Refuge Farms (www.refugefarms.org)

Oh, I know this sounds a bit peculiar, but I slept so well last night! I crawled in between the flannel sheets about 11:30pm or so and once in bed, I stretched out... smelled the fresh pillow cases... and was out like a light!

This morning I awakened to moonlight and just enough of the early sunrise on the lingering snow patches to see that there were horses in the pasture - diligently searching out those new nubbins of fresh grasses. See!! The herd is as anxious for spring as me!

So, you may ask, just what is so special about all of this sleeping stuff?

Well, I slept in my bed in my bedroom last night. Winter is now officially over.

Refuge Farms operates on a budget of about $55,000 per year with donations and fund raising events contributing about 50% of that amount. The remainder falls on my shoulders to somehow find. That means a full-time job well after retirement and also a part-time job. The good news? I'm down to holding only 1 part-time job from holding 2 in previous years. This change is attributed to the volunteers and their devoted efforts at all of our events. Thank you, Volunteers!

All of this leads to winter heating bills. Especially this year with heating costs so extremely high, there was just no money available to fill the propane tank for the furnace. Some pretty good thinking had caused me to purchase a pellet stove over a year ago and so that little stove became my furnace for the winter of 2005-2006. And that meant I had options. Many people do not have the luxury of options. I was blessed, indeed.

And so, blankets were hung to partition off the upstairs, water lines were shut off to prevent frozen pipes, and a single bed was placed smack dab in the middle of the living room. I now had my college efficiency apartment back! The only difference was that now I had a herd of cats for bed fellows!

It worked, I was warm, and the heating bills were doable. But I must say, last night was more than welcomed! My bed felt so good that I'm still smiling as I write this! I could stretch out without hearing cats protesting my movements! I could breathe without inhaling cat hair! Guests can sit on my davenport and not be staring at my pajamas and my bed! Kid (the 26 pound feline of the house) was downstairs moving around without suffocating me with his weight! And if I rolled over, I didn't have to catch myself from falling on to the floor!

The small things that we take for granted... Like a warm house. A clean bed. A little bit of private, personal space. Things that I appreciate now a bit more and a bit more intensely now that this past winter has taught me to make due.

Kind of like The Herd that lives out in my back yard. They appreciate the abundance of hay. The clean and open water. The shelter from the winter winds. Things that they appreciate now a bit more and a bit more intensely now that they have been rescued from their own personal hells.

Will I do this again next year? If I need to, yes. Of course. "I will watch over" is a part of the Refuge Farms mission statement that I take most seriously. I will do whatever it takes to care for those that I have been asked to protect. Just like some of you would do whatever it takes to protect your family. These horses are my family. And they are your family, too, if you choose.

You see, I'll share them with you! You can smell their smells, feel the velvet of their noses, thrill that the stand-offish one is coming up behind you! And patiently wait for her to come within touching distance. You, too, can be excited as a child again as you watch their playfulness and pure joy of being alive! You, too, can giggle and wrinkle your nose at the gift of horse drool on your clean shirt! You are welcome here...just as they are!

So, it's spring. Yes it is, indeed. We have made it through another winter here in the Great Northland. And just how do we know it's really spring? I saw robins this weekend. And ducks flying north. And geese, too. And the skunks are waking up (don't ask how I know that one!). And the fever for garage sales is gearing up! And I want my fingers in the dirt of the Memory Beds to pull weeds and look for returning growth! And the horses are shedding like crazy! And, oh yeah, I'm sleeping in my bed in my bedroom again.

Happy Spring!

Enjoy the journey of each and every day,
Sandy and The Herd