Heide comes to the farm!

Last month I placed an ad in a local paper searching for someone to help with barn chores six to eight hours a week. I must have received 50 calls but I only interviewed two people face-to-face. The second person got the job. Heide, yes, spelled with an “e” at the end, is a recently divorced single mother of four boys ages 4-13. She is strong, has a good sense of humor, a solid work ethic, and balances taking initiative with making suggestions for what the barn needs. She’s a crack shot with the pellet gun and has significantly reduced our pigeon population. In addition to cleaning stalls twice weekly and straightening the barn, she tops up water tanks, stacks square hay bales, fills feed bins readying them for feeding and, when there’s time, she’s begun stripping out old wooden planks on the side of the barn where we’re going to put in four new stalls in the spring. Heide told me she wanted the job because she loves being outdoors and that shoveling horse poop helps her to focus on what’s important and the flexible schedule would allow her to be home with her boys when they are not in school.

We have assembled and placed eight of the 11 cabinets we will have in the kitchen. The photos of these base units are not that exciting, but the fact that we are progressing is! While Ian worked on consulting projects, Heide and I spent two afternoons assembling IKEA cabinets and we got darn good at this! The next steps are bolting the units to the wall and then cutting countertop bases from plywood and cement board. The countertops will be ceramic tile, as will the walls in the cooking portion of the kitchen. We won’t begin these steps until we return from the horse show in Arizona. We’re looking to head to Scottsdale somewhere in the February 8-10 window, weather permitting. Heide will look after the horses daily and keep an eye on the house while we are gone with Donna as her back up.

Ian and I bought six 1800-pound round bales of hay from a local farmer to feed the seven horses that live outdoors (they have a run-in shed for protection). At $35 a round bale this is a less expensive way to feed hay then square bales, which weigh about 50 pounds each, cost $2.50 per and the seven can easily eat five bales daily. There’s also a round bale placed in the pasture for the three mares that come in at night. Knowing this hay is available to them all day I feed less hay inside at night. In the winter healthy horses generate heat from foraging, which they can do naturally almost ‘round the clock, and having access to temperate water. Each horse drinks 10-15 gallons a day. All three of our 100-gallon stock tanks have heaters to keep them from freezing and the barn mares have heated 5-gallon water buckets in their stalls. Of course all 10 have heavy, rug-like winter coats and even the hard-to-keep Thoroughbreds have put on weight and are looking very healthy.

E-I-E-I-O

Today we bought a corn stove!

A corn stove is a type of pellet stove, which is a type of biofuel stove. “Biofuel” is any fuel that is derived from biomass — recently living organisms or their metabolic byproducts, such as manure from cows. It is a renewable energy source, unlike other natural resources such as petroleum, coal, and nuclear fuels.

The shelled dry kernel of corn, also called a corn pellet, creates as much heat as a wood pellet but generates more ash. Corn pellet stoves and wood pellet stoves look the same from the outside. In fact, the brand we bought, Pelpro, burns both corn and wood pellets. Since these stoves are highly efficient, they don't need a chimney; instead they can be vented outdoors by a four-inch pipe through an outside wall and so can be located in any room in the home. You can see a photo of the one we bought here:

www.pelprostoves.com/corn-stoves.htm

I know, I know, more than you ever wanted to know about corn stoves! I am very pleased to get away from or at least greatly reduce our personal reliance on propane. We filled our 500 gallon propane tank at the beginning of December for $730 and now the gauge reads 10% only six weeks later. And to date this has been an unseasonably warm Minnesota winter! One ton of dried corn pellets, bought in bulk from the local feed mill, costs $142. There are about 30 bushels in a ton and we will use about one bushel a day to heat the house. Yeah, I already like those numbers!

We’ll need to shuffle things around in the living room area (like the bed, dresser and couch) to accommodate the stove, but we’re happy to do that. We’ve wanted a corn stove since we learned about them shortly after we bought the farm. We had to special order the 4-inch vent pipe, which will be ready for pick up tomorrow, and then Ian will install the stove. We’ll get a pick-up load of corn from the feed mill tomorrow too, so we should be up and running tomorrow afternoon. It will be nice to turn the propane thermostat down. We cannot be completely propane free as we will use it for cooking in the new kitchen and it heats our water heater, but we can reduce how much we use.

E-I-E-I-O

He's baaaaaaack!

After 15 days on the road, Ian’s back home and none the worse for wear! Lady and I met him at the airport around eight last night. He came bearing gifts too! The highlights included pure butter shortbread cookies, our favorite mint shower gel from Boots (a pharmacy in the UK), a bottle of Chanel No. 5, (my favorite – and I was out) and a bottle of my favorite Champagne, Verve Clicquot Ponsardin, which came in its own orange neoprene bottle jacket to keep it cold! All that aside, the best thing Ian could ever bring home to me is himself, as he did, safe and sound.

While Ian spent a good portion of his day flying transatlantic I made fresh bread and corn beef with cabbage, potatoes, carrots and onions, which we sampled when we got home. Neighbor Donna donated two pieces of homemade peach crumble for our dessert.

Now Ian is here as a permanent legal alien. This status is good for life. Even if we decide to relocate abroad again, all he needs to do to keep this status intact is to travel to the U.S. once a year.

We’ll see what fun these next weeks have in store as we settle into what’s “normal” for us and as we get ready to attend (and show at) the 52nd Annual Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show in Arizona February 16-25.

E-I-E-I-O

Happy New Year! Here, there and everywhere

Ian has been traveling since Christmas Day. He needed to go to Madrid for an appointment regarding his US visa (green card), which allows him to reside and work here fulltime. Ian had to undergo a physical exam at a Madrid clinic approved by the U.S. Embassy. He had to have his vaccinations updated. He had to get a police report stating he had no police record in Spain. What’s amazing about this is that when you read the information given to you about this process, it gives the impression that this can all be done in a day! HA! And he's doing some of it in Spanish too. As I said, Ian left Minneapolis on Christmas Day, changed planes in London, then to Barcelona where he spent one night with Michael and Natalia, then took the train and arrived Madrid on the 28th for his medical appoint and was busy for the next two days running hither and yon throughout the Spanish capitol. We are very grateful that throughout his trip he has been able to stay with family, at our Spanish house or in a hotel chain where he can cash in points! After busy days in Madrid, he took the train to the coast and stayed in our beach house in Riumar for the New Year’s weekend. We celebrated New Year’s Eve together on Spanish time with a phone call, even though 2007 would not greet me in Minnesota for another seven hours.

