Summer Photo Shoot

Now that summer has arrived I spend countless hours enjoying the outside of my new digs.  Here are a few of the things that make me happy.

Did you know Golden Retrievers eat Hibiscus flowers?  Bad Girl!!

Drift Roses.

The little stone bridge.

The old stone walls that surround our place.

We don't know what this was, but it's scary down there.  If I ever go missing, please have the authorities check down here!

The perfect place to sit and watch the boats go by :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Creature Comforts

Things got pretty heated here at the ole' Farmhouse this week.  The upstairs of the house to be exact.  We added central air to the main floor and there is a window air conditioner in the cozy room, but, sadly Cliff's office has nothin'!  You see Cliff needs his creature comforts and that includes HD TV, Chocolate and air conditioning.  So off to Lowes we went and purchased a small window unit for the office.  I mean how is a man supposed to make millions of dollars if he is hot??  This got me thinking about the other creatures in my life.  How do they cope with uncomfortable weather?  Pretty well thanks to a very caring mommy named yours truly. Bella actually enjoys the heat.  She loves to lay outside in the sun. She has been trotting down to the stream to cool off when she is overheated.  Kitty on the other hand has an arsenal of things to keep her comfortable.  It's truly amazing what we horse people do to keep our precious beasts cool and calm.

Take a look at this.  This is called a fly mask.  No explanation needed.

She wears this every night when she is in her pasture.  It's like looking through a window screen.

She wears this lovely chapeau when we ride the trails.  It's called a fly bonnet.

The fly bonnet covers the ears and the fringes keep flies off of her delicate face.  This  is a generic bonnet.  Some (privileged) horses have fancy bonnets.

Kitty is jealous of her friend Bella's bonnet, but I am too cheap to buy her a "cool one".

Let's not forget the fans that run all day keeping these equine prince and princesses cool.

Every stall has a fan attached to the front. Some "over protective" parents even buy deluxe metal fans, but , they shall go nameless.  Kelly B.

Our horses are in their stalls during the day and in the pasture at night, when it is less buggie and cooler.  We are blessed and cursed with our pasture situation.  The farm has acres and acres of lush, green grass.  Great you say?  Not so great when you learn that horses can get very sick from too much lush grass,  Grass is high in sugar and can cause metabolic problems for "easy keepers", this means fatties  Most of our horses are draft crosses and need very little food to maintain their size, unlike the Thoroughbred which can eat all day and night. So... our horses wear these crazy contraptions.

This is called a grazing muzzle.  Kitty wears this from spring through the first frost.  It has a small hole in the bottom that allows her to eat - slowly.

You may think this is cruel, but , it is truly a lifesaver for these guys.  They are used to wearing them and they get plenty of grass and they can drink too.  Please notice the very plush sheepskin that I have had professionally sewn around the top so she won't get rubbed.  You should be so pampered!  Hell - I should be so pampered!

So basically these horses live better than most of us.  Don't forget the caring owners to run to Sam's Club and buy buckets of these mints.

After all we want our horses to know we care! LOL!  Hope you keep cool

Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Anniversary...To A Farmhouse

Today marks one year since we purchased the Farmhouse and one year that I have been blogging about said Farmhouse.  Can you believe it?  Who would have thought?  I thought it would be fun to look back over the last year.

This is the house before we started renovations.

We fell in love with it and its beautiful surroundings.

Remember on day one when Wes started excavating and he hit water?  Lots of water.  Apparently somewhere in the past someone ran a public water line to the house and we failed to notice it on the plot plan.

We were so excited when we saw the foundation was done.

And then the big tree came crashing down and broke up the new foundation and the window.  I was so sad. but we never did have to pay the tree guy.

This mess was to be our master bath. How in the world did it turn into this.

Remember when this little piggy arrived?

And found a home.

I never dreamed this piggy would start a theme at the Farmhouse.

Things really started to take shape in late summer and before we knew it we were moving in!

Although we weren't quite finished and we had house "guests" for a while.

Dave - contractor extraordinaire!!

My Big Fat Greek Painter - oh , I miss him.

Randy, my chicken lovin' electrician.  And of course Wes.  We miss them all and they all did such a great job. This house was built with love!

We love our little house and as I write this, Cliff is sitting on the screen porch reading and listening to the raindrops on the metal roof.  Bella is snoozing next to him.

Thanks for stopping by.

House Calls

This week we had the doctor come out to the Farmhouse.  The tree doctor that is.  I am somewhat shocked by the diagnosis.  It seems we have a "very sensitive" Tulip Poplar on our hands.  Therapy?  Meds?  Huh?  Let me back up.  We noticed this beauty is losing leaves.

This tree is right in front of the house.  Let's all remember what happened way back when the large limb came crashing into the Farmhouse!  The doctor said these trees are very sensitive and the construction may have stressed it.  Great!  I have moody trees!  He said to make sure to water it during dry months and they are coming out to give it a nice big shot of B12 :)  Let's hope this does the trick, because we don't want it to die.  The doc also looked at our Leyland Cyprus tress,of which we have many.

They have a lot of brown branches.  Fortunately this is not serious.  Although he did send a cutting off to the "tree Lab".  Who knew?  I hope these trees are "less sensitive" than the poplars. We are now interviewing therapists for all of our landscaping.  Assuming they are in network, of course!  

It's always something! When we built our first house we had a bare lot.  Not one tree.  Over the years we planted many trees and after 28 years they looked great.  I have heard that the new owner chopped many of them down.  What!  I may send that therapist over to her.

Thanks for stopping by.