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

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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.

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Green

I am happy to report we now have a lawn.

Isn't it purdy?  See, you people take it for granted that you have grass. Cliff worked very hard to get this lawn!  He is still working on the back of the house.  That's the part the landscapers did not seed and Cliff works on a little section at a time.

I have also been admiring the new shrubs.  They are doing very well.

I took the pansies out of the window box and put begonias in.

I hope to get three more window boxes and hang them on the side of the Carriage House that faces my kitchen.  I think that would be beautiful.  It probably won't happen this year, though.

The porch is looking good, too.

We really enjoy relaxing out here!  Sure beats winter!

Now for my sad news.  Yesterday we sent Fletcher to a new home.  It became apparent to us that it would be in his best interest to live with a family that could take the best care of him.  After having him live here for the past days, I saw that this pup needs lots of care now and will need in the future.  He is a sweet, goofy puppy, but he has some challenges ahead of him that will cost lots of money and care. I could not imagine him staying in an apartment in the city while Josh is at work all day.  Due to his knee, he can't go back to daycare.  They play too rough.  He deserves to be able to be outside on the grass, not the dirty city streets.  While I wish we could keep him, this place is too small and wood floors are not good for his joints.  Bella and Fletch played hard and many times he fell down - hard.  I lived in fear of him breaking something.  Obviously this was very hard on all of us.  Thankfully there is a wonderful group that is devoted to Newfoundlands and take them into their homes and provide all of the medical care they may need.  We will miss him dearly, but I truly believe it is for the best.  My son will always hold this against me of course, but I hope that deep down he knows it's the right thing to do. Sometimes life is so darn hard!

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Dog Days

Well Fletcher has arrived.  His father has not moved in yet, but, Fletchy Boy is here.  Pardon me while I ...yawn.  I am exhausted! First let me say this - Fletcher is a good puppy.  He doesn't chew, is housebroken and pretty mellow...but...oh my...he is a lot of work.  Let's rewind to Sunday, or as I refer to it the day the #*#! hit the fan.  Josh and I took Fletcher to see the vet.  We had been noticing that he walks in a "unique" way.  We thought he may have hip problems, so we had him x-rayed.  I noticed a quite strong odor emanating from him as well, oh and his ears smelled, too. Here is what the vet had to say:

Hips fine.  Knee "totally messed up". I quote.  He doesn't even know what to make of this knee.  Could be a birth defect, could have had a trauma (?), not really fixable.  He has adapted to it and seems to get around just fine, in fact when he runs, he is almost graceful. We will just have to see how he grows and deal with it when something changes.  He also had double ear infections and a hot spot under his chin.  A mess! Guess who his nurse is? I think his ears are cleared up now and the hot spot is much better.  These problems are probably a result of going to doggy daycare. I love my son, but, he really didn't do his homework on owning a Newfoundland.  It's a lot of maintenance. Lots of hair that needs to be brushed, etc.  Oh my.

But look how cute.

So now that I have this baby.  Here is brief synopsis of our day:

Pee

Poop

Eat

Drink Lots O' Water

Pee

Poop

Water- again

Slobber

Brawl with Bella

Pee

Poop

Water

Eat

You get the idea!

His first day here I stayed home all day, but yesterday I wanted to get out of here and ride my black pony.  I was very wary about leaving him in the house, but Josh assured me he would be fine.  Cliff bought a baby gate and I put him in the mud room and went riding. I was a nervous wreck the whole time I was gone and of course I got behind every slow moving farm vehicle in the county as I was rushing to get home to see the damage that may have occurred. I put the key in the front door and was greeted by a baby gate laying on it's side and two dogs peacefully snoozing in the kitchen.  I guess it's hard to keep a Newf behind bars.  Come to think of it - he used to break out of his crate when he was a baby.

But look how cute.  Hopefully we will adapt, but, I am too old for this!  What we do for our children.

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Gifts!

This week we celebrated Cliff's birthday and Mother's Day.  The ole Farmhouse got two new gifts.  Before we get to that I have a question.  Why is it that this :

This dog that loves the water, swims like a fish and generally wallows in any body of water, however tiny, can not be coaxed to go outside and tinkle in the rain??? Really Bella??  I put her out and she lays on the covered porch.  I try a different tactic, I put her out the front door where there is no covering.  She tip toes back to the porch!  Infuriating to say the least.  So I put on my rain gear and we walk.  We walk and walk until this princess decides she can hold it no longer.  Dogs!

We now have an arbor.  This is Cliff's birthday present.

I planted honeysuckle trumpet vine on either side.  We had an arbor at our other place and it was one of our favorite things.

The other gift that finally arrived was our antique sign,  Remember way back when Jason was working on the carriage house and found the piece of siding that said - General Felix Agnus, Stevenson Station?  Well he finally finished restoring it for us.  We hung it over the piano.  It's hard to see in a photograph, but the writing is done in what looks like green pencil. 

Too hard to see, but trust me, it's way cool!

Jason tells me the frame is made from old barn wood that is at least 100 years old.

In other news, we hope to mow the lawn this weekend.  That's right - we have a lawn.  Oh and by the way by saying "we", I mean CNC lawn service.  We don't have a mower.

Big changes are coming, and by big I mean Newfoundland big. Josh is scheduled to move home next weekend. We are a tiny bit, shall I say - hesitant? Oy!

Thanks for stopping by.