Somehow we associate enthusiasm and excitement with the term "Birthday", so it seems more appropriate for the annual celebration of our marriage than the term "Anniversary".  Scanned pictures don't always turn out as well as the original, but you can still see the smiles on both faces.  It was good to be married and it's still good to be married, 29 years later.

Last fall my wife and daughter were blessed with a horse as an answer to prayer.  Oh yeah - I got to buy it.  That sounds negative, but it really isn't.  I'm really happy that Becky and Becca get to have Ivy.  In terms of my own interests, though, Ivy is primarily one more animal in the pasture.  Or at least, she was until this afternoon.

I was working at my desk - windows closed.  Becky had left to get ready for a Nettlecreek Watershed meeting tonight.  I wasn't particularly interested in the fact, but in the back of my mind I assumed Ivy was quietly munching grass out behind the corn crib.  And then I heard Ivy whinny - a very unusual, very distinct whinny.  I figured the call wasn't for me, so I ignored it and continued working.  Then came another whinny.  More ignoring.  After the third I figured I might as well go look.  Even a persistent horse deserves an answer.

As I walked out the back door, I saw 120 lbs of Great Pyrhenees foolishness headed east along the creek - Toby!  The chickenhouse door had come unlatched.  After helping himself to all the chicken eggs he could find (probably about 6), he decided to see if he could fit through the little (about 9x15 inches) door we let the chickens out in the morning.  I suspect he didn't feel real good after he got out, because when I called to him, he turned and came to me.  That is a sure sign that he isn't feeling himself, because Toby NEVER comes when you call him!

Well, I got Toby deposited back into the pasture and shut the chickenhouse door again.  But I looked at the little old white horse with new appreciation:  she had called me.  Okay, so it probably wasn't me she was calling, given how little attention I've shown her since she came.  But she was calling somebody, and I think that's a pretty good trick.