Blue Star Equiculture

In January, signed up for nanowrimo's "Year of Doing Big, Fun, Scary Things Together" but I had no idea things were going to be this Big, Fun (and Scary)!

My friend, Pam Rickenbach, who runs Stardust Organics and used to drive a carriage with me in Philadelphia (where she was Tom's Mom), recently met a wonderful benefactor named Sandy. Sandy is interested in organic gardening, which is how she met Pam's partner, Glenn. Glenn told her about Pam's work with draft horses (Pam also has the great and awesome Bud in his retirement).

Before we knew it, we had a plan for a draft horse rescue / sanctuary and organic farm on 150 acres in Palmer, Massachusetts.

I'm very thankful to Pam for including me in this.

Here's our mission statement:

Our Mission is to provide homeless working horses a sanctuary and the opportunity to be useful and positively improve their lives, while bringing education, equine awareness, skills and healing to the community.

Blue Star Equiculture is a vision born out of the hearts of like-minded individuals who feel the need to respond to the current, increasingly dire situation facing homeless horses, especially working draft horses.

To be honest, the Jethro Tull song, "Heavy Horses," posted below, is really the mission statement.

HUMAN HISTORY IS WRITTEN IN HOOFPRINTS.

Check back for more.

Our website (still under construction) is www.equiculture.org

Winter in Philadelphia and New Year's Resolutions

This is the time of year
when we sustain ourselves on
fantasies of summer.

After the big holiday season and a week and a half vacation in ol' Kentucky, I'm back in Philadelphia with several days ahead with temperatures and windchills not rising out of the low to mid-20s, which means no carriages on the street.

Hopefully, therefore, I can spend some time cleaning and unpacking and otherwise working on my Big, Fun, Scary goals for 2009 (sponsored by nanowrimo.org.

Here's my list (at the moment):

LIVING MORE HEALTHFULLY
1. Cut the soda habit.
2. Take lunch to work instead of buying cheesesteaks downtown.
3. Cook dinner more at home, at least on the weekdays (with leftovers for my long weekend days). Try at least two new recipes per month.
4. Grow basil at home.
5. Eat fruit every day.
6. Stretch every day.

CONNECT WITH HORSE PEOPLE
7. Submit pictures of Philadelphia percherons to Jean-Leo's blog, percheron-international.blogspot.com.
8. Look into joining professional organizations like CONA or the CAA.
9. Reconnect with my vaulting group and / or find a place to take horseback riding lessons.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
10. Continue to be involved in the Association of Philadelphia Tourguides. Run for office, design a logo, build our website.
11. Design and order some rockin' business cards from Zazzle.com.
12. Learn one thing about Philadelphia everyday.
13. Go some place new in Philly or surroundings each week.
14. Look into getting a killer historic frock coat by summer season.

CREATIVITY
15. Clean off art table so I can actually use it. Create something at least once a week.
15a. In the process of creating something every week over the course of the year, do a portrait (any medium) of each of my equine friends. (That's 20 horses we currently own, plus one retired and three departed for 24 total.)
16. Try to finish either Nano2007 or Nano2008 by October.
17. Further work on my website, thedrafthorse.com and thedrafthorse blog. One breed entry per week on my draft horse breed reference, and three blog entries per week on drafthorse.blogspot.com.
18. Learn Macromedia Freehand to create more designs for my cafepress shop.
19. Limit TV to "bare minimum": sports, Mythbusters, the occasional PBS thingie.

LIFE AT HOME
20. Declutter. Once shelf or drawer per week (or more often).
21. Seriously sort through books again. Half.com and ebay are my friends.
22. Mindfully clean house once a week. Our apartment does not have to be perfect, but it deserves my respect as my home.
23. No filing for a tax extension this year (at least not until we see how much we owe!).
24. Sit down with husband and make a budget to repay some debt.