Sunny Hill Farm

Wild Things

2009-07-08T09:53:00.003-05:00

The grass is green round these parts and stuffs growing like, um, weeds. Here's a photo of some plant life along Muller Road.

I call this the "look at me I'm weird" plant. I'm not sure what it is. Even Kate, my go-to botantist wasn't sure what it is. It has a sturdy, purple stalk, broad leaves at the base, and the fireworks type flower on the top. Weird!

S'all for now.

The team has landed

2009-06-20T19:23:00.003-05:00

That there is "Black Betty." Team Van, 2009. She's a 1994 Dodge something or other and holds a whole lot of people and bikes and gear.

The girls are off racing and I'm cleaning the house/barn and mowing the yard/pasture.

S'bout it from the farm. Strawberries growing like mad and the cats and dogs are slow in the summer heat.

til soon,
r

Willow, Before and After

2009-05-22T07:56:00.003-05:00

Just a year ago I brought this sweet mare home. She is a Morgan and had been staked out like a dog in her owner's side yard. She was scrawny and green. She had scars on her face and hind legs from being tangled up in her rope.

Amy had seen the horse advertised on a horse website and sent me the link with a note: "this one looks nice." I made an assumption that Amy "saw" the horse (meaning, in a photo). I trust Amy so I made an appointment to see the mare.

The owner was a young woman with four kids under 4 and years old and clearly had no time for the mare much less upkeep of the property and a horse. I didn't like the look of the place but something made me want to try out the horse. And besides, Amy liked her.

I got on her and she walked boldly ahead. She couldn't steer well but she was listening to my voice. In the first 5 strides I could tell this little mare had a HUGE forward walk. She flicked her ears and turned her sweet eyes around to look at me and that was it: she had me at hello.

The first photo is Willow on her very first ride at Sunny Hill just about a year ago.

This photo was taken yesterday. Willow had a walk, trot, canter in the field then got to jump over some fences. She is getting the hang of it and had some very solid "real" jumps.

What a difference a year makes. Willow can now bend, pick up the canter on the correct lead every time, rate her speed and jump. On top of that she is the friendliest, happiest little mare on earth.

And the best part? Amy never actually "saw" the horse. She said she "saw" the ad and thought it looked like a prospect. We laugh about that all the time now because when Willow arrived she definitely did not "look" good. She does now though. So from backyard horse to stylish hunter, Willow has come into her own.

How darn lucky am I to have two wonderful horses like Oz and Willow? (pinching myself).
happy trails!

S'bout Time I update this blog

2009-05-15T07:28:00.002-05:00

Pics above of the first horse show I ever rode in. It was super fun. I learned a lot and most critically, one should try on your new show pants in advance of the show lest they turn out to be ill fitting. All was well though. My pants didn't rip and now I know what to expect in the next one.
Note to self: order new pants.

What with the weather getting nice it's hard to keep up with blogging. And I'm cheating here 'cause I put all these pics on my facebook page already. It's so hard to keep up with social networking!

I am having nostalgia for the days of the busy signal on the phone. Thinking about someone and then writing them a letter to let them know. Wondering what to do that day instead of having to prioritize a full page list. Getting a letter from someone--in the mailbox.

Well, progress brings challenges and I think I shall try to keep just a few of the old fashioned ways.

Have a pleasant and lucky day!
r

Kitchen Floor

2009-03-20T18:01:00.003-05:00

Ok, Lady B, here is your photo of the kitchen floor! You'll have to photo shop my car out of the window. Did I crouch low enough? Should I try again on a sunny day?

After I took the pics I cleaned the barn then got the chimney sweep out and played chimney sweep chick. Nothing like blowing your nose after cleaning a chimney of a winter's soot.

Off to clean myself up..toodles

It's BAAAAACK!!

2009-02-10T15:25:00.006-06:00

ith
Say hello to Lake Whoa, Be Gone! I took this photo on my way out to the barn for yet another epic ride with Amy. We decided to ride to the DNR fields by way of the neighbor's driveway to minimize time on the road with four dogs. We found the trail over to the field only it crossed the creek. There was a bridge with lots of snow on it. Willow was game so I got off and led her across. The snow was deep on the other side but navigable. So there we were: me, Willow and all four dogs and Amy/Oz on the other side. Oscar tried to be brave but it just wasn't happening. So Amy took the long way around the field and I trotted parallel to the road and we met up on the other side.

After that it was a typical ride; one dog lost, one pheasant flushed, one dog rolled in stinky stuff, another eating something dead.

I went for a walk this morning too. Here's Muller Road at about 7 am. You can just see the moon setting in the distance.

so long for now..

The Whoopie Pie Incident

2008-12-26T15:25:00.003-06:00

Ever have a whoopie pie? It's some cookie like thing that got invented around the 1920s....it's a chocolate cakeish cookie with a marshmallow filling. Sister Neener made them for holidays and I got the recipe from her and she got it from some waiting room magazine. I'm sure the page with the recipe was already loose...

Anyway, I made the batter and added the bottle of red food color it called for. I went to rinse out the food color bottle and managed to splash red everywhere. By some miracle I didn't get any on my white fleece vest.

Like always I gave Cooper the bowl to pre-wash, not giving it one thought that when he cleans a bowl, HE CLEANS A BOWL! So anyway, I think the red will wash off his head in a day or two.

Oddly, I had a Poopie Pie incident this week too. I can only call a multi-tasking foul on myself for this one. I decided to plow a bit while filling the water tank in the barn. It sure is easy to pass the time on an ATV with a plow. Water+bedding+poop+3 minutes= Poopy pies. Big sloppy pools of poo.

Took me three loads with the trailer to clean out the barn and a looooong shower to rinse off the smell. Happy New year...if you come by I'll save you a whoopie pie.

A Tale of an Epic Adventure

2008-12-11T08:38:00.000-06:00

Two humans and four dogs set out yesterday on snowshoes to conquer the hills over Sauk City.
That would be me, Amy and her dogs Fonzi and Sydney, and Gabby and Coopy. The first mile of the hike was uphill in deep snow (awesome!!) and at the top was a cool cabin where we stopped to water the dogs. It wasn't long after we set out again that we lost Coop. Fortunately, he yarps when he's lost so within 10 minutes we had him back. Then we lost Gabby.

Long story short, it was useful that she was wearing her name/phone number collar because the logging guys found her tried calling me. When we got back to the trailhead sans Gabby we hopped in the car to drive up the logging road. My phone rang and I ignored it. I believe I even verbalized how annoying it was to get phone calls when you didnt' want them. Anyway, we got no farther than the entrance of the road when a truck appeared. I pulled aside and asked the driver if he had seen a dog. He pointed to the back seat.

There sat Queen Gabby, with an annoyed look on her face. She rejoined the gaggle of dogs in the back of the car and all was well. Both dogs were exhausted (still are) and Coop fell asleep on the arm of the sofa.

I had two bottles of guinness and cheese for dinner and slept like a log. The end.

This calls for a lot of cussing

2008-12-09T09:56:00.002-06:00

Here is the front door, photo taken about an hour ago. After a solid hour of plowing to clear the 6" on the driveway I hear we are supposed to get another 4????!!! MERDE!!

I weep.

It's Dec. 9....it's not even winter yet. Bloody hell.

This and That

2008-12-04T17:30:00.003-06:00

I haven't been updating the blog because my camera is eating batteries. This was one of the last photos I took before I gave up on that camera and it's Mr. Coopy at his best. I was yelling at him to stop eating cat food and this was his response. Sassy pants acting all innocent. Ha! The Jack Russell is no match for me! (ahem)

It's been REALLY cold here so on Dad's urging, I fired up the wood furnace. I will admit to being a little afraid of the thing but now that its 68 degrees in here I'm over it.

There's something about the temp falling to zero (one burns through 8 gallons/day at $2.30 per)that serves to motivate a person.

In other news Amy and I rode bareback today (it's like having butt heat in your car!) and then snowshoed. A regular winter duathlon. Too bad she's not still here 'cause we could add wine drinking and make it a triathlon! I think I'd win.
love, b

Too much time on my hands....

2008-11-19T17:53:00.002-06:00

I just happened to have my camera (again) when I opened the door to the stairs and found this scene unfolding. Spidey trying to go up, Cooper weighing whether it was worth tackling the cat when I was in view. He went for it...full body cat tackle, lots of hissing and Spider escaped unharmed.

Yup..too much time on my hands...

Birthday Hike

2008-11-11T08:38:00.002-06:00

Here we all are, setting out for the birthday hike on Sara and Mike's farm. I took this photo of all the dogs and some of the siblings.

It was a very cold day on Sunday. Highlight (or lowlight) of the walk was the running of the sheep. They all came running over the hill with all the dogs behind them. Sara had to fish one out of the creek and right another that was having a mild heart attack at all the excitement. But, no one died, no humans were gored in the running.

Happy b-day to all the Anderson siblinks!

Solving problems

2008-11-03T15:05:00.005-06:00

It's been kind of slow lately, what with getting sacked from work I actually have time to do things. Still, just when I thought it was starting out another slow week, things happened.

Recently I fired up the wood furnace but managed to smoke up the entire house. I called the expert on wood furnace heating (Dad) and he said "did you check to see if you have bird nests in your chimney?" Duhhhh...

I opened up the flue today, prepared for a very messy job only to have 3' of connected bird nest come out in one string, complete with a dead bird and a wee skeleton of a baby bird at the top. I think my early season fire cooked all of them. Anyway, check out the nest.
I was aiming to line up the nest to get a good shot with the bird but Cooper had already gotten a whiff of bird and was lurking nearby. I no sooner got the main part of the next propped up when he shot in, grabbed the bird and ran off, throwing the bird in the air as he ran.

If that wasn't exciting enough, I decided to check on the chickens. A new chicken is arriving tomorrow ("Kiev") and I needed to put the dog crate in the coop so she'd be protected her first few days. I walked in the coop and all three birds were on their perches, which is unusual for during the day. I decided to check for eggs and you'll never guess what I found.

I've been suspicious that something has been in or around the coop lately so I've been tightening down the doors. Still, I didn't expect to see this when I looked in the nesting box.
FYI...that's not a chicken in the roosting box. I tried to get the lil guy out but wasn't sure how to do it. I'm fresh out of falcon gloves so I gave the dogs a try. Gabby sniffed him out right away but it was Cooper who got after the possum. Even with all the barking and me trying to poke it into a bucket we couldn't get him to get out of the box.

I did the next best thing...came inside and blogged about it. I'm taking ideas...how do I get this guy out of there w/o getting bit??

At least I know why there have been no eggs for a week and a lot of chicken feathers in the coop!
Gotta go..the horses haven't adjusted to the time change and are hollering for dinner.
b

Evil Coopy

2008-11-03T10:52:00.003-06:00

Tippy got brave and came downstairs and even bolder, snuggled into the dog's bed. Of course you-know-who joined her. This photo was taken in the break between a lot of spitting and yarping. Not 10 seconds later Coop dragged the dog bed until Tippy rolled off and ran hissing.

Ahhh, peace and quiet at the farm.

Happy Election is almost over day....
b

A clean horse

2008-10-20T07:39:00.003-05:00

This here is a photo of Oscar's butt. See how much cleaner the right side is? The pic was taken mid-wash. Amy and I were cleaning him up for his first clinic and trailer ride in the new trailer. He was not a fan of the sponge bath but tolerated the half hour or so it took to degrime him.
He did great in the clinic and earned a lot of sweet praise from the instructor and the audience. Mostly things like "wow, he's awesome " or "he's so adorable!"

Amy put him through his paces and he was a hard and honest worker-Sara, you would have been proud.

And here for Barbara is a photo of the kitchen floor going in. It'll be finished today and I'll get another photo of that.
So last week I was in shock about getting sh*&t canned and this week I'm starting out angry.
Stay tuned for more on that.
b

Autumn

2008-10-15T08:08:00.004-05:00

So last weekend Amy, Jon, the dogs and me went up north to celebrate. What were we celebrating? Well, grouse season for one but also me entering phase 44B of my life.

The photo above is looking outside the window of the Dad cabin. Sydney dog parked herself on the couch (she was clean, Dad!) and stared out at the spectacular view. Amy and Jon went hunting and got a few birds. For my part, I did some drawing, wine drinking and contemplating of how it feels to get sacked for the first time in one's life. Harumph is all that comes to mind at the moment. Dad gave me a lesson with pastels which was very enjoyable. It's the opposite of watercolor...one starts dark and goes to the light. Watercolor (my usual medium) is the other way. I smooshed up some color in an approximation of the image of a horse...but darn, it's hard to get used to the chalk. Dad is really good at it and I'll have to practice for about 10 years to be half as good.

Here's a nice shot of Amy with Sydney out in the field.
Does she look tough (yet kind) or what?? And here's a photo of Jon with both dogs...little Fonzerelli and Sydney. Amy cooked up the birds on Sunday night and we feasted on them and wow, grouse is good!!! YUM! Here's hoping you all are enjoying some fall color.

Winterizing

2008-10-05T16:20:00.003-05:00

That's the name of the day. Even though Amy and I had a fantastic trail ride yesterday the rest of the day was devoted to getting the house and grounds ready for winter. Where's the groundskeeper?? Oh right, I fired him.

Anyway, yesterday Cooper almost ate Pot Pie, my best laying chicken. Fortunately I caught him in time to save the chicken. I threw some rocks at Cooper and didn't talk to him for two hours. I think he showed no remorse. He has no idea how close he came to being a listing on Craig's list. Amy saved him.

The photo is of Oscar's eye. It's hard to get a photo of his blue eyes without him wiggling around. In this image his expression is: "Whatchoo doin' with that silver thing bubba?"

Today I made some jalapeno jam so I could make my favorite appetizers and did some quality phone time with far flung friends.

Toodles for now.
b

Vandalism

2008-09-27T19:00:00.004-05:00

Now I wonder who would throw a rock through my window?? Hummm. Could it be perhaps a short, chubby, diabetic, toothless man that whose advances I'd spurned on numerous occasions?

Seems to me that a slingshot that helped this rock through the window. It happened when I was out planting trees along the arena. The trees are a screen to block out a certain neighbor. The hole wasn't there when I started planted but it was when i got back, and guess who was keeping an eye on the planting?

In happier news, COOPER FINALLY KILLED A RODENT! I guess this means I can't call him a "bat terrier" anymore. Today he got a vole. Granted, it's small, but it's the correct species.

Here he is...slobbering over his happy meal.

The vole stayed instact until Fonzi arrived and he and Cooper fought over it. They made two parts and I think Fonzi ate his half and Coop ran off with his half. Blech.

Dogs

2008-09-18T18:34:00.005-05:00

There's nothing better than dogs running amok at Sunny Hill. When Amy drives up and unloads, Gabby and Cooper are bouncing around her car, just waiting for Sydney and the newest addition, Fonzi, to fly or flop out of the car.

That cute lil feller Lady B is holding is Fonzi....Amy's new dog. He's a German shorthair and he's smart as heck. Fonzi came to the farm two weeks ago for his first romp in dog haven. He was smaller than Coop. Um, not any more. He's doubled in size in two weeks and Coop is back to being the shrimp. (make that a shrimp with attitude).

Isn't Lady B cute?? I miss her terribly. She's back in FL dealing with all the things one deals with when you are gone on a proper family visit. Granted, she worked her tail off all summer and what a masterpiece she made. Kudos and love you and I miss you a ton.

And to the right is Amy herself, holding her new hunting compadre. Amy and Jonathan are going grouse hunting this weekend. I'd go but my dogs would be darnright useless in that process. That and I can't shoot.

