The scene:

Sunday afternoon (our second day with Cole),walking down the street with Ben, Ella on my back and oats in my hand, looking for Cole. 8 ft cedar posts and 4ft hog wire fencing(our dog fence)is simply no match for a 1600lb curious horse named Cole. The crunch of  fence under Cole’s hoof(yes he crushed it with one hoof) was not mistaken. We all lept from what we were doing and ran after the sound of clop, clop, clopping down the street!

The quote that sums it up:

“. . . a person new to the business could very well find himself or herself in either a dangerous, humiliating, confusing, or discouraging situation.  (It’s likely to be a combination of all four.)”

-Lynn Miller, Work Horse Handbook

Despite our, um, adventures on Sunday, we are really loving having Cole with us, and Ben can barely contain his eagerness to start working Cole.  (He drove out to Rutland today to borrow a collar and harness while we get a set made to fit Cole).  Ben said to me, “I’ve been wondering, if you only have one horse, are you still a teamster? [Folks who use work horses are called teamsters]  Today when I was working Cole I realized, yes, you are a teamster.  The team is you and your horse.”

In non-horse news, we had a great weeding party on Saturday, and the bean fields are looking beautiful.  Thanks to all who came out to pitch in!  If you wanted to help out but couldn’t make last Saturday, we may have another round, so keep checking in!

I’ve been wanting to convert this linen dish towel into a bread bag ever since I saw the idea over on SouleMama, and this week I finally did it (pre-horse arrival, of course.  I keep thinking of when Ella was born, and how it would be so much easier to learn how to deal with a totally new creature if only the rest of the world would be kind enough to stop.  You know, if the dishes didn’t need to be washed, or dinner made, or the bread baked, it wouldn’t be such a big deal!)

This rag rug, made from worn-out jeans is something I made a few months back, but wanted to share.  I love having something useful to do with a pair of jeans so ripped it’s not even useful to garden in.  I used the tutorial over at This Vintage Chica – but I think next time I’ll try an oval one.

And this beautiful sight – a sunroom full of drying garlic.  Hopefully it’s enough to take us through to next year!

Ella is done destroying the contents of my purse, so that’s all for now!  And yes, I’ve been working on the aprons – more soon.