Karm and Coke's Big Adventure

 Karm and Coke are about to embark on a big winter adventure. The Amish farmer that raised them asked if I’d be willing to let them come spend the next few months at his place. He still has Karm’s full sister and another mare that is a cousin to both of my horses. My Amish friend is planning to get our horses re-acquainted and hitch them together to do farm work. He has a super nice barn and is better able to winter horses than I am. Not to mention, I deliver mail for a living and winter gets long for my horses when I often don’t get home until after dark.

The downside of all of this: I won’t have my horses here for the next few months. Karm and Coke are the centerpieces of my Amish Horses Blog and Facebook page, so, I won’t have as many new pics of my horses. The upside is that Karm and Coke will be having some big adventures that could turn into fun stories for my books and blog.

When I took Karm and Coke back to their old home, I thought they seemed super comfortable as though they remembered the barn. I stopped in to visit them once already. I whistled and they came right up, expecting me to feed them or let them out to pasture. It feels super lonely at our place without them and I’m already looking forward to the day they come back home.

My little grandson (Isaac, who is 2 and adores Karm and Coke) came to our house a few days ago and asked, “Can we go out and see the horses?”

I told him, “Karm and Coke aren’t here, they’re at my Amish friend’s farm.”

“I know,” Isaac said. He is struggling to understand the whole thing. I told him that I would take him to the Amish farm with me sometime to see the horses. Isaac looked at me with his big brown eyes and said, “Okay.”

Mennonite Carpenters

My old "horse barn" needed some help soon, or the roof was gonna fall in. I had been telling my brother-in-law that I wanted his crew to come do the work as soon as I could scrounge up the money.

My wife's granddad put up this corn-crib some 80 years ago and my dad-in-law plastered three sides after they stopped using it to store grain. That made it into a wind-tight and useful horse barn. This wooden side (pictured below) was starting to get really weathered. It didn't show from the road, so looks weren't the issue. However, I love this old building and wanted to save it.

You can see in the picture above, that the rafters were getting soft in places. These Mennonite-raised carpenters knew what they were doing and got us all fixed up. I think this barn will outlast me now!

You can see Karm and Coke were displaced for a few weeks, till the carpenters were done. There is a strand of electric fence keeping them out. They seemed to enjoy all the company they had while the crew was working (normally things are pretty quiet.)  I spent about a week with a magnet picking up nails before I let them back in this area. Sure hope I got them all!

My brother-in-law is way up top fixing the peak.

Dan put in a clear piece of siding, for a window to let in light.

Randy and Henry put in the final touches on my doors.

The whole place looks a lot better now, huh? (Rear view: above. From the road: below)

A special thank you to Randy, Dan and Henry.

You guys did a great job... and it was really fun having you around the home place!

(...by the way, this farm was Randy's home place when he was growing up.)

Horse Barn

My wife's grandparents moved to this farm in 1918, when they got married and left the Amish. They became Mennonites, which was not a very big jump back in 1918.

This building is actually a corn-crib. We are not sure when her grandpa built it but it seems by the type of structure, that it must have been in the 30's or 40's.

My wife's parents moved into a small house out back when they got married in 1948 and farmed as partners with their parents for a number of years.

My dad-in-law tells stories of the two couples working together, milking a dozen cows by hand. I can just imagine that scene. He said that he would sit on one side of the cow and his new wife would milk from the opposite side.

Like most farms in 1948 they had 12 cows and 12 sows.

When my wife and I moved here in 2000, I converted this corn-crib into a horse barn. My dad-in-law was also a plasterer for a living. He stuccoed the outside of the crib making it very tight and useful as a horse barn.

I store hay in one of the cribs and made a hallway out of the other. You can see my horses reaching their heads into the feed bunks in the hallway.

My sweet little granddaughters love our draft horses and beg to sit on their backs. Karm and Coke don't seem to mind at all. In fact, I believe they love all the attention my five grandchildren give them.

Do over!

Life is full of things that need "done over."

Karm and Coke stand patiently waiting to go out and do a little work.  Last year, Karm, Coke and I worked hard tilling up a weedy section of pasture and sowing grass seed in it.  After somewhat of a drought and then an incredibly hard winter, our hard work must be done over.  And it looked so promising last spring when fresh new grass was growing.  Have you ever poured hard work into something, only to have to re-do it?

You can see from the pictures above and below, that all we have to show for our last years efforts are a few dandelions.  In my novel, Under the Heavens, main-character Lenny plants a row of soybeans and wants do it over.  He realizes that some jobs just can't be done over.  Once you plant seeds in the ground, they will grow where they are planted, straight row or not.

Recently, Under the Heavens, has been reviewed a number of times.  My reviewers have been kind, but they have also pointed out to me some of my own "crooked rows" and exposed my area's of weakness.

When I read those more critical reviews, it's easy to get bummed out and loose my confidence as a writer.
 Instead, I need to take their views and learn from them; unfortunately, I cannot re-do my novel.  A part of me would love to try and "do over" what I have learned could have been improved on, it's too late for that.  My plan is to take what I learned and move forward.  I need to put those lessons to use in writing my second novel ( un-named sequel to Under the Heavens), remembering to continue what people like about my writing and change what is needing improved upon.  Furthermore, I need to remind myself that writing is a creative work, not everyone will relate with or enjoy what I am trying to communicate.  The hard part is separating "constructive criticism" from "differences of opinion" I'm working on that.

Karm and Coke, enjoying a sunset with me as we finish our evening work.

Here are links to a review in the Cedar Rapids Gazette and on Amazon.

http://thegazette.com/subject/life/books/patience-rewarded-for-series-opener-20140511#media-well-container

http://www.amazon.com/product-reviews/1936746794/ref=acr_offerlistingpage_text?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1