And lastly, here's Pete with the Mini Coop-Terrorist, lulling him to sleep with his, je ne sais quoi....
It's hard to tell from this photo but Coop
is asleep here. Pete used the Vulcan Mind Meld to calm him down.

I wonder if that would work on me?

Maybe it would work on neighbors with OCD??

Ahhh, who cares. I don't have time to spend that much energy on any foolish crap. Here's to living, full tilt all the time.
toodles,
b

Wha Happened to August?

2008-09-12T17:17:00.005-05:00

Have I mentioned I dislike working at a certain company in August? Because said company has its own trade show that last for weeks and disrupts one's sleep, eating, exercise, and general living pattern?

Rather than be bitter about it I thought I'd do something more interesting, like call the deputies on my stalker/neighbor. You all know that story now and while it is quiet around here I don't trust that dude one bit.

Somewhere between the trade show, dem. convention, stalker-gate my kitchen remodel was winding up. It looks absolutely stunning....thank you, Lady B! We were taking photos of the kitchen yesterday and I took a photo of her taking a photo. We are sillllly. But she is proud of her work as am I.

This photo is of the area of the kitchen that used to have a useless counter and the refrigerator.

And the other photo is of the wall that used to have a useless cabinet. Most of the kitchen was just about useless.

And is there nothing sadder than an empty wine rack?? I'll be working on that as soon as I recover from August.

And Pete from New Hampshire made it to Wisco. He arrived yesterday and got to see Oscar and Willow in action, had dinner with Barbara and met all the

animals. Oscar and Will put on a good show of horse play and Cooper...well, he did his thing. Here's a photo of Cooper and Peter.

Cooper really likes Pete. The dog lays in his arms and sighs and falls asleep. How come when I try to hold him like this he gnaws on me??

Pete and I have managed to get some riding in, in between farm chores and fixing the rear tire on my car. The rain is holding off...barely...and I hope it stays nice for the weekend. More photos to follow..

The Chickuns Vote: Obama 08!

2008-08-19T19:00:00.002-05:00

Here's Dumpling, hanging out in the coop with the American flag. The coop came with the flag and how could I not leave it hanging there? The barn came with an Abraham Lincoln and he's still in there as well. Best not to disturb history.

I took the day off of work to see what sort of chaos happened while I was at Trek World. My garden was awash in tomotoes and peppers, the horses were juggling and Cooper was driving the ATV. Not really, but the garden was quite dry.

So I weeded, mowed, and cleaned the barn today all of which was not good to my back. Then I rode Oscar (awesome!!) and figured I'd help the bone along a bit....stress it a little so it grows, ya know?

btw, the Olympics stinks. As I was watching the dressage competition I figured out the formula for network Olympic coverage:
Combine:
- 500 vicious, sales minded corporate ad pitchmen
- add 2 greedy, stuffed shirt network owners
- mix with several cable or dish networks and bake at 400 for 2 weeks

The recipe yields 2 weeks of terrible coverage of any event you are looking for, if you can find it.

I wonder how many 30 somethings built up their resume torturing the rest of us with this stoopid formula for Olympic coverage?

In other words, I'm disappointed in the treatment the Olympics gets these days. Good thing I have other things to keep me busy.
toodles!

The panels....

2008-08-10T06:47:00.003-05:00

Halooo! Here's my panel that Barbara made. How cool is that?

News of the week: the sink is in and works great. Other news:
- I fell off Oscar and fractured my butt
-Trek world started; I don't like Trek world
- Cooper is eating a dead thing
- It's only 60 degrees right now
- the computer is fast again...yipppeee!

Short update today. Hope y'all are having a good weekend.
b

Progress report!

2008-08-02T07:44:00.004-05:00

Here's Spidey cat, checking out the new sink, wondering why her watering fountain isn't turning on. Being that she's 13 she only drinks running water, preferably out of the sink.

Isn't it cute? It's a lovely, deep sink with a bronze faucet with a sprayer. And that white thing to the left of the sink is my dishwasher. Ahhhhh.....happy happy.

And here is the opposite wall (to the left of the new sliding door) with my eating area. I have the sweetest table that comes out of the wall if I need it to, and tons of book and storage space.

Right now the shelves are full of books and tools, but soon they will be full of objay darts!

The whole room looks spectacular, even not painted. When it's painted I'll have a party to celebrate Barbara's amazing work. There's no doubt in my mind that it pays to have an NCIDQ designer design your kitchen. There are far too many amateurs out there who will slap cabinets on a wall with no regard to lighting, funtionality, problem solving and how it all relates to the rest of the house.

My favorite part about the kitchen? When you walk in its like looking at a great painting. And it absolutely fits with the rest of the house. In other words, it looks like it's always been here, not some modern soho kitchen in an antique house.

So this morning I was out in the barn and heard the unmistakeable "whoomph" of a hot air balloon getting a shot of hot air. I got my camera but it was well over the back field before I got a photo. The speck in the photo is the balloon. Really.

Finally, I have to show the panels that are in my living room. Barbara did a primitive scene of Sunny Hill in 4 panels. Cooper is chasing a chipmunk up a tree. Gabby is running full tilt across the lawn. I'm riding Oscar and Barbara is on Willow.

Oh darn...blooger won't let me post any more photos. I must have hit my max number of uploads for the day. So stay tuned for a photo of the panels. xoxoxo becx

Weapons of Mass Hay Making

2008-07-30T18:58:00.005-05:00

That there is the Big Ole Tractor that hauls the hay baler. So guess what I've been doing this week?? Yaa der making hay! Whilst y'all were watching tv and drinking beer, I was raking hay and drinking beer. I think I win in the "fun" department.

Confidential to MooneyBat: solidarity sister. Hay making is hard work!

Anyhoo, the festivities started on Saturday when the hay (alfafa) got mowed. It needed 2 days to dry so on Monday afternoon I was out on the Kubota raking it.

Here's a photo of the cute lil Kubota. I'd just finished raking and aren't those the nicest rows o hay you ever saw? (Say yes, dammit!)

The rake throws hay out the left side only so I did a whole lot of clockwise, then counterclockwise circles. It wasn't boring at all, not with Cooper in my lap (he insisted on riding along) and the ear protection/radio I had. The one problem with that was the ear phones only picked up Christian stations or *really* old rock stations that I've never knew existed in Madison. So it was either "depend on Jesus, he's the only one who loves you" or some Van Halen tune I've blocked to survive puberty.

Here's another shot of the field and it's tidy rows. Nothing like a tidy row of alfafa.

So last night (Tuesday) was bale like crazy before it rained night. Neighbor Mike was in the BF Tractor and I was in the LF tractor, hauling the hay wagon over to my barn to unload. I pulled into the barn and started throwing hay down, only to quickly realize that these haybales were somewhere in the range of 60# a piece. (um, that's kinda heavy).

After an hour of tossing I looked up and saw that I had about 140 bales to go and called for back up. That would be Joe. We got it done and I hauled the wagon back just in time for the rain to start. The rain felt great seeing as I was a sweaty, disgusting, unladylike mess when it hit.

But, nothing like a barn full of fresh hay. That makes a farmer happy.
toodles.

My slow internet

2008-07-22T07:40:00.002-05:00

So it turns out that my house guest for the summer was downloading a lot of music and videos, which caused my internet provide to put an "Abuse Alert" on my account. I've been quarantined!!

I will try to put another post with photos on line tonight, maybe at 9pm because at 8 in the morning it's slowwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

rats. What's a farm blooger to do? Oops. I mean blogger.
r

Around the Farm

2008-07-16T05:55:00.006-05:00

I took my camera out on the rounds yesterday just to chronicle a typical day at Sunny Hill.

A day starts with a cup or two of coffee. Here I had just gotten up from the laptop to make another cup and came back to find you-know-who in my chair. You just know he's saying "move your feet lose your seat, sucka!"

Before I go outside I wanted to post a pic of Barbara working on the panel murals. These are going in the cabinets under the tv and the four panels together tell the Sunny Hill story. Here she is working on the right hand panel, and Willow is going over a stone wall with Lady B riding side saddle. Too cool! She's doing them in a primitive style but each animal looks like the real one. Stay tuned for the completed photo.

So after I've had a cup or two of coffee I head over to the barn.

We had more rain last week and since the water table is about 2cm below the surface it doesn't take much for the pond to return. Sigh....just a week ago I was mowing this area then we got 2" of rain last Friday.

alrighty, I was going to post photos of the inside of the barn but my satellite is on a sabbatical and won't let me upload any more pics. Will try again tomorrow.
toodles.
b

My Left (purple) Foot and other Events

2008-07-04T05:53:00.004-05:00

Here's a shot of what is just one happening in an eventful week. That's the arena with the first dump truck of sand dropped on it and Coopy digging holes in the sand. It took 5 more truckloads to get it to 2" and an hour with the skid loader to spread it around. All made more difficult because my left foot was out of commission. And why is that, rebecca?

It's Gabby's fault. She conned me into letting her go outside at 11:30 pm (I thought it was about 8:30). I was half asleep going down the stairs and missed the last step, rolled over on my foot and landed ass over teakettle---is that not a great old cliche?--and knew I'd sprained a few things. Now the only reason Gabby has to go out in the middle of the night is to chase some animal walking through the yard. Turns out Gabby had run down a fox. Poor Mr. Fox but he was probably sniffing at the chickens anyway.

So the next day my foot was not looking or working well. In case you ever wondered what role your toes play in human engineering they improve walking balance, A LOT. They look kind of useless but trust me, they are important.

Round up this week: wine rack and upper cabinets built, arena sand in, new wiring in house ($$owch$$), and living room mauve/maroon bad Fung Shui job going away.
Here's a photo of the painting in progress.
First is the photo of the gross mauve going away, replaced with a saddle brown. Yum. Note the essential bottle of wine near the ladder. That helps keep your lines straight.

Time to get some chores done. More kitchen transformation pics soon!

Looky Who I Found This Morning

2008-06-27T08:09:00.008-05:00

I got up this morning all excited to go see the arena and I happened to notice something moving around in Jeannine's car. Turns out it was Neen herself!! She heard me come out and was sitting up in the car, waving like she always slept in my driveway.

The obvious question was "wha???" I opened the door and we started laughing, partly because she was trying to explain what happened and partly because Cooper jumped in the car and was wiggling around in her pile of clothes.

Turns out her flight from NY was delayed so she didn't get in until late and was tired of traveling but my door was locked. Being the good camper and not wanting to wake me up she crawled in the car and snoozed until I woke her up.

I made her some coffee and we walked to the arena. Here's a shot of Neener next to the arena. She's not posing--she was madly flapping her arms at mosquitos.

I worked hard this week to finish off the arena. Last night me, Barbara and the neighbors (Joe, Diana, Mike) laid down the weed barrier on the arena. We were about 60' short. Doh. The sand isn't arriving until Monday afternoon so I'll make a run for the last 60' I need.

Here's how it looks with the sun coming up. The thumb in the photo is for size reference. bahaha.
We got chased inside by the mosquitos so Neen showed me her photos from Philadelphia and NY. Here she is on the couch with Cooper and Gabby who immediately sat next to her and starting play fighting.

I'm sooo happy to have the arena so close to being done. If it doesn't pour buckets in the next few days I'll have a finished arena on Monday afternoon. Time to get the flower pots ready for the entrance!

toodles.

Entering week 4 of Kitchen Remodel

2008-06-23T18:37:00.003-05:00

Here's the new patio door off the southwest corner of the house. It's got a great view of the side yard and alfalfa fields beyond. The kitchen remodel is moving into a week of installation and prep for some electrical work. We've discovered a whole lot of shady wiring in this place. Quel surprise.

On the weather front it rained hard yesterday but I was ok with it. I've decided to make the pond a permanent feature. I'm researching pond liners and will have a jolly good koy farm.

The arena was just starting to dry out when it rained yesterday. The ground is just so saturated with water than even a "normal" downpour now causes problems.

On the flooding note, I drove to Grafton, a town about 60 miles east of here on Lake Michigan on Saturday for a bike race. The team was here for that race so I suited up. (we won). There were 2 detours because bridges were out or dams had failed. So strange to live in an area that was so devasted by Mother Nature.

Not much else to report. It's officially summer and the mosquitos are plentiful. Where is my bat colony when I need it???
b

Rain Rain Go Away

2008-06-15T18:33:00.005-05:00

And don't come back for 100 years. Please. So the news of the week? More rain. On top of the "i-lost-count-total" we got more heavy rain on Thursday. On Friday I discovered my sump pump quit. Wow. It doesn't get any better than having a pond in your yard and one in your basement.

Aaaaakkk, skip that. let's talk about happier things. Like my kitchen remodel which has been going on since about when the monsoon started. Here's a photo of the old (weird) cabinet being removed. That's Anthony, the Russian, playing with Cooper. Normally he works in Florida with Barbara but she hauled him to Wisconsin to preserve my kitchen. He has friends here (also from Russia) so he's happy to be here and he loves dogs. Even thieving, little turds like Mini Cooper.
And here's a shot of the same spot two days later, after the brick chimney came out. The bricks are now ringing burn spot #1. That's where I put miscellaneous wood, weeds and other things that need to be burned. It's nice to have a bit of house history out in the yard serving a purpose.
And here's how the new kitchen alcove looks. It's not done yet, but you get the picture. The alcove is beadboard, with a recessed cabinet and one more coming above it. The best thing is now I have a work triangle. Before, it was 15' to go from the stove to the fridge. Barbara is staying true to the farmhouse theme which is authentic to my antique house.

This week will feature replacing the art deco ceiling fan, installing the sliding door, the built in table and some brackets. It's slow going as every single feature is built for this house. No one works like Barbara does and she's worth the $150/hour fee. She's saved me a ton of money because she knows her construction methods, design and historic preservation.

I know this much from bike racing: once you are at the top, you know where you can adapt situations to get the same results. There are a lot of posers in the bike racing world and even more in the design world. I'm lucky, just plain lucky to have the best brain in the historic preservation world on this project.

And on top of the the rain and kitchen rehab, I've been riding Willow to relieve stress. I love this mare. She's gem and what a fantastic influence on Oscar. They complement each other well: Oscar bosses her around the barn and fields, and she leads him down the trails in the wild woods.This photo is of Amy on Oscar, holding onto Willow. Disregard her skinny neck. Between her regular excericse inflicted by Oscar and me, she'll be looking like a mini hunter in no time.

Stay tune for more....and here's to dry days.
b

Monsoon Season is Here

2008-06-10T05:52:00.006-05:00

Don't be fooled...this photo of me and Oz was taken just before the monsoon started. It looks so sunny and warm but that was the first sunny and warm day all year. The pic was taken next to the old chicken coop where the iris is blooming. It's some old variety that smells like grapes.

It's not lost on me that the last post I wrote a mere three weeks ago I was bummed that it was so cold. Since then we've had 10" of rain. To say it's been an eventful couple of weeks is understating the obvious. Here's the list:
- Beep had to go to horsey heaven; she was a pony with chronic founder and I did all I could for her but I had to admit I had lost the battle
- Willow arrived the day Beep left. Willow is the sweetest morgan/arab blend you'll ever meet
- Lady B arrived and is going at the kitchen with Anthony, the Estonian apprentice
- Cooper has reached his terrible twos and it's dicey every day whether he'll get a pass to stay another day.
- The pond has returned to the front yard with a vengance. On Saturday we had massive storms and tornados all around us. By writing this post I am putting off (for a few minutes anyway) wading in to put the pump in and start the bailout process.
- Oscar got a case of gas colic due to the pressure drops, go figure. But he returned to his pesky self after the vet gave him a shot of banamine and since I had to pay an emergency visit fee ($$!) I had the vet give all his spring shots.

