It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

and I'm not READY!!!!! Ok, it's only been two months since my last post. Great way to keep on top of things. Let's see.....we went back to court with the neighbors from hell. Both brothers were convincted of trespassing, and one of assault and battery (on Jim). They are now under court order to leave us alone. We'll see how long that lasts, but we're talking jail time if they violate it.

I finally sold my palamino gelding. Apparently, it took 6 men and week to get him to ride again. They were warned. They finally put a rodeo rider on him. Anyway he's back riding as before, and sold to a guy who is aware he has to ride him daily. I bought a Paso Fino/Tennessee Walker cross mare who we named Bella. I am beginning to adore her. She's a little spooky, but rides like a dream even by herself. Gabby and I are going to put jingle bells on the horses on Christmas Eve and deliver cookies to our neighbors for fun. I'll try and get some pictures of that.

My father in law is working pretty steady on the beginnings of our winery. He's ordered twenty vines to be delivered in March/April. We'll order twenty more once those are in. Once we get the hillside done, we'll take stock and see how we doing. We have a buyer for the grapes. He's also interested in blueberries and raspberries. I'm hoping that down the road, this will enable Jim to retire early and "work the land."

My Bella:

Horse Show Pictures

The Big Winners

Forever and A Day.........

#42 ROCKS!!!

What happened to my little guy?

It seems like that is how long it has been since I've posted to my blog. It seems (like everything else right now), posting has take a back seat to life in general. We've had HORRENDOUS neighbor problems, as far as ending up in court. To date we have been served well by the law (class and education help, too). Dan has kept me busy with football practice and games. He has practice three time a week and games Thursday and Friday nights. He play 8 quarter (for those that are not football junkies, he play JV and second line defence for varsity at West Lincoln High). He's a good, talented player, and we can't be more proud of him. Gab's been busy with school and horse-back riding. She went to the Gaston Open Show, and placed really well with a 4th, 2 seconds, and a first, plus high point division winner for the night. Our lives are full, but I'm enjoying every minute.

A New Start

We were contacted by a friend of Jim's Aunt Jackie and Uncle George a few weeks ago regarding one of their race horses. This six year old Thoroughbred gelding was ready for retirement. After some thought, we decided to retire him here at the farm. Shipping problem aside (he was at the Ocala West Training Facility), he arrived last Thursday morning. His name is Calsby, and he is huge! He is a big teddy bear, though. He leads well, and comes running to you in the pasture. On the downside, his feet are a mess, and he's a cribber. We'll have him evaluated in couple of months for retraining. He does have arthritis in his front leg, but maybe he can trail ride. Dakota leaves on Friday for the sale in South Carolina, so I'll be back to my normal number of horses. Still looking for a replacement for him, we'll see.....

It's a NO GO!

Say Goodbye.....

Well, after a week at home, being line lunged, and ridden in the round pen, Dakota (my palamino gelding with the issues) decided to take off with me on him Friday. It was extremely scary, especially when he tried to rub me off on the crape myrtle tree. I guess that was preferable to being beheaded by the clothesline behind it. I was/am extremely upset. To top things off, I tore the muscle/ligament in my right calf just like the left I did two months ago. It's not as bad, although the bruising is somewhat colorful. Jim and I were planning a trail ride with both horses, needless to say he rode off on Copper, and Dakota went back in the pasture. You would think that after four horses in the last two years, I would have found a good one by now. I am not having the best of luck in that area. Thank God for Copper! I probably would have given up by now if I didn't have him to ride.

I have had my truck wired with a brake box recently, but found that my horse trailer had been "modified" with the wrong plug. I took the trailer in yesterday, and had it rewired so the brakes would work on the trailer. Very helpful when hauling! I don't know what the reasoning was for the past wiring situation, but now it's fixed, and we're safe to travel.

I'll keep posting on my ongoing horse saga. Pray for a good one!

Horse Update!

I've spent most of the week at my friend Lynne's barn watching her work on Dakota, my palomino gelding. He really was a mess when he first got there. We can't figure out what had him so worked up, but he has calmed down greatly, and I actually line lunged him myself yesterday, and rode him! This a huge improvement from a week and half ago. He still a little nervous around the mounting block, but we'll continue to work on it at home. Gabby has a riding lesson tomorrow, and I'll work him in the morning, and hopefully ride him, then I'll bring him home.

Jim has invited a couple of families from his office over tomorrow afternoon for atv riding and a BBQ. I'm off to "clean up".

Jim's Vegetable Garden

Before....

After.....

