Day 17: Deep Breaths

Harrislea Farm

We woke up early that morning. The night before when I took Lux’s boot off, he started limping. He was totally fine the minute before when we were walking up the hill, and suddenly, lame? He had a little bubble there, and I figured he’d gotten a blister. Once looking at it again this morning, my guess was a little mud fever popped up. Probably from the moisture and sweating in the boots. Luckily, Nicola Smith from Grimsby had packed us an amazing first aid kit, and we had Hibitain to put on. We put them out to pasture and within an hour both the horses were cantering around and he was walking fine.. But we’d already taken the day off so we were staying.

I treated his pasturn a couple times and then read and wrote blogs most the day. I also got a wonderful message from Laura Fevez, who said I should spend some time in the woods and relax, take some deep breaths and be thankful for getting this far. I got emotional reading the message, it was like this woman knew exactly what I needed, and I headed into the forest by their house for an hour. Sitting still, everything was alive around me. The lush green moss all around me and up the trees, bright sun warming my skin and illuminating the leaves and rocks. Closing my eyes the smells of the forest were overwhelming. Pine and wet earth, the sounds of birches bending and cracking in the wind, ruffling leaves that sound like animals creeping up.

Kevin and Lucas took Joseph and I to the art park where there was tons of wood carvings. We also watched the Gasparo fish that swim upstream! It was pretty cool to watch a tiny creature overcome a task that looks impossible. Flopping on the rocks against the current to swim upstream so they can lay their eggs.