A working Farm

Posted on June 15, 2014 by Exechorseluver

Lauren, Kona and Feather riding the endless meadows of Wharton.

We named our little six acre farm in Wharton, Six Meadow Farm. At the time we had six horses, five of our own and one boarder. We had six dogs and we looked out upon our six acres of land as it blended into the acres and acres of farm land beyond us.

Bruno running free.

At new Six Meadow Farm, we actually own five acres, but are leasing three more. The pastures are park like with giant Pecan trees shading our days. The catch pen is actually Bermuda grass and I am working to get looking like the finest hole of a golf course. The flowers we planted just 60 days ago are maturing. There is none of the feel of open land that we had at our last SMF. But it is magical to me as the pastures roll like rivers amongst the trees, from the top pasture to the very bottom, where when it is wet, a little creek flows. Also, it is common now to see deer in the cool of the shaded evening in the protected bottom pasture.

This new place is infinitely more work. Maybe because of the boarders, the leasers or Dev bringing his lesson folks here it is like we never stop working. Plus our tremendous contractors have yet to finish all the work we have asked them to do, probably because, each day we have a new brilliant idea.

Kona and Kendyll in front of the newly made feed room door.

This new side of the barn (we have fit more into a 1550 sq. foot barn than I thought possible) will include two new stalls. One for Mickey and one for Betty Sue when she arrives. They will have their own entrance with a cool Eastern exposure. That should be finished this week.

We had a show yesterday in Katy. Lauren’s division didn’t make so she rode against the girls in the division below hers. Remember this is a timed event. Lauren had to jump the same courses as the girls before her only jump six inches higher. I would call that a little bit of a handicap. But Feather was on and they attacked the courses. They earned two second place ribbons with times just a fraction off the winning horse, but oh, yea, she had to jump higher. My friend and vet, Lynn Criner was there. She hadn’t seen the Flag horse jump before. By the end of the evening we had settled on a mare to breed Flagmount to. So, we will have a baby next year. How exciting!

Jordyn and Kona sharing the shade with Feather and the boys.

Although it was Father’s Day, Luke was shredding pastures most of the day. Ally weed eated and mowed the people places. Lauren and I readied the new stalls and re-did the existing ones with an entire pallet of shavings. I mowed (with the old push mower) around flowers, troughs and construction spots.

I am feeling it deeply in my hip. I won’t be able to hold off this hip replacement much longer. It has been ten years since the first one was done, and both needed surgery then. Maybe over the holidays! Huh, maybe.

Jordyn and Kendyll had good rides on Mickey. Jordyn trotted away and Kendyll refused to take off her helmet the rest of the day.

Bruno watching the lessons!

Oh, Kendyll!

Surprises!

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Exechorseluver

Kendyll following in her daddy’s foot steps as he taps down the dirt on the new water lines.

Yesterday morning I went off to work. I feel like I miss a lot each day I am away from the farm. Even on a quiet day, horses get ridden, dogs have adventures, the grass grows taller and new things get completed. Lauren is doing a great job as barn manager. She has a new bank account where board money goes and new excel tracking sheets to watch her expenses. Certain days are allocated for the perpetual cycle of pasture mowing, most to riding, others to feed and hay pick up. Lauren takes Sunday off when she is not showing. Who would have guessed it would have gotten so complicated?

Nary a day goes by without guests. It is a different life for her. One filled with commitments and time schedules but one also filled with friends to ride with, new jump courses to design and things like pasture rotation to consider.

Mondays Ally comes to mow the “people/dog” part of the farm. Frequently, her husband Luke comes along and helps with dragging the arena, mowing pastures or whatever else Lauren has going on. Yesterday with baby Kendyll standing close by, and Lauren and Ally observing, Luke got down on the ground to attach the mower to the tractor. Then he moved it forward about a half of a foot to prepare to mow. Directly under the mower was a four-foot (maybe five-foot) water moccasin.

A shovel to the head ended this snake’s life.

I am not going to go into a lot of “what ifs” because I have already totally freaked myself out by Googling water moccasins and seeing the horrific damage they do to people and animals. I am grateful no one was hurt.

I hope to not see anymore snakes. I hope no one nor any of the animals gets hurt in the future. I do think it interesting that almost two-year old Kendyll’s longest sentence to date occurred when talking to her grandpa on the phone. “Poppa, daddy killed the snake!”. At least she used the unfortunate event as a learning occasion.

Oh, surprises!

