Life at Traverse Creek Ranch

I see a pattern of what my days are going to be like now when it´s getting warmer every day. I´m getting up really early in the morning, which I definitely don´t mind, I feed the animals and work outside for 3-4 hours. After that it´s too warm for my pregnant body to do anything outside for some hours. I either run errands (thank you air condition!), work on my English, doing chores inside or simply taking a nap in the middle of the day. I kind of like being able to make my own schedule very much! In the late afternoon I go outside again to finish what I left undone in the morning.

Yesterday I decided to open the goat pen and let the goats roam free on the property. They know where they belong and always come here to get leftover vegetables from our meals. They are very social individuals J This morning I found all our goats in the yard. That wasn´t exactly where I wanted them to be.. They eat everything in their way! We got them so they could help us clear the property, not clear our garden. And of course we also got them because we love goats. They are funny animals! Very smart. I found the place in the fence where they climbed into our yard and fixed that.

I´ve been thinking a lot about motherhood and our family being bilingual today. My native language is Swedish and English is my secondary language. Philips native language is English and he speaks a number of other languages. I believe that knowledge about other languages and cultures are essential parts of a child’s education. Along with traveling and actually getting to know people from other cultures than our own definitely helps them to develop an open mind and the ability to think outside the box. My son Joel who is six years old (seven next month!) are a very quick learner and I´m sure it want be long until his English is much better than mine. He still spends a lot of time in Sweden and I´m not worried about him losing his native language. When he´s in California we speak Swedish when we´re alone and English when we´re with other people. I have been thinking about how I´m going to give our new baby two languages from the start. I think it will come naturally but I am definitely going to make it my priority right from the beginning. I am a Preschool Teacher and I have the theoretical knowledge of how to do it, I just never thought I would actually live in another country than Sweden and have personal use for that knowledge. Eventually I want to hire a Mexican Nanny a few hours a week, with the purpose of giving the children a third language as well.

Hope everyone out there have a great day, I do!

Love Maria

The horse on todays post is Lord Bowler. He´s one of our rescues. We currently have eight rescues. Three of them are riding horses, the other ones are happily retired (some of age and some because of permanent injuries.) Lord Bowler was at Traverse Creek for evaluation under saddle. Unfortunately injuries makes it impossible for him to do more than very light riding. He´s quite a character though! Always wanting attention, in your pocket horse. A few days ago we moved him to a richer pasture along with another older horse where they can be horses and have fun all day long.