Where To Start?

Where to start?  Other than posting on Wednesdays for the Yarn Along, "where to start?" is how I feel right now in terms of blogging. It kind of feels too late to blog about some of our pre-Christmas activities (like making candies and fudge to give as gifts; the first time in several years that I've been able to find time to do this).  It also feels too late to talk about having all the kids and grandkids here for New Year's Eve and playing games until the wee hours of the morning. There was another mass sausage making on January 1st and 2nd, although it was only DH and our sons this year rather than the large group we had for our first-ever sausage making party.

In horse news, there have been two riding lessons taken so far this year, and I finally feel like I can correctly perform leg yield at the walk.  I think leg yield was my nemesis, my hurdle, in the last several months of 2016. So, there are horsey things to blog about.  This year is the year I had marked as time to put the Quarter Horse up for sale so that I have funds to shop for something younger and more dressage worthy. Now 2017 is looking me in the face and asking "When is the best time to write that for sale ad?"  Winter is not typically prime time for finding a buyer, not unless you have a great show horse and people want to get their next great show mount far enough ahead of show season to get to know each other and become a cohesive team before walking through that in-gate the first time.  But the Quarter Horse, at 18 and with slight navicular (and a few quirks about changes in footing) is not a great show horse.  He hasn't been there, done that, for someone with huge aspirations of blue ribbons to be interested in buying him, and at this point in his life, most likely isn't going to ever see the inside of a show ring.  He's not a horse for a beginner, and with his navicular, he isn't the horse for a serious rider/competitor either.  He needs an owner with confidence (to help him with his quirks) and some experience, who wants to ride once a week or less, or who is looking for a great horse to love on and have as a companion.  So, Spring might be a better time to list him for sale. (On the other hand, people with tax refund money in hand do tend to shop while that money is burning a hole in their pocket. . . )

Also in horse news, I have suddenly found myself being offered the use, a few times a week, of another Quarter Horse.  This one is sound (ie no navicular), but with his own quirks.  His owner doesn't have much time to ride him currently, and would love for me to keep him 'tuned up' so that he's not a brat when she does have time to ride. He is going to be my mount for lessons for the foreseeable future; we had a 'get to know you' ride yesterday and, while he feels totally different than my own Quarter Horse, I think I'm going to gain a lot from riding him.  For instance, I rode the most and best shoulder-ins of my life during our 'get to know you' ride!

Where to start? also applies to planning for this year's garden.  It's time to sit down and work up how many rows of what veggies am I going to grow this year; how many linear feet equal how much seed, and where to order that seed from?  I can say that I've gotten potatoes taken care of; there are four or five kinds in my cellar right now that I will use some of each for seed and I also, earlier today, put in an order with The Maine Potato Lady for another three varieties that I want to grow.

Where to start? is my conundrum on doing some purging and reorganizing in my house.  There are some things I know are here, but they've gotten misplaced or buried amongst the seemingly exponential growth of possessions in this house in the last few years.  There are other things that I know are here that don't need to be any longer; be it things we no longer have a use for, or outdated paperwork/documents that are no longer applicable and need to go to either the wood burner or the shredder.  I honestly think I have enough old bills, bank statements (that are beyond the age of ever being needed for a tax audit) and owners manuals of things that died years ago to fill an entire file cabinet drawer.  Oh the things now stacked in the study that I could store in that drawer if it were empty of it's unneeded contents!

Where to start? in terms of the exercise/weight loss program I sorely need to begin.  All that wonderful running and cardio and strength training and yoga I was doing went totally away as the population of this little place here shifted and shifted again since late 2013.  I miss it, I begrudge the weight and bulk I've gained (all in the belly; I'm one of those women whose hips stay small no matter what) and I'm tired of looking and feeling like a woman in her third trimester of pregnancy.  I want my exercise routine back!

Where to start? with the tutorials of sorts that I had intended to write in 2016 of things I had made and mentioned without actually describing the making process.  The bottle cap trivet made for DD2, the pattern I concocted for Dad's striped socks, other things I intended to make and write a tutorial for in the process that never even got started.

Stay tuned, Dear Reader, for there is more to come.  I just need to figure out where to start.  Or maybe I just need to jump in and talk about it as I go.