I got a surprise text as I got up on Monday that my cousin Deb and her grandson, Christian were in town. I had known they were coming but not exactly when. Debbie, with her master’s degree in nursing, has spent numerous years over seas, based out of Dubai. Recently she retired to Sri Lanka. A little off the grid for me, but she is enjoying it. Although my sister and I spent a lot of time growing up with Deb and her brother, Jimmy, I had not seen her for 14 years.

We planned to get together after I got off work to catch up before they jetted back to Sri Lanka today. Wow. Anyway, yesterday morning she and 16-year-old Christian headed down to Wharton to visit my mom. I appreciated with all the miles that she had traveled that she made time to visit my mom. I also appreciated her honest evaluation of the nursing home and her care.

Deb has never been one to mince words, has been in the medical field 40 years and seen a lot of nursing facilities. I have gotten a lot of advice about moving my mom to another facility after her serious falls. Deb found Elmcroft to be the “nicest, cleanest and best smelling” facility she had been to, ever. That means a lot coming from her. She spent a couple of hours there and observed the other residents as well as my mom. She found them to be well cared for and in good physical condition (for being in a nursing home). This is just one nurse’s opinion, but it is an important one to me. Falls can happen anywhere but good care is harder to find.

My mom might have recognized her or not, but loved the attention and the chocolate shake from Sonic. Deb and Christian got to the farm just as I arrived from work.

During the day, the construction crew had ripped the roof off to build on the stall for new Betty Sue. I know I should have planned better but did not expect to pick up two boarders and a new filly. I am glad there is space still available in the barn-just a roof that is too low to house the big horses we have.

Making the add-on stalls tall enough for the big girl my little girl will become (did you follow that?).

Making the add-on stall tall enough for the big girl my little girl will become (did you follow that?).

I loved visiting with Deb and could not believe what an intelligent, thoughtful and insightful young man Christian had grown up to be. With the exception of arguing with his grandmother over his saggy shorts, he seemed like an adult not a teen at all.

Deb has followed my blog from day one. She rode horses and my uncle had racing quarter horses for years. Some of my fondest memories were of horse drill team in Shawnee, Oklahoma under the lights in the summer evenings. She couldn’t wait to met my Bruno. He was a little dirty from the surprise afternoon shower but it didn’t stop him from posing with my cousins.

Christian wasn’t so sure about the big horse but Deb was totally hands-on.

I know my life would be richer if I had more family closer (Sri Lanka is a little far). Debbie is wise, funny and knows my history. It would be great to have her nearby to share the burdens of my mom. But,.. technology is wonderful and we will stay in touch. I suspect they are both reading this blog as they wait in Dubai for their next flight. I am happy for surprises like favorite relatives and new stalls. The snake surprise…well, enough said.

Betty Sue

Posted on June 8, 2014 by Exechorseluver

There are those things in your life that you just do. Something comes over you or you just spot something across the room (or pasture as the case may be) and that moment is pivotal in your life. My first horse that was my very own was golden buckskin (for you non-horse people that is a horse with the gold color of a palomino but with a black mane and tail). I named him Brandy and he was the thing I loved most for many, many years.

I was just scrolling away one evening and spotted this foal. I have been obsessed with finding a horse for me since Kid’s last days. Since our jump back into the horse business in 2003 with purchase of Kid and Mickey from the rescue, I have ridden Kid. As he got older and less able to do all the things I wanted I have settled with riding whomever needed to be worked. I broke our mare Mariah but she was to be Lauren’s horse. I have ridden ponies which we went on to sell and spent a lot of time riding Snow and Mick.

I have been looking for sometime for a mare so I could breed it to Feather’s sire. Not a one of them seemed right. Then I glimpsed this days old filly and knew immediately this was what I had waited over ten years to find.

Special Occasion GES, just a few days old here.

This filly is by an Oldenburg stallion out of a Czech Warmblood mare. I don’t think she could be more perfect. I get my buckskin coloring, Ally gets her paint markings and Lauren gets a horse breed for movement, athletic ability and jumping prowess ( assuming I ever let Lauren ride her).

Showing how she floats along.

The baby is in my home state of Colorado and will not be ready to go until October. We are still trying to figure out exactly how that will work. If I trailer her home you can bet on snow storms, road closures due to ice, a tropical storm or a broken down truck. Might be better to find someone to go get her.

Trying to bend those little knees to get to the fresh spring grass.

Here is a video of her and I think she is darling!

