Random Acts of Kindness

Sometimes, people just totally surprise me.
In  a good way.

Little gifts of thoughtfulness just touch my heart.
Barbara, thank you for all your little gifts this year,
totally unexpected and so sweet of you.
I love my coffie mug and my most recent collection of scarfs!

Ally, I love my sarplaninac sticker,
thank you for thinking about me and sending it!

I received another unexpected gift,
however this one needs a little backing-up..
It actually starts  many years ago.

We bred quarter horses in the Netherlands.
I had a great little Topsail Cody  mare, and
 bred her to a fantastic Sonitas Last stallion.
Out of the fantastic combination,
 came my black mare, Sonitas Black Magic.

She was born in my arms and I fell in love with that little filly.
We raised her, had her trained and she became my riding horse.
She was all I wanted in a quarter horse.
She would be my grow old together horse.
We bred her and had a few foals from her.

 We made the decision to emigrate to Canada in 2008.
Our initial plan was to bring some of our horses with us,
however the cost was just too prohibitive
So, began the difficult job of selling off our beloved horses.
It was a high priority that all our horses,
got great homes with loving owners.

Magic, was sold to some great people and like all owners,
I hoped that she would be able to remain with these people forever more.

However, life is not a fairy tale, 

and after a number of years these people sold her again.

Through facebook,
I got in touch with Magic's new owner Jeannine.

And, boy am I happy!
Magic has a wonderful, loving, caring owner who dotes on her as much as I did.

So, much to my surprise,
I received a little birthday gift today.

Jeannine has a small company that makes jewelry from horse (and dog) hair.

She made me a bracelet from the tail hair from my Magic and sent it off to me.

I was so moved by this random act of kindness,
the thoughtfulness really touched me.
I now have a little piece of Magic right with me.

So, if anyone is looking for a lovely,
sentimental gift I would suggest you visit her website
(it is in Dutch, but I am sure she can assist you in English)

www.everyoneweb.com/Miralooks

Jeannine, Hartlijk bedankt.

Ik vond dit zo leuk and lief van jou!

So, heb ik alsnog een beetje Magic biij mij.

Things that are meant to be

I have always said I wanted a remote cabin in the mountains.
I even bought books on cabin making,
have read stories of people who have made their own cabin.
It is in my 5 year life plan.

A few weeks back Eric, found an ad for a 1930's cabin that was for sale.
He bought it.
Now by cabin, do not think it is a ready to move in one..
This little gem is merely a shell
and will require a whole lot of TLC.
However, it has some history,
and honestly how many wooden cabins from the dirty thirties are still around?
So, we have decided to make this our little project.

The first part of this project was to haul it home.
With a major winter storm rolling in we had to get on it.

Last Saturday, Eric and Roy spent the entire day  moving the cabin onto skids,
then hammering in planks to stabilise it so that it would not cave in.

Then painstakingly, step by step pushing it onto the trailer.
After more than 12 hours work the cabin was on the trailer and ready for the 80 km haul home.

We decided to wait for day light for safety.

The next morning bright and early we headed off to collect it.

We had to stop and check that the overhead power lines were not to low and we could only go about 30km an hour.

We encountered a hazard or two on the road,
a mule decided it wanted to possibly cross in front of Eric.
But it changed it mind.

We finally got home,
 and slowly started unloading,
things went a little quick and the cabin bumped into the front end loader of the tractor.
It now has another window in the back.

 Once off the trailer, we skidded it into the yard where we can work on it when things get warmer.

Sometimes I just know that things were meant to be.
If you pay attention you occasionally see cosmic signs.
Sometimes, they are a little more obvious.
While snooping around the inside of the cabin, Eric pulled down the rotten ceiling.
Out of the ceiling a small book fell and hit me on the shoulder.

Stooping down to pick up the molded booklet,
I could not help but realise that that cosmic sign fell on my shoulder.

The booklet was a 1952 bulletin about  Sheep Production in Alberta

Yep, sometimes things are just meant to be!

(And, then the storm rolled in..)

Compassion

I simply cannot understand the ethics in trapping.

No matter how many people try to explain to me about "soft" leg hold traps,
how little damage they do,
how quickly the traps get checked,
how quickly the animal is put out of its misery,
I still cannot find it acceptable.

I do not understand how people
cannot feel empathetic to a wild animal caught in a trap/snare by its leg?
The panic, pain, stress and fear
constitutes suffering in my opinion.

Yesterday, while driving down the highway I saw a coyote.
I grabbed my camera and snapped a picture of it.
I saw the coyote limping away, with a raven flying close by.

When I looked closer at  my pictures,
this is what I saw:

And,

I felt empathy towards this animal.

 This picture on facebook has generated a range of comments such as
"its just a varmint"
"no sympathy"
" sympathy is found between shit and syphilis in the dictionary"
 and a whole bunch of comments about how evil coyotes are,
the damage they do to livestock,
that there are way too many of them

that they need to be "controled"
 etc..

This lead to some debate over morals and ethics.

No matter what the circumstance,
no matter the animal,
no matter its crimes,
I cannot help but feel empathy and compassion towards this animal.