Sunday Stills

Stormy and Largo

Toledo and Kennedy

Norman and Traveller

Cuff Links and Calimba

Renny 

Snappy and Slinky

Johnny and Alex

Chance

Flyer and Gibson

Pictures

We ran out of time tonight (more like all day today!), so I am pretty happy I managed to download and sort some pictures to post. Enjoy the pictures and thanks for your patience!

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Baby, Grand and Elfin

Clayton and Donovan

Fabrizzio and Walden

Murphy and Africa

Darby, Lighty and Alex

Gus rolling, and George thinking that looks like a good idea . . .

. . . Gus came up, George went down

Bergie and Johnny

Renny and Johnny

In Between Chores

(post by Jason) I've come to the conclusion that our lives here are Paradigm Farms are quite predictable at certain times of the day, and unpredictable at other times. Each morning begins with several hours of horse chores. We feed everyone and check them all over carefully, medicate as necessary or prescribed, and curry or brush out tails while we wait for the slowpokes in every pasture to finish eating. In the summertime morning chores start very early, during the cool of the morning at or just before daylight. Afternoon chores are mostly a repeat of what happens in the morning. When afternoon chores are complete and we get to the house we begin communicating with clients and prospective clients via emails and by telephone. We also have to take time a few times a week to download pictures and write something that folks hopefully find interesting here on this blog. 

If there is unpredictability associated with what we do it almost always happens during the hand full of hours between finishing morning chores and beginning afternoon chores. We might be up to just about anything and the only thing predictable is that it's rare that you'll find us sitting around twiddling our thumbs wondering what to do. We've almost always got more tasks than time on our plates. 

Of course the first order of the day is caring for horses. That comes first before anything else gets accomplished. We have our share of days when nothing else got accomplished...every minute between morning and afternoon chores was spent dealing with one equine related problem or another. Regularly scheduled farrier visits, routine vet and dentist visits, along with many unscheduled vet visits would also fall into this category. 

Farm maintenance is the other big time sink and it may literally involve anything. I usually find this part of my day to be quite interesting, and also frustrating. Today I sawed up several fallen tree limbs, serviced the saw and one of our portable generators, unloaded a semi-trailer of hay, ordered parts for various pieces of broken machinery, picked up parts for more of the same, checked the voltage on our miles of hot wire, dealt with a contractor working on the farm right now, serviced one of the several bush hogs we own, dealt with a feed sales rep and briefly helped Melissa sort through and deal with horse blankets. Sometimes maintaining all our equipment, fences and buildings seems like a full time job ! One thing is for sure it makes the days go by in a hurry. It'll be fall before we know it. Meanwhile, I hope everyone enjoys the long days of summer.

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Gibson and Donneur grooming

Johnny, Lighty and Africa

MyLight and Cinnamon

Homer and Hemi

Levendi

Lily and Maisie

Dutch, Wiz and Murphy

Thor and O'Reilly

Faune, Flyer and Donneur doing some early morning grazing

Sunday Stills

Trigger, Tony and Baby

Oskar and Clayton

Thomas, Apollo, Hemi and Levendi

Trigger and Moe

Johnny

Silver and Gus

Gibson and Lofty

Noble, Walden and Fabrizzio

Traveller and MyLight

Laugh or Cry

Jason and I seem to be dealing with an endless list of broken things - tractors, equipment, vehicles, horses - you name it and we have a broken version of it right now. It feels like things have been reaching the point of do we laugh or do we cry lately. I knew we had reached critical mass when Jason was swinging away at the lawn mower with a sledgehammer. I wasn't sure if he was laughing, crying or if he had finally just lost it.  Nor was I about to ask as he swung away. As it turns out the sledgehammer worked, Jason actually was using it on the lawn mower for reasons other than expressing his frustration (who knew??), and he was able to use this precision instrument to finally get the mowing deck unattached so he could attempt to repair it.  

In the spirit of choosing to laugh, below are a few pictures that have made me laugh recently.

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I guess this means I am responsible for more than my share of dearly departed kittens.

I'm pretty sure this is what any spectator would assume the letters were as they watched me make my way around a dressage arena.  

Definitely been there done that

Seriously, who needs a gym? Just let us put you to work for awhile. It was especially entertaining watching Jason swing a sledgehammer at the lawn mower, and it was quite a workout for him as well!! I should have gotten a picture of that . . . 

Who doesn't find the grumpy cat funny?

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Calimba

Fabrizzio, Snappy and Lightening

Thor, Noble and Merlin

Donovan, Tiny and Johnny

Faune, Silver, Donneur and Lofty

Dutch, Renny and Wiz

Cinnamon, MyLight and Maisie

Cuff Links and Norman