Here's a few photos....

Sunday morning I got up after listening to pounding rain all night.
I walked into the kitchen and there was the greenest little froggie in the middle of the kitchen. I was admiring his color when Cooper arrived and started tormenting the frog. In this photo Coop is pouncing on the frog (the small black spot). Note: two yellow rubber duckies brought in from the bathtub by the dog.

Here's a shot of Miss Willow meeting up with Oz. He's saying to her "You can call me Bossy Boots."

Last photo is of all of the siblings at Dad's 70th b-day on Memorial day weekend. We had a surprise party for him and he was surprised, although he suspected something was up. Aside from telling Dad stories my favorite part of the weekend was going for a run with all of my siblings. I don't run much anymore but we had a good time teasing each other for 3 miles.
Time to get to putting the pump in the yard or face a mosquito invasion. toodles for now...

Farm News

2008-05-23T20:52:00.005-05:00

It's a whopping 46 degrees. Every morning when the sun comes up I get to see the light hitting my pole shed (aka garage). I really like looking at the shadow of the tree on the side of the building. I'm not sure why, but I like it.

It's a been another silly week but thank goodness for the Agri-View. That's the farm paper that comes out on Thursday. In this week's edition I learned:

"Rectal Live-Animal Scrapie Test Approved by USDA"

Sara, did you get that?? Now you can test your sheep for scrapie w/o using third eyelid biopsy.

On top of the new Scrapie tests, the retail demand for cattle is steady. Good to know.

Oh, and I mowed the lawn.

I'll leave you a photo of Mr. Oscar with Amy aboard. He's going great.

Toodles for now.
b

Cooper and the Spark Plug....a children's story

2008-05-15T18:40:00.002-05:00

Once upon a time there was a small, white dog who liked to steal things. His name was Mini Cooper and he had a big friend named Oscar.

Here they are, best buddies.

The little white dog lived on a farm. He loved to run around the farm and find things to chew on.

One day, when his human was working on her ATV, Mini-Cooper found a little white box. His human wasn't looking at him. She was looking at her ATV.

Since she was busy, Mini Cooper picked up the little white box and showed it to his human. She said "You little bas(&*&^*^Td)! Oh boy. It was Mini Cooper's favorite game so he ran for the door and across the yard with the human running after him. They ran up the hill and through the garden. Then across the yard and back through the garden. He played and played with the little white box and made sure the human couldn't catch him.

Finally Mini Cooper got tired and dropped the box. Only the spark plug had fallen out so his human started up the game again. Oh boy!! So Mini Cooper and the human ran all over the yard again looking for the thing in the box. The human finally found it and installed the spark plug in the ATV and could take the stinking manure down to the pit.

The end.

Tulip Time

2008-05-10T18:40:00.003-05:00

You might not see the tulips in this photo taken about two weeks ago...but they are popping up-signaling and end to the endless winter. Here's the scene today...happy tulips blooming like mad along the driveway.

I planted the tulips last fall. If I remember right, I planted them on a Sunday night in November knowing that it was going to freeze soon. Freeze it did...four days later and we had snow for the next 5 months.

These are well-earned tulips. (earned through suffering through the past winter).

More soon.

The Big Dork

2008-05-04T08:19:00.002-05:00

I mean me, not the horse. In my over taxed state of mind of late, I managed to leave the gate unlatched Friday night. The big guy and his little red sidekick helped themselves to a whole lot of grain sometime during the night/morning.

I discovered my error Saturday morning when I opened the barn door and there was the feed bin on its side, empty. The good news is there wasn't a lot of grain in the bin but the bad news it was enough to get the vet out. Good news: no colic. We're now watching for signs of laminitis. Beep seems fine, but Oz is a little shifty on his feet. Probably his feet aren't feeling too good after that meal he had.

On top of that, when I was in the barn cleaning, assessing whether or not to call the vet I shook out a bag of fresh bedding and that spooked Spooky McOscar. He ran for the door, turned a hard right and whammo. Crashed just like me going down the basement stairs that same morning. I think that was his first crash of the year, my 7th or 8th. I have to start my OSHA sign over again: today it will read: .5 days w/o a crash.

"This is not going to be our day" I thought. So after the vet came and went and the horses were tubed and lubed, I did some garden chores and checked on the two of them every half hour.

Today will be more of the same. It's at least nice out which helps.

Hope the sun is out wherever you are.
b

Life with Dogs

2008-04-20T18:12:00.004-05:00

I was celebrating a lovely spring day last night like any red blooded female who'd taken a long bike ride, followed by a horse ride, followed by some barn cleaning. With wine, a newspaper and my camera. I was sitting in my lawn chair waiting for the sun to hit the barn so I could get a photo of the barn in spring when I realized the dogs were putting on a show of their own.
So I snapped a few self portraits. Flattering angle, non? The photo above shows Coop doing the "go for the cheek" move with Gabby countering with the open-mouth move.

Well, I had more photos to post but Mr. Blogger isn't too happy with the size of my images. Well, you get the picture. Me and the pups are doing great. All's well on the farm. How 'bout you?

Team Time at the Farm

2008-04-13T07:56:00.010-05:00

Here's some images I took from last weekend when the team was in town for the photo shoot. Some explain themselves, other images require some explanation.

To the right is Leda, who is from London. She was a bit knackered when she got to town so she sat on the couch and became a dog magnet. 5 minutes after i took this photo both dogs were sound asleep and Leda was looking very relaxed.

In case you are wondering, that is Abe, the ape who has taken up with Mini Cooper. Abe is team mascot and he's wearing a snappy new Dairyland jersey. When he's not sleeping with my dog Abe hangs out with Bunny, our rider from West Virginia.

And this is Bunny herself having a chat with Abe. It's hard to resist holding this monkey. One picks him up and for some unexplainable reason one just starts walking around with Abe, asking him if he'd like some food or if he's tired.

The photo below is Missy, she is the Road Manager of the team. That means she wrangles the herd onto the airplane, to the race, then tells them how to win the dang race. And they do. Works great. Missy loves dogs and she became the "voice of Cooper," narrating the pup's thoughts. That had me laughing for days.

I Iput this photo in of Gabby and Mini Coop just for fun. Gabby was very tolerate of the Coop that night. On Friday night, Bunny and Missy helped me clean the barn. I'd missed part of a day and that's not good when there are three horses. The manure piles up fast! Bunny and Missy did a great job; this is Bunny wielding a mean scoop basket in the barn. Note: there is not manure present! She looks happy with her work. I was! I went outside to see how it was going with MIssy, who was breaking up the last of the manure iceberg. Does the photo of Bunny and Missy remind you of anything? I'll post more photos later. This is taking too long and I've got work to do! ciao...b

Horse Powwow

2008-04-03T13:51:00.003-05:00

The large, black critter in the photo is Kiddman, the newest addition to the farm. He's a 5 year old percheron/arab cross and just as goofy as Oscar, only bigger. Here is Oz, Kiddo and Beep who made a grand entrance to the horse sniffing party. She walked over and peed a whole bunch. Twice.

Why yes, Oscar is a white horse, thank you very much. He 'd taken a nice dirt bath just before Kiddman arrived.

Here's a shot of Kiddman and his proud owner,
Meaghan.

In other news, I turned off the heat lamp in the chicken coop and shut off the tank heater on the water trough. I guess that means it's spring??

Big day today; the team is arriving and tomorrow is the photo shoot. I'll get a few photos of that as it's always entertaining. Real photographers, real make up artists, and real milk mustache. Yum!

Jack Russell Terrorist

2008-03-22T10:34:00.005-05:00

Today was clean and tidy up the house day. Not so easy with a 2 pound puppy helping.

Here's Mini Coop aiding in the sweeping of the floor. With this system, the broom acts like a broom with an added dust pick up feature.
One simply drags the broom around to sweep and dust simultaneously.

Coop didn't like the lint picker upper but instead of attacking that he attacked my arm. Ow.

Laundry was a challenge. Once I got the sheet unhooked from his wee fangs I was able to fold it.

So there you have it. A small glimpse of life with my new little boy.

Oh, and it snowed 7" yesterday and it did not melt. It's barely 25 degrees so this stuff will stick for at least a day or two. I weep.

Mini Cooper

2008-03-16T13:42:00.005-05:00

So Meaghan and I went looking at horses on Friday. The first thing I saw come out of the barn? About 10 Jack Russell puppies and this one kept following me around. His name is mini-Cooper, and he's sound asleep after a morning romp around the farm.

And Meaghan got herself a horse. She and I go back about 10 years when I had my Thoroughbred. Rosie here is Meaghan's new ride, a georgeous 8 year old Percheron-Quarter cross mare. She's going to be at Sunny Hill in about two weeks! And she's a big girl--about 16.3 hands.
This is Meaghan on Rosie during the test ride. They look great together.

I should point out that I have a new laptop and can download photos again. I had a bunch of photos sitting on my camera of the silliness that goes with launching the team for a new year.

This photo below on the right is what my kitchen looked like as I was sorting clothing for the team.
The other photo is my living room on wheel build up day. Wheels, tubes and tires everywhere. I've got three more wheel sets to build up and these wheels are sew ups (involves gluing the tires). Argh...

So that's the scoop from Sunny Hill.

It's actually sunny and the despised glaciers are retreating. MiniCoop isin my lap, napping and I'm eating cookies, watching Paris Nice on tv (bike race) and thinking about taking my bike out for a spinny spin. talk to ya'll soon!
b

All's Quiet on the Farm Blogger Front

2008-03-09T08:22:00.003-05:00

Seems that winter has slowed down the blog posting and increased the anxiety over all the snow and ice.

I think I've already covered everything that has been going on this winter in previous posts:
- lots of snow
- it's cold
- I got a new computer, tv and atv

I'm doing my part to keep the economy afloat. I better get another job to keep up with my spending habits. Wait, I already have a second job. Humm. Pickle.

Time to go play horse! ciao..
b

Knee Deep in S(*6T

2008-02-17T12:53:00.004-06:00

Well well well. It's been a week or so since I've blogged and I'll blame that on the phenomena known as "getting ready to leave town."

The last two weeks have been a flurry of getting bikes built, chasing missing parts, building wheels and transporting said wheels, parts and bikes to the other end of Dane County for final assembly I was feeling good when I got all that done just in time to leave only to realize that in all the extra work I wasn't keeping tabs on other things. I noticed on Friday that I was low on stall bedding, dog food, cat food and chicken food. Merde.

But, it all had to be handled so I got it done. Given that I had things more-or-less under control I saddled up Oscar and went for an hour long road ride. (That's kind of like a road ride on a bike only on a horse). We headed west on Muller road which was snow covered but had sand on it so the footing was decent, just windy. On the way back we saw tractor tracks in a field and normally we ride in the fields but the snow is too deep these days--except where the tractors go.
It was Oscar's idea to go through it. The figured that the brown stuff on the top was dirt the tractor had kicked up. We were cruising through at a gallop when I realized that it wasn't dirt (duhhh); we were knee deep in shee-at. Oscar stumbled but recovered and I said: "This was your idea!"

Ever the humble horse he agreed (it WAS his idea) and we turned around and galloped out of the poo. We stopped at neighbor Diana's to say hi to the spotted dog that Oscar likes then came home. Twas an excellent ride.

I should be in Arizona right now but half of Wisconsin is under ice. It's hard for airplanes to fly in this kind of weather so instead of working with the team I'm baking bread and watching movies.

Oh, we're suppoed to get some snow later....ya don't say.

Hope it's warmer where you are...toodles.
b

The Best Blizzard Day Ever!

2008-02-09T14:47:00.001-06:00

We had a blizzard this week--first one I've seen in 10 years of living in these parts. The alert went out at work around 1; "go home while you can." It would have been nice if the lot had been plowed but that's ok..the Mazda made it out. I had a stray with me--a guy named Josh who couldn't make it out of the lot. His parents lived in Columbus so I said I'd give him a lift. Good thing I did because the visibility was so bad that I was driving but he was pointing out where the road was. We had some hilarious moments.
Josh: "The road is to your right."
Me: "Ok"
Josh: "You're in the field"
me: "I am? I thought that was the road!"
Josh: "Just go to the left.."

Good thing he knew the roads well as we made it home. Another stray was following us and that was John. He knew he wouldn't make it the 40 miles home so I told him he could stay over. Lindsay was in the back seat checking to see if John was still behind us. He turned off at Muller road and we kept on into Columbus to drop off Josh. We got that done and turned for home. We did great until we turned onto Muller Road. There was snow in the middle of the road only I couldn't tell if it was a 2" or 2" drift I was heading for. Turned out to be the latter. I got stuck and the bummer was the road was clear(er) just ahead. Luckily, some guy in a 4x4 with a Packers coat stopped and yanked us out. I got up some speed and with a straight shot made it through the drift and to home.

Joe was already plowing and John was there, sans truck. He got stuck on the other end of Muller Road in a 4' drift. You know what that means...tractor time!! Joe fired up the Big One and John and I got on snowshoes and hooved it back to his car. The wind was fierce and reminded me of watching video of people on Everest. Anaway, we got the truck out of the drift and back to the house.

After all that fun Lindsay called for a Euchre tournament. So it was me and John v. Lindsay and Joe. I cooked up some calzones and drank a bunch of wine and got Euchered!

Best snow day ever. Even better, when Joe got in hot water for playing cards with us, Lindsay was in trouble too! Yaaa. I'm not alone!
cheerios,
b

Snow, Snow Snow and more snow

2008-02-06T07:40:00.000-06:00

Hard to tell if there's more snow or if it's the same snow swirling around in the wind. Either way, there's a lot of it and more coming. Gee, it's been what, 2 days since we got some snow?

Let's think of all the good things about snow:

you can see where your horse walked that day
you can find out which way your dog went
it can be useful when it covers the melted snow-turned-ice
one can ski on it
one can learn how your barn door slides properly because when the now makes it jump the tracks it's an opportunity to figure out how to get it back on

So there you have it. My positive outlook on all this gol^**(^&dang^^*%^ snow!

Lindsay and I are going to attempt to drive in to work. I'm confident we'll get there. It's getting back that ought to be interesting. Wisconsin is under a big white blob on the radar.

So, today's Beep report is that she's on her feet. I see some slight improvement --the fact she's on her feet is improvement-- and she's starting on the Cushings meds. If she can take the bute a little while longer the new med will help get her blood sugar regulated and get her over this episode of founder. I won't let her suffer though; the hole is dug and Joe's standing by just in case she languishes. She's getting 5 star treatment here at the Sunny Hill Pet Infirmary and I remain optimisic but realistic. Think good thoughts for her.

til soon,

Status Report

2008-01-31T07:13:00.000-06:00

1) The electricity is back on

2) The pipes didn't freeze, much

3) It's above zero, finally

4) Pony is on her feet but isn't out of the woods yet

5) I lost my cell phone, yee ha. Well, it's been a year since I lost the last one so I was due

6) Oxycontin does wonders for a mal-functioning back

7) One should listen to the doc when he says don't drink any alcohol with this medicine (see #5)

8) I'm still laughing

I'd post a photo but I don't have a picture of a smoldering pile of ruins that would represent this week.

Instead I'm picturing a lovely sunny day, about 65 degrees...ahhhh. To turn things around I'm taking a half day off and am going shopping!!! I deserve some new clothes for getting through this week. Pony needs a blanky too while she convalesces. Nothing like a little shopping to put things right. Cheers from the tundra!

