My daughter, Lauren and I came to what we christened Six Meadow Farm five years ago.  We had been living in the city and boarding our horses.  It had always been a dream to “move to the country” and with Ally off to school and Lauren finishing 8th grade, it seemed like the right time.

So we called it Six Meadow Farm, a fancy name for a little homestead of-you guessed it-six acres- carved out of farm land about 50 miles from Houston. We had six horses then (counting ownership in half a horse to remain behind and a friend’s horse that we had agreed to board in return for helping us build our barn). Of the six horses, all but one came from a now defunct local horse rescue.  Sarah and Sharelle Petty did more good for more horses in a short time than anyone I have ever met-a story for another day. We had four dogs-two rescue Dobermans and two dachshunds. And no cats.  The dobermans reliably (and without remorse) killed cats.  But a Mama Kitty took up residency in our tackroom and now despite my best efforts at spaying and neutering-we have many cats.

We had a little house, we needed fencing, an arena, a barn, stalls, another driveway for the trailer and countless other things we did not think of originally.  It was a start.  It was an education.  Essentially, it was Lauren and I, with the occasional (and much appreciated) help from my son-in-law and friends.

Five years later, we have found that we did a lot of things correctly.  We had the vision to face the horse barn towards the morning sun and away from the brutal Texas late afternoon rays.  We learned our property floods (but drains pretty quickly) and how to keep horse’s shoes on in the “gumbo” mud of the spring.  We have seen months of endless rain (2007), a hurricane (2008), and the worst drought of years (2011).  We will take the drought over the endless rain-just saying-just my opinion. 

Lauren is now in college, attending a local community college, until she has to move away to finish.  I commute 135 miles a day.  We make it work.