, we were treated to a SPECTACULAR sunset and of course we did the mom thing and made the kids pose for some photos.  And this isn't too bad for a phone photo.  I should start taking the camera with me all the time just for the times we get something this amazing.

Scout has been doing well. I've ridden him with Carus riding Dusty once recently, and hope to do it again. I need to build my confidence on him, and he needs to build his confidence in me, but I'm hoping someday we can go on a trail ride together.

Documentaries

(You might have seen this on my Facebook. I wanted to share here too.)

Carus is learning about WWII in school and yesterday while trying to find something to watch we found a documentary on Amazon. It was an interview with a survivor.

She was 15 when her town in Poland was invaded. Her brother was 18. He was sent off to work, and they never heard from him again. They moved her and her parents to the basement of their home while a German family moved in, and she wasn't even allowed to go into her garden.

She was 18 when they split her from her parents and was sent off to Auschwitz and 21 when she was liberated. She was one of 150 women that survived a death march that started with over 2000 women in January 1945. Liberation for her was in May 1945. Her best friend died in her arms while she watched an Allied jeep approach.

On the train to Auschwitz, after living in an occupied city for 3 years, not knowing what came of her brother, not knowing when she'd see her parents again, she still thought the war would be over soon; within 6 months.

She was the only member of her family, the only one of her closest friends, the only one of her town to survive.

The only one. 

* * * * * * * * * * *
We went on to start a BBC documentary on Netflix with 6 episodes. Not surprisingly, episode 1 was about Auschwitz.

In it, they interviewed survivors AND Nazi soldiers. One Nazi soldier still held his prejudice. He had little to no remorse for what he did. He looked embarrassed to be speaking of it but not remorseful. He spoke of massacres of shooting women and children at the edge of a pit they were forced to dig, and when asked why he just said because it's what was done. When asked if he regret any of it, he said no. When asked why, he said because they were Jews.

He had grown up with the anti-Semitic propaganda that bread the Nazi regime and the concentration camps and WWII. It was so deeply instilled in him that 80 years later he still had no regrets about murdering hundreds (or thousands) of men, women, and children.

* * * * * * * * * * *
It's all been rattling around in my head today. It was hard to watch. It will be hard to continue to watch.

My daughter is 15. My son is 18.

* * * * * * * * * * *
I wish I had gotten some of Robert's grandmother's stories written down/recorded (she grew up in England and was coming of age during WWII). The few she shared with me were amazing.

52 Week Photography Challenge: Week 3 - Red

Artistic:  Red
Shoot whatever inspires you. Red should be the focus of the image. Don't be afraid to be creative.

This week FLEW by and that found me getting ready for Carus's show Friday evening realizing I hadn't photographed a thing all week with my big camera - and definitely not focusing on the prompt of the week of "Red". 

But that's okay - Dusty's colors for the show were red and Carus had a red snood in her hair and hey lucky us the arena is red too. All my prompt photos were taken at 2017 Shaggy Days horse show in McMinnville at the Yamhill County Fairgrounds.

Carus studying her pattern.  Her hat had the plastic cover to keep it dry and clean. 

We're becoming very organized for horse shows tack, outfits, and supplies wise.  This and knowing more of what to expect alleviates a lot of stress and anxiety.

This was Dusty's first show and we were worried about how she would do. Dusty is an emotional/nervous/busy body type horse and she does pick up Carus's anxiety and nerves easily.

Dusty was nervous and looked around a lot, didn't like putting her back to the stands and all the people in the stands, wasn't too sure about the loud speaker or all the horses, but she still did well.  

And Carus did amazing and kept her cool when Dusty was not keeping her cool.  We put the red ribbon in her tail as it's the horse show symbol for "this horse kicks".  Dusty hasn't ever offered to kick but we figured it would help keep some people from riding or walking too close and creating more anxiety for an already anxious horse. 

Showmanship was first and while their pattern wasn't perfect, Carus didn't forget any of the steps and Dusty didn't run the judge over so all in all we're happy. 

Green Horse Showmanship - Sixth place 

Western Equitation Green Horse Walk/Trot - 4th place 

For her riding classes, again Carus did very well keeping her cool and working with Dusty who was nervous and a little spooky about the new place.  