Recipe Time!

2008-01-22T11:16:00.000-06:00

So I put 800 miles on my car, driving around the frozen midwest having adventures. I drove to Des Moines, Iowa to give a presentation for work and along the way had some hilarious phone conversations with all my siblings and of course, Barbara. The recipe below is courtesy of Lady B, who had me laughing all the way into Des Moines telling me about the roast beast she made. She called it "Road Kill Beef" and you'll find the recipe below for your cooking pleasure.

My road trip got started because my little sister and I decided to change kitchen tables; I got a new (old) farm table and she got mine. So when the opportunity came up to speak in Des Moines I figured I'd just swing up to Neen's and deliver the table. Ha ha..I didn't check the map to see it was going to be an 8 hour ride but that's ok--I love a road trip.

I loaded the table into the car, packed some lunch and off I went. The table and chairs were very good road trippers; didn't eat anything or throw garbage around the car. We all made it in one piece and Neen's new house is georgeous!

We had a bottle of wine and a house tour. What a fabulous location and beautiful home. I slept in my niece's bed and when I awoke, thought I was in Colorado! It's like being on top of a mountain there over the Mississippi River.

I took off at 10 to head to other sister's house in Western Wisconsin. That's where I made my Big Mistake. I decided to drive all the way up to the house on a driveway that hadnt' been plowed well. So I made it half way before getting stuck and had to walk half a Km to the house. There I found Mike, Sara and their houseguests happily drinking champagne and no one minded that I was now blocking the driveway. We managed to get the car unstuck, thanks to a team effort and some wild backwards driving by Mike--hollymolly--never thought my car could go 30mph through the snow up a hill, backwards.

Anyway, twas a fine weekend. Now here's that recipe...bon appetite!

Lady Barbara’s Road Kill Pot Roast
Ingredients:
-1 pretty good sized slab dead cow
-1 envelope Lipton’s Onion Soup and Dip mix
-1 can Campbell’s condensed cream of mushroom soup
- few cloves minced garlic
- Good shake Bouquet Garni
- 1 Bay leaf (that you will remove when done, of course)
- ¼ cup red wine – if you haven’t imbibed it all.
Sour cream to taste just before serving.

Preparation and cooking Instructions:
Accidentally leave meat in shopping bag on counter top amidst bills, tools, and miscellaneous flotsam.
Rediscover package in tidying frenzy after about 1½ days.
Tentatively open corner, sniff cautiously, and ignore slightly gray tinge; Yeah, it’s dead.
Wash, pat dry, and sear both sides.
Slap into bottom of large slow cooker, gray side down if it bothers you, and top with soups, spices and wine.
Cook on low 10 hours (8PM to 8AM by my reckoning.)
When done taste small bite. If not sick by noon, eat lots for lunch with sour cream over a baked potato. Enjoy!

Giddyup, Amy!

2008-01-08T20:57:00.000-06:00

That there is Miss Amy..who loves Oscar and he loves her right back. Amy is new to Madison and was looking for someone to play horse with and voila, thanks to Craig's list we hooked up! It's been great to watch her work with Oz and I've learned a lot. Here she is, about to take off for a morning spin about the fields. Oz is sporting some lovely blue threads, thanks to Amy's tack trunk.

He wasn't too happy about the camera, and kept flicking his ears around at the noise. Here's another cute photo of them just before they rode off into the field.
So it's been raining and raining and I've been slippign and sliding on the ice. Note the green path behind Oscar in the photo above. It looks green, but oooohhhhh no. Sneaky bits of ice lurk everywhere. This morning I hit the deck trying to unload 100 pounds of manure and the wheelbarrow slid and kicked back. I had poo all over me.

Needless to say, my coat is in the wash now and should be safe to wear sometime tomorrow.

Stay tuned for the next entry about Betty, the black truck. We hauled all sorts of furniture in it tonight and I'm tarred!
more soon,
becx

Apres Holiday Ski!

2008-01-04T07:17:00.000-06:00

Happy New Year! Me and my fabulous brother, Brian went skiing all over the farm just before New Year's. Brian had some awesome striding skiis (circa 1980) that busted through the 7" of fresh snow rather nicely. Not only that, he's fast so I had to hustle to keep up.

As we were skiing I couldn't help but think of all the times Dad took us skiing in the Kettles back, oh, about 1978 and what a brilliant move that was. Take 4 kids skiing for a couple of hours and you are guaranteed an afternoon and evening of very quiet kids!

This photo is our tracks heading east. There's no question that the snow has been amazing and I'm a little sad that it's supposed to be 40 degrees this weekend. Slushy, mush here we come.

All the animals are doing ok. Beep threw off her shoes and it's been below zero--too cold to attempt a rewrap but with temps going up I'll refit tonight and not get frost bit in the process.

The fox continues to torment Gabby. I think I have a new purpose for riding Oscar. Yep...let the Sunny Hill Fox hunt begin! It'll be a cruelty-free hunt; we'll just chase Mr. Fox around.

Stay tuned for news and photos of Betty, the new Dodge truck. Hee hee.
b

Rubber Baby Beeper Bumpers!!

2007-12-29T11:47:00.000-06:00

Ya know, I can't even remember the joke that went with that punchline but Sara called it; Beep has on beeper bumpers to protect her feet!

Here's a close up of my handiwork which I'm proud to say, has lasted an entire 30 hours so far. Even better Beep is walking just fine.

She doesn't seem to mind her padded feet which is amazing. I was betting she'd fling off her silver shoes in minutes or worse, slip on the snow.

Joe offered to make a studded bottom out of a thin sheet of plywood with little studs, but she seems to be getting decent grip.

Time to go hit the snow on Oscar. We'll go cross country today, maybe try to find that dern fox that keeps taunting Gabby.

Cheers and here's to a peaceful 2008.
b

Winter & Trains

2007-12-26T19:43:00.000-06:00

I've been watching the BEST scenes outside the windows lately; frosty, icy branches, arctic skies, hazy mornings...too many good things to point out and my camera has malfunctioned badly lately, along with my pc. It'll take me 3 reboots to get this post up but so be it. I'll outlast the stupid machine!

So this shot was taken this morning outside my bedroom window. I can get exactly one photo before my camrea shuts down and I have to rest it a day.

So I had the vet out today to check on Beep Beep. Turns out she has bruised feet and he prescribed some special styrofoam booties for her. The vet also prescribed bute, which I had been giving her since yesterday and it was helping. At least it's not founder---I was worried about that. She's lost some weight since being here as I've exercised her a few days/week but he wants more weight off so when her feet feel better it'll be time to hit the trails again. If I have to take her snowshoeing with me I will (I'll wear the snowshoes, she can wear her hooves).

I made a special run to Beaver Dam tonight to get vet tape. I have to make a styrofoam pad for her front feet, wrap it with vet tape then duct tape the whole thing to both front legs. That should give her a little cushion while her feetsies heal up. Joe brought over a piece of real styrofoam (not the kind you get with tv sets). It'll take a hack saw to cut, but I have one of those. I'll trace her little feet tomorrow and get the size of her new wee protector pads just right.

And get this..as I was crusing through Columbus I got stopped at the train tracks. THe daily Amtrak was going through. As I sat there watching the people in the cars I thought "how cool is that; it's still an efficient mode of transport, even with the car lobbyists trying to kill it." I was thinking that for about 6 mintutes, along with how much I missed living in NY where I traveled by train often. Then it dawned on me that I'd been sitting there for 6 minutes and with the car turned off, it was starting to get cold! Argh...I decided to turn around and take the overpass.

That worked dandy. I got to the Fleet Farm, got my vet tape and headed home. I got back to Columbus and got stopped by the freight train!!! I had to laugh at that point. Ahh, more time to contemplate the moment which I'm always happy to do. I got home and no worse for the extra time.

Well, hope ya'll are warm and dry wherever you are.
love, b

Mouse Week!

2007-12-21T09:24:00.000-06:00

My cat is a mouser. My dog is a rabbit hunter and general small vermin killer. But my chickens are mousers too??

So far the death tally at the farm since August is one skunk and two rabbits (Gabby), a rat (barn cat) and two dead mice in the house. Now the chickens are getting into the act. I found two dead mice in the coop, both with puncture wounds the size of a beak. Don't mess with Dumpling or Pot Pie I tell you!

And last night I smelled something funny in the bathroom. I looked all around and didn't see anything but definitely smelled something funky. I finally looked in a basket and sure enough, a dead mouse in the bottom. Probably got there by way of Spider and the classic cat game of throw the catch in the air. In this case, it landed in the basket where I couldn't see it until it started to stink.

I Febreezed the basket but I'm not optimistic that it will work. I have Febreezed my couch (formerly Gabby's couch but it was my nice couch before she claimed it) and that only lasts about a day before I can smell dog on it).

Well, at some point it'll be spring and I can open windows and air out the place. Speaking of spring, it's almost 40!!! But more snow on the way so will enjoy today and keep my boots by the door.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, and best of all, Happy winter Solstice to all!
love, becx

Enough already!!

2007-12-16T10:35:00.000-06:00

Ok, I surrender. It's not officially winter yet and we've got over 2' of snow on the ground.

Yesterday brought all day long snow flurries that added another few inches to the heap. I went skiing out back then took Oscar out and stomped around the back yard, the field, the woods and then the front yard. I know we're in training for dressage but I kind of wish there was some sort of snow dressage category. We'd be good at that.
Note the pile of snow just in front of the chicken coop. That's how much snow has been plowed off the driveway in the last week! For those of you living in warmer climates, please enjoy whatever temperature it is wherever you are. It's 10 today and I'd give anything for 10 more degrees!!

In other news, I wrote out my Christmas list for Santa. Santa baby, if you are listening I've been real good and could you bring me a:
> Skidloader with a cab and heat
> A John Deer Gator with a hydraulic lift
> An ATV (used is fine) with accessories like a harrow, plow and trailer
> 300' of new RAAM fence
> 2 more acres for pasture
> An indoor arena
> An australian shepherd (which I'll name Wilson...as in...."WILSON!!!" )

Think this list will get me anywhere??

Neither do I, but it's fun to write down my shopping list. I have a subscription to "Agri-View" newspaper (Wisconsin's farm newspaper) and it's fun to look at the farm implements for sale.
You know that old saying? A skid loader is a girl's best friend?? Well, on a farm it's true. Next to the dog. And the bottle of red wine. And the hot tub. Ohhh, add hot tub to the list.

Tally ho..time to do something around here.

A View of the Snow

2007-12-08T15:41:00.000-06:00

Dang...when the Gods give you snow, you just go with it. It's kind of hard to ride the horse when it's 8" of fresh powder on top of 5" of packed ice. So I got some new batteries for my camera and went for a hike about this morning. This is the view of the back of the house. You can see my ski tracks on the lower left. The whole farm looks different in the snow-pretty but in a different way.

ytttttttttttttttttuj that's courtesy of Spidey cat who just walked over the keyboard. Grrrr. My fat cat has her own insulation so doesn't need to try to sit in my lap 24/7.

Anyway, here's the house as viewed from the chicken coop.

The chickens are hanging in there with it being so cold. I guess they don't need toys like the horses do to keep occupied. I saw Oscar nudging his horse ball around today and that helps to keep his busy body mind busy.

Speaking of Oz, I attempted to ride him on Thursday but the footing was so bad and I made a critical error in clothing choice. As someone has already pointed out, snowboard pants are great for making sure anything snowy doesn't stick to them. Thus, they are slippery when applied to, say, a leather item like a horse saddle. Add to that my giant Columbia boots and a pony on a lead rope and you have a recipe for dee-zaster. Fortunately, we didn't pile up but there was a close call when Oscar was trotting through the snow/ice and I didn't have my feet in the stirrups 'cause my big boots didn't want to tuck in easy. The effect of that was a near launch of the slippy pants rider. Somehow we stayed together but I dropped the rope. I turned Oz around and said "go get Beep" and dernit, didn't he just round her up from the trees she was in and park me perfectly so I could reach down and grab the rope. My horse is a cowpony!

I dropped the rope two more times as we attempted to walk across the garden hill and each time Oz got me in position to catch the pony. After the third time I decided the footing was too risky to be messing around playing cowpony. I got off and walked them both down the street a bit so they at least got some exercise.

When I got up today it was 0 degrees. Good thing I havent' been checking the weathe report. WHen it's this cold the only thing I want to know is "will it end soon?" and if the answer is no then I don't want to know. Faulty logic for sure, but it gets me through the cold days.

Joe and I finished fixing the fence today. We had to put in 12 posts yesterday to replace the broken ones and let me tell you, nothing like pounding a t-post in with a torn rotator cuff in the zero degrees but it had to be done to save the pasture. We got new electrical tape up this morning and the last of the posts and now I can rest a bit easier knowing that the next thaw I won't be watching my pasture turn into a mud field.

That's about all the news that's fit to report. Cold, snowy and, um, cold on the farm. Oh, and the Saeco Vienna Deluxe malfunctioned. Now that's a tradegy but nothing a little trip to the Espresso Shop in Chicago can't fix. Soon, ole VPublish Postienna will be churning out hot mugs of courage once again.

I think my skiis are calling....ciao for now.
b

RIP Marsala

2007-12-05T19:39:00.000-06:00

Well, I got home tonight and little Marsala had died. She didn't look so good this morning but she'd been having good days and bad days. She's in the photo above, in front.
Awww, I'll miss that chicken. Never thought I'd get attached to a bird but the way they run around when I come in the coop and squawk to go outside and squawk for treats--it gets into your daily routine.

So I bagged her up and decided to head out for a snowshoe. My new shoes are fantastic. I wore the wrong clothes though. I should have had my snowboard pants on because running snowshoes kick up a lot of snow and it lands right on your arse. Gabby came with and we did a loop of the field behind the house then I took off the snowshoes and went for a run to the corner and back. We got at least 5" of snow last night and it's about 9 degrees right now. Cold enough that I didn't get warm enough running and I had a lot of clothes on. I might be getting thin-skinned! Time to move to a warmer clime???

tally ho...time for a shower,
becx

Head Light!

2007-12-04T06:37:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Sunny Hill. New name, same farm. Same crazy farmer blogger at the keyboard.

So the news is I got the best thing ever--- a headlight!!! I've always wanted one and for some reason just didn't get around to ordering one. Thank de lawd for birthdays and a big brother. Brian got me a headlamp and you know that commercial for LL Bean with the excited little kids sitting on the couch with the headlamps on, waiting to catch a glimpse of Santa? That's me. I put the thing on and can't wait to go outside in the dark. Thanks, Brian!

Day one with headlamp: I found two eggs in a different box than the hens had been laying in. The eggs were frozen which was fine as I cracked them open, scrambled them and put them back in the freezer for future quiche. Real farmers eat quiche ya know.

Oscar didn't like the headlamp at first and he took off when I was crossing the yard to the barn. He got over that when he realized the alien shining light was just me.

Speaking of the horses, it's hard to scoop manure now seeing as it's frozen and stomped into the snow to boot. It dawned on me that I really need to pitch fork some of the manure out before a thaw or there will be a sea of manure. blech. I don't mind stepping in dry poo, but wet poo is another matter.

My camera isn't functioning right and I wanted to post a photo of the farm in all the snow. I managed to ski on Sunday, then changed gear and saddled up Oscar and took him and Beep out for a ride. Oscar needed some schooling around the snow piles but other than that, it was a lovely ride in the snowy fields. Too bad the snow has turned to a pile of ice now. I can walk across it and not make a track it's so hard.

