In knitting, a UFO is an UnFinished Object. In our neighborhood...they are, well, the traditional Unidentified Flying Objects. As I was am trying to update all the old pages of our website, I added a bit to the farm page about how much we love our neighborhood. Less than 24 hours later I had just the sort of story to back that up :-).
Tim was cleaning up the last of tornado damage down by the road yesterday. One of the neighbors stopped to fill him in on all the latest news and complain about how busy he was. He listed all sorts of chores and obligations and threw in that he and another neighbor were also going to go out and try to find where the UFO landed.
"Wait, excuse me?" Tim asked.
"Yeah, I've got to go here and do this and then help so and so do this and..." the neighbor continued.
"No, the part about the UFO!"
Yeah, a "UFO" had been spotted by several neighbors, the word had gone out, no one knew what it was, but there were several theories and several theories as to where it landed... After/Instead of doing their practical chores, they were all going around looking for it. Little did they know that Stella and I had found it the day before ;-).
I saw it "land" about the same time the horses did.
Stella came out to see it.
And Hank was up there in no time as well.
"What is that, Stella? Looks like there's some writing on there. Can you read it to me?"
I was thinking it was another one of those little kids tying a note to a balloon and asking the finder to let them know how far it went. It wasn't. They were balloons released for a young girl who had died in an automobile accident :-/. They'd made it over a hundred miles, so we tried to re-release them off the fence, but too many were deflated.
I love this picture of Hickory even after I found out the balloons he was looking at so attentively weren't happy balloons. I wish he didn't have his grazing muzzle on, but you can see by how much rich grass is still, in the middle of October (!), half way up his lower legs, that without the grazing muzzle we might be releasing balloons for him as well.
Some horses just can't handle so much grass. Grass founder is an ugly experience. The other option would be to build a small dry lot and lock both horses up for 6 months of the year. I'm sure that any horse would rather wear a muzzle (that doesn't stop them from eating, but does slow them down) and roam free than stand in a small, dusty pen.
Postscript:
The white hairs on Hickory's nose were not caused by the muzzle. He came with those and apparently has had them most or all of his life.
There is another UFO story on this blog somewhere (a couple years ago), but I can't find it (?).
How many blogs can say that??? ;-D
27 comments:
What a peaceful place for a UFO to land. One never knows what is going to happen at Equinox Farm.
What a story! Your photos gave it life. The horse is gorgeous!!
I wish you could find the family of that young girl and give them the picture of the balloons between the two horses! They would certainly find comfort in knowing they landed in such a beautiful place.
I can find the family. Her name (and her family) was on the balloon and I looked it up. I wondered about letting them know...but maybe worse that it didn't reach her in the sky???
I agree with the first comment, what a peaceful place to land. Oh, such beautiful pastures and beautiful horses.
Ah, but maybe it did reach her in the sky and she passed it on to your little piece of Heaven... xxx
I think you really should contact them. I bet the girl would have loved to have her balloons land on your farm. I bet the pictures of the animals with them would give them comfort.
What if you contacted the family just to let them know their daughter's memory visited your farm and horses? Maybe thank them for sharing her memory with you?
Personally I would not say spirit but memory. I choose to think they were honoring her memories.
But you've seen the actual written message, you're the best person to judge from that.
The child picked the best spot ever to land those balloons. I think she placed them there herself. Contact the parents with lots of pictures. They knew it would land on earth. Heaven don't need no addresses.
Beautiful picture of Hickory!
I agree with the other comments - I'm betting that girl loved horses and in any case her parents might like to know where the balloons came to rest - a beautiful place instead of up against a chain link fence in a parking lot or something.
Quite an interesting UFO and glad to see Hank had it under control :) I did know about grass founder, but hadn't see the grazing muzzle before. I learned something new today.
Those balloons had to come down someplace Sara.....how fortunate for you all that they landed at Equinox Farm. I think her family would be delighted with the photos.
The grazing muzzle is the best contraption ever!
The balloons are very cool and make you realize spirits abound. Punkin's Patch had to be the PERFECT place for them to hook up!
Hickory is lovely! What a wonderful story too! As always your pictures give such life to your words.
Blessings and Sunshine,
Valerie
I will stick to UFOs in knitting thank you very much. That is too funny about the balloons. I haven't seen those grazing muzzles. I know a few alpacas that could use those!
The capture with both horses focused on the balloon bouquet is priceless!
There could not have been a more perfect place for the balloons to have landed. So good to see your horses - they are so beautiful. The balloon and horse pic is really nice :-)
I think that if your farm isn't Heaven, it's awfully close...........
As for finding the previous UFO -- I bet you tried the search in the list of posts? If you go to the "posts" page from the dashboard page for this blog, there's a search box near the upper right corner. I can find things by searching there, usually.
That was a nice and colorful UFO.
As for the other kind of UFO: In my family the ladies have formed a UFO-club where the aim is to finish all our unfinished objects (knitting, embroidery or crocheting - anything goes). So far it's been a roaring success with lots of success stories posten to our private Facebook group. Some people have even had to start new projects. Lots of fun too, no one leaves before midnight.
I believe the balloons in memory of the girl who lost her life, drifted to a lovely place....what could have been more perfect than to be among the beautiful farm and gorgeous animals! My idea of heaven......
Susan, yours is a beautiful comment!
And yes, I too think that you should contact the parents of the little girl.
Thanks to I Need Orange (once again :-) I found the other UFO post.
http://myfavoritesheep.blogspot.com/2009/06/something-we-all-suspected-was-going-to.html
Tim and I decided to contact the church on one of the other balloons and let them know where they ended and see what they thought about letting the family know. I'm torn in both directions.
I'd contact the family. It can't make them feel any more sad, and on a dreary day like today, could be just the piece of sunshine needed.
Very fitting that the balloons ended up amongst your animals in your pasture...I can't think of a better place:)
Being a Susan also :) I too agree with other Susan!!
Am also hoping you escape the weather that is swirling around your area ;(
Being a Susan also :) I too agree with other Susan!!
Am also hoping you escape the weather that is swirling around your area ;(
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