I have finally started doing what I should have been doing all along—exercising on purpose. I started walking every morning while it is still relatively cool outside. I started off walking near my house and have now started walking further and further away, but still on the ranch. I have actually had people suggest to me that I get a treadmill so that I can walk inside. I have also had people suggest that I drive to town and walk on the track so that I can measure my distance and have a level, paved surface upon which to walk. Why would I want to do either of those things??I LOVE this ranch. I have expressed to my family on numerous occasions that I am pretty sure we live in a little bit of heaven on earth. Since I have been walking the ranch every day, I have realized that I had been loving it from afar. Walking the land every morning (and sometimes in the evenings) has allowed me to become much more intimately acquainted with it. When I was still walking near the house, I noticed a sunflower plant growing right beside the road. It grew quickly and developed a flower bud that looked like someone had pinched the petal ends together in a bundle. Just as I thought this flower would never actually bloom, one morning there was a beautiful yellow face there to reward me for walking. A couple of mornings later I had extended my route a bit to circle around behind our hunters’ camp. I had already made two circuits around and was nearing what counts as our front yard. I had one of those moments where your eyes are getting a signal but your brain has not quite computed what it means. When my brain finally kicked in, I stopped in my tracks and SCREAMED!!! There was a snake stretched across the road! As I was screaming, I looked up and down the length of the snake and recognized that he was non-venomous. In fact, it was a speckled king snake, who is immune to the venom of other snakes and who is known to eat other snakes. At about the time I recognized who this snake was, one of my dogs noticed him. Chaos ensued as I tried to get the dog off the snake and get my son outside to help me rescue this good snake and get him somewhere safe. That little incident illustrates why I tend to watch the ground as I walk. But the ground is such an interesting place on the ranch. We have sandy soil that makes a good record of who has been walking there, especially after a rain. Every morning, I see the footprints of deer, raccoons, skunks, fox, and a variety of other animals. I sometimes see the trails left as snakes slither through the loose sand, the drag marks bracketed by footprints left by the little striped lizards. Occasionally I will see a large hoofprint where there should be none. This is a mystery to me. Does the donkey sneak out at night to roam the ranch? Or do we have a visiting horse that comes around only as we sleep? So now I am wondering why I have been so resistant to this exercising. I see so many beautiful and interesting things. My thinking becomes so clear. My blood pressure has already started to drop. My energy levels are increasing. My weight has not budged so far, but that is the only disappointment. Meanwhile, I am spending a bit of time each day with this little bit of heaven and getting healthier with every step. That sounds like a winning proposition to me! springcreekartsguild@gmail.com