So that's the news from the farm. Come on out and bring your skiis/snowshoes/saddle/wine. :)

becx

Snow on the Outhouse

2007-11-23T19:44:00.000-06:00

You think this was a black and white photo, but it's not! It's a color photo, taken Thanksgiving morning after a couple centimeters of snowfall. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun and here's the highlights:
6:00am..phone call from Joe. "Hey becca...your horses are up on the hill."
6:00.5am..aaaaaaaaaaakkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6:02am, run to barn, grab halters, look for open gate (didn't see one) run up hill.
6:07am, catch Oscar,lead him down the hill with ponies following
6:10, Oscar locked in barn, start after other two who stopped following. Start tracking hoofprints in snow, which lead to alfalfa field behind house. Joe drives over in the truck to help with the round up but I it's going to be awhile as the ponies are well into the alfalfa. I found out where they got out; the gate I use to take the manure out of the pasture. It was the only gate that didn't have a snap lock so I'm betting it was Beep who played with the chain and got it unlatched.

It took Joe and I a half hour to figure out how to catch the horses. It was futile trying to walk up to them because the baby was herding Red thisaway and thataway. She's even smarter than her mama! I wound up getting Oscar and leading the two ponies back in. They followed right into the barn. Once they were captured I looked at Joe and said "Happy Thanksgiving!"

Then I got to cooking and getting ready for family. This was my second turkey I've ever cooked. I couldn't find my stupid turkey baster. I had to baste with a cup which is not nearly as good as a baster.

Jeannine and family and Brian and fam got to the farm in the afternoon and we went for a short hike. Dinner was at 5 and featured all the usual thanksgivingy things. Brian made some excellent challah bread and Neener made pie. And, just like being at Grandma Jane's, there was Redi-whip in a can. After dinner we had a vicious game of Monopoly, with Jay monopolizing the bank. Here's a photo of Jay studying his next move, and Sam bowing out (he was the first to go).
Note the cluster of hotels near Jay's elbow.

When Jay and Jesse were fighting over rent on the Boardwalk the can of Redi-whip came out. Those of us already out of the game made whipped cream mustaches and eyebrows.

That would be Jeannine giving Sam a shot.

And Emily and Jesse got in a few good blasts until the can ran out.

Here's to kicking off the holiday madness. May we all stay sane and healthy...
til soon,
b

Dressed up Coop, er Cottage

2007-11-19T20:12:00.001-06:00

After all the discussion about how to make the Bunkhouse livable, here's a fine design. It has everything but Sara's cat.

I love it! The geraniums are a nice touch. I think I'll move in here and rent the house out as a B&B.

It would be a B & B & CUAY. (Bed, breakfast and clean up after yerself).

Maybe we should replace the windows on the bunkhouse??

That's not a deer!!

2007-11-18T07:39:00.000-06:00

That's Rosie, the baby pony. But those were the first words out of my mouth this morning at 6am when I looked out my window and saw a shape moving through the yard (!) about the size of a deer.

I pulled on some pants and a coat and went out for the round up. Fortunately Rosie is easy to catch and wanted to be with her pals, Oscar and Beep. She wasn't sure about coming in the barn but a little hay took care of that. I put her back inside and gave them all some hay and rigged up a barrier so she couldn't get out. She got out through the "people pass" i had built into the gate system. When I had it built I didn't factor in a wee pony!

Anyway, all three of them are doing fine. When Rosie showed up there was a fine display of "kickin' up some heels" as all three of them went tearing around the paddock. Oscar now has two horses to herd only he's a mere fraction of his former self. BG (before gelding) Oscar was a tenacious herder. Now, he just nudges them off the hay and w/o even a snort.

Here's a photo of Oz nudging Rosie off some hay. He reminds me of a T-rex, esp. in this photo.

I am glad I had the stalls built though as now I can lock Oz and Beep in their stalls and let the baby eat her carrots and supplements in peace.

Rosie has the tiniest little hooves--it's so cute!
She's got big eyes and a fuzzy mane and tail. She likes being petted and is good on a lead rope. She jumped right out of the trailer yesterday like an old pro.

She's smart too. When Oscar nudges her from her hay she walks around the fence to the next pile so the fence is between them. That buys her about 15 minutes of grazing time uninterrupted. She's holding her own out there in the herd!

Oh, and I promised Lady B a photo of the bunkhouse; here it is, and that's Joe's barn to the right (just across the street) and my pole shed/garage to the right.

It's the original chicken house and the former owners were using it for a dog kennel. The open space to the right is my lower garden (upper garden is for strawberries!). THe bunk house has the same stone foundation as the barn and house. It would take some work but with a complete rebuild, this would make a cute "cottage!"

I know just the person for that project. :)

Only she has too many houses in Florida and can't make it up here to work on her wee cottage! That's ok though, that gives me time to fill it up with stuff. It's holding a lot of plywood from the barn. It's the good old kind of plywood; 3/4" and sturdy. I used some of it for the chicken coop repair. You can't buy that stuff anymore.

The coop/bunkhouse even has windows. Those were some spoiled chickens. That's what I like about this place; the Kilians thought ahead. They planted lots of trees back in 1899 and built solid buildings and tall basements. And they left a lot of good karma behind.

Time to get a move on the day. Toodles for now,
b

Put Another Log on the Fire

2007-11-16T18:34:00.000-06:00

Seeing as I have nothing interesting to report today, I'll post a photo. This was taken last week, just after I'd mowed up the maple leaves. It's a morning shot of the back yard, looking southeast.

Geesh, it's gotten cold round these parts. I rode to work today and I was dressed just fine so didn't feel the chill. The light reflecting on the farms and fields was amazing; there is something about the cold air and the light that make for unusual tones. I'm glad I get to see it because in a car I'd see very little.

Advertisement coming: Go by bike.

Alright, enough advertising. Back to life on the farm. Seeing as I was in Boulder M-W I have little to report. Marsala (sick chicken) is doing better although she's not out of the woods yet. More cottage cheese and garlic for her tomorrow. Oz and Beep are in good form. I took them both out last night for a walkabout the farm. I think Oscar deliberately did a detour into a field so Beep could grab a bit to eat. He does that now and then...just decides he wants to go this or thataway. It's good practice for a collected circle but all the same I think it's a conspiracy.

I've got a cold cat in my lap and dang, cat feet can get chily. Note to self: buy a small heating pad for Spider. She's a skinny cat and is always trying to steal my heat. I think I could plug in a heating pad on Gabby's bed and rid myself of velcro-cat.

Here's to a pleasant and sunny weekend. Cathy, all the best to you and your family. Rosie the pony comes to La Bella Vita tomorrow afternoon. Oh boy. Another test of my fences!
cheerios,
b

Farm Cross!

2007-11-11T07:50:00.001-06:00

So we had a little race at the farm yesterday. Here's a photo of some of the riders getting assembled. The race went around my farm and through the "pit" and then the barn. It was hard and very fun. The spectators were cheering every lap with cowbells and timely beer handups. Post race 20 of us trooped into the house for chili and beer and recapping of the race. We're already talking about Farm Cross 08.

To top it off, me and a few of the women went to feed the animals and they got out which resulted in a hilarious 40 minute chase around the alfalfa field for Beep. Oscar was easy to catch but Beep?? Oh no...I had to do 14 sprints to keep her from heading for the back 40 and it was Natasha who managed to get her, with some help from the neighbor's spotlight. We all gave Beep a new nickname: beep the little sh^*

But, all was well and the horses got fed and I fell asleep about 7pm, in a chair. I got up very refreshed and seeing as it's my birthday, that means two things: many calls from family with offkey versions of Happy Birthday and, cake for breakfest! Woo hoo! 44 here I come.
b
PS: Here's a cool photo I took on Friday morning, after a hard frost.

Publish Post

Winter is Coming

2007-11-07T18:28:00.000-06:00

And this was my first clue. Nothing like looking forward to crawling into a cozy bed only to find the best spots taken by furry things. I especially like how Gabby got herself tucked in so nicely. The pillow on her head is a nice touch. Today was the day to turn on the propane heater. According to Dad, it'll be easier to heat up the house if it doesn't have to start from 40 degrees all the time. Good point there, Dad! And I will admit it's nice to come home to a house that doesn't require a hat and gloves until the fire heats up. I doubt it'll keep the critters out of my bed but you can't have it all.

I did get a ride in this morning and I'm aiming to see if I can alter my schedule to allow a morning ride. It'd have to go like this:
5:00 Rise and shine, put on riding clothes: throw hay
5:15 Drink two cups of coffee and eat two bowls of cereal
6:00 Sun rise: Saddle up and ride one hour
7:00 Clean up, drive to work

Ya know, when you write it down like that it seems like it'd work?? Humm. We shall see. I don't think I can afford any Musco lights at the moment (roof needs work) but getting up early is do-able. With coffee, anything is possible!

Ole Blue Eyes

2007-11-07T06:09:00.000-06:00

Here's a photo of my dirty horse, Oscar. He has blue eyes. Please disregard the dirt. I was taking photos of Oz and he obliged by having a good roll and this was the only photo that showed how blue his eyes are. Looks like he went a little heavy on the eye liner, eh?

I'm having withdrawal of daylight issues. It's downright depressing not being able to ride after work.

I'm going to have to do a "Work from home" day just so I can ride during the week. Or build an indoor arena. Hey......now there's an idear!

I wonder what those cost.. hummm.
b

Learning new skills!`

2007-10-31T07:42:00.000-05:00

Sunday was a big day in which I learned to drive the skid loader and spent some quality time with a chain saw.
It was Clean Out the Barn day and I got back from a quick trip to town to find Joe already working in the barn. Plan was to clean out the crap that had piled up over the years. Old tires, plywood, boards, miscellaneous old feeders and waterers. Joe rolled his eyes every time I wanted to save something (like the old pig waterer).
"Whatcha gone do with that?"
" Plant flowers in it."
"HA!"

Joe's got a way of saying "Ha!" that belongs in a sit com. He'd be Ricky to my Lucy.

I told him the story about how, as a teenager, I turned Dad's antique forge into a front yard flower garden. I thought it looked great; the forge was about 4' high and made of iron. I planted nasturtiums and geraniums in it and couldn't wait for Dad to see it. He pulled in the driveway and said something like "why is my forge in the yard with flowers?" I couldn't believe he didn't like it. Harumph. (yes, I took it apart and planted the flowers in the yard instead).

I wonder where that old forge is these days. It'd make a nice planter...

Anyway, he saved the old wooden feeder and I'll figure some spot to put that thing.

So I practiced with the skid loader by moving some of the manure pile around. Then I got full of myself and decided to drive it into the barn to pick up the next load of junk. I was going in perfectly straight when I got to the edge of the barn floor. Apparently, when you go over something like a ridse the front end gets squirrely. I had the bucket partly extended and when i went over the edge the bucket whipped over to the right and caught the barn support beam. It shook a bit and Joe's eyes got big but the beam held just fine and no damange done. Joe is about as patient as a person can be and he kept on loading like I hadn't just driven the skid loader into the barn beam.

So of all the wood we found in the garage there was some good pine boards that I chopped up with the chainsaw. While I'm getting adept at the chainsaw, I can't say I like it much. It's loud (I hate loud noises) and it scares me. Guns and chainsaws I can do without but they both have their uses.

Speaking of guns, I was back in the pit the other day and saw the Reduce/Reuse/Recycle in action. Remember the old pig feeder that we moved out of the barn? It's now being used for target practice. It's got a few targets on it and it's got a whole new life in the pit.

Ah yes, recycling. Country style.
b
PS: To Cathy: Rosie and Beep send their good thoughts and wish you extra strength.

Dining in Columbus

2007-10-29T07:26:00.000-05:00

Too many highlights of this weekend to write about but here's a few natable ones:
Teammate Kate came out Saturday to spend a day on the farm. We took the horses out for a bit then went for a bike ride. It was a perfectly windy, sunny day for a ride and we worked up an appetite. Dinner was at some place in Columbus and that experience is worth a restaurant review. This is my first attempt at a review so bear with me.

James St. Dining Company
This place looks promising from the outside. Old storefront painted a tasteful green with cream trim, fine lettering and nicely landscaped. We walked in about 6pm and were invited to sit "wherever we liked." We picked a window seat with a few of James Street. Turned out that was the best spot in the house for watching the full trucks rumble by. Trucks carrying corn or hay or whatever. It was a reminder that this is working farm country.
Our server offered us appetizers so we picked bruchetta. This was my first clue that we were in for a fine dining experience woven of the greatest culinary ambition coupled with a healthy upbringing on Lutheran casseroles.
Normally bruchetta I've had or made is on small rounds of french bread, say, about 5 cm across. but this is Columbus. Our bruchetta was about the size of individual slices of bread, only round. The tomato pieces were piled high to falling off. Ditto for the lifeless mushrooms. I've also tpyically served bruchetta warm with a few bits of goat or other cheese, perhaps a bit of olive with a bite to contrast flavors and stimulate the appetite. In James Street, they don't want flavor getting in the way of filling you up. These were served cold too. Ah well, we were hungry so we scarfed them down.
Our salads brought back memories of church camp in central Wisco. A fine mix of spring greens, sprinkled here and there with tiny pretzels (perhaps they forgot to make the croutons?) and topped with shredded cheddar (not the good kind either...tasted like it was out of a bag). We were starving so we ate that. The dressing was fine...nothing inspirational, just ok.
Our meal was most interesting. I opted for chicken and that was decent, as was the new potatoes and the vegetables (which mysteriously seemed gluey with something but tasted ok, just bland). The piece de resistance though was the cachon of BAKED BEANS in the middle of my plate. Baked beans?? And these were of the canned variety. I've made my own beans for 15 years and there's no mistaking the flavor of canned pork n beans.
Kate's ravioli was ok, it had plenty of garlic so that passed muster. We decided to go for a dessert and were not disappointed; we got 4 slabs of chocolate looking cake thingy and a glass full of some gooey topping. Another close miss...
All in all we had a great time listening to the other server try and describe the food. He was tending to the table behind us and we heard him say "and it's served with a cream of broccoli soup but it's not like a can of cream of mushroom or anything like that.." I turned around and caught the eye of the diner and swear he was trying not to smile.

It was all I could do not to go into the kitchen and take over. Good thing I hav emy hands full or I'd start working at the restaurant just to get it in line so I'd have a nice place to eat out.
Anyway, out of 5 stars I'd give James Street a 1.8. I could have gone higher but the prices were that of a much finer restaurant thus, they get the score they got (below average).

Next time I want to eat out I'll head to the grocery and get myself a steak and cook it outside on the grill.
That's all for now..
b

L'Escape du Farm

2007-10-23T06:40:00.000-05:00

Beep, the red pony was the ring leader in the jailbreak on Saturday. I left for a cyclocross race and while I’d closed the gate in the barn leading to the aisleway I didn’t latch it. Beep knows how to push the gate open and has bolted out twice already but she didn’t get far as the main door was closed. This time though I not only didn’t latch the gate but left the big door open about two feet.

So I’m tooling home from my cyclocross race and I stop at Tractor Supply to get some more bedding. I shoved four bales in on top of my bike and as I was driving home I get a phone call. It was my old neighbor, Myranda, who had come by the farm with her husband. “Did you know your horses are across the street in the alfalfa field?”

Yipe! (say that like Scooby doo).

We had a bad cell phone connection but managed to communicate that yes, I would like her to catch the horses and yes, put them back.

