We found ourselves in a flurry of activity on Thursday and Friday preparing for the winter storm that was headed our way. We prepare for any winter storm (you will recall our half inch of snow sent this area into a panic a few weeks ago) as we don’t really have the equipment to deal with winter precipitation on any level. Quite frankly we just don’t get enough of the stuff to make it a worthwhile expense, so the roads aren’t plowed/salted/sanded with the exception of a few

To a non horse person it would seem odd that I can find something so mundane as watching horses drink water interesting . . . but I can! Just like people they all have their own little rituals that they observe while eating and drinking. Some of the horses savor their water like they are sipping fine wine. Chili and Apollo are two that come to mind with this approach. Just as the French think a meal should be eaten slowly and enjoyed, some horses feel the same about their

I am sorry I did not update my blog on my usual schedule. We’ve just been busy dealing with the romantic side of farming! Mostly trying to determine where the tiny leak is in over a thousand feet of water line. Life on a farm, always something to keep you entertained! We noticed about a week ago that the refill rate on the well was slower than normal (we have both well and city water on the farm). We called a well company to come out and take a look, but we had to wait a

You get used to not having holidays (or really any day) off when you run a farm. My Thanksgiving present to Jason was I handled all of the morning chores by myself so he could have a bit of a break. The horses were all exceptionally pleasant and cooperative, and it made for a very nice morning. The weather was pleasant as well, sunny with a light breeze. The horses and dogs gave me several nice Thanksgiving day pictures and I have shared some of our scenes from around the

We had more gorgeous weather this weekend, with our streak of 70’s and sunshine continuing. We are getting really spoiled with the weather the last few weeks. It was a great weekend for being outside and everyone on the farm, people and animals, were smiling. Today (Sunday) was Bear’s 10th birthday. He certainly doesn’t act any differently than he did when he was two! Bear celebrated his birthday in style. He had some pieces of ham and steak for his birthday dinner and o

Summer has arrived and we’ve been hot and humid this week. In addition to scrubbing and filling water troughs the afternoon ritual now includes water games with the horses. Some of the horses love to be sprayed down with the hose while others seem to take offense to it. Some of them, when I am trying to spray them along their bodies keep re-positioning themselves so the spray will go right in there faces. They will even open their mouths to catch some of the water. I see

I’ve managed to give myself a head cold and lose my voice crying off and on over Poco the last few days. I have to be honest in that I’m surprised at how hard this one has been for me. I’ve certainly been through this before and Poco and I very much had a love/hate relationship. Poco was ALL pony and quite the little stinker to deal with. He never seemed very appreciative about his sudden reversal of fortunes on that fateful flea market day. Rather he seemed to think it was a

It was a pretty quiet weekend around here. Friday was a busy day as our Lucky, Chili, Baby and Snappy #bear #jason #pictures

I was supposed to take #bear #pictures

We had another lovely weekend this weekend. The weather was wonderful all weekend. Friday the temperatures were in the high 60’s and Saturday and Sunday brought us temperatures in the low to mid 70’s. My only complaint was that it was bit windy on Sunday but really there wasn’t much to complain about. The horses were all loving the weather as were the chickens, goats, dogs and basically every animal on the farm. We spent a lot of time with Bear on the move this weekend Tony s

I’m sure there is no need for me to mention that I am way behind on sharing pictures! All of these pictures are from November. Jason and I just finished finalizing all of our 2008 information as we are meeting with our CPA tomorrow. Nothing puts me in a grouchier mood than dealing with taxes. So to cheer myself up I thought I would go through some pictures and post them. Levendi wanted to make sure I got a nice close-up picture of him #jason #bear #chainsaw #pictures #farmmai

I have to say this has not been the greatest week ever. Jason and I have BOTH had the flu. On Sunday evening we made our usual run to the grocery store. On the way home we both had a very light cough, I would compare it to when you have a tickle in your throat. By Monday morning Jason was really sick. He did not get out of bed from Sunday evening until Tuesday morning, spiking a fever of about 103 during that time. That is the first time I’ve EVER seen Jason not get out

This post has absolutely nothing to do with the horses, the farm, running a retirement farm or anything. It is yet another Now it was time to install the new toilet, which should be about a thirty minute job. Bear was our supervisor again, although from his expression in this picture I think he thought Jason was hopeless, or he was very unhappy about working on a Saturday again and decided to sleep on the job as protest. #bear #dad #jason

If only running a horse retirement farm was all about playing with the horses. It would make life absolutely perfect! Unfortunately there is a lot of other stuff that is involved in maintaining a farm that has nothing to do with horses. About a week ago I was feeding the horses one morning and I noticed this huge tree limb was down. It also happened to be over a fence line. Thankfully it was not touching the fence and hadn’t damaged the fence at all when it fell. I don’t have

I had somewhat of a frustrating, aggravating day today. The good parts of my day was the time spent with the horses. They were all in wonderful moods and put a smile on my face. The irritating parts of my day involved all of the other stuff involved in running a retirement farm. The stuff that isn’t as fun as playing with the horses. First I went ten rounds with my laptop as I wrestled with QuickBooks Pro while I was eating lunch. I was trying to generate a custom report and

What does plumbing have to do with a horse retirement farm? A lot when you realize one of your water lines has a leak!! To say we were both dreading tackling this job would be an understatement. I don’t know what we did to anger the fix-it gods of the universe, but it seems that whenever Jason and I tackle projects like this it always takes five times longer than it should and costs three times as much money. Such a little leak, but such a big problem! Digging the trench A li

We’ve all used the saying “it is really hard to get good help” at least once. The day to day things on the farm really aren’t as time consuming as most people expect them to be. Everyone always wants to know how many people we have helping on a daily basis. It isn’t feeding the horses, scrubbing and filling troughs, putting on blankets, grooming, stall cleaning, or any of the day to day things that are particularly hard or time consuming. We have the daily routine down and ge