Nothing is more fun than spending time each evening with the World’s Cutest Fainting Goats. Jason has been rebuilding the floor on one of the flatbed trailers and it has been parked by the barn during this process. Miss Lyle has loved having this new piece of equipment to explore. Almost every evening we see her jump onto the trailer to check the world out from different perspective. On Saturday evening Cloudy the cat was grooming himself on the trailer and Miss Lyle had

I recently did a post on how we do feeding time at the farm. Sometimes after the meal is much more interesting than feeding time. I’ve posted many pictures of Sam walking around licking the air after eating. As requested I finally took a video of him in action. He will keep this up for a good 20 minutes most days. Even as his group moves out after a meal to get back to grazing Sam is walking with them while licking away. When everyone else starts grazing Sam usually sta

(post by Jason) We still answer a lot of questions about our new farm even though it doesn’t feel all that new to us at this point. We’ve found that the questions tend to be similar with the common them revolving around why we chose that particular piece of land and the location. We chronicled our search for a new farm on this blog and everyone knows that Melissa and I had many “discussions” about many tracts of land. After we had spent two years searching for the right land

Fonzi, George, Gus, Asterik, Chimano and Romeo. You have to love the mud colored grey horses. Toledo, Rampal and Rocky in the background Chance George and Romeo napping, Asterik eating hay Faune, Chimano, Winston and Fonzi Lily, Norman and MyLight Lighty and Murphy playing Jason with Jo, Mina and Miss Lyle Jo, Mina, Bubba and Miss Lyle passing a lazy afternoon Levendi, Elfin and Hemi #video

When Melissa’s not organized she is almost certainly in a BAD mood. I am almost the complete opposite of this. When someone decides that I need help in order to get myself better organized it’s almost certain to put me in a bad mood. If you sense that this could be pretty awkward, you’d be correct but most of the time we are able to find some middle ground in this muddle. However this week it’s definitely my turn to be in a bad mood because Melissa is in organizational overdr

It is hard to believe that another year has passed. 2011 was an outstanding year for us in many ways. We completed a lot of building projects at the new farm including a few miles of fence, a couple more barns and several more water lines. Not to mention water lines, driveway and the myriad of other things that come along with new construction. Anyone who has followed this blog for any length of time is very familiar with our construction projects that did not always go a

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! As usual on the holidays we worked today. It was a beautiful day in middle Tennessee and I was appreciative to be out enjoying the day and working with the horses. As I walked around the farm this morning feeding and doing chores I took some time to really admire the views which are much easier to see these days with the trees missing their leaves. I am blessed to own and work in such a beautiful place (although I will admit to complainin

We had a big temperature change this week. On Tuesday it was 85 degrees and sunny. On Wednesday the temperature reluctantly reached 50 degrees late in the day and it was overcast, windy and threatening to rain. We set a record as I decided we should put rain sheets on the horses. We’ve never used blankets in October before. Thankfully in another day we’re supposed to be back to our normal temperatures. Apparently the horses did not get the memo that we were there to save

As Jason mentioned a few days ago we have had a lot of gravel trucks coming and going lately. I lost count after 20 or so loads. We needed to finish putting gravel on the driveway. We had been But now our redneck driveway is gone and we actually have a functional driveway another before . . . . . . and after one of our beautiful curves that we almost straightened out over a stupid rock Thankfully the curve stayed; we started with crush and run as you can see here and then

Finally we can say Mission Accomplished! Everyone is now happily grazing in their pasture at the new farm as of yesterday. As always everything went smoothly and the horses loaded and unloaded easily. The first order of business for finalizing this move was relocating the Big Boys to a different pasture. On Friday morning they went for an after breakfast stroll and we led them to a different pasture. In Big Boy form they ran around for a few minutes acting like they were

In addition to some pictures I also remembered to take several videos recently. Enjoy the sights and scenes from the last few days. I love being able to watch the horses play, groom and explore as a part of my job every day! Lately I see Clayton and Toledo “horsing around” almost every day Johnny and Rampal had a long grooming session Faune and Winston exploring in the woods – a favorite activity in the afternoons This is a typical morning scene with Chimano and Silver, they

Instead of March Madness this post will be media madness. Enjoy the videos and pictures and I hope everyone has a great weekend! As you can see from the video and pictures below Miracle is doing well and seems to be pretty happy with life! ______________________________ Miracle and Sky running around in the arena Geldings being frisky; the main “players” are Rampal, Johnny and Tiny Chimano and Asterik playing #video

The work of spring started a few weeks ago with pasture maintenance and re-seeding. However I know it is really spring when I have calluses on my hands from the shedding blade. And as I type not only do I have calluses on my hands but my hands are actually both tired and sore from gripping the shedding blade so much today! Some of the horses are shedding a lot and some are shedding a little but the shedding blade, shedding daisy and curry combs are all working overtime the

Over the last few years of living on a retirement farm a few common themes have emerged. When horses first arrive their owners are typically very worried about the same thing. Without question the two most common concerns are transitioning out of shoes and transitioning to living out 24/7. We have some stall boarders here but even the stall boarders are out of their stalls more than they are in them, which in my opinion is the right way to do stall board. Coming in at a close

One of the things I enjoy doing the most is simply watching the horses. It is good for the soul to watch happy and content horses just hanging out. All weekend long it seemed everywhere you looked you could see horses grooming each other, horses napping and horses playing. These are sights that can be seen most any day, but sometimes I forget to take the time to simply watch and enjoy the sights. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me more often than I did this wee

A lot of Jason’s friends have asked “how is Melissa handling the snow?” I’ll admit I’ve done my share (more than my share) of complaining. However the horses have been having a ball and it has been fun watching them. At least someone is enjoying the snow! It seems every time I turn around I’m watching horses make horsie snow angels, playing, frolicing and generally having a grand time. I had ordered a couple of solar heated water troughs several weeks ago for the one pasture

The horses have been very cooperative subjects lately and I’ve had the opportunity to take a lot of fun videos in addition to the pictures. I’m thinking four videos is probably more than enough for one post! I am happy to say I have not made one single trip to a mall or other crowded retail location in order to do my Christmas shopping, however I will be the first to say I don’t do much shopping. My family has never been the type where you feel the pressure to find the perfec

Today we moved another group of horses to the new farm. Of course I had been checking the weather forecast every 10 seconds for the last few days trying to make sure we were prepared appropriately for whatever weather might present itself. Well, every 10 seconds we seemed to have a different forecast. 70% chance of rain and a high of only 40 degrees (just under 5 Celsius for our Canadian friends). Then it was 50% chance of rain and a high of about 45 degrees (7C). Then it was

The pastures have been very colorful the last few days as more often than not the horses have had their clothes on this week. To say I have not been a happy camper the last couple of days would be an understatement. Get ready for it folks, the next 90 days are going to chock full of me endlessly whining and complaining about being cold. For me anything under about 45 degrees means it is time to break out the long underwear. I was not happy to be pulling out the long underwear

We had a nice rainfall late last night and through the morning this morning. For some reason rain is guaranteed to make the horses wild at feeding time and this morning was no exception. In addition to getting rained on feeding time takes twice as long as it should ( so you get to “enjoy” the rain even more!) as the horses romp and frolic around and generally act like idiots. We call it the rain stupids around here. The rain cleared out mid morning and then the wind moved