I had no idea how long the two of them had been munching on fresh alfalfa but I don’t think it was more than an hour. I saw their tracks in the field and they weren’t that far in. Even better, they were in Joe’s front yard, more or less and no one noticed there were two equines out front.

So now I know; that pony is sneaky and crafty. I can just see the two of them crossing the street. If they could talk it’d go something like this:

Beep: “One two, hey, it’s open! I’m outta here.”

Oz: “Wait for me!”

Beep: “Alfalfa’s over here.”
Oz: “I know how to cross the street..follow me.”

Beep: munch munch

Oz: snurf, snorf crunch crunch

Hour later: Human voice: “Oscar!!”

Oz: “Busted, whoa, gotta go! Oh hey, an apple!”

Human: “Sucker”

That’s all for now.

Mr .& Mrs. Liggett Visit the Farm

2007-10-18T14:46:00.000-05:00

It's not everyday that you get the "voice of cycling" dropping by your farm but today was a special occasion. It's the Bike Federation of Wisconsin's annual Gala and Phil Liggett is here to speak, all the way from his home base in the U.K. He traveled with his wife, Patricia and they are amazing, lovely people. We spent an hour grazing the horses on the lawn. They met Joe and got a tour of La Bella Vita. Tricia is a great photographer and she took lots of photos of the horses, the landscape and the outbuildings. Aside from taking photos, Tricia is an outstanding evaluator of human musculature movement. She's spent a lifetime observing and correcting posture and has done wonders to correct people's posture on a bike. I think my spring project will be getting Tricia back to the states for a seminar. She's super fit and you can tell she has a dancer's physique; she's light and powerful. What wonderful people they are.

Here she is, getting a photo of Oscar's blue eyes.
It was fun having them here and I sent them home with Dairyland jerseys and some cowirl coffee.

I took them back to their hotel and now have to do a costume change and head back downtown for the party tonight. My best date for VIP occasions, my wonderful brother, Brian, is on deck to assist tonight. I think the last time Brian was my date we went to the Mayor's inaguration party but first, Brian had to put a new battery in my car. We were all dressed and ready to go only to find my car battery had died. We zipped over to Farm and Fleet, got a battery and Brian installed it and off to the party we went. Hopefully Brian will get to enjoy himself this time w/o any surprises.

Tally ho for now,
b

The Perfect Weekend?

2007-10-08T19:47:00.000-05:00

It might be hard to see here in this photo, but it's sunrise over the arena. Oscar got a workout there on Friday night and he went very well for me. Beep, for her part, rolled on her back and ran around all happy. I think she was taunting Oz but I'm not sure and to his credit, he ignored her and kept his mind on his work. He learned how to do a half pass and a turn on the forehand and he did them well too!

I had a few visitors to the farm over the weekend, most notably my nephew, young Master Simon. I'm still waiting for those photos to get sent over 'cause there are some cute ones of Simon on the pony.

Beep got a nice walk under Simon on Saturday and again on Sunday with Antonia, the daughter of a friend of mine, Rita. Here is Antonia and Oscar. Oscar knows she has a carrot in her hand and he's more-or-less politely asking for it.

Beep seemed to like getting exercise and attention too. Here's a photo of Oscar and Beep eating some well earned hay last night.
And that's about it for tonight; my satellite dish must be overloaded 'cause it's taking too long to upload these photos!
enjoy..more soon,
b

A beautiful day

2007-10-05T08:21:00.000-05:00

I took my camera on my rounds this morning. I got this photo after I'd fed the chickens and was walking with Gabby to check out the arena. It's looking south, between the trees. I had a cup of coffee with me and a bag of tomatoes. I'd picked 6 ripe maters off the vine. I gave a couple to the hens and started walking.

I came upon stone henge..this is a lovely spot to sit and contemplate things such as cutting down more branches so I can ride my horse through here without getting whapped like I did yesterday.
Anyway, these benches are tree stumps with pavers sitting on top but they are nice to sit on and ponder stuff.

I walked through the back yard and then came upon the newly fenced arena. The sun was coming up and I had to laugh as I saw the arena. "I did that??"

Where do I come up with these ideas?? Anyway, I LOVE the new arena. It ended up being a tad smaller than I wanted but it's still a great size: 135x65. Plenty of room to work two horses, jump or just mess around.

Now all I need is some footing. There must be a massive run on arena sand right now 'cause I can't get anyone to call me back. Well, I'm sure there's someone out there who needs the business so I'm no worried and I can't wait to get Oscar back to work. He's a little fat right now.

And here's a photo of the arena gate. It' s a nice gate and it even had a ding in it so I don't have to worry about putting the first ding in.

So tonight my friend John is coming over to help me design the "Farm Cross" race that I'm having here in two weeks. It's a cyclocross race for Trek marketing staff and any other fool that thinks they can do a very difficult course. The race will feature Joe and Mitzi's gravel hill, a barricade to jump over--in the barn--(barn is also a beer stop), a pass through the thicket (up a hill) and a trip to the pit and back. One lap should take about 2 minutes and being that it's halloween, "goblins" will be moving the barricades around. Farm Cross 07....stay tuned for that entry.

I just heard Joshua Bell is in town --one of my favorite violinists. I'm thinking I'll take myself to the symphony tomorrow. I've known Joshua going back to my days in NY; he played at our hall every year . He's from Long Island and I last heard him play in Milwaukee when Mom and I went. It'll be good to see him again and get some culture to boot.

Well, time for my once-every-three-or two-years doc visit. It's the "check under the hood" visit. Blech.
ciao,
b

Heyyyyyyyy, macARENA!

2007-10-03T19:00:00.000-05:00

I don't know the words to the Macarena song but that's what's going through my head because today the arena was getting built! I know the photo looks like a bunch of posts, but notice how straight they are. Ahhh, lovely. Nothing makes a lady farmer happier than a straight fenceline.

I gave the arena a name: J. Skalitsky Arena, in honor of my best mate, Joe. Where would I be without Joe?? One sorry farmer that's for sure.

I rode home from work today and saw the posts as I cruised down the hill on my bike and got kind of excited. Turns out we needed a gate so Joe and I went to Tractor Supply and got a gate. And some stall bedding. And a nice wheelbarrow. And a new pocket knife. And some tools and a toolbox....and some other crap that totaled $400 and I figured that was getting out of there cheap.

Best part there was Joe let me drive the diesel truck. It's a six speed so we were tooling along on Hwy 19 and Joe said "do you like that 5th gear 'cause there's an overdrive if you want it." I thought that was a mighty sweet way of pointing out the 6th gear. Last truck I drove only had 4 gears so it was nice to hear about the sixth gear. Joe also pointed out that he was a bit of a "pig pen" with his truck. I told him that was ok since he had a very tidy farm.

I'm all about a tidy barn. My laundry might not be folded but damn, my hay bales are straight.

So I lugged the bedding into the barn and noticed that Gabby had rolled in something offensive so I took a few minutes to wipe her down. Then I noticed that Oscar had a snarled up forelock. I have to go on a burdock search. He must be catching the burdock near the fenceline.

Speaking of Oz, I took a photo this morning but the light wasn't good. Tried again tonight to get a good photo but discovered my horse has a giant ball of burdock in his head. Not attractive. Beep looks good though, thanks to her thorough brushing last night. Anyway, here's a photo of the two of them this morning, waiting for some hay to fall over the fence. Note: Oscar did not like my coffee which I set on the fence post to take the photo.

He turned his nose up at it. Beep didn't care; she was busy nibbling on the grass next to the fence. The two of them kind of remind me of when my dog Gabby gets together with my brother's dog, Bekett. The two dogs have opposite shapes but similar coloring. Beep has the best little white spot on her right shoulder. You can see it in the photo.

Now I'm in for the night, having some wine and soup and writing about my farm. I love this place. It'll take dynamite or bankruptcy to get me out of here. I think I have an afterwork function tomorrow and another on Friday which is annoying. I'll have to try and ride Oscar in the morning tomorrow and see how that goes.

Tally ho for now,
b

....and then there were horses

2007-09-30T18:22:00.000-05:00

And there they are: Little Red (aka "Beep") and her new "companion" (very Jackie O don'tcha know) Oscar Rudolph. Today was monumental. Two horses showed up at La Bella Vita!That's cause to celebrate and don't any of you worry; I'm celebrating now with a my favorite bottle of Cabernet and some Sicilian olives. Everyone, raise your glass!! Tink!

What a day. I woke up at 5:30 and listened to public radio for an hour. I was running through my mind all the things that I needed to do before 9 am. I was supposed to leave for the (now) old barn at 9 to load up Sir Oscar but before that I had to string up the temporary fence to block off the newly seeded pasture. All went swimmingly. I got the fence in then got the call from Cathy to say that the pony loaded fine. Then Keith called and said he was on the beltline. I was ready: completely caffeinated and sitting on "start." I hopped in the car and got to the (now) old barn and got Oz out of his pen. He grazed for about 5 minutes in the yard before the trailer pulled in. Oscar is an easy-to-load horse but when the trailer door dropped and Beep neighed that sexy pony "hi" he waltzed in. Sucker.

We pulled into La Bella Vita at 10am sharp. I walked Oz off first. He looked around and gave an excited kick. If I read him correctly (and I belive I did) his kick said "hot dog, REAL GRASS...!.. now where's the chick that was in the trailer?"

So then I brought out Lil Red. They did a two second sniff and went trotting up the hill together. Oscar bucked the whole way, hind legs about 5' high and happier than a dog with a stolen hamburger. They walked about all morning, with me checking on them every half hour.

In between, I was working on other chores with Joe. The stall guys were working hard and so were me and Joe. Can't remember exactly all that I did but I know I didn't stop until 30 minutes ago!

Here is what the stall's looked like going in.
In case you are wondering, that's a pig feeder
on the right side of the stall partition. Joe

had to get that thing out with the skid loader. It was heavy!
Here's a photo of Joe taking the pig feeder to the "pit" which is the farm version of a "dump" for you city folk.

As it was going down the road the artiste in me was thinking "is there anything I could DO with that thing?"
I had to admit to coming up empty handed but I'm sure the image of the pig feeder will haunt the artiste reaches of my mind at some point and I'll wish I'd of saved it.

Oh well. Even in its demise it became part of a nice photograph of a skid loader heading east on Muller Road, into the afternoon light with a pig feeder in the bucket.

So the horses are in their barn eating hay. The light is gone and I'm starting to fade too. I heard the Packers won today. I'm so out of the regular world but I'm glad to hear my old team won.

I'm not sure what to do now. Take a shower comes to mind. I have grass seed in my shoes, my hair is a mess and I probably smell like a horse.

Ahhhh. La bella vita.
ciao ,
b

One Hundred Forty Bales of Hay on the Wall....

2007-09-25T19:05:00.000-05:00

ear.

So we're getting down to the wire; much to do before the horses come but it's all falling into place nicely. That first photo is what 150 bales of hay look like, sitting on my road next to the barn.

I kicked off today with another school presentation (no photo this time) at the same school as last week. That went well and then I went to Whole Foods to get some cool stuff that you can't get in the country. I don't shop at Whole Foods unless there is something there I really want (in this case it was Meyer's counter surface cleaner, geranium scent). It's kind of fun to walk through the store and go right by the $8 tub of salsa. There must be enormous margins on salsa. Perhaps our team ought to get into the salsa business? That's one way to fund the operations.

I left Whole Foods intact but nearly got schmeared by an elderly lady who decided to make a slow, left u-turn without looking. Seeing as she was to the right of me this posed a problem but nothing a long blast of the horn couldn't fix. No harm done and on I went--to the book store. I had a few minutes to kill before a meeting but found myself surrounded by absent professor types. Bearded men with a glazed look about them. One had his long legs sticking out into the aisle and it's a small store so I had to step over his legs to browse the magazine section. It just so happened that his gangly legs were in the home magazine section and I grew annoyed at having to step around his legs. I love bookstores but officially crossed that one off my list.

Confidential to Barabara: I browsed the Bungalow magazine and saw the ad for Canmore Cottage! I immediately thought of our thanksgiving dinner in the Mayflower pub, the year my life changed for the better. Ahhh, such fond memories! I'll miss that place.

Speaking of missing places, I drove by Hoboken Hostel today. The lawn wasn't mowed and the gardens needed tending. I was sad for that, but am very content at La Bella Vita.

I got back to the farm at 1 and found Joe and we hatched a plan to get fetch the trailer of hay. First I helped him change a tire on his tractor. He's got one of those 30# rivet guns you see the race car drivers use so that was cool to watch.

I knew the fence materials for my arena were to be delivered today so we waited until that truck arrived. The semi showed up and the guy had no way to lower the pallet to the ground. It was 400# of fence material so Joe revved up the tractor, I hitched a ride and we met the trailer down at the arena and got it unloaded. Then it was on to the Weisensell farm for hay. That went smoothly; Joe and I talked in the truck on the way. He was telling me about a cow he had that could produce 100# of milk/day. That's really good for a cow.

So we hitched up the hay wagon and drove it home. We both kept an eye out the window, hoping the clouds would hold off and the trailer would stay hitched. It had been raining off and on all day and we lucked out. We got the tractor into the barn with Cassie's help then those two had to leave for a family dinner function. That left me and 150 bales of hay--but it was dry at least.

Here is what 150 bales looks like from atop the bales, looking out the barn across the street.

I went at it and got the trailer unloaded and the hay stacked in under 2 hours. It was hard work and I swear some of those bales weighed 70#. I took a few monkey bar swings on the cross bar of the trailer. My shoulder did not like that, but it was too hard to resist a nice landing in the hay.

I was going to ride Oscar but was running out of steam so I opted to call it a day. I sat on the last hay bale and took a photo of the stacked hay.

Here are my feet, atop the tired and huddled masses of hay that I'd just stacked. It smelled good in the barn, I'll say that much. This was very nice hay and from what I could tell, it looked like a mix of timothy, possibly orchard grass, alfafa and maybe some other seed. It was something the Trelay seed company mixed up especially for horses. Will have to check with Sara on that.

And now I think I must take a shower. I'm off to Vegas for a few days for work and I'm not happy to leave the farm. I love it here and wish all of you were here to see it!
til soon,
becx

Barbara's Pony

2007-09-22T07:25:00.000-05:00

One thing one does with a pony is take more photos of the pony! Let's hear it for digital cameras!!

Here's a photo of Little Red, now known as "Babara's Pony" or "Beep" (BP) for short.
She didn't want to get caught which is classic pony behavior so she'd walk 5' away, stop, turn, and look at you.

And Beep's baby, Rosie, was doing exactly what
the momma was doing. Here's Rosie in her version of the run and look:

You'll note that Rosie is looking back to see if anyone is still following her. We were.

I took Beep out side to trot her around. Cathy walked her a bit first and Cathy has the biggest heart of anyone I know. It's going to be hard for her to part with Little Red and she got a little teary about it. But she is keeping Rosie who is the spitting image of Red.

Here Cathy is leading Red with Rosie following.
Their hooves are sooooo cute and little!

If anyone reading has a nice, smaller horse to give away, let me know. Cathy bought her daughter a horse that turned out to have Cushings disease (fatal). The guy she bought it from knew the horse had the disease and sold it anyway and refuses to come good on it.

THere is a special place in hell for horsemen like the guy who'd knowingly profit off of a dying horse.

Well, on a happier note, Beep will have a good home here. The one thing she's not fond of doing is cantering. Perhaps she'll be on the "Sir Oscar Walk-Trot-and-Runforyourlife" exercise plan?