I thought I'd post the garden progress. Jim enjoys planning and planting this every year. It's a real stress reliever for him (plus he's real proud of it!). We have 37 (yes, 37) tomato plants this year. As one who is allergic to tomatoes, I'm wondering what exactly I'm supposed to do with all of them. However, I will enjoy the rest, so will everyone else we know.

I spent yesterday at my friend Lynne's barn. Dakota is there at horse boot camp. He seems to be improving, but he hasn't been ridden yet. I've had great success with him on the ground, but get on him and he blows up. We'll see what tomorrow brings. I arrived at the barn in time to see Dr. Martin (vet) doing a pregnancy check on Lynne's mare Bonee. She's definitely pregnant! Yippee!!!! Lynne is so excited. There were also 300 plus bales on hay waiting to be put up in her barn. That took up most of the morning, ouch! We did go out for a nice lunch, then worked Dakota until I had to leave. She (not me) will be riding him on Wednesday. I'll update to outcome.....

Such a long time....

since my last post. So much has occurred. The biggest is that spring is finally here! We have been busy planting. I have been working on the flower beds for two years, and I'm finally starting to see some results (and conquer the weeds). Jim has planted the vegetable garden, and we have corn, snap peas, carrots, green peppers, broccolli, cauliflower, cukes, and watermelon sprouting. There are going to be a lot of lucky recipients of free veggies this year once again. I have moved the horses to the front pasture for the summer. I really enjoy having them where I can see them. Right now, I'm only seeing one as my palomino is at boot camp at Lynne's barn for bad behavior. Seems he came out of the winter thinking he is retired. Hopefully, he come out of it. If anyone can do it, Lynne can. As you can see from the pictures above, I had a wonderful Mother's Day gift this year. I am the proud owner of a horse trailer! It's a wonderful addition to my horse stuff collection. Really, we'll be able to trail ride in the area, and Gabby will be able to show more often than she does now. Now, we're just waiting for school to be done so we can enjoy the summer.....

Zoey and Homer

Growing.....

by two more. We purchased two more young pygmy goats this weekend, a buck and a doe. I felt bad that Oscar (Matilda's baby) was going to be alone as he needs to be weaned now. Once I got to the Reep's, with Dan and Gabby, they each picked one out so we came home with two. All the goats are being extremely loud. I guess you can't blame them. We've moved their pen to a new barn and put two unrelated goats in with them. The boys seem to be okay except Oscar who at some points wants his mama. Matilda keeps chasing Zoey (the new doe) around to assert her dominance. It's like a furry republic, or should I say dictatorship down there. I sure it will all resolve itself in a couple days, but what a lot of complaining.

Mom and Dad were here for the week. It's always great to see them. I think they are postponing their move here. I don't think they are ready for retirement. We went Saturday to look at mountain land at "preconstruction" prices. It was a beautiful area, but definitely not them. I looked around the woods, and had flashbacks of clearing the vicinity of snakes before Mom would step out the door in Clarks Summit. Well, they looked, said NO, and we left. It was fun being together though.

It's warming up. My flower beds are a disaster. Better get a move on.....

Fun and Games in the Country

A Week of Fun and Games

Well, I always thought we'd end up with ATVs at one time or another. Jim and Dan came home with TWO the other day. Dan has a racing one, and Jim a utility. I close my eyes every time Dan goes by at high rates of speed. The amount of mud he accumulates on himself and the bike is amazing, but he and his dad are having fun together. During all this excitement, Gabrielle finally got her wish of a trampoline. It's turning out to be a wonderful place for her to release her stress, plus it's great exercise.

We also purchased a manure spreader (I know, whoopee!), but it's actually quite wonderful, and does away with the smelly piles. It also provides great natural fertilizer. It took me two hours to assemble it which we will not go into further.

Jim came to me yesterday with a picture of the horse HE wants. Needless to say, I'm shocked. We have two already, but he's decided that he wants a white with black spots or leopard Appaloosa. It may take my friend Lynne a while to find one, but I'm sure she will be able to.

Mom and Dad will be here in a week. I can hardly wait to see them.

Our Newest Addition

On Monday, I was greeted by the most pleasant suprise in the barn. A tiny newborn goat was waiting. I couldn't have missed the birth by a 1/2 hour. After taking care of the vetrinary stuff, everything looked great. Both mama and baby are doing great. A little confusion occured on sexing the kid, but it's definitely a little boy. I believe that this is her first, being that she only had one. Most goats, after the first, have two, but can have three or four. I have named him Oscar. The lack of nursing concerned me, but I was able to corner Matilda, and point Oscar in the right direction. They both got the hang of it relatively quickly. It's been fun to watch him mature over the past few days. He's got his feet under him, and has no fear of people. He loves to be scratched, and gum your pants and shoelaces. Our farm is producing! Not exactly what Jim had in mind, but fun none the less.

