Memorial Day 2019

Memorial Day. The beginning of summer. Picnics. Brat fests and beer. (Okay, in the Midwest.) But I can never forget the reason for the title.

I’m all on board about loving holidays and relaxing with friends and family. But I have to confess that, on some way, this is my least favorite holiday, given that it is in memory of so much suffering and sacrifice. But because of that, I also think it’s our most important holiday. Every Memorial Day I take some time by myself to honor those who have served our country–male, female, human, canine.

My heartfelt thank you to those of you who serve; I am of the opinion that we don’t begin to do enough for veterans and the families of those who have died in wars. If you’ve been in the service, please write in and tell us whatever you’d like us to hear. And if you can, please contribute to one of the many organizations that support veterans. This year I’m going to send money to a memorial for Women in the Military. No surprise they’ve never gotten the acknowledgement that they deserve.

Here, by the way, is an interesting article about the history of Memorial Day, including some information about dogs in the military.  I’ve written two other posts about dogs in the military that you also might find interesting, Memorial Day and Dogs in War in 2014 and a Well Deserved Honor for Military Dogs last year, in 2018.

MEANWHILE, back on the farm: The garden is glowing, although we won’t be enjoying a BBQ outside today, based on the dark sky and weather predictions of rain. More rain. Lots of rain. We’ve had so much rain already that we must be getting close to flooding again, but it sure has been nice not to have to water the plants I’ve added to the garden.

Nellie has been loving our being outside a lot. She wanted head scratches, I wanted a photo. Guess who got more of what she wanted?

Friday Maggie and I had two great herding lessons from a top handler, Faansie Basson. We have a lot to work on . . . no surprise there.

Here’s a portrait of some of the sheep we worked. I thought this ewe had such a lovely face.

I hope you have, or have had, a lovely day, full of friendship and gratitude. Let’s make it an entire week of that, what could be better than that?