We are adding a stall to our barn so it will be ready when she comes. Her registered name will be Special Occasion GES. She was born on April 1st, which is same birthday as the girl’s other grandma. Her barn name will be Betty Sue after both grandma Betty and my sister Betty. With my new place, my beautiful foal and my happy family, I will certainly have all I have ever wanted.

Sorry for all the gushing but I am SO excited.

Thanks for riding along, you can bet you will be seeing lots of pictures of lil’ Betty Sue.

Momma’s 90th!

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Exechorseluver

Clockwise from momma, Jordyn, Lauren, Janet (caretaker), me, Ally and Kendyll

There are days when I show up at my mom’s and she is engaged, happy and semi-lucid. They have not happened frequently in the recent past, but yesterday was one of those days. I had a training class until late on the fourth so we had to move her birthday celebration to the fifth.

Interestingly enough we had always celebrated two birthdays in June, as my sister Betty had her birthday the day after my mom. From early days the two of them were linked and close as they could be. I was always more my father’s daughter. Betty has been gone 30 some years now. My mom doesn’t remember she had a daughter, Betty anymore. I don’t know if that is good or bad.

Our plan for yesterday was pretty simple. Ally and her kids joined Lauren and I in bringing pink balloons, cake and KFC. Janet, her caretaker, was there to celebrate with us. For the first time since her broken arm, mom had her own clothes back on. She had been getting by with my shirts (most not in her favorite pink color from which we had cut off the sleeves). She looked beautiful in pink and seemed way more comfortable with her new “Robo Cop” splint.

New brace, and back to her old clothes, what a great birthday.

Jordyn brought along her pink guitar and led us through a couple of rounds of “Happy Birthday”. Jordyn can’t really play the guitar but it did not seem to matter. Momma loved the KFC-saying it was the best thing ever at least until she got to the chocolate birthday cake.

Getting a look at the cake.

Mom ate, sang, danced a little in her chair and just seemed so happy. At the end Ally wanted to put the great grandkids up in her chair for a picture. I was seeing Kendyll throwing herself across mom’s broken arm, but again it all went.

Kendyll getting a kiss from her granny-nanny with Jordyn behind.

Kendyll got down off the granny-nanny’s lap and promptly demanded of Ally- “CHEESE!!”. Ally didn’t think we had any cheese. Then she realized that Kendyll wanted to go back and sit on her GN’s lap and say “cheese” again. How cute!

Jordyn giving a big hug.

All too soon it was time to clean up our giant mess and head home. I think momma had a great 90th birthday.

Thank you for riding along with us and thank you for all the prayers.

Home School

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Exechorseluver

Lauren, Arianna and Libby

Something a little magical has happened for Lauren and I in our new home. While our years in Wharton might have seen horse visitors on the average of once a year, at our new location we are getting friends over a few times a week. Our trainer, Dev, has even graciously agreed to come down from north Houston and give lessons at our barn. This keeps Lauren from having to trailer across town and enjoy being home schooled with her friends. It is pretty great. Also, we are meeting new people who are a good fit for Bruno and Snow. It does my heart good to see these grand gentleman in the ring again. Today we enjoyed Amanda and her new super Quarter horse, Bentley, who I suspect will be something special. Arianna and her mustang pony, Ellie Mae, jumped everything Feather did, including the intimidating barrel jump. Former Sarah Petty rescue horse turned World Champion jumper, has joined us with his owner Libby and last, but not least, was Mia getting to know (and love) Snowboy. Here are some great pictures, most courtesy of Arianna.

Amanda with Bentley who could be an ad for Nu Image supplement. Look at that shine!

Arianna taming the wild Mustang.

Mia and Snow-boys still got it!

Cody is settling in well to life at Six Meadows.

Feather still flying even as the heat and humidity bear down on Houston.

What would a day at the farm be without Kona making new friends and getting in a little trouble?

Kona watching over new friend Pippa.

Kona escaping to the arena and giving Mia a little scare. Bad Kona.

And that’s about it folks, I better go to bed so I can get up and feed. Days running short- but happy.

Feather.

Mia finishing up.

Photog-Arianna

Momma goes to the doc

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Exechorseluver

Momma looking so much brighter today.

We were planning to celebrate my mom’s 90th birthday today. It wasn’t going to be a big deal as she would be confused and frankly she just hasn’t been doing all that well. She has not been eating a lot, but has been more deeply confused. She has not known me nor anyone else.

