Aahhh summer...

and not a moment too soon. It has been a horrible winter but summer is officially here and with it comes the exhaustion. =-)

We have been working on the house nearly nonstop and it has come a long way. We have most of the electricity ran, hot water everywhere, all plumbing completely done, and the bedroom sheetrocked and insulated. Oh and my kitchen counter and pantry shelves are up, and my stove and fridge are all up and running so I can cook meals there when we need to, which saves alot of money.

We did take off and go to a horseshow on Saturday, which was really fun. It was a Shiloh Horseshow and we took Kate and her new pony Obbie too. He did really well for her and we were proud of him. I rode Katie's mare Cassi and she placed well in the walk trot pleasure classes. She hasn't been ridden three times since last fall and had never been to a show before so I was really thrilled with her and had so much fun riding in it. Katie's pony Jack did fine as well even though she hadn't been riding him, he got into the groove pretty quickly, as did Travis's mare Bailey. Unfortunately my friend Amy fell off her horse and broke her ankle pretty badly at the beginning of the show and is going to be laid up for quite some time. She goes into surgery today.

Well, it's been a long winter

but we have finally gotten started back on the house. This was the worst winter I can ever remember. For over a month there was at least three inches of ice on the ground at all times. Most of the time there was up to 18 inches of snow on top of that. The entire pasture was an ice skating rink and it didn't get above freezing for two months. We couldn't do a single thing all winter. I guess it makes us appreciate spring all the more! And I am beyond thankful that none of the horses were injured, I have heard of several that fell on the ice and now have problems.

Anyway, we have done a few things to the house. The addition is framed in, as is the wall between our bedroom and the great room. Insulation and drywall are all up on the East gable in the great room, the water is stubbed in and the great room is all stained and chinked on the inside. We are currently working on making and hanging the ornate metal girders that run on the inside trusses for support. I am excited about those, and will have to get a picture of Travis making them. They are twisted metal and in the center of the rod is a horsehoe with a star in the middle of it. Super cool. We should be getting the electrical put in within a few weeks and after that we just need the rest of the insulation and drywall, flooring and general finish work. We are getting pretty close, really. =-) Oh yeah, we finished the front porch too, and it is incredible! I will get pics ASAP.

Memorial Weekend we have big plans one way or another, LOL. We were planning a big party at the farm with a hog roast, etc. and invited a friend from Mississippi who said he was coming up for it. But then we learned that there is a huge event in southern missouri with QH races, chuckwagon races and cowboy mounted shooting events. The entry fees are really small and the paybacks are HUGE. I may take my race mare Rona and enter her in the 330 yard race. Her sire was nearly unbeatable at 350, and although I have ridden alot of race horses, I swear this mare is the fastest horse I have ever been on. I think she could hold her own at least and I really want to go, but if our friend from down south has already made plans to come up for our party then we aren't going to cancel our party and go. I have to put her on a strict training regimen immediately if we are going so I should know something in the next day or two. Our party will be a blast so I won't be too dissapointed if we don't go to the races, but the opportunity is there to win several thousand dollars at the races....

Our first cowboy mounted shoot is next weekend! We are looking forward to that, although I am not riding in it like I had planned. Since I found out I am pregnant I figure I shouldn't take the chance of shooting a gun and etc. off an unseasoned horse. I could borrow Travis's more seasoned mare Bailey but he has worked so hard to get her trained for it and I don't want to wear her out by making her run twice all weekend. Katie will be riding in the wrangler class though, that will be cool!

What an amazing holiday we had!

Thanksgiving weekend is just over and I can't ever remember a better one! Went to the parents on thursday afternoon, then came home and played with the horses. Tuesday we had Charlie Russell castrated and brought him home, which worked out perfectly since I was off work early on Wednesday and then off Friday as well, so I could take care of him. Charlie Russell is a horse, by the way, LOL.

I rode nearly all day long both Saturday and Sunday and it was 70 degrees all four days! I have finally decided that I really want to pursue the cowboy mounted shooting and so now I have some work to do. Travis has competed and done really well, and I have trained his shooting horses for him, and shot alot, but never really gotten serious. Travis has only ridden Bailey, his prospect, for the last two years, in preparation to compete on her. Meanwhile, I have ridden five or six horses during that time. So none of my horses are totally finished shooting horses. That has now changed, and I informed Travis that the only horse I will now be riding is Rona, my red dun mare. She is incredibly athletic and has more speed than I can possibly forsee needing, and has already been exposed to it, and shot off of, so she is furthest along. She is starting to neck rein, knows her leads, has awesome transitions, has a great stop and foundation for a spin, and is starting to move off my legs, so she won't need too much work to be ready to compete on. The key will be to ride her as often as possible so we can really click and get on the same page. I told Travis my only motivation is to beat his times, LOL. I can finally get back to some riding goals though, now that my health is back on track. I am so thrilled that I was able to ride so much over the last four days. I haven't ridden that hard in years, because of my back problems, and after being laid up for so long I was hesitant to try, but I am elated that I haven't had any problems with back or ankle, and didn't have to think of either one while riding. You don't realize what your health means until you lose it.

