Strange Dreams, Comings and Goings

I will admit that I tend to have some crazy dreams sometimes. Often I can't really remember exactly what I was dreaming about, just bits and pieces. One of my latest odd dreams was horse related. I was dating Prince William, and this part of the dream was odd in itself. I'm not a royal watcher. My sister on the other hand got up at some ungodly hour to watch William and Kate get married. However in this dream Wills and I were dating.

This is where things get fuzzy. We were on one of their estates, one where the royal family kept a bunch of polo ponies. I had Lily there to be my polo pony (as an aside I've never played polo in my life). Although I like Lily she is not my horse so I have no idea why she was my horse in England in this dream! Also, Lily was a fantastic children's/adult jumper but everyone who knows Lily would agree she is NOT a polo pony!!!! Yet I distinctly remember arguing with Wills and his father Charles that Lily would be my first string polo pony. They kept trying to tell me she was too big and too heavy and wouldn't be suitable and I kept insisting that she would be fine.

Lily visiting with me and her mom last fall; Lily is definitely not built for polo!

Like I said, Lily was a wonderful jumper but in addition to having the wrong build she would definitely have the wrong personality for polo. The one thing she hated at horse shows was the warm-up arena with all of the other horses going all over the place. I'm trying and failing while I am wide awake to visualize Lily being happy on a polo field in the middle of a bunch of swinging mallets and galloping horses. Yet I held my ground with the Royals, insisting that Lily would make a fine polo pony. I have no doubt that any member of Lily's family who happens to be reading this is laughing hysterically at the thought of Lily and I playing polo.

Unfortunately I don't remember the rest of the dream so I can't tell you if Lily and I ever made it to a polo match.

I have no idea what a dream interpreter would make of all of that!

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In other news B-Rad left a week ago with the hope being that he will return to his jumper career after a couple of years of R&R. Good luck to B-Rad, maybe we will be seeing his name in lights again in the near future. We also have a new face on the farm, a big grey gelding named Lighty. Lighty and Renny have the same owner and are "brothers" so we're happy to have another family member join us on the farm!

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I put this picture on Facebook, this was our morning view today. Fonzi and Winston passed out after a long night of partying. Chimano and Silver managed to remain upright.

Thor, Lucky and O'Reilly

Silky and MyLight

Rampal

Tiny

Johnny

Norman, Cinnamon, MyLight and Maisie

Lighty - new face on the farm

Lighty sniffing noses with his "brother" Renny while Sam waited for his turn to say hello

Addicted to Gravel; Miracle Video

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 driving around our rock for quite awhile. We finally dealt with that and now have 3,500 feet of fully functional driveway. It is nice to not be navigating around the rock every day and not be creating a dust storm or a muddy mess when driving on 2/3 of the driveway.

We also had been dumping load after load of gravel around the gates and run-in sheds. Of course this is all in addition to the numerous other loads of gravel that we had already had delivered over the last year. However we had always had it delivered 3 to 4 loads at a time, not 20+ loads at a time like we have in the last couple of weeks. Yesterday Jason and I were discussing our gravel situation and assessing our gravel needs. We were thinking that we would have another 2 to 4 loads delivered and then be done.

I made the comment during this discussion that we were addicted to gravel. Apparently when your names are Jason and Melissa you cannot have too much gravel. When we were discussing where we would place our last few loads our inner gravel addicts still were not going to be satisfied. However we had lost count of how many loads had been delivered, like I said I lost count at 20.

Today we got the bill for our latest gravel extravaganza. I have previously written about one of my meltdowns when being handed the latest and greatest construction bill that is larger than anticipated. We have a lot of practice with this scenario at this point but we are only human and sometimes it just gets to you. Today it was Jason's turn to have a meltdown. If there had still been a dump truck parked on the farm he probably would have started shoveling some of the gravel back in by hand. Needless to say we will not be having a few more loads delivered and we will have to be happy with the gravel that we have.

However addictions are powerful, and by the end of the day we were back discussing about where we could use more gravel. I was joking with Jason that maybe we should buy our own gravel pit, then we would never have to deny ourselves. If anyone is racking their brain for the perfect Christmas gift for Jason and Melissa, we can give you the number for our gravel delivery guy. Hint hint.