After her fall Friday night, we had been waiting to get her in with her orthopedic doctor. The office called Tuesday afternoon with a spot for her. The birthday plans were scrapped. We knew by the time we got back from the doctor she would be too tired for parties, even her own.

Lauren drove to get her and they met me at the office. Lauren had some riders coming to the house so I took over. Immediately, I could tell momma was much brighter and sharper. She looked beautiful in my pink shirt with arm cut off! She was sent first to the cast room where I explained about her lack of cast and her recent fall. Her hand and fingers were still bruised and swollen so they were x-rayed along with her elbow.

Her normally tiny fingers, black and blue.

Thankfully, there were no new fractures. The doctor said the elbow was healing. He made the decision to put her in a complicated arm brace but it will be easier on her than the cast.

On the drive back to Wharton, she attempted to get herself oriented. She asked about Jim, which she has not done in a long time. She asked where she was- Texas, I told her, but where is this, she asked pointing to the corn fields and green pastures. This is Wharton, momma, a little town we live in.

Tomorrow we will celebrate 90 years of a life well lived and time well spent in His service. Ninety years! Isn’t that something. I was so glad to have my momma back if only for the day .

Thank you for riding along! Thanks to all of you who sent momma birthday cards. They are decorating her room!

Momma goes down again

Posted on June 1, 2014 by Exechorseluver

Waiting to be seen.

I got a call from the nursing home that my momma had fallen again on Friday. They told me she was found on the floor but was fine. That’s what they told me the last time, then hours later she was at the ER with a horribly broken arm. I did not think it would go any better this time.

Later, Janet, the sitter, called to tell me my mom’s fingers were swollen and turning black. I knew what this meant. She had fallen on the bad arm, it was swelling inside the cast with no where for that swelling to go. I called her orthopedic doctor and was told to go to the ER, have them remove the cast, x-ray it, then put a splint on it. We were out to dinner, but hurried home. Ally arranged for her in-laws to come pick up her kids, so she could go with me. Lauren stayed to do all the horse chores.

Thank God Ally went with me! From weeks in the wheelchair, mom was weak, feeble and not to mean, it was a little like trying to load a dolphin into a sub-compact car. A dolphin with a severely broken fin. It took two of us to lift, maneuver and slide her into the car. I could not have done it myself.

Once we got to the hospital, everything took a long time. One year ago almost to the day, Ally and I had been in precisely the same hospital room as she waited to be treated for her broken elbow, gained when she fell from my hay trailer. The memories were not good. By the time the doc came in, my mother’s flesh was ballooning out of the cast and her fingers were turning black. He told us if we had not brought her tonight, she could have lost her fingers as the swelling cut off the circulation to hand.

Since it was Ally and I with my mom at the ER, absurd things happened. First, two hours into our visit, the doctor came in to tell us they did not have a cast cutter. Really? I had visions of having to drive mom all the way back to Houston and start the whole ER wait over. A while later, the doctor came back with a model of a cast cutter I believe I last saw in use in 1975.

Attempting to cut the cast off. Enlarge this picture and look at her fingers! The nursing home told me she was fine, her hand was not hurt, she could wiggle her fingers. They had no idea what was happening with the horrendous swelling.

Mom was in x-ray forever. It was late now, both Ally and I were tired. We got a little nutty. Once mom came back from radiology, she fell into a deep sleep. Ally and I meant no disrespect, we love momma dearly, but in the late hours we took a selfie with momma as she slept on obliviously.

What can I say? It was late.

There were not any new fractures which was good. Now, it was time to put on a new, looser splint until we could go back to the orthopedic doc and get a new cast. We waited and waited some more. The nurse came in to tell us they did not have enough gauze so someone was running to Wal-mart to get some. When we told this to Luke, Ally’s husband he was stunned. What if they had a gun shot wound or something? Well, I guess the store is open and close by so it would be okay.

Multiple times I offered to get her old cast out of the trash and just duct tape it back on. It would have been fine, plenty of support and we could tape it loosely so the swelling want an issue. They laughed at me but I was totally serious.

The nurse brought two other nurses in to watch him put the splint on. I sure would not have. After years of working with orthopedic surgeons I would say it was the worst wrap job I had seen. The first layer of gauze looked like toilet paper wrapped around branch from a drunken night of TPing the neighbor’s house. I hoped it would be okay until we got to the doctor this week.