While in Riumar, Ian sold our trailer to the man who did the renovation work on the houses. He tidied up our Camel Trophy Land Rover that had been parked there and readied it for travel. On January 2nd he drove the Land Rover five hours to Madrid and was there for his 9 a.m. appointment at the consulate on the third. All the papers were reviewed and he was told his visa would be issued … good … although it and his passport would be mailed from Madrid to his Spanish address in Barcelona! What?? Yup, thanks to changes made by Homeland Security nothing could be done to change this “security” procedure.

The reason Ian was driving the Land Rover is because it was going to be sold to one of two interested buyers; one in Lisbon, Portugal, the other in Peterborough, England. Lisbon is much closer and on the Iberian Peninsula, but that guy did not get it together by the Thursday morning deadline. So, Ian headed north through Bilbao, up through Bordeaux, France, through Paris in the wee hours and up to Calais where using his Canadian passport he took the car ferry to Dover and made his way northwest from the coast to Peterborough in Cambridgeshire. He arrived there Friday after almost 24 driving hours. Unfortunately, the man who writes the check at the Nene Overland car dealership was taken to hospital a few hours before Ian arrived, so we won’t get a payment for the Land Rover until early next week. Ian’s fine with that (and the man is OK healthwise too), as this is where Ian purchased it.

While on the road good news came from Barcelona, Ian’s passport and visa had arrived by special courier.

Road weary, Ian took the train from Peterborough into Stansted and checked into the airport hotel – one of our favorites, with its tower bar and athletic bartenders that use mountain-climbing pulleys to retrieve bottles from various shelves that go up a few stories above their heads. He slept well last night and caught an EasyJet flight back to Barcelona today. He will stop through Michael & Natalia’s this evening where he’ll collect his UK passport and sealed US visa packet and in a rental car will head down the coast to spend two nights at our house in Riumar. He flies back from Barcelona into London Gatwick on Monday and has a Tuesday morning flight home. Barring any delays along the way, I will meet him at the airport at 7:30 p.m.

When Ian comes through Newark, his first port of entry into the U.S., he will meet with someone from U.S. Immigration, have his identity confirmed and the visa will be affixed in his passport. I’m not sure if there’s a time limit on it or not, but making this hurdle is the most important. Having a visa allows Ian to live here, have a social security number, work and pay taxes. He will have legal immigrant status, but not be a U.S. citizen, which would allow him to vote, have a passport and hold political office (except for President, you’ve got to be born here for that). The visa and related fees (medical, record searches) were near $1500. That does not account for all the airfare, train fare, hotel fare (although we did well there), food and just plain body wear and tear!

It will be very good to see the Auld Macdonald.

Well, I’d better end here, as a local farmer’s coming to deliver hay for the horses and I need to run into town to buy chicken feed later too. Thankfully, the Minnesota winter weather has been unbelievably mild so running errands and doing chores aren’t hardships.

E-I-E-I-O

The traveling Auld Macdonald

Ian’s traveling this Christmas to Spain, France and the UK, primarily, because he’s got to go to an appointment in Madrid regarding his US visa. Since we started this process before we left Spain, all appointments must be conducted there. Part of this appointment requires him to undergo a physical exam at an approved clinic in Madrid, which must be done before meeting with the paper pushers. Being’s its holiday time Ian has that appointment on the 28th, will spend New Year’s at our place in Riumar and return to Madrid on the 2nd for a morning appointment at the embassy on the 3rd. The real kicker is to get all of this done he will leave here on Christmas morning! I contemplated going along, but we’ve got lots of irons in the fire here and I’m fine to stay behind and look after the animals. My mother is also recovering from surgery on a hip replacement and is still in hospital recovering. I’d feel better being closer as she recuperates.

We’re selling our Land Rover to a reseller in England, so when Ian’s in Riumar, where the LR is parked, he will get it ready for the trip from Catalunya, up through France, crossing by car ferry at Calais into Dover and up to North Hamptonshire. While in Spain he’ll get to see Michael and Natalia in Barcelona for a night or two.

I envy the drive through France and am hoping Ian stops to shop for Christmas chocolates called papillottes. He flies home from London Gatwick on Tuesday, January 9.

My son Richard is going to spend Christmas and possibly New Year’s with me at the farm. That should be fun. I don’t mind being here without Ian, as this visa stuff needs to be done and it’s not like I’m alone! LOL It will be good to welcome the Auld Macdonald home though.

E-I-E-I-O

Slippery straw

Yesterday, Ian and I helped with a live nativity scene at my cousin Brenda’s church in St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis. I hauled about 40 bales of straw piled and strapped in the bed of our blue Chev truck, while Ian took the trailer over to collect 2 llamas and 2 sheep and their 2 owners. Straw piled high, I began my trek to the church around 11 a.m. and hadn’t gotten five miles from home on highway 65 headed south when a bale or two wiggled loose and toppled three onto the road. I saw this happen in my rearview mirror, pulled over immediately, hopped out and dragged bales off the road. Three cars stopped and helped too. I telephoned Ian, who had not left yet, and he came towing the trailer and re-stacked the straw and took a layer of bales off and stacked them in the trailer. Off I went down the road and arrived without further incident at the church around 1p.m.

While the nativity crèche was being built from the straw I went into Minneapolis and visited my Mom and younger brother Matthew. They followed me back to the church, where the parking lot had been transformed into areas that were ready to depict verses from the Christmas story. Brenda had been asking the church’s board members to do this for several years and this is the first year they said yes. It was lovely to see how teamwork was bringing it all together.

Ian went to Harris, MN to collect Robin and Gigi and their sheep and llamas. They arrived at the church in plenty of time to take their places before the drive thru parade of onlookers began at 4. The cast of angels, shepherds, wise men, Marys and Josephs rotated into the warm narthex for hot chocolate and cider, as the temps dipped into single digits. As cars exited the scene they passed a cozy bonfire kept burning by industrious young people. It looked to be a heartwarming success.

While the nativity was open to car traffic Ian and I took advantage of being close to a Fleet Farm store and went to shop, buying among other things 5-gallon heated water buckets for the horses that overnight in the barn and a smaller heated water dish for our chickens.

