Two homes?

Lucky me, I feel grown up since I have two homes to miss, visit, and stay at. I obviously miss my home in Utah. I miss the great climbing, the wild mountains and desert, I miss my great friends, and undoubtedly I miss my family the most. When Ben was giving me a ride home (Idaho home) Sone time around dreary Ogden I was wailing about how I miss my family and blabbering about how they don't know how great I think they are et cetera, et cetera, and Ben was so nice, he said " Well, should I just take you back? You can stay in Utah!" Alas, in a typical girlish moment of indecisiveness I squeaked out something about how I really miss Chesterfield. And it really was nice to come back to the Idaho home with the pastures, the big stillness, the Connemara ponies, and the geese in endless waves flying by.
The day after I arrived back at the farm was Easter! Last Easter I spent it frost nipping my toes with Aspiro boys in the Uinta mountains. I had backpacked in some candy and plastic eggs and hid them in the snow for a hunt. Complaints abounded about the quantity and quality of candy I hauled in through miles and days of snow. I learned that day what true ungratefulness is.
Anyway, back to this Easter. Chris and I were invited to a neighbors house for some delicious homemade dinner. But, dinner conversation invariably turned to farm work. We learned that the son who has 400 acres had the previous spring had another neighbor harrow it. So in these pioneer aged fields, there are random rocky outcroppings where pioneers would toss all the rocks. They obviously didn't think about the stone jump potential when putting these rocks in piles instead of walls. Oh well. But, the neighbor who harrowed the field drove directly through the piles, instead of around, ergo there are now 60 foot swaths of rocks strewn in all directions. The son said that the neighbor didn't follow the 2% rule, which states,"You have to be 2% smarter than anything you work with."
In this case, that means rocks.
So, there is no free meal in Chesterfield and we were wrangled to help pick up rocks. Which actually was tons of fun, they are an awesome family. And! We had a campfire under a shiny sky with smores and deer jerky.
I already miss Utah, but it sure is great here in Chesterfield.

Utah!

Back at the homestead for the birthday, family fun, and boring errands. But I am so happy to be able to visit! I was a bit reluctant to leave because 1. I was making Chris take care of the many ponies and 2. I had a short lesson on one of the driving ponies Hobby and Chris totally helped me discover for myself the ever elusive "self carriage" of a horse. Holy moly, I am embarrassed to say I really have never experienced that. I had this idea that self carriage was this mythical magical happening that only appeared after you had achieved piaffe and passage and flying over rainbows. Basically, I scratched the surface in this lesson of how soft and light a horse really should be, and how much communication needs to be happening. After that small taste I wanted to stay and try this new skill with all the horses! But I will surely have time when I return. Fun stuff.
Then I was lucky enough to hitch a ride with Mama Mae and Papa Kay, and even tow Helga along. And, if anyone knows my Mama Mae, they know she has a gag reflex of a morning sick pregnant woman, and the sight of hair (human or otherwise) not physically connected to the hair claiming specimen, is also gag inducing. So, I gave Helga a bath and we tossed her in the trunk. We opened the little ski door latch from the back seat and she poked her head through and rested there the whole drive. Hanging out with the grandparents is pretty dang great, and I am glad they offered me a ride.
My first day home was amazing! Sunny spring day, the trees are just blooming. My almost yearling Gilbert had been stuck in the barn and run all winter, so a lot of hair separation from the specimen took place, and then a nice romp in the arena was in order. He even took to jumping jumps of his own free will. He has hope! But really, his movement is quite grand, even if his condition at the moment is too ugly to post in the web right now.
A day in Payson was in order, and to Ben's and my surprise, there is a sushi place on main street!! Fuji restaurant, way delish. Also there was a drum circle of some really kooky looking drums, and an evening hike up hobble creek.
Conference Sunday included mons's famous fudge sauce sundaes, and dinner at MM and PK's playhouse. I entertained myself by making Chris a present of some silly cartoon horses since she was kind of enough to work so I could come visit my family. I hope she doesn't read this blog because I am totally posting a picture of what I made.
I hope everyone is having a delightful spring so far, and got some fun pranks played on them. Happy April Fools !