I'm going to try and have a weekly "Ask Pony" post. So I need questions! You can ask me anything. I will do my best to answer. I might answer seriously, or sarcastically, or goofily. You won't know until I answer. But I will do my best to answer every question I get unless and until I get so many I CAN'T answer them all, then I will pick and chose.
So send me your questions to: askpony@hotmail.com
Edit to add: I will be making a post later about this months give away! So watch this space for details on the item and on how to enter this time around!
Friday, January 2, 2009
PhoenixDown Farm, what IS in a name?
My little patch of God's Green Earth has gone through several names over the years. It started out as Caledonia Hills Farm back when I first bought it with my ex husband in the early 1990's. There wasn't really a reason or meaning behind that name, I just like the sound of it. Being a bit obsessed with all things Scottish I got the name from reading far too many books about Scotland and seeing it called Caledonia.
Somewhere during the years of my marriage to my ex my dreams of this ever being a farm of any type slowly faded and died as I realized that my dreams were never going to come true so I might as well just give up. For a while my farm had no name. But then my ex was kind enough to leave (I mean that sincerely, I was unable to realize it at the time but now I know his leaving was the second best gift he ever gave me. The best gift being my daughter, obviously).
After he left I decided my place needed a name again. I renamed it when I got it put entirely into my name, and I called it Braidwater Farm. Now this name has great meaning for me but it is hard to explain and put into words. It represents the way the paths of our lives are so entwined, the flow of life, and the futility of trying to control life instead of flow with it and make the best of the cards you have been dealt. That name lasted only a very short time, because then I fell for my husband and we married and I rented the place to his brother and sister in law and it went back to being nameless.
But when we started to talk about moving back I got the urge again. The urge to name my place. To give it a final name, one that would stick, one that would last, one that would have meaning for me and would represent something important for me.
So I named it after an item in a video game.
No, no! Don't laugh! It sounds silly and flippant but I put a lot of thought into this!
First, this game has huge meaning to me and to my husband. It's only, like, the video game we emotionally bonded over when we were just friends and before we became romantically involved. It ranks as one of the favorite video games of all time for both of us. Final Fantasy VII. Now the use of the item brings my farm name meaning as well. See, the Phoenix Down was an item that would revive a "knocked out" character. IE, it would bring them back to life if they got killed in battle.
The Phoenix is a mythical beast. According to Wiki: "A phoenix is a mythical bird with a tail of beautiful gold and red plumage (or purple and blue, by some sources [1]). It has a 600-800 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of cinnamon twigs that it then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again." It rises from the ashes of it's former life to start anew. let me tell you, as someone who had given up on ever having her hopes and dreams come true, that mythology has a LOT of appeal. For someone who spent a long time feeling dead inside, as if her heart and soul had been burned to ash... yeah.
BUT WAIT! That's not all! There is more! Most of my animals are rescues. Either i adopted them from a rescue or shelter, or I rescued them (from abusive or neglectful owners, or from the side of the road injured, or however they fell into my "nest"). Many animals I have rehabbed and rehomed, and many I have brought into my family. But in all of their cases they landed in my nest as ashes... damaged by their former life in some way... and comforted and nurtured here they were reborn into a new life where they would never be abused or neglected. A mother bird lines her nest with her own soft under feathers, the down. It gives her babies a soft warm place to live while they grow and develop and learn to fly. Or in the case of the Phoenix, to fly AGAIN.
I got the idea for this name not because it came from a video game I loved, but because when I looked at my late pony, Jamie, I remembered where he came from, how he was when I bought him, and how he had been given a new life with me... and the Phoenix just seemed such a wonderful representation of that. Even if I buy my next horse, this place will always have the heart of a rescue. Some day I want to foster for Chance's Miniature Horse rescue. Maybe do pony and mini horse rescue on my own.
I look at my dogs, the one from a rescue and the other from the shelter... and at my cats, two which I bottle fed for weeks because their stray mother was hit by a car in front of my house when they were 6 hours old, two who were abandoned by their stray mother in our carriage house at 2 weeks old, one who was born to a cat who was given to me by an owner who didn't want her any more and she promptly dropped 5 kittens in my bedroom (she and 4 of the kittens found new homes and one stayed here with me. He will get his own entry some day, hehe). I look at them, and how their lives rose from the ashes, and I look at my own life and the way *I* have been reborn and I know why I call this Place PhoenixDown Farm.
I think this name is going to stick.
Somewhere during the years of my marriage to my ex my dreams of this ever being a farm of any type slowly faded and died as I realized that my dreams were never going to come true so I might as well just give up. For a while my farm had no name. But then my ex was kind enough to leave (I mean that sincerely, I was unable to realize it at the time but now I know his leaving was the second best gift he ever gave me. The best gift being my daughter, obviously).
After he left I decided my place needed a name again. I renamed it when I got it put entirely into my name, and I called it Braidwater Farm. Now this name has great meaning for me but it is hard to explain and put into words. It represents the way the paths of our lives are so entwined, the flow of life, and the futility of trying to control life instead of flow with it and make the best of the cards you have been dealt. That name lasted only a very short time, because then I fell for my husband and we married and I rented the place to his brother and sister in law and it went back to being nameless.
But when we started to talk about moving back I got the urge again. The urge to name my place. To give it a final name, one that would stick, one that would last, one that would have meaning for me and would represent something important for me.
So I named it after an item in a video game.
No, no! Don't laugh! It sounds silly and flippant but I put a lot of thought into this!
First, this game has huge meaning to me and to my husband. It's only, like, the video game we emotionally bonded over when we were just friends and before we became romantically involved. It ranks as one of the favorite video games of all time for both of us. Final Fantasy VII. Now the use of the item brings my farm name meaning as well. See, the Phoenix Down was an item that would revive a "knocked out" character. IE, it would bring them back to life if they got killed in battle.