When the show was over and while the sheep and llamas were being reloaded, Ian re-stacked straw bales and tied them extra tight using bale straps we’d bought at the farm store. It looked to be a snug package on the back of the truck and we were off once again. I was heading north toward home and Ian headed northeast. I got about halfway home when, I think, a bale broke in the stack and as many as six bales tumbled onto highway 65, only this time in the dark! I pulled over immediately, put on the flashers and watched horrified as drivers dodged or hit the bales. THANKFULLY no one was hurt and the light bales were bumped or blown onto the median in less than a minute. I telephoned Ian, who was a good 30-minutes away, dropping off the animals. I limped to a side road not dropping any more bales and waited. Soon a county sheriff's deputy pulled up. Deputy Franklin asked if I was OK and asked what had happened. I told him about the live nativity, that I was about halfway home, that Ian was coming with the trailer and could put bales in there. He took my license and insurance info telling me that one of the cars that hit a bale had caught on fire and was at a gas station just down the road. Its front grill was melted and it was being towed. The deputy let me know that no one was injured but that there would probably be a claim to my insurance company. He looked at the straps and said it was apparent that the bales had been tied down very well and that this was truly an accident. He did not ticket me, but asked that I wait where I was until Ian arrived. So, there I sat listening to a book on tape or talking to Donna on my cellphone until Ian arrived with a warm hug. We stacked the bales in the empty trailer and headed home. I emailed my insurance agent and we’ll see what happens regarding any claim.

Yesterday was a long day and our bed felt particularly good last night. This morning we awoke to a covering of snow! Everything is white and looks clean.

E-I-E-I-O

Turkey, travel and tragedy

Ian and I spent a lovely Thanksgiving Day with our friends Beth and Tom and their daughters who live in Minnetonka. Beth and I met in 1993 when we worked at Public Radio International. Now she’s reinvented herself into a registered nurse and I’m a horse farmer! LOL Because we were going to begin our drive to Kansas City, Missouri after our turkey dinner we arrived towing our 3-horse living quarters trailer behind our one-ton truck. We swung through Minneapolis and picked up my son Richard. Our dog Lady comes with us to the shows, so she snuggled up to my son in the back seat. We had a lovely time at Beth’s, where we always meet interesting people. This time it was a politically involved and savvy family and we discussed all the over dinner taboos, like politics and religion. My cousin Brenda and her family live down the street from Beth’s so they came over and joined us for dessert and conversation. We gave tours of the living quarters and assured the neighbors that we were not hauling horses as well!

After dinner, we took Richard home and jumped on 35W headed south toward Missouri. It is an eight-hour drive and we got as far as Ames, Iowa that night and parked ourselves at a well-lit truck stop. The trailer is self-sufficient with its own heat, water pump, toilet, frig, stove, well-stocked kitchen and cozy queen-sized bed. We snuggled in and slept until about seven when the neighboring diesel trucks began pulling back onto the highway.

We arrive in Kansas City, MO around 1:30 Friday afternoon. Our trainer Tony and his family, who were hauling the three horses to be shown that weekend, were about four hours behind us. We checked in with the show office and prepared the box stalls with wood shaving bedding and water buckets.

Just before we arrive on the show grounds we received some tragic news. Our four-month-old American Saddlebred/American Paint cross weanling colt was dead. Our neighbor Donna who has had horses all her life and who watches our animals when we are traveling, called sobbing that sometime during the night Thursday Chocolate had caught his head in his stall gate and broken his neck. He was such a sweetheart of a horse and we three are heartbroken. The only consolation is that he died quickly. He was laid to rest in a peaceful spot. We close our eyes and see him galloping, kicking and bucking across Heaven’s hills playing with all the horses that waited to welcome him home. Amen.

Setting our sadness aside, we focused on the business at hand of participating in our last show of the 2006 season. The American Royal Arabian Horse Show is held in beautiful facilities that were built in what was once the country’s busiest stockyards. We and another client showed under the Genesis Training Center banner, and we did well. The three horses shown got either first or second place, which allowed the horse and handler to show in the championship class where we took either champion or reserve champion ribbons. Tony showed our horse Lookin For Trouble on Saturday and they got a blue ribbon followed by a reserve champion ribbon. I showed Trouble on Sunday as his amateur owner and won a blue ribbon and grand champion gelding for the show! My first grand championship and when I came out of the ring, Tony was there to greet me with a high-five and while he took Trouble back to his stall, Ian gave me a big hug!

On Saturday evening Trouble was entered in his first liberty class. This is a real crowd pleaser as the horses come in the ring one at a time and run around the ring without halter (at liberty) for two minutes to music. I chose Travis Tritt singing “T-R-O-U-B-L-E.” Trouble looked beautiful and Ian and Tony worked in tandem to keep him moving around the ring. When the music stops and time is called, the handlers have two minutes to catch their horse. Trouble had other ideas. With a full house watching, he ran full speed from one end of the arena to the other dodging or ignoring all efforts to get him back under control. The little bugger! Finally he snorted to a halt and Tony slipped his halter back on. The crowd cheered and they were on to the next entrant. Needless to add, we did not win that class. LOL Tony said a lot of his behavior could be attributed to the fact that this was his first at liberty class and that he’s still a youngster.

E-I-E-I-O

Meet Jay & Missy

As if we don’t already have plenty of horses, we bought two more! First came Jay, a two-year-old purebred Arabian gelding. More than 15 hands tall at the withers, Jay is taller than Lookin For Trouble, who is three months older. There are 4 inches in each “hand” measurement and withers are shoulders. Jay joins the other two year olds Cairo and Whisper in the boys pasture. We are in the process of getting Jay his purebred papers, which means we will be able to show him at Arabian shows as we do with Trouble. Jay will be three years old in May and looks sturdy enough to begin under saddle. We plan to take him to a farm in Wisconsin in the coming weeks to have his readiness assessed. Jay’s sire is a beautiful stallion named Legacy of Fame (www.legacyoffame.com) and his pretty dam (mother), Sax Fifth Avenue, is also with us on the Auld Macdonald Farm. We are leasing Sax from her owner for two years and will breed her in the Spring 2007 to Famous Echo, an American Saddlebred bay pinto-colored stallion for a tall spotted National Show Horse foal similar to Kiss in early 2008.

Our second acquisition, Yukon Miss (“Missy”), is a 12-year-old registered Thoroughbred mare that we bought site unseen. Donna, who works the monthly horse auction near Pine City, Minnesota, saw her last Saturday afternoon and telephoned us while we were at the U.S. National Arabian horse show in Louisville. Missy had been bought by a killer buyer and was on her way to the glue factory. She is 17 hands tall and about 200 pounds underweight. Thoroughbreds are notorious for being hard to keep at optimum weight. I think this is because of the breed’s nervous nature coupled with the fact they are built on the lean side for speed and spend often too many hours in stalls as racing youngsters. Missy is a black bay with no white markings and like Sax she will be a perfect broodmare.

