Beautiful French Percherons

I was working on my links page for thedrafthorse.com, and I came across this blog. It belongs to French photojournalist Jean-Leo DUGAST. He's got some AMAZING photos of French Percherons, and now I really want his new book, "Sur les traces du cheval percheron" (On the Trail of the Percheron Horse).

Which reminds me, all of the Percherons on Dugast's page, as well as my Philadelphia colleagues--Teddy, Noodle, Lance, Carter, Rex, Prince, Trump, et al.--are all kissing cousins. All Percherons are descended from Jean le Blanc, a Percheron stallion foaled in the Perche in 1823.

Another interesting fact about Percherons in America: They were first imported to this country in 1839 by Edward Harris, of Moorestown, New Jersey. That's right across the Delaware from us in Philadelphia. So my horsie friends listed above are carrying on a long, proud tradition of Percherons in this part of the world.

Photo: Teddy modeling his Percheron-ness. This is my Percheron photojournalism--someday I'd like to take as nice photos as Dugast does.

Ooooh, pretty!

Having a record nor'easter interrupt my work schedule hasn't been all bad... I've gotten to spend most of my Monday inside playing on the web.

I am the master of my domain. And it is www.thedrafthorse.com.

There's hardly any content yet, but the bones are there, as is this blog.

Do you believe that forks are evolved from spoons?

That was my random question in the Blogger profile.

Do you believe that forks are evolved from spoons?

No, I believe forks and spoons are both evolved from a common ancestor, a "proto-" or "ur-spork." Due to separate ecological niches (firm and soupy environments), forks and spoons have, through divergent evolution, become separate species. The fact that forks and spoons can mate to create sterile sporks reveals a common heritage. Sporks are the mules of cutlery.

Ah, to explain the speciation of knives! Or the speciation explosion that was the Victorian period! (Or are fish forks, pickle forks, butter forks, salad forks, desert forks, carving forks, etc. etc. just breeds of a single species, the fork?)

The Inaugural Post

Well, I've set up a blog to go with my "new" website, www.thedrafthorse.com.

Back in January-ish, over on the National Novel Writing Month forums, Chris Baty started the Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary Things Together (YoDBFSTT). One of my goals for 2007 was to set up my own website. It's still under construction (i.e. not started other than having a nifty "Under Construction" page.

For the sake of introduction, though, here's my original posting over on the NaNo boards for my goals for 2007.


Well, it turned out that 2006 was my year of doing Big, Scary, Fun things...For instance, since November 1, 2005, I have:

1. Won NaNo 2005, though I didn't FINISH my novel, I just wrote 50K words. Nonetheless, participating in the amazing experience of writing a novel in 30 days changed my life. Becase after that, I decided to do other Big Fun Scary things, rather than putting them off for that proverbial "Someday." Hence, I:

2. Decided I did NOT want to be a history professor, so I dropped out of graduate school--3.5 years in to graduate school and close to being ABD, but who cares if it's not what you want to do! Major life change. Now what?

3. Moved to eastern France to be with my husband, who was doing research, for 3 1/2 months .

4. Walked between my city in France and the town two towns over (about 13.5 miles). Just because.

5. Lost about 40 lbs.

6. Returned to U.S. and took a hourly wage job developing photos so we could afford to have:

7. Moved to Philadelphia.\

8. Decided to follow a lifelong dream and work with horses. Consequently, I found THE MOST AWESOME JOB IN THE WORLD. I drive a horse and carriage in downtown Philly for a living now. Full time. Year round. And I give the best d**n history tour in town. But this is all kinda scary because A) I'm naturally a shy person who now has to approach total strangers all day and talk to them...I'm a performer now, and B) it's a commission job, so income is very variable and let's not even talk about taxes, and C) I've spent my entire life thinking I couldn't do physically demanding things. This winter I'm mucking stalls and am in the best shape I've been in my life.

So, what are my goals now? Where do I go from here?

drumroll

NAPOLEONDANCE's 2007 ADVENTURE LOG (In no particular order):

1. Actually finish that first draft of a novel I started for NaNo 2005. It's at 60K, but wants to be twice that long.

2. Spend more time not only taking my ceramics classes but spending time outside of class during open studio on them. I need to not be so afraid of people seeing my work.

3. Finally set up my own website with my own domain name for me and my DH.

4. Stop dreading financial things so much. That way I can be more proactive about paying off debt and building savings.

5. Cut back on the ol' calorated beverages. I'd like to lose 10-15 lbs more to be at my goal weight (probably closer to 10 lbs... I've gained a good bit of muscle...). Just because I burn so many calories grooming my 2000 lb. horsie that I can drink seemingly gallons of Coca Cola doesn't mean that I should. (OK, so I suppose that this means I have to put batteries in the digital scale we have...)

6. Write that article about urban horses that my friend has been suggesting I do, Figure out what to do with it then.

7. Keep in better touch with my friends from college and grad school. Generally try to be a little more social.

8. Find a 2 bedroom apartment that is in our budget and in Center City to move into. Though I HATE the thought of packing up everythign AGAIN and hauling it around, my DH deserves a nice place to do his work (and get all the books out of the general living space).

9. To avoid having to haul so much around again, finish sorting through my old papers and notes and GET RID OF STUFF. Do I really need notes from PE 101 from college 8 years ago? NO!

10. Although I was too busy finesse-ing the finer points of standing down SEPTA buses and Jersey drivers from atop a carriage to participate in NaNoWriMo 2006, participate in NaNoWriMo 2007.

11. Start on the research I've been meaning to do. That means going to the library.

12. Take more artistic photos.

13. Figure out how to make money from my artistic stuff and then make it.

14. I love to cook. My husband loves my cooking. So I should do it more.That's about it for now... Stay tuned for updates.

Yes. Stay tuned for updates. And more.