Stay tuned for that episode: And then there were horses...
ciao,
becx

Pony and Pasture Grass (and book club)

2007-09-21T07:22:00.000-05:00

This was an unusual day, even by my standards. I started by giving a school presentation on cycling to White Horse Middle School. They have an annual ride around the lake and I've presented now for 3 years. I'm in that photo, somewhere. The kids were great and every year more and more kids that I talk to know about road biking or have a parent that rides. A good sign.

After that I headed to Monticello to see about a pony for Barbara. She's just as adorable as her photos and here's one of the pony and her current owner, Cathy. I couldn't stop myself and wrote out a deposit and now I get to work on getting Little Red here.

That's easy enough; Keith (the horse hauler) will fetch the little one and get Oscar on his way here. That way the two of them will have a chance to meet in the trailer before they get plopped in a pasture together. Eta on that: October 2.

I had to stop at the grocery on the way home as it was my turn to host book club. I got ample amounts of wine, exotic olives, crackers, cheese and such then scooted home. As usual, Joe and now his brother in law, Cassie, were in the pasture. Cassie had a chain saw and Joe was in the big tractor tilling up the soil more. in his words: Every time I do that I grow a new crop of rocks!"

He sent me to C&D Feed Supply in Columbus for a pasture grass mix. It's a groovy little store, family owned and you can buy chicken feed, bird seed, horse food, grass seed and they will mix it all up for you right there. I got my timothy, orchard grass, alfalfa and something else mix and skeedaddled home.

My first task was to pick out the big rocks that had turned up. That's good for your hamstrings, all that bending and stooping. Got that done and then got to use a seed spreader to get the seed down. After that I dragged it with a harrow behind an ATV. Whooee that was fun. I rode Mitzi's ATV which is "modifield for a lady." Well, this lady was tearing it up and dragging with zest. ATVs are way more fun than a Gator because they have speed!

Here's a photo of how it looked; newly tilled and seeded yard and lower pasture.

So at 5:15 I had to stop the farm chore business and get things organized for my book club. I'd been cooking minestrone all afternoon so got the house reasonably clean and table set and then....nothing. Six o'clock came and went, then 7 and I started to wonder where the ladies were. Turns out that 4 had decided to drive together and they waited for one to show up who never did, then they got lost and didn't have my number but finally showed up. The last one also got lost but she started out heading to Verona (wrong way on 151!). We had read "Desperate Characters" and had a fine ole discussion.

So now it's time to go to work....talk to you soon!
becx

Grass Seed & Shorter days

2007-09-19T20:20:00.000-05:00

I didn't get a photo for this posting but picture this: I arrive home (by bike) and pull into the yard and there's a sprinkler running on the newly seeded yard. Guess who? If you didn't answer "Joe" you need to go way back to the beginning of the blog and get ed-u-ma-cated.

The yard is looking good. We seeded it last night with a mixture of rye and timothy and other yard type seed. The frost free pump is working just fine, and the rye grass should sprout in no time. I'll get a photo of that for ya...nothing better than grass growing. Seriously! All paper pushers need to put some seeds in a pot on your kitchen windowsill and remember what the cycle of life is about. It's gratifying, I tell you. And heck, the farmers have known it for a loooooong time. No wonder they know the value of the city life v. the country life. Smart people, those farmers. They can see things from different perspectives which is a skill that more humans could use. That and heaps of patience and I'm working on the latter.

Anyway, by the time I moved the sprinkler over the last section of yard it was going on 7:30 and it was dark already. that makes me sad but I try to remember that come Dec. 21 the days get longer again.

I'm 'tarred' and need to read a book before book club tomorrow. I'm hosting. I've been in this book club for 10 years and it's a great excuse to drink wine (like I need one) and talk about books-my favorite thing. I LOVE books. Our bookthis month is: "Desperate Characters." If I remember I'll write a book report.
ciao for now,
becx

Fambly Farm Weekend

2007-09-17T06:16:00.001-05:00

Holly Molly, what a weekend. Much silliness, some good eats and a few highlights. Best told in photos.

The weekend started about 9am Saturday when I heard Joe's tractor start up. I went across the street to find out what we were doing that day (when I hear the tractor it usually means time to work). I found Joe and his grandson, Joe, in the wood bin. we hatched a plan to load a flat bed trailer full of wood into my basement. It was a perfect day for loading wood into a basement and Little Joe was the perfect sidekick. Here he is with his grandpa riding the big tractor.

Joe and Little Joe were a good team; they loaded the wood, I unloaded and stacked it. My stacking needs some work. The pile started out ok, then got narrower which I imagine is a common rookie wood stacking issue. Will work on that. Somewhere in the middle of all this Dad, Doris and Jimmy showed up. Doris and Jimmy live in Arbor Vitae and Jimmy is about to turn 16. He's a hip kid from the northwoods and he had on a belt to die for. I wanted to trade him any cd in my collection for his belt but never got around to that barter. They were on their way to a family reunion so Dad got dropped off and we got to loading more wood.

Loading wood is fun. It'd be more fun without a torn rotator cuff but so be it. I knew I'd be sore but the few logs that whapped me in the shins were hurting more than my shoulder.

After that chore Dad and I did some home maintenance projects including starting up the wood stove. Dad taught me how to start the fire and regulate it and we got it going pretty good. It was *weird* having it be warm in the house. I was comfy and not freezing for the first time in years. My old furnace (the one that finally quit last fall) in Madison never worked well and the house always had a chill. Not now; the wood fire was cozy perfect.

Sunday was another pretty day. Somewhere in the middle of the second cup of coffee the old kitchen light started flickering so Dad got after that one. He found the problem; some old cloth covered wire. He took out the light and we went to town to get a new one. The True Value in Columbus is the bomb! The staff actually know what they are talking about and are polite. What a concept. Really makes you realize how brainwashed one can get living in the city and having only Home Depot at your disposal. Long live family harware stores!!

Anyway, we got a new light (it's only temporary, Barbara!!) only I don't have a drill yet (doh) so we couldn't install the new one. Note to self: must get drill.

We had to put the light aside but that was fine as Sara, Ben, Mike, Brian, Erika, Simon, Doris, Jimmy and my good friends from Madison, Julie and Bill arrived. My goal for the day was to get the barn cleared out and thanks to Julie and Bill, the upper deck was ship shape! They swept up tons of guano. Bill named the climbing wall "Mt. Guano" and I'll have to have little sister Neen give the wall a rating. Ben was helping out too by driving the wheelbarrow full of bat poo.

In between the barn sweeping was the chimney check. Dad and Joe had the chimney open to check for creosote and wanted to show me how to do it. Here's me getting some instruction from Joe.

Turns out I have an insulated chimney and it was sparkly clean--no creosote. Since we had the ladder out I got up to the second floor and knocked a bird's nest out of the chimney. I couldn't quite reach back behind the chimney so Dad went up the ladder and finished off the nest.

I went back to the barn to see how Julie and Bill were doing and it was impressive. They had cleaned out the main floor and it looked great. Here they are, in full sweep mode. Julie used to race for Dairyland and retired two years ago but she's as fit as ever. After racing Julie returned to her first hobby, horses. I followed not long after and between the issues our two horses had, we've been good support for one another.

I went back twice last night to enjoy the clean barn. Thanks you two! That's a huge help and now I can get hay in there!

So while they were sweeping, the kids were discovering the chickens. Ben got one egg, Little Joe got 2 on Saturday.
I have added more chairs to the chicken coop viewing area for those wishing to enjoy the chicken show.

Here's my nephew, Ben,
taking a break from the barn clean up to watch the chicken show.

Ben and Dad had just planted a tree. Dad brought a red pine from up north for me. They planted it in a spot where I could see it out the window, not far from the peach tree.

And just as the day was getting on, I got my other nephew, Simon, out on the yard master. He got to wear the ear protection and steer. Like most little kids, they like a ride on anything mechanical.

Doris and Jimmy wanted to bring me a chicken for a present but couldn't find one. Turns out Doris loves chickens too so they got the next best thing; a fine looking roasting chicken. It got roasted last night and Brian, Erika, Simon and I had a great dinner, thank you very much!

So that was the big weekend on the farm. Much learned and more to come.

til soon,
becx

Meet the Neighbors

2007-09-14T05:48:00.001-05:00

I was out walking Wednesday morning with Gabby and we met our neighbors. Not sure what their names are but I'm guessing it's something female/bovine-ish.

They were polite and didn't say much when we walked by. The one on the left kind of looks like my old bike.

It's been a quiet week on the farm except for the mosquitoes which refuse to die already. I was out checking fence posts last night and was wishing for any wind at all to blow the buggers away. I can't even ride my horse outside lest I offer him up to the insect world as sacrifice.

S'all for now...more photos soon as the arena takes shape.

A Peach! (and a Pony)

2007-09-13T06:11:00.000-05:00

Barn entrance...before cleanup

and after (right)

Before I tell you about the peach I have to say that this is the first post to the blog FROM THE FARM!! Yesterday was the day...Mr. Satellite guy was here for 3 hours installing the internet and I'll be gobsmacked, but it works! It's a little slow but faster than dialup. And in the first hour of having internet I bought a pony. More on that later...

Back to the peach. ..I was mowing the lawn last weekend and happened to see two peaches on the ground. Here's the thoughts that ran through my head:
"That's a peach."
"What's a peach doing 100' from the house?"
"Did I throw bad peaches out in the middle of the night?"
"Did I have any peaches recently?"
etc....

I never stopped the mower to investigate further but on my next pass I saw my friend Scott standing near a tree, eating a peach. I stopped the mower and it dawned on me that the little tree I had been mowing around was a peach tree. Duhhhhhh. Scott handed me the peach and said it was pretty good. I took a bite and it was excellent! So who knew....La Bella Vita Peaches.
I'm going to have to get a label designed for a crate so when I take fresh eggs or peaches to my friends it'll be properly branded.

Scott has done two tours of duty on the farm now; both involved significant clean up. It's the only way I get to see my friends....they need to come to the farm and while there is usually work involved, I'll feed you! So two weeks ago, with a shovel and a lot of scraping and teamwork, we cleared out the weeds from the horse entrance to the barn. The photos above show the difference.

Now the horses can find their way in to the barn. And, now that the entrance is all cleaned out I'm going to need some flower boxes. I'll put that on the winter list.

The other news is the barn pump was installed last week. I left my camera up north at my Dad's house so didn't get a photo of the gigantic machine they brought in to dig a trench. Why they had to bring a back hoe that was probably used to clear Ground Zero to dig a 12" trench is beyond me. They dug a 150' trench and in the process, dug up a 150x80' swath of the yard.
Joe has a plan to put the yard back in order..more on that in the next entry (stay tuned for "Arena!"). The entire area that was the pond is now just dirt. Looks bad but nothing a little grass seed and tilling can't fix.

And the pony....so I was looking for a pasture mate for Oscar and I posted an ad on Craig's list. A woman called who had a pony named Little Red. For lots of reasons, I needed to get this pony. Barbara loves ponies, I had a horse named Big Red, and well, this pony is the cutest little thing ever. Who doesn't need a pony??

So little red will be arriving the same day as Oscar. That'll be a blog entry for sure!

Time to get the dog out...cheerios for now.
becx

Dry Ground and a new pasture

2007-08-30T10:08:00.000-05:00

The pond receded and the work has begun on the pasture. Thanks to neighbor Joe, the main horse pasture is cleared and the fences are on order. Last Sunday Joe came over with his bobcat and we ripped the old fence. It was a good workout, hoisting metal poles and rolling up wire. Joe showed me how to use a chainsaw and I went at all the little dogwood trees growing in the pasture. After we got the fence out, Joe cut down an overgrown dogwood tree that was growing near the barn. That'll make some nice firewood! That reminds me, I need Dad to come down adn show me how to operate the wood burning furnace.

There is lots to do before the cold sets in. I need to winterize the chicken coop, and do some work on the barn windows to cut down on drafts. Luckily, the barn is well situated out of the wind and the 2' thick stone walls will keep the animals warm and dry.

Next weekend is barn clean up day. Anyone reading is cordially invited to come out and help sweep out the barn. If you have a sledgehammer, bring that as I want to take out the old whelping box. I think it was used for pigs?? Whatever it was for, I don't need it now. We can dismantle that and have a big ole bonfire with the wood.

See you then,
becx

Welcome to Lake La Bella!

2007-08-23T13:14:00.000-05:00

We weren't kidding about the rain. I got home last night and Lisa got out a flashlight to show me the new "koi pond." Sure 'nuf...there was a sizable pond in the area formerly inhabited by the yard. Ever willing to roll with whatever life throws at us, Lisa got in the spirit of the new waterfront property and donned a swim cap. We didn't have any koi so we got the rubber duckies from the bathtub. Just as we were taking this photo Gabby came blazing through the pond. She never slowed down, just ran straight through.
So before I say another word, I have to hand out some "Most Amazing Friends/Family" awards. First, to Lisa, for bringing the Trek Truck over to the old house last night. She called me as I was having yet another meltdown over th backsplash and then just went into action. She called the trek store and borrowed their box truck and drove straight into Madison with it, at 8pm!! We loaded the rest of my junk into it, all during a steady downpour. As I was handing boxes up to her I was thining "oh my gosh, she's amazing." And she is.

I also want to thank my most wonderful brother, for helping me not once, but twice (or was it three times) loading up truck/car/bigger truck and driving up to the farm to unload. He didn't complain, just pitched in every time I needed it. Thanks, Brian. You're the best big brother anyone could ever have.

Last but not least, an enormous thanks to my friend Cheri Lewis for helping me out with loading, moving, cleaning the old place. She solved one problem after another and didn't listen to me when I said "everything is out of the closet/basement/bedroom." GOod thing or I'd be missing a bunch of sheets, towels and my ski waxing bench. Cheri, I owe you--and thanks.

The house sold, I signed the paper work an hour ago and am celebrating by making a blog entry. I am feeling exceptionally grateful and lucky to have the friends and family I do.

Once the euphoria wears off I can get to unloading the truck. Until then, here is a photo of the last bit of my move; all my books and dishes are in this truck. I don't know why I need 4 sets of dishes....and don't any of you answer that.

Rain Rain & More Rain

2007-08-19T13:36:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the lack of updates, kids. It's been Trek World this week so we've been keeping odd hours. More news as we resurface from the 14+ hour days.

In a quick recap of farm goings on, last Friday I had to get a hawk out of the chicken run. Thanks to Gracie barking at the hawk and me waving at him, we got him to fly out of the hole in the net he used to come in. We decided that the chickens didn' need that part of the run anyway so it's off limits for the chickies.

The girls (hens) are going great; producing lots of eggs. As far as I can tell, they LOVE grapes, and LOVE cantaloupe and love tomatoes. They will eat grapes over mangoes and don't seem to like green pepper. So much for chickens eating "anything."

During the last week it was hard to catch any down time so every morning, I took some fruit to the chickens, sat on the chicken observation bench with my cup of coffee and watched the "Chicken Show." I love the chickens. I don't have a favorite per se, but I do like Marsala and Pot Pie, the oranged chickens. The others tend to pick on Marsala and give her sharp pecks with their beaks at the feeding thingie so I started giving her her own pile of chicken feed so she can eat in peace.

Lisa and I have a contest going to see who can pick up one of the chickens first. I'm as far as getting them to eat out of the grain scoop as I lean in to drop the feed in the feeder.

So I mentioned rain; it's been raining for 2 days straight, on top of the 3 days of rain last week. The grass is starting to look more like Stella D'Oro day lillies. I'm going to need a tractor to mow it. And more rain to come.