Another bonus, which is the way we choose to see it, is that Missy comes bred to a registered Thoroughbred stallion named Foolish Lover and should deliver her purebred foal in mid-May 2007. Lisa, the former owner’s contact info was included in Missy’s auction papers so I telephoned her and learned that this foal can also be registered, so Lisa is sending me the necessary forms to do this. She also told me that Missy’s racing career was ended when she did not recover fully after surgery to remove a bone chip in her left front kneecap and that she’s been a broodmare ever since. In fact, her last six foals have been with Foolish Lover and the first two foals are now racers. So in May 2007 we will have Windy’s purebred Arabian foal by RSA Troublesome (who is 3/4 brother to our Trouble) and Missy’s foal. Now won’t that be fun?!

EIEIO

Louisville

Ian and I went to Louisville, Kentucky to watch the final weekend of the U.S. National Arabian Horse Show. We pulled our living quarters trailer so we had somewhere comfy to stay. The drive from here is about 12-13 hours. Our trainer, Tony, had been in Louisville at the show with three other-client horses about 10 days before we arrived on Thursday. His wife Cindy and their two children, Katie and Scott, ages 4 and 8, respectively, rode with us as we drove through Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana and then crossed the Ohio River into Louisville, Kentucky. The kids are great and were entertained most of the way by watching their portable DVD player. Wished I’d have had that when my two were young. We actually left on Wednesday afternoon as soon as Scott got off the school bus. There was no school in Minnesota on Thursday and Friday due to statewide teachers meetings. We drove to Madison, Wisconsin Wednesday night and parked our truck and trailer on the street across from the Super 8 where Cindy and the kids slept. We were up at 5, Cindy and the kids came knocking at the door at 6, so we hit the road early and made Louisville at 4 that afternoon. We also gained an hour because Kentucky is in the Eastern Time Zone. Tony was happy to see his family and they checked in a nearby Super 8. Tony had been sleeping in his horse trailer’s tack room bundled in many layers of comforters! Kentucky is in The South, but not so far south that camping like that was comfy cozy.

We parked the trailer in the RV section of the Freedom Hall complex and hooked up to electricity for a whopping $45/night. The trailer has a furnace that runs on propane, the trailer carries its own two tanks. The temps in Louisville were in the 30s and 40s, which when the sun shines it not too bad, but at night its cold. The locals were complaining it was already winter. Ha! We’d left Minnesota in the 20s with drizzle and occasional flurries.

Freedom Hall is a huge convention center and for the horse show its exhibit halls had been converted into horse barns. They had taken in truckloads of clay dirt and spread it out over the concrete floor like rolling out cookie dough on a counter. Then with the cushioned dirt floor in place stalls were built with alleyways set up much like exhibitor areas only each square housed a horse. Then each competitor’s barn came in and dressed up their area of stalls with drapes and farm logos, some created living room areas complete with gardens, fountains, couches and televisions.

The Freedom Hall arena held the show classes. There was a separate exhibition arena that was set up just for what I’ll call cowboy-related specialties like reining, cutting and calf roping. We never got to that arena and more’s the pity because in Minnesota we rarely get to see Arabian horses working in these types of classes. Ian and I watched halter classes, which is what I have shown Trouble in this year, and performance classes, meaning a horse and rider versus halter when it is a horse and handler. We watched horses being ridden in Western Pleasure with saddles and bridles trimmed in silver and riders in sparkly shirts, vests with suede chaps, boots, hats and spurs. We enjoyed English Pleasure Park classes where the horses strut like drum majorettes. The most beautiful classes were native costume when the rider and horse are dressed as well-heeled Bedouins.

The Nationals have been held in Louisville for some 20 years and this was the last time. Of course this was our first Nationals, but I could see how it was very emotional for people who had competed in Freedom Hall year after year. Next year Nationals will be in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 2008 through 2011, Nationals will be in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Albuquerque will be a 20-hour haul, but Tulsa is just south on 35W about 12 hours. I am hoping we have horses to show in New Mexico next year. To get to Nationals, a horse must qualify by winning first or second in a class at Regionals, which in our case are held in Illinois in August. We didn’t begin showing Lookin For Trouble until August 2006, but he has already qualified to show at the regional show in 2007.

On Saturday morning we took a tour of Churchill Downs racetrack, where the Kentucky Derby is run annually on the first Saturday in May. This was a thrill for me as I’ve been watching the Derby and its Triple Crown sister races The Preakness Stakes and The Belmont since I was a teen. The racetrack was not open but was readying itself for the Breeder’s Cup that beginning running Saturday, November 4.

I took advantage of being in The South and we ate at a diner-type restaurant chain named Waffle House. I remember these fondly from the 1980s when I went on road trips to visit friends in Tennessee. Ian and I ordered my menu favorite of cheesy scrambled eggs served with grits, bacon and raisin toast with apple butter. And like most places in The South, when you order iced tea it comes already sweetened. Yum!

We packed up and began our drive home on Sunday morning and thanks to highway construction near Madison, Wisconsin we got home at 1 in the morning Monday. Lady had spent the long weekend at Donna’s playing with her two pups, which are now both taller than their mother. Sunday evening Donna put Lady inside our house so she was there to greet us when we dragged in.

It was good to go, but good to get home too.

EIEIO!

Butchering

Yesterday, we butchered all 13 geese and 14 chickens (12 cockerels, 2 hens). Our friend Marcia brought her three poultry-butchering cousins from South Dakota (Daryl, Carol, Linda) and we had a very busy day. Donna, who bought 50 of the 100 chicks we picked up from the feed mill on April 20, supplied tables, chairs, tunes and she and Linda did the final cleaning and double wrapping preparing the birds for the chest freezer. Daryl and Carol did the actual butchering – quickly, cleanly, mercifully with a very sharp knife. We did the geese first as they were larger and noisier.

You may remember we lost chickens -- some to puppies and then more during the summer to disease because they were not vaccinated at one day of age – so there were only 24 chickens total that remained alive to butcher and we chose to winter hens, as they are also brown egg layers. We’re relocating them to what was the goose pen in the barn, as it will be much warmer with the horses in the cold winter months. It should be easier to find eggs too.

