Now for the flip side of it - before she retired, my wife was doing food sales to restaurants. Typically the mom-and-pop places and not so much the big chains. But the rule really was that if a restaurant owner put something healthy on the menu that people wouldn't buy it. Those little heart icons to indicate 'heart healthy'' are usually a big turn-off in terms of sales.

That being said, a lot of places will let you make healthy substitutions, but you have to ask. Substitute any vegetable for fries, for example.

Plowing behind a team of horses is pure bliss. I only got to do it once. A high point in my life.

I'm an oxen man myself.

My parents decided I needed re-education in the Maoist sense one summer and sent me to to work on a nearby farm. After one afternoon in the hay loft, I had to be hospitalized with asthma. After another afternoon in the hay loft, I had to be hospitalized with asthma. My parents could be total idiots when they chose.

How many?

I mowed the back lawn today, and threw a little sand/dirt mix on a couple of low spots.

If you had horses, and a farm, why didn't you do it more often?

If this covid nonsense continues I might have to dig my old mower out of the garage. I paid my lawn maintenance co. for April and the governor suspended landscaping services.

You're just trying to make me upchuck, aren't you?

Have two patty melts instead of one of those monstrosities.

Does a riding lawn mower count as a tractor?

When a teenage boy, a friend rang up for help in starting his mom's car that had a dead battery. He lived on a property that used to be a farm, and still had several barns and sheds, one shed which his mom used as a garage and which sat at the bottom of a slight hill. There was also a retired plow horse known as Old Nick, and an old Ford tractor from the 40s. His plan was to use the tractor to drag the car up the hill so we could then push it down to get it started. That plan came to a halt when we found the tractor had a dead battery also. What to do, what to do. Well there in a nearby pasture stood old Nick. I had never harnessed a horse in my life but had seen it done many times as a few farmers still used horses in working their fields. We got old Nick from the pasture and found the harness in the barn, a bit moldy but serviceable. The horse collar was easy to "install" but the traces we waited until standing next to the tractor. Throughout this operation Old Nick stood there, head low, rheumy eyes and sway back. As we figured out the traces, Nick began to perk up. In minutes Old Nick was gone in his place was this large and powerful animal with clear eyes, head held high and back straight. It was much like watching Clark Kent step into a phone booth and a moment later out steps the man of steel. And Nick he knew exactly what to do. As the last leather strap was attached, he leaned into the harness and in no time that tractor was at the top of the hill.

Well we got the tractor running and in turn the car but our best accomplishment that day was to rekindle memories in Nick of when he was a young powerful working horse.

Been there too. If I had to choose between that, and working with fiberglass insulation, I think I'd still pick the hayloft. By a hair.

They were my partner's horses. I asked if I could try. I learned, maybe not that day, where the saying ' I got my lines crossed' comes from. I had also done some discing with the horses.

👍👍

What a great story! Keep 'em coming. Work horses do love to work.

I'd take glass, as long as I had proper PPE. I was happier at the bottom of the elevator.

I was very asthmatic as a very young boy. By the time I was old enough to work on a farm asthma has subsided. Now in the last 10 years it has come back. If I ride the bike now with a mask my nose runs like a faucet and the mask is sopping wet and disgusting.

LAJ so sorry to hear. Crushing when we lose them.

If I still got to eat fajitas, I'd shamelessly order the fajitas for two for myself.

Only if your riding lawn mower looks like this.

https://live.staticflickr.com/4417/3...f4548d6e_h.jpg

Plus side is, when you use one of those to mow the lawn, you don't have to worry about picking up the sticks ahead of time.

Love fajitas, couldn't finish a shareable order by myself. Maybe 5 years ago, but not now.

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It looks like this


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...4f6d7da39f.jpg

Over many years I've become very fond of horses. They can be comedians and playful despite their size. They seem to exude a certain energy which is why some of us like to be around them and of course they like to be around people. It has been a partnership lasting between 5000 and 10,000 years and maybe more. A very good friend of mine was a quarter horse mix with a John Deere tractor. Which is to say he was not a beautiful animal on the outside but inside he was a prince. He was sweet and affectionate and named Chochise but his friends called him Coach.The video link is to two German girls having a day out with their horse, also a sweet animal.

More than one.

That's one of the creepier things I've seen in a while.