Our poor driveway only had gravel on it for the first 1500 feet

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 came back and added inch and a quarter gravel on top. Maybe we should have stayed with just the crush and run for now, or maybe we shouldn't have lost count of the number of loads!

Spreading gravel in one of the pastures; as the truck went back and forth with the bed lifting higher and higher they just stood in the shed without so much as a second look. Of course it goes without saying that if anyone had been trying to ride them you would have been bucked off.

A short video of the horses watching the gravel truck (this is Sam, Fuzzy, Dutch, Wiz, Sebastian, Alex, Renny, etc.); by the end the truck is less than a foot from the shed and nobody moves.

Contrast the above video with this video from two years ago. Some of you may remember this video of the Big Boys acting silly spooking at their new gravel pile at the old farm. The Big Boys are an endless source of entertainment and as you can see it is the same cast of characters:

Dutch and Sam finally came over to check out the gravel

A load of gravel being dumped in the not yet finished barn at the end of the driveway. Jason is in his element, feeding his addiction and directing the placement of the gravel.

Jason guiding the gravel truck into the mare/pony pasture

Cinnamon gave the truck a passing glance on her way to the water trough

Norman and Cuffie were hanging out in the shed and uninterested in the gravel truck

Maisie was only mildly interested in the gravel truck. There's Jason directing away. I was looking at all of these pictures and was playing "Where's Waldo" with Jason. Anywhere there was a gravel truck Jason was nearby directing and looking happy. He was looking a lot less happy when he got the bill!

A brief video of Miracle running in the pasture along with Sky, Bonnie, and Sparky the donkey

Stormy and Clayton

Darby

Moe

The Big Boys grazing; they were way out in the back of their pasture when gravel was delivered to their pasture. It would have been fun to see if they reacted as strongly this time around to the gravel delivery!

Kennedy napping

Trigger grazing as the sun was coming up

Chance, Leo and Homer

Clay and Fuzzy

Asterik, Silver and George

A Week in the Life

When I left Corporate America to be a full time farmer, a goodly number of my associates reacted in one of two ways. One group thought I was going on a never ending sabbatical/vacation where the sun shone prettily each and every day. The rest thought I was walling myself up way out in the boondocks and I would never have cause to speak to another human being socially again. Of course the truth is that neither of these thoughts are even remotely close to correct, but the myths of what we do and how we amuse ourselves each day persist.

Those of you of a certain age may remember the widely published photographic series entitled, " A Day in the Life of [America/Canada/UK/etc.]" . Since a day's worth of anything doesn't give a very accurate picture of what goes on around here I thought I'd share my schedule for this week with you to give you an idea of what my day looks like here on the farm.

Each morning and evening, we start and finish our day by feeding and caring for all the horses on the farm. It is the raison d'etre of what we do and nothing work related ever comes ahead of tending after the horses. Melissa and whoever else is working with us that day spend their time in between chores doing various sorts of things caring for horses. Brushing, grooming, bathing and minor wound care figure heavily in their routine. Some days, like when the farrier and dentist arrive, everyone on the farm is on deck to keep the horses coming all day long. Most of the time, I'm the guy who fixes what's broken and keeps the farm running and in good repair. Right now, the weather is about as pretty as it's likely to get, so daylight hours when I'm not caring for horses are pretty well spoken for. In addition to horse care, here's what I have on the books for myself this week.

Sunday: Two client visits followed by a few happy hours where one of our clients and I chainsawed up a giant oak tree that had fallen across the fence. Bless his heart and hope he hurries back ! :)

Monday: Spread and smooth twenty loads of gravel. Re-waterproofed twenty blankets. Twenty seems to be the number of choice this week ! Farrier visit for a quick trim on a few horses 5:30 pm. Visit to feed store to pick up weekly feed.

Tuesday: Distribute feed. Dentist visit. All hands on deck all day. Routine Vet appointment scheduled at 4 pm. Blog to write in the evening.

Wednesday: Move six hay feeders from old farm to new farm. Re-bolt the hay feeders together. Spread and harrow in cool season grass seed and fertilizer on scattered bare patches in all the pastures (hopefully) ahead of predicted rain. [This got postponed as it drizzled rain off and on today]

Thursday: Re-assemble lawnmower and (hopefully) cut our three acres of lawn. Continue waterproofing blankets.

Friday: Waterproofing blankets continues and if the weather holds we ought to be getting close to done by daydown.