On Saturday evening Ian and I collected all the chickens we could and put them in the coop. The best time to handle a live chicken is in the evening hours when they are roosting. Ian and I went around the property, flashlight in hand, collecting chickens and putting them in the coop. They had not been going into the coop for some weeks because we had been trying to deduce what and maybe even where was making them sick. Many were in the barn and were easy to relocate; others were in an oak tree and presented a challenge. It must have been funny to view from afar because you’d see the flashlight and then hear disturbed clucking, sometimes mixed with human profanity! Only two missed out and we caught them the next morning using Daryl’s home-fashioned chicken catcher.

Butchering is pretty straightforward – the heads are cut off and its body hangs for a bit to drain. The biggest job is taking off the feathers. Ian built a campfire in the driveway and boiled water in a 30 gallon galvanized trash can. Holding its feet, the freshly butchered bird is dipped in the soapy boiling water for about 60 seconds, just long enough to get the feathers to loosen. The goose feathers and down was tougher to come off and we said more than once we were glad we did them first. Chicken feathers came off in bunches and we did the 14 chickens in a quarter of the time it took us to do 13 geese.

Daryl handled the gutting and setting aside the giblets (e.g., liver, gizzards, neck, heart) from other uneatable things like intestines. Throughout the rainy fall day, Carol entertained us as we worked in the pole shed with her special brand of chicken dancing antics and rewrites of CD lyrics.

Lady and two of her puppies that belong to Donna (Agnes and Bernie), were seen happily gnawing on goose heads and I’m sure buried some for later enjoyment.

Reah came up in the afternoon and visited as we put a wrap on the day. She’s off to London on Tuesday to rejoin her husband and their expatriate lifestyle and may not be back until after the New Year.

I thought it would bother me to butcher my geese, but I realized I bought all the birds with the idea they’d be food one day. Besides, as I said, this was handled mercifully.

Ian and I are not sure whether or not we’ll get more goslings and/or chicks to raise in the spring. I’m not sure whether or not Donna and I can live through the emotional trauma we did of having so many die from various mishaps. I guess we’ll see how we feel after enjoying them roasted, baked, boiled, fried and fricasseed. I’m planning on making cassoulet (a thick French country white bean, poultry, sausage soup) from the geese. I’ve got livers set aside for pâté and sauté.

If someone had told me a year ago I’d be butchering my own homegrown poultry I’d have said they have a screw loose. Never say never. EIEIO!

Fall Fest horse show

Fall Fest St. Paul, Minnesota

Yesterday, Ian, Lady and I came home from another horse show. This one was the Medallion Stallion/Auction Stallion and Performance Futurities … its short version name is “Fall Fest.” It’s a big show and there’s lots of solid competition. We took our new horse trailer with living quarters – our Minnesota cabin on wheels – to the MN State Fairgrounds from Wednesday afternoon through Sunday. We fed horses and people too. Three days before the show our neighbor Donna helped me cook sloppy joes, BBQ meatballs and chicken wild rice soup and then can all of it into jars so that we had enough to feed about 80 people for three days in a row. We canned it because we had no way to keep the food cold enough while we were at the show. Canning was a brilliant idea and it worked like a charm. I brought empty, dirty jars back with us to run through the dishwasher so we’ll have jars to reuse when canning food in the future.

Much to my delight my 82-year-old mother came to watch me show Trouble in the halter class for 2-year-old colts/geldings. My son Richard, his friend Jen, my brother Matthew, childhood friend Reah, girlfriend Marcia, and Ralph, our trainer’s father (who is not in the best of health) all came to lend their support. I’m pleased to report that Trouble and I did not disappoint our fans. We won a Top 10 ribbon in a class of 19 horses. I didn’t know this beforehand, but apparently the results at Fall Fest are a strong indication of what happens at the national level shows. How wonderful! Of course we got in this business a bit late and have not qualified for Regionals, which in turn qualifies us to attend U.S. Nationals. The points we are accumulating now will help us in the upcoming show season.

Ian and I are debating whether or not we should drive to Louisville later this month to watch the U.S. Nationals. We have friends from the Genesis Training Center (GTC) that are showing and we’d like to support them. The next show that we will attend is the American Royal in Kansas City, Missouri Saturday and Sunday Thanksgiving weekend. Pulling a trailer it’s a 10-hour drive down 35W. That will be our last show of the season and we’ll turn our sights to the big Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show in Arizona February 16-25, 2007. No doubt I will be looking for a break from the snow and cold then! Depending on weather and driving conditions it takes between 22-24 hours to drive from here. Needless to say the horses are bundled up well for that trip. We plan on taking Trouble and Kiss to that show. Kiss will be 9-months-old by then and have been at GTC for three months..

Things are going well at the farm. One reason not to go to Louisville is to spend time working on renovating the house and putting more stalls in the barn where some of the rotten wall has been replaced. Oh, don’t get me started on that wall and the building contractor! What an idiot! The bid we accepted said he would replace the entire north wall of the barn, which had been water damaged because a former owner who had the pole barn added on did not put flashing at the joining roofline. Anyway, we accepted the bid, put down 50% and two weeks later (ugh) his team of “Burt & Ernie” got to work. Soon it became apparent that they were only replacing one story of the north wall and not the entire wall as the bid said. We went round and round with the contractor who said he never would have bid a job of that scale so low, blah, blah, blah and basically walked off the job. Burt & Ernie finished the clean up they were doing as the screaming match went on (I was livid) and then after Jimbo left and I went in the house, they came and shook Ian’s hand saying “there are good general contractors and there are bad ones” with their nonverbals communicating that Jim was not one of the good ones. So we got the bottom part of the wall replaced, paying only 50% of what we expected too, which is fine since we only got 50% of what we anticipated, and soon we can build in three more box stalls before the snow flies.

I think we will go to Louisville, maybe for the final weekend. Soon there will be no horse shows and we can catch up on the renovations then. LOL

This coming Sunday Marcia’s cousins are coming here to slaughter 11 of our 13 geese and who knows how many chickens – all expect the three rescue chickens that we promised not to slaughter. We’ll keep the 2 grey Toulouse geese from the original gosling batch that got eaten by puppies. I suppose we’ll lend a hand, although I may bow out to prepare lunch or something. You’re welcome to come and help! I’ll send you home with a chicken or a goose – your choice! EIEIO

Amber's Mayday

We bought two more horses, which brings us to nine horses total. We are very close to a full house! Amber’s Mayday is a 10-year-old registered American Saddlebred mare. She stands about 16 hands tall (64 inches, 5 feet, 4 inches), is coal black with white socks on her back legs and a small star on her forehead. Mayday (born May 1, 1996) has a two-month-old colt at her side. At the moment, his coat is two tones of chocolate brown and he has four white socks and a star on his forehead. He does not have a name yet.

