Pictures

I guess one of my last posts of 2012 will be pretty dull as it is already 9:30pm and I have 27 million other things I need to do before I go to bed.  Enjoy the pictures and hopefully we will be back before this year comes to a close with a much better post than this one!

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Asterik, Titan and Romeo

Lucky

Lucky walking sedately with Lightening, Merlin and Noble on the run

Merlin takes the lead followed by Lucky and Lightening

Walden and Fabrizzio

Gus with Romeo and Titan behind him

Rocky and Largo were having some serious play time

Merry Christmas

I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday.  We celebrated by putting blankets on everyone.  We had put sheets on a few horses a couple of times, but otherwise had entirely avoided blankets until Christmas.  So the horses all got their blankets put on them for Christmas.  They then proceeded to see how quickly they could get their blankets disgustingly dirty.  Sigh, the first and last time to handle clean blankets this season.  

We are finally getting some winter weather. Our forecast has been all over the place for today and tonight.  I would love to have the job of a weather forecaster since being accurate has nothing to do with job performance.  Yesterday afternoon through mid morning today we had cold rain, hence the waterproof blankets, then a few flurries today.  I guess we may not be getting the potential half inch of snow accumulation that was originally predicted. Regardless snow flurries were spotted at the farm at one point today.  It only lasted a few minutes but they were there, so it counts as our first snow of the year.   

I think the reason we don't do cold well in this area is because you never get adapted to it.  It goes straight from warm to cold, then goes back to warm, etc.  Then again I liked winter even less when I lived in Vermont and the only question worth asking was not "will it be cold?" but "how cold will it be?"  I'm officially counting the days until March, come on spring!!

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T minus 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 until every single blanket is filthy; Moe and Homer are the rollers, Levendi and Trigger are looking for the perfect spot to roll

another dirty blanket contest; B-Rad, Alex, Darby and Chili

I told Apollo he looked like he was ready to go to a disco

Grand and Elfin

Hemi

Lily napping in the sun (which is now absent) with Silky grazing behind her

Noble

Titan

Traveller

Winston and Faune

Tis the Season

Jason and I are being initiated into the real meaning behind the words "some assembly required" this year.  Thanks to those charming words there won't be much of a blog post tonight.  We are busy attempting to do some "minor" assembly and wrap presents.  Given that we run a farm, own and operate various types of equipment, and have to be somewhat handy around the farm one would think that assembling toys should be a piece of cake, right? HAHAHA!!

Then of course there are Jason's wrapping skills.  Anything wrapped by Jason looks like it was done by someone wearing baseball gloves on both hands.  Picture uneven, wrinkled and very distressed looking wrapping paper accented with ungodly amounts of tape and you will have a good mental image of a package wrapped by Jason.  Of course there is also a lot of frustration, complaining that the scissors aren't sharp, the tape isn't sticky enough, the box isn't square enough, etc.  I saw this video on YouTube that is a pretty good example of Jason wrapping a present, especially the final parting line:

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Bergie and Rocky hanging out in the woods

Oskar, Largo and Rampal soaking up the sunshine

Cuffie napping

Gus in front is getting ready to roll, George and Asterik are rolling, and Winston, Lotus and Romeo are the audience

grazing after breakfast inthe last of the morning fog; Lightening, Fabrizzio, Merlin, Noble, Lucky, Walden and Thor

Faune having a good roll

something really had Walden's attention

Gus rolling with Asterik and Titan playing behind him (what a carefree life!) 

Lucky and Thor

Losing Our Marbles . . .

. . . or maybe I should say our shut-off valves.  Yesterday Jason and I were cleaning troughs which is normally no big deal and a quick and easy job.  Us being us we managed to make it into a massive ordeal and it ended up taking us a couple of hours to clean one water trough.  The whole process is simple, shut off the water, drain the trough, clean the trough, turn the water back on and refill the trough.  

We immediately ran into problems at step one, shut off the water.  We couldn't find the shut off for that pasture.  Yes, you did read that correctly, we could not find the shut off valve.  Given that we installed all of the water lines, water spigots, shut off valves, etc. ourselves this was a particularly embarrassing situation.  The following conversation happens:

Jason: Maybe we didn't install a shut off here.

Me: Of course we did, we've cleaned the trough many times.

Jason:  Well it isn't here. We must have forgotten to put one here. 

Me: We didn't forget to put one here, we've used it many times before.

At this point Jason stomps off to find a shovel while yelling at no one in particular. He comes back with the shovel and makes a few half-hearted stabs at the ground and then announces in an authoritative voice "There is NO shut off here."