Friday I cooked a thankgiving meal for Travis, Katie and I, and we had a nice little family meal with just the three of us, which was wonderful. I cooked turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes, the basic traditional meal, and I cooked candied yams for myself, since Travis and Katie don't like them, and I haven't eaten them in years, LOL.

Saturday we went horseback riding at Rudolph Bennett State Park and it was the first time pulling four horses with our one ton truck. It only has a 351 motor in it so we weren't sure how it would handle the load, but it did wonderfully. I headed to the farm early Sat. and rode Rona and ponied Charlie Russell for about an hour, and waited on Travis to get to the farm. He had to go fix a water leak for his dad who was in the hospital again with heart problems. After that he shod Rona for me and we went to Rudolph with Chelli and Bobby, a couple friends. We had about an 8 mile trail ride and then hauled home, did chores, and watched movies in the evening. It was a perfect day altogether. Then Wes, Melissa and Megan came over and watched a few episodes of the TV show Deadwood that we had rented. They let Megan spend the night with Katie, then Melissa came and picked her up Sunday afternoon, after I had already ridden for a couple of hours. I talked her into going trail riding with me, and Brian showed up and went with us as well. We rode for about an hour, and it was starting to get dark, so we headed back to the farm. It was really nice to spend some time with Melissa though. Travis was hunting with his muzzleloader, but I opted out to go riding instead. He was 'still hunting' a group of deer and as darkness was falling, Brian (Travis's brother) insisted on blundering into the woods to check on Travis (?) and spooked his deer, so he ended up empty handed, and was furious. LOL It was funny, though. And that stuff happens, better luck next time!

Oh I almost forgot....Last weekend we had a very busy time as well. We held a 4-H barrel racing clinic at the farm for the kids and Kate Lewis stayed with us all weekend, while Stacy Early was with us on Saturday night. It was a blast, and the kids all said they learned alot and had a ton of fun. Kathleen Ball and I put the clinic on, with her taking a few kids and myself taking a few kids. I think hers got the benefit of more instruction, she is an incredibly resource, but I tried to pull my weight.

PS: We were supposed to be on a four day muzzleloading hunting/pack trip over this holiday vacation, but Brian had to work so we moved it to next weekend. Unfortunately this means I can't go, since we have several things this weekend, including our saddle club christmas party and a 4H event. And then Travis has to work on Friday, and it is supposed to be in the twenties.....So I guess that is scrapped and we will have to wait until next spring to go. Bummer, and especially painful since it was so nice all weekend! Uuuggghhhh.......

What incredible weather we have been having!

Its been in the 70s all week, and even this morning has been in the high 50s. Its been a long week and last night after I got off work I went to the farm to ride and found the arena freshly harrowed and Travis working a horse and my buckskin mare caught and saddled waiting for me to get on! Talk about heaven, it doesn't get much better than that. I am so thankful every day that I get to live the life of my dreams. It's far from perfect, but close enough for me! And especially since we never know what is in store for us I really try to realize every day what I have. My father lost our farm in the mid eighties when I was around the age of ten and I remember vividly the feeling that you could lose everything in a heartbeat. Life is funny, and it may sound strange but I am actually thankful that happened, even as hard as it was on all of us, because I don't take one single moment on our farm for granted now. I guess that falls in with my theory of living with no regrets, because the things that happen to you make you the person you are today and if you learned from the mistakes how can you regret them? Ok, before i really go off the deep end....

We had a great weekend last weekend, Friday night we went to happy hour and stayed out until about 10pm. Then Saturday had a bonfire party at our friends place in Prairie Home, and stayed out way too late playing poker. And Sunday we had a cowboy mounted shooting practice that was right down the road from the place we were at the previous night in Prairie Home! Our friends rode down and watched the practice and even tried it. Travis rode Bailey and I rode Cassi and they both did really well, but Bailey was simply outstanding and Travis was able to run patterns on her and he looks like he is coming back strong and will be hard to beat next season. He had run my ex barrel horse EJ and done extremely well, even won one competition, but EJ just wasn't staying sound, so he had to take some time off and get a really good handle on Bailey to compete. Last weekend was the first time he had shot off her in years and she didn't flick an ear. My ankle is still healing but I rode anyway and it felt so good. It was the first time to really ride since long before my surgery and I was in seventh heaven. I didn't realize how long I had been in pain and how much it was affecting my riding, now that my back is better I am getting more of a thrill out of riding than I have in years. It feels more like the freedom I remember as a child.

Anyway, progress on the house is steady but slow. We are framing the walls in the addition right now, and will begin putting in the electrical and then the insulation soon. We were able to pick up a nice counter top really reasonably in the paper that will work perfect for the kitchen.