At the Iowa Gold Star Futurity there is an evening when stallion breedings are auctioned for the next season. We bought four breedings; three to purebred Arabian stallions and one to a purebred American Saddlebred that is a homozygous pinto, meaning all his foals with have pinto marking. Such a stallion sires our 3-month-old colt Kiss. The pairing of an Arabian and an American Saddlebred makes a new breed called National Show Horse, which is what Kiss is. In March or April of 2007 we plan to breed our Quarter horse Nutmeg, Thoroughbred Bentley and Mayday for foals in 2008 (horse gestation is 11 months and 10 days). Kiss’s mother Windy is already bred and will deliver in early May 2007. After Windy foals we plan to breed her again so we will expect four foals in Spring 2008.

In October, Kiss will be weaned and then go to live at Genesis Training Center to begin training with Tony Steiner. It’s possible that our other two-year-old gelding, Cairo, (the first horse we bought back in December 2005) may go there too. Cairo has spent quite a gangly spring and summer and is beginning to fill out and could well go back to the show ring as a halter horse. If he learns his lessons well, Kiss’s first show will be in Scottsdale, Arizona in February 2007. Tony is a superb trainer and all around excellent person. I am confident in his abilities to bring the best out in both horse and handler. We are so incredibly lucky to work with him and it all began with buying Cairo at the horse auction last December. Tony was the person who brought Cairo to auction for his former owner. I wrote Tony a letter to learn more about Cairo’s background and that’s how we met.

EIEIO

Des Moines, Iowa

We went to an Arabian horse show in Des Moines, Iowa August 31-September 4 (Labor Day weekend). We were a three truck and horse trailer convoy traveling into Iowa, Minnesota's neighbor to the south. The drive was five hours from when we left the Genesis Training Center and arrived at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. The horse barns were quite nice and because it was the Iowa Fall Classic & Gold Star Futurity most of the horse farms in attendance dressed up their row of stalls with colored drapes and facility logos. There was a progressive barn party one evening with lots of good food and plenty of opportunity for networking. I am coming to see horse shows as a wonderful marketing opportunity on many fronts - for the farm, for the owner, handler, trainer, breeder, seller, buyer, and for the horse itself. It’s a wonderful time of coming together as a team to work to get the horse show ready. Showing at halter for a horse is a cross between body building and a beauty contest; there’s plenty of baby oil, Vaseline-like goo, hoof polish, body coating show sheen spray to highlight conformation and definition along with a trunk full of tricks to divert the eye from less than perfect aspects.

As far as I can figure out, the judge’s job is to first eliminate and then to choose which horse, in his opinion, is the best in a given class. There are many different classes; halter (horse in halter with handler on the ground), performance (horse saddled with rider) and showmanship (halter or performance, with the human being judged). Certainly there are politics and possibly relationships that affect outcomes, but being so new to the show circuit Ian and I are happily oblivious to these things. We are having such a good time and are learning a lot from these experiences.

Tony Steiner, who trains both horse and handler, showed our two-year-old purebred Arabian gelding Lookin For Trouble in a halter class for his age group and won a first place blue ribbon and then went on to win overall Grand Champion Gelding for the horse show! We are so proud of Trouble and how he and Tony work as a team. I showed Trouble in a halter class specifically for an “amateur owner to handle” and won a second place red ribbon. I was very pleased and Tony said we beat out horses that were older than Trouble and had been to Nationals previously and placed there. Trouble will only get better as he matures and we will show better together as our working relationship continues to improve. Ian now has his Arabian Horse Association competition card and will begin taking lessons from Tony, so he can join in the fun and feel the pre-show nerves and the elation of hearing your horse’s number called at the end of a class.

When we were in Des Moines, we stayed about 20 minutes drive away from the grounds at a Hilton Garden Inn. We would rather not have to spend the money on hotels and food or make much of a commute at any horse show. We prefer being close enough to do bedtime barn checks, feed, water and clean stalls ourselves. We were lucky enough to find a 1999 4-Star brand 3-horse trailer with living quarters (think RV) for sale by a private party and I will sign the papers for its financing on Monday. It is about 30 feet long with a gooseneck hitch and needs to be pulled by a one-ton truck. The trailer has space for a queen-sized bed, with a built-in dinette, 3-gas burner stovetop, oven, sink, refrigerator, freezer, TV, and stereo with sound system to the outside. There is a full bathroom with toilet and shower and there are cupboards and cubbyholes throughout for lots of storage. Besides being able to carry three horses in the back, there are two tack rooms and space for a generator, so the trailer can function without being plugged in. Needless to say, we are thrilled! We don’t have a truck that can pull it yet, but we’re scouting the car lots to see what we can afford. We may have to trade in our bright yellow Mazda Protégé and become a two-truck family. This trailer will begin paying for itself when we go to the Medallion Stallion Fall Festival show September 28-October 1 held at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. Trouble and I are showing on Sunday, October 1 in the two-year-old gelding/colt amateur to handle class at 1 p.m. Wish us luck!

EIEIO

Summer comes to a close

This weekend is Labor Day weekend and in the US this heralds the end of summer and back to school! The weather has been mild and we’ve also had some storms. Some counties have had tornadoes and softball-sized hail, but we’ve missed all that and are glad of it. Hopefully, I’ll get to mow the lawn tomorrow.

The contractors are getting ready to begin repairing the barn. Its north wall will be replaced (the wall that joins the one-story pole shed on its right side) because it rotted when some idiot previous owner, when adding the pole shed, did not put flashing at the adjoining roofline so rain ran down the original barn wall and rotted the wood. We will have that entire wall replaced, the proper flashing added and then we can build three more box stalls in the main barn before the snow flies. We are also having the big outer upper hayloft doors replaced with a solid wall where we will later install a row of five windows. We hope to renovate the 60 x 30 foot hayloft into a guest house/office sometime in 2007. We’re never short of projects around here.

Ian, neighbor Donna and I went to the Minnesota State Fair last Friday. We were there for six hours, walked through all the livestock barns, sampled various things to eat on a stick and spent quite a bit of time on machinery hill, where vendors have tractors and other farm implements on display. We also toured horse trailers – the luxury kind with living/cooking quarters for humans! Donna knows a neighbor who has one for sale and if we’re lucky we may be the proud new owners in a week or so.