We got her back to the nursing home after midnight. One of her favorite sitters was there to be sure she stayed safe all night. Problem is, I don’t know what to do now. Clearly, this place is not keeping her safe and we cannot afford round the clock sitters on top of her other fees. A nursing home is twice the cost of an assisted living place.

My mom will be 90 on Wednesday. It will pass in fear, pain and bewilderment. What a horrible ending for such a vibrant, God loving woman. My soul is sad!

Rain and some more Rain

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Exechorseluver

The arena today after three days of storms.

We have had brutal rain showers since Memorial Day. They came in like a wrecking ball (I know, overused words, but so true!) mid-afternoon on Monday. I had gotten the horses (including our new boarder, Cody) into their stalls. My phone started its frightening screeching sound that signifies something really important was occurring and I looked at it to find we were under a “take cover” Tornado warning.

My mother is from Oklahoma. I spent a lot of my youth in the tornado prone areas of Illinois. My mother made sure every tornado warning was met with an instant retreat to basement corner of our house. I don’t think I have been through too many non-hurricane related tornado warnings since. I certainly had not yet thought through where in our new house we would take cover in the event of a tornado.

I stood in the metal barn, watching the rain fall contemplating what I should do next. I should have reacted more quickly and headed to the house but I did not. In this particular case, I was safe and the tornado passed safely away from us. Lauren was caught in the Memorial day traffic making its way back to Houston from the beaches of Padre Island and Corpus Christi. I was scared for her.

Just as she safely arrived home, the downpour started. We rushed to close the doors and windows of barn. The barn roof had been sealed just days before but we quickly found out a few places were still not completely water tight. The rain rushed into our new old barn, but fortunately it fell on the side used for storage and not the stalls.

The rain ran like a river through the storage side of the barn.

As more and more small leaks sprouted in the barn, Lauren and I got more anxious and frenzied. For seven years we have been fighting floods to our property and barns. We felt we were safe in our new home. Then the sky seemed to collapse and water just poured. I have to say we got a little worked up. Not even 24 hours had passed since our first boarder arrived and we felt due to our prior experience with rain of this nature, that we would shortly be evacuating horses and apologizing to our new guest.

Things looking a little brighter today.

But then almost as quickly as my frenzied feelings came over me, they went away. Listening to the radio it became clear that this was not, not, not normal and we could live many years here without ever seeing storms like this again. Now, pulling my wide-eyed frantic daughter down to this same brilliant conclusion was not so easy. My momma used to call it “awfulizing” and Lauren was doing an excellent job of only seeing the positively worst scenarios coming our way.

In the end, over 60 hours of rain and storms later, we had received a total of almost seven inches of rain. Anyone ever get seven inches of rain before? I feel it was a pretty unusual happening. The stalls stayed totally dry. The horses stayed in, dry and reasonably happy in their stalls. We will have to add some sand and build up the storage side of the barn. But until we see rain of Biblical proportions again, I think we found out we could ride out the average storm, and even a pretty bad one.

This is not our old farm and we will be safer, drier and calmer here, once we unwind some of our previous learned responses.

Back in a soggy but green pasture.

Thanks for riding along with us! Hope everyone got through the storms okay.

New Opportunities

Posted on May 25, 2014 by Exechorseluver

Bruno showing his superior size to new pasture mate Cody.

Some friends have become aware that we have a couple extra stalls available at our new barn. We have been asked to board a couple of horses for friends. We all ride with Dev and it seems like a good opportunity to make a little money, expand Lauren’s responsibilities and have friends to ride with. Perfect! Dev even started running a Saturday lesson here.

I mean why not, our new arena is giant-sized, the footing is good, we have a pretty good collections of jumps and our new farm is pretty centrally located. I certainly never sat back and said, gee I would like to get in the boarding and training field, but we built our new facilities and people want to come use them.

Amelia getting one of the best jumps from Bruno we have seen. Dev couldn’t believe how well he was doing!

We had several horses and riders going. Dev was working with Amanda’s new horse. A young teen had shown up to give Snowboy a try (he was an all-star!), I think they will be spending much more time together, Nice work, Mia! Amelia took her first lesson with Dev and it went well, he complimented her on how much work she had done with Bruno.

Even Amelia’s daughter and my granddaughter, Jordyn took some laps on Mickey. It was a busy day.

Lauren and Feather continue to improve moving up to more sizeable jumps.

Libby and her World Champ Jumper Cody showed up in the early evening and it was wonderful to catch up with her folks whom I have known for years. Suddenly, it was dark and time to head to bed to start a new day today.

