Painted ponies

I have a couple of painted ponies in my living room. I have another in my barnyard. The following website tells the story of the painted ponies that have found their way to my living room. (http://www.trailofpaintedponies.com/thetrail.htm) My cousin Barb from Phoenix introduced me to these exquisite pieces of equine art when she sent me my first pony and a book to go with it.

I purchased my second pony while on a layover in Phoenix Airport a couple of years ago. I'd love to keep adding to the collection, but it's just another of those things on the "to do" list. After all, when I spend nearly a whole day painting the new board fence, how would I have time to sit down and order my third painted pony-----but wait!

I didn't need to order. I have a real live painted pony without spending $29.95. She's a work in progress, and when I'm all done, I'll take her picture and show you just how easy it is to bypass the retail stores and to have your very own, totally unique model. I'm sure no one else in the world has one like my Lily.

Lily likes to help people. She spent the morning helping Bill nail more boards on the fence---now, we're down to 25 left to go. As Bill's carpenter assistant, Lily did a lot of supervising, but she spent some time with the tools too.

If Bill happened to lay the hammer on a post while getting a new board, Lily removed it with her educated lips. If Bill didn't notice right away, Lily pounded the hammer (into the ground) with her front hooves. We hadn't planned to nail any boards on the ground, but if we did, Bill had an assistant with plenty of practice with ground hammering.

When I came home from coffee cult yesterday, I changed into my paintin' clothes. Since it was white fence paint, I just turned my white sweatshirt inside out and figured if paint dripped on it, nobody would know. It's not quite the same situation with horses' noses and ears, though, unless they're all white.

Prior to yesterday, Lily already had a pretty nice coat pattern, but today she's lookin' just a little different with a lot more chrome on that face and those ears. See, Lily got bored from helping Bill nail boards, so she joined me as I painted boards. I told her to get away cuz she was going to get paint on her face. But horses don't look in the mirror.

So, Lily didn't show much interest in removing herself from the painting action. I took great care to keep the brush away from her, but she failed to take great care in checking my fence artwork up close and personal.

One time I told her it was time to go help Bill again. To my surprise, she listened. She immediately ambled over his way and resumed her carpenter's assistant role of supervision and hammer pounding. Later, however, she got bored again and returned to the board I was painting. That big white glob in her ear looks pretty good, and those new white spots on her nose might wash off in the water trough.

Lily also played a little pied piper role during yesterday's painting festivities. Her face makeover looked so appealing that Kiwi (who gets very jealous of the attention shown to Lily) decided she needed a new "do" too. So, now I not only have a painted pony in the barnyard, but I've also got a painted border (get it--bored's and boards) collie who chases coffee cans.

All in a day's work at the Lovestead. Oh yeah, our fence looks pretty good in spite of the unpaid help.