I've moved past seeing the humor in the situation and I'm getting really irritated at this point. Through experience I've learned if I simply move to take over one of Jason's perceived tasks this usually spurs him into action. So I announce "hand me the shovel, I WILL FIND IT." I grab the shovel.  Jason immediately yanks it out of my hands. He announces that he is not wasting his time on this anymore and he is going to just shut the water off at the driveway. 

You see, Jason and I were really thoughtful and thorough when we designed our entire water supply system for the farm.  One of our must-haves was multiple shut-off points. Each pasture has a shut-off valve by the water spigot and we also installed several shut-off valves along the main pipe that runs parallel to the driveway. This way we could easily isolate leaks, turn off water to very specific locations, etc.  

Jason stomps off again, this time to go turn the water off at the shut-off valve by the driveway.  I know something is amiss when I hear "you have to be bleeping kidding me!! What the bleep is going on? BLEEP! BLEEP! BLEEP!"  

I finally ask "what's wrong?"  Jason announces "I can't find the bleep bleep shut-off valve at the driveway."  

At this point I can't help it and I collapse on the ground in fits of hysterical laughter.  "You mean we have managed to lose two shut-off valves on a water system we installed ourselves?"  Jason sees no humor in this whatsoever and throws the shovel down like a two year old.  

I decide at this point I should pick myself up off the ground, stop laughing, and attempt to be the voice of reason. 

Me: Jason, we just need to dig around and find the valve by the trough. I know it's here, we've used it several times, and it has just gotten covered up by gravel. 

Jason: just stands there glaring at me with his hands on his hips

Me: I pick up the shovel and start digging.

Jason:  takes the shovel from me and starts digging.

We have an intense discussion trying to remember where the valve was (after all we had just used it 3 months ago) and Jason is digging everywhere I point.  We had made a giant mess, dug up our gravel around the tap and gotten it all muddy, and finally we found the stupid shut off.  It had indeed gotten buried under the fresh gravel we had spread in the fall, except we started digging around several feet away from where we needed to be.  

We finally get the water turned off and in short order the trough is drained and cleaned.  Then we think "finally, we're done" and turn the water back on. The trough fills up until it is full . . . and then keeps filling. 

Jason has what we southerners call a "come apart" at this point.  Imagine bad words, flying tools, stomping feet, pounding our hands on the fence, etc. and you get the idea.  We shut the water back off. Jason goes to collect tools and parts, and an hour later all is working normally again. 

I think we set a new world record, two hours for two people to clean one water trough.  

digging around trying to find the shut off

after creating a giant mess we finally found it

See that circle under the fence board? That's the cover where the valve is located. Apparently we have very bad memories as we started digging about eight feet to the right.

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Lotus and Titan

Winston and Romeo

Lily, Maisie and Calimba

a cute scene with alternating standers and nappers; L-R is Chili, Johnny, Renny, Dutch, Murphy, Sam, Wiz and Africa (the dot back by the tree line)

zooming in on the photo above we have Chili, Johnny, Renny and Dutch

Wiz, also from the line-up above

Grand and Elfin

Alex, Darby and B-Rad

Johnny and Africa

Renny, Lighty, Dutch and Sam

Kennedy and Tiny

Moe napping on the fence

Incredible Journey

Jason made a quick trip to the small gas station/convenience store that is about a mile from our farm to get diesel this afternoon.  As he pulled in he saw a man standing next to his horse who was standing quietly, ground tied, a few feet off the highway.  Jason was quite impressed by the fact that his horse just stood there quietly with traffic whizzing by a few feet away so he went over to have a chat.  

Angel "parallel parked" on Main Street in Franklin, TN; photo credit to the Franklin Theatre

The horse's name was Angel and Jason said she was very friendly and she looked fabulous.  Her weight was excellent, she was beautifully groomed, and her eyes were bright and happy.  Angel and her owner have ridden over 4,500 miles together as they have made their way around the United States.  Apparently the man had a stroke and he realized how short life could be, and he had always wanted to see the country from horseback. So he set off on his horse and 4,500 miles later here they are. He also wanted to show other stroke victims that life can go on after such a devastating event.  

in Columbia, TN; photo credit to the Columbia Daily Herald

Jason certainly enjoyed his brief conversation with Angel's owner. I wish I had taken a quick trip to the store with him today instead of staying at the farm.  You just never know who you will end up talking to if you take a minute to say hello.  

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hello from Dutch

mares hanging out; Cinnamon, MyLight and Silky

Leo and Chance

Rampal

I always wonder who has their head buried in the hay...

...it was Sebastian!

Sam on the go

Johnny, Alex and B-Rad on the move

the view to start the day; Asterik, Gus, Titan, Winston, Romeo and Lotus