Western Pleasure Green Horse Walk/Trot - 5th place 

This was in the morning before we left for the show.  I had banded Dusty's mane in an attempt to get it laying down nice and neat for the show. It did not stay over night.  We ended up removing the bands and just leaving her mane in all it's appaloosa glory. 

More information about the Dogwood Photography 52 Week Photography Challenge can be found here.

#dogwood52, #dogwood2017, and #dogwoodweek3

52 Week Photography Challenge: Week 2 - Landscape

Landscape:  Traditional Landscape

Shoot a beautiful landscape and share it with the world.  Find a nice foreground and don't forget the sky.

Phone photo of the view from the front window.

There were so many landscapes that I wanted to go out and get while we had our snowpocalypse but was mostly stuck at home.  The roads were not safe to drive and while we could have done okay with my all wheel drive car and Robert's truck, we didn't have to risk it, so we didn't.

Instagram photo of Chewie looking and the view.

It snowed, then the clouds left and it got really cold. With the sun out during the day though, the snow on the streets melted enough for people to start getting around and we went out to the barn to do chores and haul water buckets all over since we'd only hook up one hose to fill waters.  The morning crew would take the evening's buckets and put in the tack room to thaw out for the evening crew to switch with the day's buckets.  And pushing wheelbarrows full of manure through snow to dump is a pain in the butt. Almost literally. Carus slipped a few times pushing up hill (I clean stalls, she dumps) but we managed and were rewarded with some lovely sunsets.  

Cold weather and clear skies gives some pretty sunrises and sunsets.

Phone photo of the sunset colors at the barn.

Adam shoveled our driveway and some of the sidewalk and then made me a snowman.  If you look just so, you can see he has two eyes and a smile. 

I did get my big camera out on my lunch and breaks and walked the backyard with the dogs. (Downfall from working from home - no snow days.)

View from our back porch

7 inches of snow

Adam making snowballs for the dogs. 

And then he bit on it and was confused when it disappeared into the rest of the snow.

Playing with the frozen soccer ball.

My frozen clothes line.

One of the evenings we were out at the barn doing chores, Carus and I decided to go for a little ride. 

We probably spent more time tacking the horses up than riding. It was COLD!  

More information about the Dogwood Photography 52 Week Photography Challenge can be found here.

#dogwood52, #dogwood2017, and #dogwoodweek2

Happy Birthday Chewie!

Chewie just turned 1 (January 7th)!

Had to include the cute outtake. 

I can't believe he's already 1.  Of course I had to take pictures for it.  Carus helped me positioning him and getting him to hold still.  

She's a good helper and he's a good boy. 

We had to lock Leia and Yoda in the other room. They wanted to do tricks for treats too. Haha

The hat was put on his head like 50 times for each shot I got.  Except this last one where he only shook his head instead of pulling it off so one more cute pic.

52 Week Photography Challenge: Week 1 - Rule of Thirds

We've completed the first week of 2017, though it already feels like it's been longer than a week. I started hearing commercials for tax prep and it feels weird.  Like, we can't already be back at the part of the year where we pay taxes, right?!

The challenges are separated into three categories; Story-Telling, Technical, and Artistic Impression.

Story: Rule of Thirds

The rule of thirds is the first compositional rule most photographers learn; but most don't know why they learn it.  The rule of thirds is amazing for telling a story.  Tell a story using rule of thirds.

I didn't have a plan for what images I was going to take for the challenge this week. I tried to just keep it in mind whenever I picked up my camera or felt inspired.  While I want to make sure that I use my actual camera/DSLR more often, sometimes the best camera is the one you have with you. While I'm at the barn, I have my phone 100% of the time so it becomes my go to.  Plus, I like being able to share my photos on Instagram and Facebook. I like the instant feedback (read: attention HA!).

Leia and Chewie love playing in the snow and we've been getting snow so I took them outside and kept the rule of thirds challenge in my mind.  Yoda isn't a fan of the snow, but he likes following me.

Dusty and Scout seemed completely uninterested in the snow, they just wanted the hay, some attention from Carus, and maybe a cookie.

Scout rarely doesn't head straight for Carus the second he sees her.  The only times he's decided the grass he's eating is more important only lasts until she crinkles a peppermint wrapper or she comes into the pasture.

The photos of the dogs are DSLR and the horses are phone with Instagram filters.

More information about the Dogwood Photography 52 Week Photography Challenge can be found here.

#dogwood52, #dogwood2017, and #dogwoodweek1