addition 4 December 2014

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Sally Gerard

IMG_2288We’re adding on a garage in order to give more space and a bit of convenience and peace-of-mind for those dark night arrivals home. It’ll have built-in cupboards so we can move some things we’ve been storing inside, out. We hope this will give a bit more room for two lives still trying to share a space.

It is changing the look of ourIMG_2302 place, but in a good way. I like to watch as I leave each day and come home each night to see what has been done. Sometimes, it doesn’t seem like much, but it continues to move along. My thought is that there will a lot more house to put Christmas lights on!

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Word Maps 2 December 2014

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Sally Gerard

IMG_2291My students and I have been working on word maps. We’ve been taking a close look at words and how writers use words and how writers have certain words that live in their souls and they try to give voice to those words, making pictures to bring the readers into their intimate world.

We started by reading some poetry and sorting through the words to see how many were sensory words, action words, abstract words and then just plain fun words. Then we made

Vibrant!

Vibrant!

lists of abstract words that we liked and we tried to come up with a big list, so we shared with each other and borrowed the words we liked in common and added them to our own list.

Once we had a good list, we contemplated it. We wrote about it. We talked about it. We

spent a good deal of time deciding which one word would we like to try to represent, to make real for everyone else coming into our word world. Then, the harder work began as we made lists of sixteen words for

Happy!

Happy!

each of the five senses that related to our abstract word. We added ten action words to represent our abstract word and then along with the abstract word, we added free words of our choice to equal a hundred words. This took a lot of time and more sharing and our brains were strained by the process.

Now, we had to think of a picture that would give life to our abstract word and build it with the hundred words. The results took my breath away. My word was JOY, and I decided to build joy as a Christmas tree. I loved the results even though my students say it looks more like a peacock. Wonderful stuff! Try it.

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Mildred 27 November 2014

Posted on November 27, 2014 by Sally Gerard

IMG_2271We went exploring on our way home the other day. I wanted to go by this cemetery I’d happened upon several years ago by accident. I’d been excited to be with my girl friends and headed for a long day’s ride across country roads–about thirty miles. We’d been planning this ride for some time, and we were driving along dirt roads I knew well and singing at the top of our lungs and before I knew it, I’d gone right past where the horses were wintering and into unfamiliar territory. Not wanting to call for directions, having to then admit that I’d screwed up, we just kept going. I thought, eventually, I’d come to a road I knew. Instead, we came to the Mildred Cemetery where I had to admit defeat and call for directions to get back!

When we found it this time, I was struck by how different it seemed from the picture that had stayed in my mind all these years. It is a beautiful spot and many of those buried here were so young, reminding me again of how thankful I am for modern medicine. I can’t imagine the sorrow and grief contained in the inscriptions of children, many who did not live a full day, lost in childbirth to loving parents who’d anticipated their coming for so many months.

Today, I am thankful for the lives of all of those I love and have loved and who love and have loved me.

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Road Trips 24 November 2014

Posted on November 24, 2014 by Sally Gerard

DSCN2730I love road trips to anywhere. I like to drive or ride along in the pick-up and gaze out at new scenery, or see what’s changed on a road I’ve been on before.

 

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I love to see how the road wears the different seasons–snow-covered or turning brown in fall or aspen leaves changing to yellows and reds or seeing long Vs of geese flying high or fields full of migrating Sandhill Cranes.

 

I love to drive by farms and barns and IM000005.JPGwonder who lives there and what livestock is in the barn or what antique treasures are stored. Robert and I keep a running tally of white verses red barns as we have a long-standing disagreement about what color barns should be!

 

 

I love sing along to the ‘tick-tock’ polka and allIMG_0546 manner of other music. Enjoying some cold fried chicken wings with popcorn and fruit that we’ve packed along, with a bottle of tea or a cup of coffee keeps us going all day long. I like to stop at historical markers and cemeteries to get a feel for a place.

Sometimes we stop for a treat at a Dairy Queen (hot fudge of course!), or we might get a bag of peanut M&Ms to share. Sometimes we’re on a journey to see some antique tractor or go to an auction, but we always meet the best people. Sometimes we stop for breakfast in some small town cafe and simply listen and enjoy some hot coffee. IMG_0411Driving, I love to pass by those big windmills and imagine climbing to the top to look out over this beautiful land as far as I can see. Road trips-a sweet adventure!

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Toyota 20 November 2014

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Sally Gerard

horsecamp2005 043I do love to come up west, hit with a view of the front range of the Rocky Mountains as the sun begins to rise on snow-capped peaks. There is a lot of snow from the last couple of storms right now and the mountains glisten with the crystal white weight of it. The photos are definitely from higher up and from countess horse pack trips I’ve been on, but the beauty is no less!

 

It calms me, even as the reason I had to venture so far from home today was not IMG_0614necessarily pleasant. 365,000 miles is unheard of on anything but a Toyota. My forest green, four-cylinder, 4-Runner is a testament to the engineering and quality that vehicles used to possess. The head gasket needs to be replaced, and I’m hoping that will keep me on the road in this ol’ reliable for a couple of more years. Toyota should really be using this vehicle in commercials and showing the amazing journey those miles tell.