Coming Out of the Dark Ages

Matilda in February '07

Matilda in November '06

Finally, Bellsouth/AT&T has brought DSL to our extremely rural area. It's not the fastest that you can have, but I'll take it. Having had high speed in Charlotte, then downgrading to 22 kbs when we moved here, my patience has been running a little thin. Perhaps we are moving forward in the country!

On a more interesting note, one of our pygmy goats (Matilda) appears to be pregnant. We were told when we bought them that they had just started letting the bucks in with the does. She is looking very large with her udder filling out over the last week or so. Pygmy goats can appear pregnant and not be, but the udder development has led me to believe that she is going to have kids (hopefully no more that two). Jenny is definitely not pregnant. Thank goodness, I don't think I could handle more than just one pregnant goat.

The horses are shedding like wildfire with the lengthening of the days. I hope spring does come early. I know I wished for snow, but all we've had is really cold weather for an extended period of time with no precipitation. Yuck!

I'm still having issues with my meds. I don't like feeling this way. Back to the Dr.'s on the 9th of March.

The Invasion

I recently noticed a pattern of destruction in my tack room. Every morning the cat food bin would be relocated to a different area of the room. Usually this was upside down with contents spilled all over the floor. Since the cats were still looking for food even with the availability of the buffet in the tack room, I could only conclude that we had varmits! I purchased a humane trap at Southern States this weekend, and set it. Day One: 1 small raccoon (too cute to do away with) Set free a few miles up the road. Day Two (today): 1 large raccoon (too humble to do away with. Set free in Cleveland County. I need to rinse the trap, so I won't set it up tonight. I'll keep you posted on the tally.

We've had more visitors since my last post. Jim's cousins Steven and Mary (and two of the four kids) stopped in on their way to a wedding. We haven't seen them since the reunion in '94. We've all aged (in a good way, of course). It seems that we are becoming a popular stopping place for the relatives which is nice. We are seeing people we haven't seen in ages.

Finished Interior Wall

The Upper Barn

All's Quiet on the Western Carolina Front

The holidays are over, and the company's gone. The in-laws have left after six months, although they did go to Chicago and Florida in that time period. They should be back sometime in August for another five. In the meantime, we enjoying our "alone" time. Soon we will be visited by Jim's cousin Steven and wife Mary, Stephanie, and Tommy. That's next week. Then Mom and Dad will be here in March while the coach is being serviced in Gaffney. I hope it's warm enough to enjoy their visit, although I always look forward to seeing them.

The weather has turned colder. The forecasters are talking, hinting that we could see snow next week. That would be enjoyable. We haven't see snow for two years. Have great hills for sledding, but we haven't been able to try it out yet. I don't mind the cold as long as it's not windy.

The new barn is coming along, and if my pictures could post I'd post some here, but I keep getting a server error from Google. I hope that gets resolved soon. We're going to start on the back walls this weekend. I'll be moving the horses to the back forty next week for the rest of the winter. I need to fertilize the pasture up here, and expand the space. We're going to go for permanent wood fencing as soon as Jim finds an auger.

The Joys of Country Living

Well, it finally happened. Our 50 year old septic system backed up after the last big rain. It wouldn't have been such a big deal except we didn't know where the tank was located. Call in the backhoe! After many large holes in the yard and driveway, it was found UNDER the driveway! Now, anyone with a septic system knows that is not the best location for the septic tank. We have driven cars, tractors, and very large motor coaches over it in the past year and a half. As a matter of fact, I believe my parents coach was parked over it in a past visit. Thank God the lid didn't break. How would you explain that to the insurance company? The tank is now clean and functioning once more. We may need to replace the system, and maybe a new well while we are at it. Our water turns a lovely shade of orange when it rains hard. I love the country, but I really miss city water and sewer.

On a lighter note, Jim's aunt and uncle stopped in for a quick visit on their way to Florida. We played a six way game of Hungarian Rummy. Jim won six bucks, the lucky dog! It was a long game, but fun.

I've noticed with the strange, warm, wet winter we are having, that my sweet palamino gelding loves the mud (or the nightly grooming/mud removal). The day before yesterday I noticed him rolling in the pasture (of course, the muddiest area he could find). When I called to him, he got up, and went bucking up the pasture with complete joyful abandon. My appaloosa gelding rolls, but doesn't get as gleeful as Dakota. Maybe there is something to those spa mud soaks....