Dennis is scrawling madly on a yellow legal pad. He's got that "I'm designing something" look on his face. Is he working on the expansion to his orchard? Is he thinking about his new vegetable garden? Or the raspberry patch he's been threatening to plant for couple of years now? This is pretty much how my husband manages to get through the short cold days in the middle of the winter. You know, when you can't get a damn thing done outside. I'm going to hear that complaint a few more times before the spring.

I peer over his shoulder, and the breath rushes out of me in a long slow whoosh. Because what is drawn there is much better than all of the above. I see six large box stalls, and an aisle in between. Maybe even room for a vaulting barrel.

It's just a plan on a piece of paper. But we've made lots of plans on lots of pieces of paper over the years. And sometimes we like to stroll around our property and revel in the fruits of our imagination, and in what rolling up your sleeves can result in.

So today we are arguing about exactly where that new barn would go. And Dennis reminded me that just because the current plan has six stalls doesn't mean I can have six horses.

Unfortunately, we can't seem to agree on a barn site yet. But I expect we're going to have a very long time to hash this one out!