Rock Reflection Ritual - Tractor

 Rock Reflection Ritual 

Driving the tractor to move sand is not one of my strongest skills, but for some reason, I absolutely love it!

Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner 

On this particular day, I wanted to spread sand for Onyx, as his feet were sore on the gravel in his drylot! He had recently chipped off his long toes, and he was showing us that he hurt!

Fyi: I am well aware that self-trimming is a controversial practice! I will tackle that subject in another blog! 

Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner 

My hope was that his soles were just not use to the gravel, yet. However, I also started to treat his frogs for thrush, along with deep, clean bedding, pain meds and supplement support! 

Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner 

My first load of sand was pretty easy to scoop up! I was incredibly surprised at how full I got it! Not every scoop was that easy! In fact, I had more fails than I care to remember, but I carried on! 

Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner 

Thoughts of my dad came to mind as I got into the rhythm of scooping sand, moving sand, and dropping the sand as evenly as I could while backing up!

Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner 

My dad would have celebrated with me! In fact before my dad died, he saw me driving a tractor he gave us! It was an old, big, blue Ford! The breaks were going out on it, but with lots of practice and persistence I learned to drive it!

He took pictures of me in yhat humongous beast and made me a keepsake photo album with those pictures! My heart was very happy remembering his joy when he gifted me the album! 

Photo by Debbie Soderberg 

My goal was to make a path over the gravel, so Onyx would move comfortably and more! I wanted him off the pain meds as soon as possible! 

Success, I had completed one side of the drylot! I knew I was slow, compared to others, but it felt so good to see my progress! It was time to tackle the otherside! 

Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner 

It seemed like a lot was left for me to do, so I increased the speed on the tractor! Oh boy, I was literally cooking with gas, now! Woot-woot! 

 

Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner 

As I scooped up the next load, my tires spun, hard! Oops! I suspect the extra speed caused me to loose the timing I had been use to! As I backed out of the sand pile, I realized 2 things! 

First, I was stuck! I couldn't go forward or backwards! 

Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner 

Second, in the largest scoop ever, I had a passenger! A sand covered, large toad magically appeared from the sand! 

In that moment, I was ever so grateful that I had gotten stuck, because it forced me to slow down inorder to problem solve my dilemma! Since, I slowed down, I saw the toad! What a gift slowing down can be! 

Not everything has to be done quickly! 

Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner 

I attempted to carefully drop the bucket. Not easy, cause it can be jerky when lowering a heavier load. Also, I am still learning the appropriate feel and timing of the controls! 

I usually just laugh when it is jerky, but I had a special passenger and wanted to move him to a safe area! Fortunately,  I was successful!  I was able to keep him in my sight and I safely moved him to a safer location.  I put him under a pallet not far from the cool sand! 

Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner 

After the toad was safe, I had to figure out how to get unstuck. I decided to drop the heavy load of sand, so I could use the loader to back myself out of the hole I had accidentally dug! 

The hole occured because I didn't realize that when I had moved the speed lever from the turtle speed toward the rabbit speed the tires would effectly dig a hole I could not get out off! 

Interestingly,  speeding up, slowed me down!

I still had so much to learn, but I was still having fun!

Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner 

After freeing the toad, and the tractor successfully, I actually was braver! I tested my skills by smoothing out the sand with the bottom of the bucket, as I backed up! It turned out beautiful! 

Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner 

After I finished hauling sand to the pen, I decided to try smoothing out the areas where I had accidentally created deep holes and ruts in the dirt and gravel! I confidently used my new skills to drag it and smooth it out! Another successful experience! 

Photo by Debbie Soderberg Kirchner 

I let Onyx out of his run-in stall to see what he thought of the sand! It was so worth the time, effort and struggles, because Onyx was moving comfortably on the deep sand! (Update: A few days later, he was moving soundly again!)

What have you been hesitant to do, but once finished with the task, you felt an incredible amount of accomplishment and gratitude? 

Please don't let fear stop you from being and doing your best! If you need to go slow, go slow! Speed up when you can, slow down when you must, but always keep going!

If I can drive a tractor and spread sand out successfully, you can do and achieve anything you can dream of!

Manifest a magical day! 

With gratitude!