The Phoenix is a mythical beast. According to Wiki: "A phoenix is a mythical bird with a tail of beautiful gold and red plumage (or purple and blue, by some sources [1]). It has a 600-800 year life-cycle, near the end of which it builds itself a nest of cinnamon twigs that it then ignites; both nest and bird burn fiercely and are reduced to ashes, from which a new, young phoenix or phoenix egg arises, reborn anew to live again." It rises from the ashes of it's former life to start anew. let me tell you, as someone who had given up on ever having her hopes and dreams come true, that mythology has a LOT of appeal. For someone who spent a long time feeling dead inside, as if her heart and soul had been burned to ash... yeah.
BUT WAIT! That's not all! There is more! Most of my animals are rescues. Either i adopted them from a rescue or shelter, or I rescued them (from abusive or neglectful owners, or from the side of the road injured, or however they fell into my "nest"). Many animals I have rehabbed and rehomed, and many I have brought into my family. But in all of their cases they landed in my nest as ashes... damaged by their former life in some way... and comforted and nurtured here they were reborn into a new life where they would never be abused or neglected. A mother bird lines her nest with her own soft under feathers, the down. It gives her babies a soft warm place to live while they grow and develop and learn to fly. Or in the case of the Phoenix, to fly AGAIN.
I got the idea for this name not because it came from a video game I loved, but because when I looked at my late pony, Jamie, I remembered where he came from, how he was when I bought him, and how he had been given a new life with me... and the Phoenix just seemed such a wonderful representation of that. Even if I buy my next horse, this place will always have the heart of a rescue. Some day I want to foster for Chance's Miniature Horse rescue. Maybe do pony and mini horse rescue on my own.
I look at my dogs, the one from a rescue and the other from the shelter... and at my cats, two which I bottle fed for weeks because their stray mother was hit by a car in front of my house when they were 6 hours old, two who were abandoned by their stray mother in our carriage house at 2 weeks old, one who was born to a cat who was given to me by an owner who didn't want her any more and she promptly dropped 5 kittens in my bedroom (she and 4 of the kittens found new homes and one stayed here with me. He will get his own entry some day, hehe). I look at them, and how their lives rose from the ashes, and I look at my own life and the way *I* have been reborn and I know why I call this Place PhoenixDown Farm.
I think this name is going to stick.
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Happy New Year! And some of my plans for this blog.
Hurray, it's 2009.
It's a whole new year! Which, from the looks of things, is going to be an very interesting year indeed. Personally I prefer living in boring times to living in interesting ones, but that is just me. And I have to admit, some of the changes going on in the world at large are interesting and exciting.
Love him or hate him, Obama as our next president is history making in many ways. The roller coaster ride of our economy is like a mix between a horror show and a dark comedy. The Middle East as a whole is a powder keg just waiting to explode (like it has been for thousands of years but now we can be right in the middle of it and get live updates as it happens). The price of everything seems to be skyrocketing while income tanks and businesses fail and the government seems intent on bailing out everyone but the common middle class or lower folks whose spending actually drives the economy and whose tax dollars will be PAYING for the bail outs.
No matter HOW you feel about all of these things you have to admit, it is a pretty interesting time to be alive.
I'd love it if it was a little bit LESS interesting. Hehe.
So, what does that have to do with me, and this blog? Well, let me explain... sometimes when the bigger world outside your door gets crazy it helps to spend some time doing something you love, and working towards a goal for yourself. That is what I am doing and that is part of what this blog is designed to do. Hopefully it will generate a little income thanks to my kind advertisers, but more importantly it will be a place for me to track my progress and keep my ideas foremost in my mind.
One thing that I need to do in order to help my goals become a reality is... get readers. Yes, I am going to be honest here. I want folks to read my blog, and I want them to keep coming back. In order to achieve this I am going to have a few different things going on.
The first of which will be a monthly give away! Each month will be something different, and the way you enter will change from month to month. The second thing will be a weekly advice post. I will post the details on each of these in their own post when I am ready. So spread the word, and watch this page for details!
It's a whole new year! Which, from the looks of things, is going to be an very interesting year indeed. Personally I prefer living in boring times to living in interesting ones, but that is just me. And I have to admit, some of the changes going on in the world at large are interesting and exciting.
Love him or hate him, Obama as our next president is history making in many ways. The roller coaster ride of our economy is like a mix between a horror show and a dark comedy. The Middle East as a whole is a powder keg just waiting to explode (like it has been for thousands of years but now we can be right in the middle of it and get live updates as it happens). The price of everything seems to be skyrocketing while income tanks and businesses fail and the government seems intent on bailing out everyone but the common middle class or lower folks whose spending actually drives the economy and whose tax dollars will be PAYING for the bail outs.
No matter HOW you feel about all of these things you have to admit, it is a pretty interesting time to be alive.
I'd love it if it was a little bit LESS interesting. Hehe.
So, what does that have to do with me, and this blog? Well, let me explain... sometimes when the bigger world outside your door gets crazy it helps to spend some time doing something you love, and working towards a goal for yourself. That is what I am doing and that is part of what this blog is designed to do. Hopefully it will generate a little income thanks to my kind advertisers, but more importantly it will be a place for me to track my progress and keep my ideas foremost in my mind.
One thing that I need to do in order to help my goals become a reality is... get readers. Yes, I am going to be honest here. I want folks to read my blog, and I want them to keep coming back. In order to achieve this I am going to have a few different things going on.
The first of which will be a monthly give away! Each month will be something different, and the way you enter will change from month to month. The second thing will be a weekly advice post. I will post the details on each of these in their own post when I am ready. So spread the word, and watch this page for details!
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