Saturday: Client visit scheduled. Hopefully, all the blankets will be waterproofed and ready for use well ahead of when we anticipate they will be needed. Catch up on all the stuff that didn't get done earlier this week.

Each evening Melissa and I spend some time at our computers downloading pictures, writing our blog, communicating with clients and keeping our books up to date and our bills paid.

Just another day in the life of Jason and Melissa ! :)

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Thor enjoying some down time

Winston, Chimano and Faune

Romeo, Fonzi and Gus

Slinky

Lightening and Lucky

Snappy and O'Reilly

Levendi

Grand (Ivan, Apollo, Elfin in the background)

Ivan, Homer and Apollo

Hemi, Moe and Thomas

Sam and Dutch

Earning a Visit

As most of you know we have almost unlimited uses for a chainsaw around the farm. I even have my own battery powered chainsaw - as Jason said about my baby chainsaw desperate times call for desperate measures.

We have had one large tree down for quite awhile. We were trying to remember today how long we have avoided dealing with this tree. We have ignored it since May. To be fair Jason was ready to saw it up the day it fell but I would not let him. The horses in that pasture had picked the downed tree as their new hot spot and I refused to ruin their fun. Jason was certainly happy to leave the tree and move on to one of our other 10,000 projects.

MyLight's people were going to be at the farm visiting her today, and they kindly offered to help us around the farm. Of course we told them no, that they just needed to enjoy the time with MyLight. Then it came up in conversation that Tom liked using chainsaws and cutting up trees. Well, if you're going to insist on working we do have this tree that needs to go . . .

After we fed the horses this morning Jason began gathering up all of the tree removal tools. He put more diesel in the tractor, found the chain for dragging logs, fueled up his beloved Stihl chainsaw and we were ready to go. Jason wanted to go ahead and get started on the tree even though Tom and Mary Eileen had not yet arrived. I was desperate for Tom to arrive so I could get out of this job.

Fueling the tractor

Look at all of those shiny new parts; they were so blingy looking in the sun I took their picture

As Jason and I assessed the situation I realized I had forgotten just how big this tree was, and how HUGE the trunk was. I looked at Jason and I said "can your chainsaw cut through THAT?"

In an insulted tone Jason informed me that it was "a professional use chainsaw and of course it could through it." Okaaaay, I wasn't trying to be insulting.

this picture does not do justice to the size of this tree

Jason decided he was going to climb up on the tree and start cutting from the top. I felt this was a bad idea. I voiced my opinion and of course Jason ignored me.

Jason is telling me to hand him his chainsaw and I'm telling him this is really stupid.

Thankfully Jason realized that this was not going to work out well after a few minutes of doing his spiderman imitation on the tree. He climbed down and said he wanted me to lift him up in the bucket of the tractor. I really didn't want to do this either. Jason insisted. The thing is the hydraulics on this tractor are a bit fussy and I'm not that good with them. After a few attempts with the bucket never remaining in place for long I finally told Jason I was done and he would have to wait for Tom.

me at my multi-tasking finest; lifting Jason in the bucket and taking his picture. Maybe that is why things weren't as steady as they should have been??

Jason was being impatient and he got on the tractor and started smashing some of the limbs with the bucket and breaking them off. Thankfully after a few minutes of this Tom and Mary Eileen arrived. I was anxious to get out of Dodge so Mary Eileen and I left to go groom several of the horses while Tom and Jason dealt with the tree.

As I understand it went well. Jason ran the hydraulics on the tractor and lifted Tom in the bucket. The tree was dealt with. I did not have to watch or help. I know it was hard, dirty work and I'm most thankful to have had a pass. The next time we have a big tree down we're just going to buy Tom a plane ticket so I don't have to participate. It was an awesome day all around for us - everyone was happy and all for different reasons!

The moral to this story - in order to run a successful business you not only have to have great clients that become your friends, you put them to work when they show up!! It may be awhile before they come back!

I can hardly believe that Tom was still smiling and speaking to us after helping saw up this tree

Tom and Jason

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Dutch and Wiz with a very familiar looking tree in the background

Tony

Fuzzy

Renny and Sam on the run

Renny

Thor

Stormy, Rampal, Rocky and Toledo

Levendi

Hemi, Apollo and Ivan