Michael and Natalia are visiting from Barcelona. They are staying in Minneapolis at his father’s. Ian and I picked them up at the airport on Saturday. They are here until September 12. They will come to the farm next week for a daytrip. It’s a bit too rustic for overnight visitors. They’re doing well and it’s good to see them. On Saturday, September 9, Michael’s dad and I will host a U.S. wedding reception and BBQ at his home. Last week Ian and I purchased a wedding cake, decorations, party favors and mailed invites. It should be a nice get together. They celebrate their one-year anniversary September 30.

Our vegetable garden is in bloom and some plants are yielding a bounty. This evening Ian ate his first radish of the season while I enjoyed two cherry tomatoes. In bloom tomato plants themselves smell good enough to eat! Donna’s corn on the cob is wonderful and we’ve enjoyed that in the last week. I’ll plant some of that next year.

I picked crab apples from a tree in the pasture and Donna and I spent six hours making jelly. It’s good, and we have it preserved in pretty pint jars. As more stuff ripens, I plan to can more things.

The horses are fine. Kiss is getting bigger by the day. He is just three months and is quite full of himself. He has on an orange halter and leads reasonably well. He had his first vaccinations and was not happy about that in the least. He will be with us until late October when he is weaned and then he will go to the Genesis Training Center where Trouble boards/trains to begin his training to be shown as a halter horse at a big Arabian horse show in Scottsdale, Arizona in February 2007.

Ian and I are traveling to Des Moines, Iowa this weekend where I am showing Trouble at a horse show. We are helping Tony and his Genesis Training Center as they bring 14 horses to show this weekend. Ian and I help with feeding, stall cleaning, grooming. It should be lots of fun. Donna is going to feed and watch over the animals here while we’re away. If we get this living quarters horse trailer we can save money on hotel rooms, restaurant eating and we can take Lady the lab too.

Wish us luck! EIEIO

Horsey summer

The Minnesota summer is flying by. Ian and I are enjoying the weather – lots of hot, humid, sunny days – but being in the country we are also very aware of the draught conditions. We drive by cornfields and look at the height and color of the stalks, we watch for the leaf curling, which indicates the plants need rain. We pray for rain and have gotten some recently. Of course, we don’t want just any rain, we need the slow moving systems that drench rather than flood. I mowed our lawn yesterday for the first time in several weeks. I don’t water the lawn, but do keep the flowerbeds and vegetable gardens well hydrated. Soon we will have tomatoes, carrots, beets, radishes, and three types of squash to enjoy. Next year we’ll plant a larger and better variety. Since our kitchen is not ready, it seems wasteful to bring in a huge bounty with no place to prepare it for eating and/or preserving for later enjoyment.

Speaking of the house … things are moving along. We continue to tackle the renovation ourselves and Ian’s made great strides with the kitchen. Its ready to have the ceramic tiles laid and the cabinets will be assembled (from IKEA) and installed, followed by the sink and appliances (double oven, refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher). The kitchen is completely wired and the canned lighting is installed and working. The decorative lights over the island and eat-in area will be installed later.

Once the kitchen is done I think the rest of the house will come together quickly. There is so much that goes into a kitchen and we started from bare walls with no insulation or drywall! The next area we’ll tackle is the upstairs, readying the new full bathroom and three bedrooms. Then we’ll relocate our bedroom and office upstairs (the latter is temporary) and replace and level the living room floor (like we did with the kitchen floor) and then install a new staircase. Somewhere along the line and before the snow flies we will install eight new casement windows, two sliding glass doors and two exterior doors.

The barn’s north wall also needs replacing and we’re hoping to have that done in the next several weeks. We’re not crazy enough to do that work ourselves. Once that’s done we will begin installing three new box stalls for the horses, which will give us a total of six in the main barn.

We are up to seven horses now. We have the two-year-old purebred Arabian geldings Cairo and Trouble, the eight-year-old Quarter horse mare Nutmeg, the purebred Arabian mare Windy (Cairo’s dam) and her National Show Horse foal Kiss, the two-year-old part-Arabian stud Whisper (he was born with only one testicle and needs a special castration operation at a vet hospital in October) and our latest acquisition Bentley, an 18-year-old registered Thoroughbred mare. We plan to breed Bentley and Nutmeg in February or March 2007 to purebred Arabians for foals in 2008. Windy is already bred to an Arabian and will deliver in May 2007.

Both Nutmeg and Trouble are at training centers. Nutmeg will return soon with new under-the-saddle manners. Trouble is on the Arabian horse show circuit in halter classes (Arabians are not ready to go under the saddle until they are three years of age). Both Trouble and I have taken lessons from Tony Steiner at his Genesis Training Center. We must have been pretty good students because on Saturday, August 5, we won a blue ribbon at a Class A Arabian horse show! The next day we won a Top 5 ribbon! Amazing! I haven’t shown horses since my teens and then it was always performance classes like Western Pleasure or over the fences in Hunter/Jumper classes. We’re going to a big horse show in late September at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds and we may get in another show in Des Moines, Iowa in mid-September. The show season ends in November, but Ian and I want to take Trouble and Kiss to the big Arabian show in Scottsdale, Arizona February 16-25, 2007.

Once he is weaned Kiss will go to Tony’s this November for the express purpose of readying him to show in yearling halter classes beginning with Scottsdale. In November Trouble will be moved to a training center in Turtle Lake, Wisconsin so he can be started under the saddle. During his first 30 days there Trouble will be assessed to determine whether or not he should continue his under-the-saddle training to show as a performance horse in the 2007 show season or if he should continue only showing in halter classes because he may need to mature mentally for another year. Some horses just aren’t ready for the rigors of performance riding until they are four. We will know one way or the other before Christmas 2006. We expect Cairo will join Trouble and his half-brother Kiss at shows in 2007. Cairo has been in a growth spurt this season and looked quite gangly for most of the spring and summer. He’s beginning to pick up weight and may enter training at Tony’s in the spring. Cairo was on the show circuit as a yearling so he should come up to speed pretty quickly, plus now that Ian and I know more of the mechanics and we can begin refreshing his memory here on the Auld Macdonald Farm.

EIEIO

One year anniversary

We have been in the States one year today, and my, how the time has flown. Look at all the things we’ve done! Goodness, gracious!

