For those of you having a little trouble discerning just what this is, it is my six-year-old nephew’s rendition of his father at work. Matt, also a veterinarian and he of the “if the horse trailer is plugged in he must be home” fame, is checking a horse with colic. “This is you, Dad, and you…
Tag: growing up country
The Promise of a Pink Grooming Kit, or How Girl Power Rules the Day
Sometime last year, a GoldieBlox video featuring three girls who’d had it up to here with princess make-believe and instead went about building their own Rube Goldberg machine took YouTube by storm. Three small girls went about using their everyday toys to build machines to open garage doors, twirl the baby, launch balls, all in…
An Open-Door Philosophy, or Leaving with More than You Bargained
In small towns, people leave the doors unlocked more often than not. It makes it quite handy to duck in and leave things on the kitchen table, but every once in a while you catch someone unaware. Like Nicky’s mum, who was visiting from England. Legend has it that a friend walked in to drop…
Mother Goose, or This Is How It Starts
My cousin, Caryn, posted this photo of the most recent addition to their household. Meet Buddy the goose! My brother, Matt, tried raising geese as a science project back in the day. He (or rather my parents and Karen Hauge) had an incubator set up at the vet clinic. Every day, when Matt returned…
Old Blankets, Old Horses, and Memories You Might Find in the Tack Room
I woke up the other morning to this photographic gem from my brother: a sweat-stained, slightly crusty horse blanket nearly 30 years old. For it to be 1986, that meant that I was riding Angie, a dappled palomino mare, and this blanket was probably earned for being the high-point 13-and-under youth for the Montana Quarter…
Why I Loved Zeke and Zeke Loved Me
A few years ago, I arrived home to a box at the front door. Since I am an Amazon Prime member and I’m a firm believer in that shipping things directly to me is one of the best things ever, boxes at the door are not uncommon occurrences. What was uncommon, however, is that the…
And a Grin Big Enough to Hold Your Hat Up
I laugh every time I see this photo, and it’s not because Champ here had to get into the kiddie wading pool for the photo. It’s that grin on Hutch’s face. I cannot tell if he is showing off the fact that all of his teeth have come in or he is using it to…
Maggie Gets a Lift
“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” –Roger Caras
Growing Up Country, or Why Your Family Should Include an Animal or Three
Why kids need to grow up around animals…
Strayhounds 