Well, the cold weather is here...

but no snow yet. The outside of the cabin is all dried in finally! And none too soon, either, it has really been cold and I am expecting snow soon, personally, although you never know.

The last few weeks have been pretty uneventful. This past weekend we had to knock off working on the house to get the feed bunks and paddock to the lean-to done. We did get them completed though, and think its going to work out nicely. We basically fenced off half the 40 foot long lean to, to house the horses this winter, and made two gates through the arena for them to access it. They were quite pleased when we were finished, and spent a good amount of time playing in their new area, LOL. Looks like we will have to put out our first bale of hay within the next week. We will start graining around the same time as well. We have been able to hold out longer than alot of people we know, so we aren't doing too badly overall, so far.

We were able to work on the house a little bit, I got the extra logs and etc. that was in a pile behind the house put into a nice neat stack, which sounds easy but was a nightmare, especially since I had to do it very carefully since my back isn't quite up to par yet. It doesn't hurt, it just isn't very strong after my surgery. My ankle was bothering me, but I had my moonboot on and ignored it. It feels fine today, I just needed some rest. Also, Travis got alot of the eaves of the house boxed in and some other odd things done Sunday after finishing the horse paddock. Saturday we had to start feeding our neighbors percheron horses for him, since he is at the world farm pulling show. I enjoy doing his chores, although it does take over an hour. The horses are huge, and fun to be around.

They say bad luck comes in threes....

not sure I believe it, but I am starting to wonder. Over the last week we have had several issues. First Mr. Brown ( yearling colt) apparently got kicked and has a edema. The vet said there is nothing we can do, we just need to leave it alone and it should go down. Then Rona (my favorite mare) came up with an ulcer on her eye and had to be put in a dark stall for the last four days. I am praying we caught it fast enough to save the eye. She was NOT happy to be put up though, especially considering she is my head mare in the pasture. She would alternately rear and kick the bejesus out of the stall. She definitely isn't lacking in personality, LOL.

We had an eventful weekend, that's for sure. We had to head to dad's to vaccinate the cattle saturday morning, and had to haul my round pen panels up there because we haven't had time to set his place up with chutes, etc. It was a real challenge with no facilities, but we were able to accomplish it by getting the cattle in his woven wire round pen and then putting up my round pen panels on the inside of it and squeezing several at a time one in front of another between the row of panels. That buys us some time to outfit his place, anyhow.

Then we ran to pick up the antique clawfoot bathtub that Travis had found. It is in great shape and we were thrilled to find it. We got it loaded with no problems and finally headed home. The neighbor met us at the farm to have his horse shod and then around dark folks started heading over for the hayride we were planning.

We wound up with about 10 friends on the hayride and rode to harrisburg, the small town we are closest to, and got something to eat, then headed back in a round about way to the farm. Travis was on the back of the wagon, I was on the front, and I kept worrying that he was going to fall backwards off the wagon and hit his head. At some point about two hours from the farm everyone started laughing and said that he had finally fallen off. I looked back and thought I saw Travis reeling in the road holding his head. I didn't think, I just thought I have to catch him before he falls again. I vaulted over the side of the hay wagon and hit the ground running. Problem was my ankle gave and I literally hit the ground. Turns out he was only looking for his flashlight and was just fine, thankfully. But my ankle wasn't, and it was a long ride back to the farm. From there I was taken to the ER and found out it was fractured. So now I am crippled again and quite frustrated after just getting 100% after my back surgery. Oh well, such is life, it can always get worse.

Boy I am burning up this blog now...

because we are getting so much done and I really want to be able to go back and have a timeline for what we got done on it. Travis and I were both shocked when I went back and read to the beginning of this and learned that we had only really been working on the house since November of last year.

Anyway, had a long weekend, but very exciting. We slept in the house for the first time Friday night. We built platforms off the floor and slept on air mattresses in the addition. Saturday we went to Orschelns and purchased the kit to install the wood stove and wound up putting the stove in while it was dark with drop lights. Quite a challenge, but so nice to lay in "Bed" and watch the fire in the wood stove! The stove is one that Travis's mother gave to us while we were visiting in Wyoming and it looked perfect. Neat that it came half way across the country with us and waited three years to go in our house! Also, Travis built the front door out of red oak and we got it hung, it looks amazing. Friday night I was able to complete another rock column on the porch, which is a very tedious job but rewarding. And I was also able to get the rest of the front of the house chinked. The bonus? Travis called me this afternoon and let me know that he was able to find a claw foot tub exactly like we have been looking for everywhere! He was able to buy it from a client when he saw it sitting in their garage, what a stroke of luck.

Also, I worked Rona last night, the first horse I have really ridden since my surgery. My back felt ok, a little pain but nothing I couldn't deal with. I am a little sore today but I expected it. It felt so good to be back in the saddle and Rona acted like she hadn't forgotten a thing, it was incredible! God I love that horse!