I fed the horses early this morning but slipped back to sleep until daylight when I headed out to the barn to clean stalls and get horses out to the pasture. Libby surprised me by already being out in the arena riding. Wow!

Lauren and I headed down to my mom’s for a bit after that. When we got back we were pretty tired and ready for a little siesta. Lauren headed upstairs to rest and I sat down to work on some computer stuff. Suddenly Kona lunged at the window and I looked up to see a black bull looking in the window at me.

Was he going to charge us?

I started screaming for Lauren and we had some hilarious times trying to shoo the big bull back up our drive to where we suspected it had come from our neighbors. Mickey, the only horse with any cow blood, marched toward the fence and beat a hasty retreat as the bull charged the fence rattling the timber.

It was a little unnerving. Finally, we got it headed down the driveway and headed back to the neighbors where it belongs, although it is unclear if it is yet back in the pasture. I hope to not stare any young bulls down again anytime soon.

Lauren about to rope the bull with her superior roping skills.

We also hosted our friends and their family from Oklahoma early this morning as well, the two girls had a great time on Snowney!

Hope you are having a happy, safe holiday. Run by here if you are bored, always something going on!

New Farm-All Coming Together

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Exechorseluver

Can you find Kona’s dirty ball?

The new Six Meadow Farm is coming together! All the fencing is done. The arena is very rideable. The house has most of my pictures that I have collected, saved and treasured up on the walls. The rooms look pretty complete.

My contractor just texted me that he has corrected the electrical problem in the barn and he is has the fans working on each horse’s stall. And not a minute too soon as temperatures are headed into the 90’s today.

We have put in numerous flowers, loads of mulch, pavers and rocks. We have spread “guaranteed to grow anywhere” grass seed in the bare areas around the farm and dragged off broken limbs, construction debris and rocks from the grounds.

Occasionally, when we finally stop long enough to sit still, we cannot believe we are lucky enough to live here. When Amber visited she kept asking me if I didn’t feel like I was on vacation and no, at that point I did not. We had been working like manic fools to get everything ready. No vacation there but last week, when I finally did slow down enough to have that vacation feeling, I was so gratified to just sit and watch the horses graze, the wind blow through my numerous wind chimes and dogs lay close by.

And speaking of the dogs, broken back dachshund Lula is doing very well. She has responded great to medication, rest and therapy. She thinks she is back to her old self and the hardest thing is keeping her from running, jumping or playing. I thought I had lost her and am thrilled at this turn around. Meanwhile, Kena, the Doberman with the lacerated paw, returned for her last visit to vet today (number four) to have the remaining staples removed from her foot. The infection is gone and she is finally bearing weight on her leg.

Kona got his hair cut yesterday and was so happy to be home. He wanted to play lots of ball as I tried to get the plants all watered. His answer-as shown above-just drop his nasty ball directly into whatever plant I am trying to coax along. Then I have to pick it up and throw it again. Freaking smart dog for sure. Annoying, too!

All the horses were in back under saddle this last weekend, even Snowboy whose feet have been in bad shape. Arianna rode both Mickey and Snow and they did not disappoint us.

Arianna getting a little gallop out of the pony.

Mickey tucking his knees like champ.

Bruno has been going well for Amelia and they will have their first lesson with Dev on Saturday. We have moved closer to civilization and are really enjoying all our friends.

With all the pastures, arena and barn work to do, it was finally time to invest in a small tractor. In Wharton, where tractors seem more plentiful than people, it was never a problem to get someone (beg someone) to come drag our arena (thanks, Scot!) or shred our pastures (thanks, Richard!) but here we will learn to do it ourselves and hopefully save money over the long haul. Lauren had resorted to dragging the arena with my VW Golf and I may never remove all the sand from in and on the car.

Neither Lauren or I had driven a tractor before or knew much about it but we got a great price and great instructions from Shoppas in East Bernard.

Learning the tractor.

I still haven’t driven a tractor and hope not to, but Lauren got right on her obsession of dragging the arena and it looks great. She has yet to run into a fence or smash into the house. I feel that is positive.

Of course, Kona had to get on the tractor, too.

My mom is doing better. I think she believes the hard pink plaster has been on her arm all her life. I do not think she understands why it is there but just accepts it now like it is just the way it is. Another month and we will hope to get it off for good.

Thanks to all of you who have been riding along with us through all our journeys.