Ian has been working on the kitchen. He has insulated the exterior wall, added the vapor barrier and readied it for the concrete board. The drywall in the kitchen is green because it is water resistant. Concrete board will be installed where the ceramic wall tile will be put up, which is in the wet areas around the sink (which will be under the south-facing window), the refrigerator and freezer units on the east wall and the dishwasher opposite on the west wall. We will have the gas cooktop in the corner with a vent mounted above it with a restaurant-quality exhaust blower taking smells outdoors.

Once the concrete board is installed on the entire kitchen floor we can begin laying the ceramic tile. On the north-facing wall, which has an archway into the living area, we will have an eat-in area and across from it a square-shaped wine rack built into the wall that will sit above cupboard that will match what is installed in the working kitchen area. We’re planning on putting in ceramic countertops as well, although we’ve not settled on a color. The floor is terracotta colored and the wall ceramic will be small slate squares of various hues. The rest of the kitchen walls will be painted a soft mint green, which should coordinate well with all the other earth tones.

Frankly, when we started this project I hadn’t envisioned doing so much of this ourselves, but it’s actually quite fun and certainly rewarding to see things come together. I guess that’s why DIY (Do It Yourself) programs are so popular; people are tackling these types of things themselves. OK, well, maybe not everyone is as crazy as we are, but you get my meaning.

Of course this is a big holiday weekend and I will have to find out where we can see 4th of July fireworks on Tuesday. The weather has turned very warm and a bit muggy, but we’re having fun on the farm.

Kiss, Julia Child and a gaggle

This morning while Windy was busy eating in another part of the paddock Kiss went to the fence and met his half brother Cairo (Windy is also Cairo’s mother), Trouble and Whisper. Usually Windy lays her ears back and puts herself between Kiss and other horses.

The “Julia Child” rosebush, named by the chef herself for its buttery yellow color, has begun to bloom. Yesterday, I planted carrots, beets, and radishes to accompany the raspberry bushes, strawberries and tomatoes. I’ll plant butternut squash, cucumber, zucchini and yellow crookneck squash seeds this afternoon or tomorrow. We have a small herb garden too with sweet basil, rosemary, dill and lavender.

The weeder geese are getting bigger. The gaggle of the two now adult grey Toulouse survivors (see May 14 "Goslings meet bad end" post) and the 11 five-week-old white weeder goslings travel around the property together and are very friendly with lots of honking conversation. Recently a neighborhood dog came into the yard and the gander ran at him wings flapping and bit him in the butt. The dog cowered and left.

When we can we spend time outside making improvements to the farm. Ian’s been removing old barbed wire fence and I’ve been using the brush mower to tame overgrown areas. We’ve cleared away all the undergrowth in the stand of pine trees next to the house and plan to till the area and plant hostas.

An even six pack

Kiss the Wind (Windy) and her month-old colt Xtreme Kiss (Kiss) arrived on the Auld Macdonald Farm this morning. They came from Genesis Training Center and were delivered by trainer Tony Steiner. We put them in the side paddock where Windy is happily enjoying grass and Kiss is running around exercising his long legs. Windy is a purebred Arabian mare and Kiss is a National Show Horse; a new breed that comes from crossbreeding an American Saddlebred and Arabian. These two bring us to six horses.

Windy is pregnant bred to purebred Arabian stallion Troublesome, half brother to our gelding Looking For Trouble. She is due May 9, 2007. Kiss will remain with her until he is four months old. When he is weaned we will begin his halter training.

Quarter horse love

Yesterday afternoon Ian and I went horseback riding. We took turns riding our 8-year-old Quarter horse mare Nutmeg. She is a wonderful horse to ride, although she does not always want to stand as quietly as she should when we want to get on. Of course I can understand her position, but nevertheless!!

Ian rode around the yard and up the road apiece, then I rode from our place to Donna’s and to my delight she decided to saddle up her 3-year-old Quarter horse gelding Beau. The two of us rode for about 45 minutes and really enjoyed ourselves. I’m still becoming accustomed to Nutmeg and as we ride more often the time in the saddle should increase. I am happy to report that I am not saddle sore today! Ian and I may take Beau and Nutmeg out together in the next few days. That should be fun.

Gash, geese, graft and grass

Whisper our two-year-old part Arabian stud colt slid into a coral panel and sliced his right rear leg between hock and fetlock. This happened after normal business hours for the vet (of course!) and she came to us after treating a horse that was going into seizures. Vet Emily cleaned the cut as well as possible while a very sedated and still uncooperative Whisper fought her every step. She had wanted to suture the wound but only got in one before giving up. She gooped the cut with lots of antibiotic ointment and wrapped it with cotton batting and vet wrap. Ian and I administer three injections of antibiotics a day – one in the morning, two at night – plus a painkiller given as an oral paste. The injections continue through Monday and then he goes on oral meds. We wash and re-dress the wound each evening. Last night I was able to wash it quite well and it looks like its healing. Whisper is putting weight on this leg and he does not have any signs of infection (we monitor his temperature too). Poor little guy, I think it will be a month until he can leave his box stall and return to his pasture.

The other day when I was outside with the new baby goslings Donna noted there are 11 rather than 10. I guess the packers were working fast and sent us a bonus. They are growing quickly but are still web-footed packages of peeping yellow fuzz. At night they share an enclosure with the two grey Toulouse geese, which are very adult looking in both sized and feathers. Both sets of geese respond to my saying “hello, geese” with the younger ones following me around the property.

We still have one puppy of Lady’s seven left. Bruiser is getting bigger by the day. He will soon stand taller than his mother and he is only 11 weeks old! He’s a happy one but like most youngsters if left to his own designs he gets in trouble. We're not advertising him but may run another ad later this month. He's well on his way to being housebroken and crate trained. Surely that will make him more valuable.

Ian is working on the ceiling in the kitchen installing water resistant drywall using a drywall lifter we rented in Cambridge. The kitchen walls that we will tile will have cement board installed, the others will have this water resistant stuff hung. The kitchen floor will also have the cement board screwed down and then we can install the mud set for laying the ceramic tiles, which are stacked in the garage. What a luxury to have a working kitchen. I wonder how fast I can give up washing dishes in the bathtub?

We’ve planted roses, calla lilies, sweet basil and rosemary in a plot near the garage. The new tiller machine we bought stretched its belt and we’re waiting for a replacement before we plant our vegetable garden. Week before last I spent the better part of two days mowing the horse pasture and now the horses are eating it more evenly. The lawn needs mowing again so I’ll be doing that in an hour or so. Riding on that John Deere mower is a lot of fun. I refuse to cut the lawn in straight rows – how boring. I go in circles from outer edges toward the middle and it seems to look just fine.