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Love at First Sight 18 November 2014

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Sally Gerard

horsecamp2005 063Do I believe in “love at first sight?” Hmm, if it is a horse or an antique tractor, a newborn baby or a rainbow over a barn-yes. If it is two people, I don’t know. Attraction is powerful, but to love someone I think you have to know them. You have to learn about what brings them joy, sorrow, laughter, hurt, anger and happiness. You have to understand their dreams and goals and you have to encourage them to work to those goals and dreams.

You have to have time to be together and appreciate the good, the bad and the mundane, and let the love deepen. You have to be willing to share your lives, to put that person first sometimes, be flexible, love them even in the midst of wanting to throttle them.

You have to help them remember whohorsecamp2005 061 they are and where they were heading and to give them their own time too. This all takes time and commitment and so, love at first sight? I think not. Loving another brings the best and the worst of you out. It is so difficult at times and yet it is good and fills you with great joy.

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Slice of Life 14 November 2014

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Sally Gerard

lemonI’ve heard a lot about ‘slice of life’ writing. What is a slice of life? How do you take a life and slice it up? When you do, can you ever put it back together? I guess when you take a slice of cake or pie or lasagna, it lets you see right into the messy innards that make up a delicious bite–or if it tastes bad, you can feel all the lumps of flour or the bitter cocoa that wasn’t mixed in properly or the raw bits of meat not cooked long enough.

A slice of life could just be that perfectly browned wave of meringue atop bright yellow sweet smooth lemon on a flaky crust–but is it real if you don’t include the precise measuring of eggs, sugar and lemon, or the exact amount of boiling,cut lemon or the way you have to whip the egg whites to achieve those high peaks and then bake it just until golden brown. And sometimes you take it out and it looks like a shiny picture in a gourmet food magazine, but when you cut into it, it is a sloppy puddle of lemon goo on  a soggy crust with meringue sails floating on top. Definitely a slice of life!

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Fear & Courage 12 November 2014

Posted on November 12, 2014 by Sally Gerard

DSCN1435Fear is phone calls in the middle of the night. Courage is answering.Fear is wondering what those odd noises are. Courage is going to find out.

Fear is thinking about what it takes to move. Courage is puttingDSCN1281 your house on the market anyway. Fear is not knowing where you will live. Courage is stepping forward into possibility. Fear is change. Courage is making small steps in new directions.

Fear is thinking you aren’t good enough. Courage is trusting that you are. Fear is all alone. Courage is seeing that you’re strong enough to face it.

Fear is losing those you love. Courage is loving them anyway.
IMG_2207 Fear is letting go. Courage is letting go. Fear is something that can stop you in your tracks. Courage is not allowing fear to paralyze you.

I sometimes get lost in thought about my life and where I’m going.DSCN1383 I’ve always known I’m not: city, suburbia, crowds; I’m: country, quiet, community. I love long runs on dirt roads, star-filled evenings, sunset walks, campfires and s’mores, guitars & singing, space that doesn’t always need to filled with voices, together, a shared life with faithful and strong forever love, and the beauty of the land.

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Sally Work 10 November 2014

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Sally Gerard

IMG_2209I’ve got papers to grade, parents to meet, evaluations to endure. I’ve got my own children to worry about, and now our children to worry about. I’ve got play practice and buckets to make look like dirt, a house to keep and a road to travel–back and forth, back and forth.

I’ve got meals to plan, running shoes to fill, bulls and horses to feed, gates to close. I’ve got novels to write and blogs and Facebook pages to post on. I’ve got writer’s notebooks to fill.

I’ve got tractors to drive, sunsets to be in awe of, prayers to pray, praise to give and blessings to count. I’ve got love to build, plants to tend, paint to find IMG_2202and boards to build wind breaks with. I’ve got motors and antique Minnie’s to call about, shirts to iron, meat to thaw.

But, it is work that I love and cherish, and play that nourishes my soul–warmed by the sun, chilled by the wind, fed by the meat, the music, the loving, the day-to-day, the living of life that takes my breath away.

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Velvet Vortex 6 November 2014

Posted on November 6, 2014 by Sally Gerard

IMG_2165The morning brought interesting moments. It’s always full-on dark when I cross the west deck and head out for my daily run-today was no different. Except that I heard a flock of geese high overhead moving south. We hear them here, but usually during the day light. Then, with the light of the setting moon, I spotted the tell-tale dark shape of a skunk in my path. It froze, tail straight up and decided that I was not worthy to pass. We had words, and I went on my way.

Listening to The Hobbit again, because I’d finished my new book IMG_2169the day before and had forgotten to load a new one, I was on the dirt road, but running through elf territory. Surprised by the bright orange light lining the whole of the eastern horizon, I couldn’t figure out if it was the sun deciding that the full moon had enough of the spotlight, or maybe it was later than I’d thought. It wasn’t.

When I stopped to check the electric fencer, the light along the barbed wire was glowing IMG_2167in that coming sun and I started thinking about a vortex in space and what it’d be like to travel through one. Deciding that if it was lined in velvet, it might be a nice ride, my thoughts wandered off to things I’d follow: any horse if I was lost and couldn’t find my way to shelter, a rainbow, the scent of fresh-baked bread, footprints in the snow, a giant in a wind storm, elf tracks, and the faint glow of sparkling lights off in the distance.

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