Having a Barn Doesn't Bring You Any Closer to Riding off into the Sunset

Most people know this. Yet this is the type of lesson I continually need to learn. Lyle says I'm a "romantic" and by that he doesn't mean the roses and hand-holding type of romantic. No, definitely not. He means the "if I put a sachet in my drawer my whole life will be pleasantly fragrant and lovely" type of romantic. And Lyle plays into it. When I said we needed a barn....because we needed horses.....because we live on acreage.... because people who live on acreage should have livestock, he willingly complied. He built me probably the cutest barn on the planet as evidenced here:

And when we got horses, my romantic heart pictured this:

When really my heart should have been picturing this. A whole lot of this.

But Lyle is not solely of a practical bent. When he got the dog cart for our noble Bernese Mountain Dog, I know he pictured something like this:

He drove down to Oregon to purchase this:

This cart that the "working class" Bernese dog is not hitched to. This cart that has Lyle looking somewhat frustrated. This cart that seems too big for our labrador retriever. Because when Olaf learned of Lyle's plan to turn him into a beast of burden, he gave him a look like this:

Which is why THIS is hanging in the gararge:

And THIS is lounging in the entryway.

Which brings us to why our horses are currently living with friends and why we're still no closer to riding off into the sunset.