Idiosyncracies

Katie takes a bite of food and then points her nose at the sky while she chews and swallows it.

Harry doesn't want to be haltered and clicked to a lead rope unless I want to lead off somebody else.

Cocoa can't resist having his neck scratched down near his shoulder.

Bella's two front feet look like somebody switched them at birth.

When Dante is frustrated, he puts his head out of his stall and turns it sideways and works his jaw. It looks like he's yawning sideways.

Goat always walks in front of me when we all go up or down the driveway. He acts like he's leading, but really he is just trying to figure out where I'll go next so he can get there first.

Mikey hates to be told to come out to the barn to help, but always enjoys himself when he's out there--provided that he is warm enough.

Danny loves to hold up a big stick to protect me from Goat. This is actually necessary, and I have the bruises to prove it.

Mikey rode Bella down from the pasture today.

Danny built us a fire tonight, which was good because I had to switch off the emergency switch on the furnace because it was sounding funny. Our only heat tonight is the fireplace here in the living room.

We took Liza, Jake, and Daniel home from the Waldorf School today. We went to get our pumpkins only to discover that Gabriel and Michael had used them for target practice. I was mad. Gabriel said, "Well, doesn't it help to know that we had a great time shooting them?" Argh, the young!

Lucy had a nice juicy bone tonight.

Mikey fell asleep on the sofa with the fire warming him. Is anything nicer than that?

Danny is reading a good book (The Lost Years of Merlin), and laughing out loud sometimes. We are both sitting in front of the fire and it's getting late. I'd say that ranks right up there with falling asleep in front of the fire.