It's moving time!

Hey everyone!

I've been working on a new website and blog together and it's up and running! All about the Mother Ranch, our crazy animals and funny things that happen over here as well as a new set of videos we are doing, starting with this one of the Rocket with her best friend Finn:

or you can find it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fvs4sh-zfQ&t=14s


Anyway, I hope you will follow me on over to my new place on the web:

https://www.themotherranch.com/

See you soon!

Julia

 

It’s inside the house, outside on the ranch, honestly, whole chunks of Longmont smell like this now!

You’d think, because we are a legalized state that it would actually be pot creating that smell but nooo…

It’s HEMP. Just growing, in the sunshine, and smelling up the state. For a couple of months I thought it was a skunk (oh stop laughing :-) I’ve never smoked pot, how should I know?)

Then a niggling in the back of my brain from my whitewater kayaking years…a group of kayakers off on the rocks taking a “safety break.” The smell of skunk and Brad telling me they were smoking pot. Huh. Who knew. Why anyone would want to take something that smells like the back end of a skunk and suck it into their lungs is beyond me.

Across the street from us is a 100+ acre hemp farm and to the north and east is another 80+ acres. I was grossed out by the smell at first by I've decided to try to embrace it. It's for CBD and that is such a wonder product for so many. It brings in such huge revenue that we are actually thinking of growing an acre of it next year! It’s already funny smelling around here, might as well make some money on it :-)

Maybe with the hemp money we will put in air conditioning instead of using the evaporative cooler. We could leave the windows closed with a/c and leave the skunky smell outside!

Love to all from the Mother Ranch,

Julia

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and my store on Etsy!

 

Yesterday morning I went out to do chores and found Snickers in raging heat. So, I thought, why not? I put Snickers and Nacho Libre (aka Poppy) together. He bred her twice before I could blink and, in his enthusiasm, fell over backwards after the second time. I could not stop laughing :-)

Snickers is the toughest girl goat we have, queen of the herd. It would not do to breed her to anyone but the manliest goat right? I thought Nacho Libre would fit the bill. Still giggling...

Ranch life is the best.

Love to all from the Mother Ranch,

Julia

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and my store on Etsy!

 

 

This horse. He wasn't with us long and he called himself, “Teacher.”

He came to us as a boarder, sad that he had left his mare friend who he was a helper to. She only had one eye and she needed him. He was so worried about her, what will happen to her without him there to watch over her? I told him I didn’t know and how sorry I was that this had happened to him. He didn’t appreciate my platitudes and remained sunk in depression.

4 months went by. Every day I would reach out to him and everyday he either walked away from me or stood passively, uncaring what happened to him. I told him he was safe here. I told him that I hoped that he would be with us until the end but that I didn’t know. I hated telling him that but I wanted to be honest.

September 12th was my 7 year anniversary with my mare Rayn. It’s also my mom’s birthday and the day that my daughter, 4.5 years old at the time, arrived home. There is a lot of emotion around that day, some happy and some sad. My mom is still with us and so is Rayn but my daughter, now 14, isn’t. This is a good thing for all of us, including her, but there is grief there and a lot of healing still to be found.

What I’ve found, within myself, is that I have some connection issues due to my six years with my daughter. Connecting is much harder than it used to be. Years of being punished, or my son or pets being punished, for trying to connect with her has left me feeling a bit leery.

On September 13th, I took brushes to the pasture and brushed out the entire herd, six horses and Sweetness the mini donkey. The last one I brushed was Teacher. I asked if he would like it and he stopped walking, stood still, and allowed me to brush him for awhile. When I was finished I thanked him and walked away. He followed me. Huh. Well, that had never happened before.

I sat on the ground and Teacher came over to me and hung his head over mine. Thinking about the day before, I asked him, “How do I connect more deeply?”

Teacher closed his eyes and said, “Sit with your Connection Discomfort.”

Tears well up. I know I’ve heard this idea of being where you’re at and allowing the pain instead of hiding from it but as my mentor says, “You’ll never forget a lesson a 1,200 pound horse teaches you.” This time I got it.

So, I sat there at Teacher’s feet, crying and allowing.

All of a sudden I noticed that Teacher was missing one front shoe. Quick as a bunny, I whipped my phone out and was texting his owner.

Then stopped.

Oh.

That Connection Discomfort was UNCOMFORTABLE! It didn’t take me long to find a way out of it!

I said to Teacher, “I use busy care taking instead of connecting.”

Teacher said, “Yes, it is how you survived.”

I heard his ocean sounding breath then. He said, “You can learn this, it is possible, I did it. You can move through the pain and the fear, move into it and beyond it. The other side is great joy. I will teach you, that is why I am here.

September 25th. Teacher was moved again. I send him love and light on his journey. I pray that there are others he can help heal. His words send a daily shiver and I will not forget.

I heal my brain by training it to follow a new pathway (instead of the same old rut) by using NeurOptimal Neurofeedback. I heal my heart by spending time with my horses and goats.

Love to all from the Mother Ranch,

Julia

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, and my store on Etsy!