Well, that's the news this week from La Bella Vita.
becx

Pics of Week One

2007-08-09T16:53:00.000-05:00

Ah yes...life on the prettiest farm in the world! So here are a few photos to chronicle the occasion.

Lisa ran up the sidewalk and hopped up and down.

Then it was my turn. I opened up the door and we had to take a photo of that seeing as it's exciting to open the door to the farm!!!

Here's me waving, like a big dork.

So then it was on to the really really exciting part; turning the key!!!

As you can see it was a nice day. A bit on the steamy side but
what would moving be if it wasn't really hot or really snowy?

Lisa managed to get her air mattress blown up and the dogs thought that was a good thing. Here she is, just before we turned out the lights. I enjoyed a pet free evening seeing as the furry friends all went for the low lying mattress.

And we had our first visitors! Lisa's parents, Erica and Manny drove up from St. Louis and brought a lovely fruit basket and about 5 bottles of wine which was happily consumed. Here's Erica, modeling one of the many hats on display in the living room wall.

And here is a great shot of Lisa with her parents. They had a nice time, even though their greeting was their daughter trying to make Gabby drop a skunk as they pulled in.

During the move we left the door open for oh, a few hours and a few hundred flies and moths dropped in.

Lisa's solution was fly strips. It looked like a party!!

And so it's been. We're moving on to the fences, sewer repair, and water-in-the barn phase!! stay tuned for that episode.
ciao,
becx

First Week at the Farm: SKUNK!

2007-08-07T10:29:00.000-05:00

Howdy friends and family. Well, we moved last Tuesday (what day is today??) and the adventure began. I picked up a big Ryder truck and loaded up my stuff. Lisa and her mighty funny friend Sean helped me load and then we drove to Lisa's to grab her big items. I won't spend much time talking about "killer" --the California King mattress of Lisa's that we tacoed in an attempt to get it out of the apartment, on the truck and then reverse it at the farm. Sean couldn't stay to help us unload so we did that part ourselves. By 4pm we were giddy and about falling down. We had a couple close calls unloading the mattress and the iron fireplace, and the only casualty was a toad that got flattened when we dropped the mattress.

Wednesday I had the farm closing and then had to go to work. Lisa had the day off and when I got home on Wednesday night she had totally set up the living room and it was beautiful. She's got a great eye and by combining her furniture and mine, she had set up a lovely room. She also set up my bed so I'd have a place to sleep so night 1 was upstairs, in the air conditioned room with both dogs, Lisa on her air mattress.

We woke up all giddy and ran around outside with the dogs and must of said 500 times "it's beautiful!!" And it is. This is the prettiest farm in the whole world, and I'm not kidding. La Bella Vita is absolutely stunning.

The rest of the week was entertaining as we were discovering even more cool stuff about the farm. On Saturday I took Lisa's truck back to Hoboken to pick up some things. Brian helped me load (thanks brother!) along with my neighbor Cheri. I went back on Sunday for another load and I'm still not done! I wish I'd of had time for a rummage sale.

By thursday we were feeling a little more at home and started exploring the farm more. Lisa discovered a climbing wall and basketball hoop in the upstairs of the barn! Lisa's parents came on Sunday from St. Louis to check out the new place. They got the treat of a lifetime when they pulled in the driveway and saw Lisa trying to get Gabby to let go of a skunk. We'd seen the skunk earlier that morning and I was thinking it'd go off and hide and if it did, it didn't hide very well.

I was in Madison at the time, getting more stuff from the house when I got that phone call. "We have a crisis" I think was the line Lisa used. I was on the way home and got there in time to see Gabby getting soaped to the gills. Lisa used her very finest herbal Aveda on Gabs so she didn't smell too bad! She had a feint odor of skunk, but we are very lucky that the skunk was not fully grown so it probably only had half skunk power.

The other uber cool thing is Lisa's chickens are laying eggs! Someone gave Lisa a book on chickens so I've been reading that and we've been discovering how to care for them. Lisa keeps checking for eggs and sometimes when she walks in the chicken is in the next box, looking out. In Lisa's words it's like walking in on someone in the bathroom. She walked in on Dumpling trying to lay an egg and said "oops, I'll come back later!" And sure enough, Dumpling laid an egg.

Speaking of the chickens, Pot Pie is the noisiest one. She likes to say hi really loud and if Gracie runs at them she protests the loudest. Marsala and Cacciatore are kind of quiet. We're trying to figure out which chicken is laying which eggs. According to the book you can tell this by the color of the chicken's ear--it matches the egg. I haven't been able to see which chicken has spots on its ear but I'm guessing it's Pot Pie.

So Lisa cooked up a scramble with the eggs on Sunday--and it was delish!

And we don't have internet...so can'[t upload any photos. We're ordering up satellite internet so look for photos soon!

Stay tuned for th next installment of Life on the Farm: Decorating with Fly Strips.

So off the back

2007-07-31T21:08:00.000-05:00

Wow. It has been a while since we posted and so much is happening and has happened. I am so exhausted right now telling it...but cut to the chase....we have a million little things all happening at once. Becx closes on the house in the morning. We moved a ton of stuff in already and are just wiped out tonight. We sweated buckets and squished the world's biggest, squarest, pain-in-the-$%# bed into a round hole. I imagine moving this bed is similar to what the childbirth experience must be like. I even used the same breathing techniques while performing some Circ du Soleil moves getting it down and out and in the house.

Well night yall. Farmgals signing out till mornin'.

-L (lucy...ask becx/ricky)

A Horse is a Horse...of course.

2007-07-21T22:42:00.000-05:00

Well I met Kentucky yesterday. I was working with her in the round pen and I could tell she just needs a good home to get her going. Standing there, I knew we could do this together. She had a lot of fire and just needed a calming place with consistency and trust. She was hot headed and independent but still had this loving, sweet, put her head on your chest side to her. She is a great gal with so much potential.

However, I need to really think on this one. Is she the the horse for me...and am I the gal for her? Can she make this transition after all that she has been through until now? She has alot of issues after being isolated for 2 years without any other horses and obviously no farrier or vet care. She is healthy/sound but will really require alot of attention both physically and mentally. She has no paper trail to her and a large scar on her leg. She is an amazing saddlebred that just fell out the sky. There is no information about her...and I get a sense that Kentucky is just fine with that...just being Kentucky.

Born to be Wild....

2007-07-18T18:35:00.000-05:00

Ahhhhhh, I love Madison. I took this picture on the way to work this morning. Beautiful!

At lunch, I rode to the farm to figure out how long it would take us to commute. It was a perfect ride. Just flat enough to be fast and a few kicker rollers to add a little spice. It was probably my favorite ride this year. There are just some great long rides in that area. The empty roads surrounded by pungent flowers and old rustic farms seem to go on forever. -L

My Project One

2007-07-18T05:54:00.001-05:00

So I tell Barbara I'm going to get a Project 1 Madone and asked what sort of design I should get. I knew this would be a good exercise for her incredibly brilliant, creative brain and sure enough.

Of the several designs, I think I like this one the best because it captures the essence of my new farm life, my Sicilian heritage, and the fact that I love to eat.

Kewl!! I'd be the only human in the world with a chicken bike!
I'm going to send this design to Bill today, the guy who does the work on the Project one bikes. Stand by for that reaction.

I do think this would make a lovely bike. Quite the conversation piece too!!

You can love your pet....just not looooooove your pet!

2007-07-15T21:23:00.000-05:00

After much anticipation, we decided to see how the girls were going to work out together. After sniffing and snarling, Beck is the Alpha! hahaha

Seriously though, Gabby and Gracie went AT IT! I thought they were going to kill each other. Beck had to calm me as I watched in total fear while the dogs tear at each other like two Grizzly bears during mating season (too much animal Planet). She was like Ceasar Whatever (the dog guy) and knew exactly what to do. In seconds, it was all over. Surprisingly, Gracie being the beeatch alpha that she normally is, rolled over and it was settled. Gabby is the new leader of La Belle Vita. Hooray!

A pretty view

2007-07-12T20:43:00.000-05:00

So while this photo isn't really of La Bella Vita, it's a lovely scene I rode by tonight on my way over to see Oscar. There's a small herd of cattle in the deepest grass ever and tonight the horses were hanging around the cattle as well. Yesterday when I went by the cattle were closer to the road and I was kicking myself for not having my camera. Something about the July light at 5pm, over a Wisconsin field of grass with cattle...so getting a photo was the sole purpose of bringing my bike to work today. I wanted this photo! And it's not good enough. Will try again tomorrow seeing as I left my car at work so I have to ride in. Tomorrow's ride will be capturing the morning light scenes. I prefer twilight, but we'll see what I can do in the a.m.

Here's another photo I took of the corn.

And this photo is for Lady Barbara. I call it "Still Life With Cadeaux"
Kate and I artfully (I think) arranged the very fun goodies that came in the box from L.B. and I couldn't help myself and added the beer bottle. FYI, the New Glarus "Totally Naked" beer is really good! I can only drink beer when it's hot and I've ridden about 50 miles, at least. Anyway, I'd done that and opened all the the pressies and couldn't help but play with them. Don't you love the little cow at the right? It's a lighter!! See here as Kate demonstrates:
We were practicing with the lighter. I can't wait to whip that lighter out at a party. "Oh, you need a light? Allow me!"

Whew...it was a long day. I should have noted that the reason I had time to take photos of cattle and corn this afternoon is because I got lost on my way to the barn. There's a lot of roads between Waterloo and Bristol that do not "go through." It took me an hour to ride to the barn and then another hour to ride home (after I'd worked Ozman).

Now I'm drinking some lovely Sicilian wine--couldn't be happier.
love and sweet dreams to all,
becx

An Inspection, sort of!

2007-07-04T05:45:00.000-05:00

Welcome to La Bella Vita! Last weekend Lisa and I got to go explore the farm for a couple of hours. It was supposed to be with the home inspector but due to a glitch in scheduling, he didn't show up.

But we did! Ronda (realtor) brought us sandwiches so we spent some time looking around. Lisa had only had about 20 minutes in the place the first time so this day she was able to take a longer look.

Here she is modeling a pot at the sink, with dog Gracie standing by. It should be noted that Lisa and I both got lost on our way to the farm. Not only did we take a wrong turn, we took exactly the same wrong turn. She called me and I had already figured out how to get to our road and was able to steer her in as well, her being about 5 minutes behind me. Great minds think alike!

We spent a lot of time in the barn talking about how we'd fix up the stalls and the paddock area. The owner happened to be there when we arrived and he gave us some good info on the place. Turns out the one paddock gets standing water during spring rains so we'll factor that in to our paddock plan. That paddock will need a gate!

Here's a photo of what we're calling the "Tack Room." It's a porch off the north end of the house, next to our "library/tv room." It's long and narrow and very cozy for a single bed and a table and our show tack. It'd be perfect to put old photos on the walls and cowgirl art!

This photo is of the living room, looking toward the kitchen and the stairs going up to the bedrooms. It's so filled with indirect light--I just love it. The trees provide just enough light so it's not dark, but they shade the house beautifully.

This is my room; formerly the owners sewing room. It's long and has windows on three sides and I love the industrial look. The walls were redrywalled but never quite finished off so the room is just waiting to be finished. The windows facing the front of the house are square and low. You can just see one behind the work table. The side windows are normal, double hung windows. The floor is the wide plank type--really rustic. I felt at home immediately, I think because this room reminds me of my room in the house I grew up in. There were trees all around that room too and I faced the front yard. My view is of the farm across the street which has a great barn and lovely fields.

Here's Lisa's room. It's on the other end of the house but our windows are right across from each other. We decided we'd run a can and a string between them.

Her view of of the farm fields down the hill, just georgeous.
My camera was acking up so I wasn't able to get a photo of the pantry. It's awesome! Even has one of those flour bins and seeing how I like to bake...it'll be filled with flour for my biscotti, horse treats and Gabby's chicken cookies!!

The kitchen will need some reconfiguring as I'll miss my perfect work space in my galley at the Hoboken Hostel. I had everything I needed close by. We'll figure out a game plan for the farm, with Lady B's expert guidance. First up though is the fences for our horses.

No word yet on Lisa's Saddlebred mare, Kentucky. Keeping my fingers crossed for her. Oscar would love a girlfriend!
s'all for now...
r

dananananana inpector gadget....

2007-06-29T14:12:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is the inspection. She definately got the farm but you "dont want to count your chickens before they are hatched!" hahaha

Cross your fingers AGAIN!

Old BeckDonald had a farm...

2007-06-27T13:05:00.000-05:00

We filled out paperwork to adopt a companion for Oscar. Its a mare that we think he will be hot to trot for. Her name is Kentucky and can be checked out at http://www.equineadoption.com/order.htm

Cross your fingers.

The more the merrier!

2007-06-26T22:05:00.000-05:00

Lady B you are hilarious! I cant wait to meet you. We might need you to come out and look over us while we get the hang of things! Dummies for chickens, mowing large park size lawns for dummies, fixing 1 armed windmills for dummies, canning community garden plots that you bought too big for dummies, turning a pig farm into a horse farm for dummies, and not falling off the bottom step again for dummies.

Whadia think?

She got it!

2007-06-23T10:24:00.000-05:00

R got the farm!

Rebecca at her desk...

2007-06-22T15:21:00.000-05:00

Rebecca's hives turned into skaley skin folds. It's a little scarey. She is calling the realtor right now to find out what is happening...yikes. She better get an answer soon. Who knows what could happen from here.

And the winner is....

2007-06-22T15:11:00.000-05:00

Cross your fingers! Of course in the eleventh hour someone comes along to look at R's house. Luckily, R got her bid in early and we will find out at the end of the day if she got it. She has really bad hives and is eating cookies right now to self-medicate. I thought the mt bike ride would take her mind off of it. We need to know soon before she has a full blown anxiety attack. My hands are getting itchy. I hope hives are not contagious. :)

Are we having eggs for dinner AGAIN?

2007-06-22T06:40:00.000-05:00

Whooo hooo! This is the one. Rebecca put in the offer on the yellow house. She even asked to keep the chickens for me! They dont make a "Chickens for Dummies" book but they should. I have never had chickens of my own so I have to figure out pretty quick how to take care of them. Anyone have any suggestions...other than eating them?

How easily Hope is lost! and then found...

2007-06-21T14:29:00.000-05:00

Well we looked at a different property and fell in love with it at the door. Rebecca has some numbers to crunch but I have a hunch that she is going with the yellow farm. Currently it is unamed and could use some suggestions.

The yard is sooooo big we could have a bid ol' rodeo! And there is a cherry tree...and blackberries...and chickens...and enough asparagus to feed a small country.

blowing out birthday candles

2007-06-17T15:45:00.000-05:00

Lisa is looking for a place to dry off from the rain!

I am so excited to get back to farm life. I was a property manager at Wind's Reach Horse farm in Boulder, CO and have missed it every day since I left. After searching and dreaming for many years of getting back to a lifestyle that is hard, tireless and totally fulfilling all at the same time, Rebecca, off the cuff, mentions that she needed a partner in crime on a farm. I think the gods were watching because it was a total "groovin with the universe moment". I remember riding horses with her for the first time and I must have told her 10 times that I could not believe I was there. We even have the same size shoes! Not the horse...Rebecca. Total girl thing.

I guess if you dream about something enough, I mean REALLY dream about it every day...every birthday candle, every nickle fountain, every shooting star, it will EVENTUALLY, come true. Just hang tight.

Greaseball

2007-06-17T15:30:00.000-05:00

Gracie is em-BARKING on a new grassy yard.

Ozzie

2007-06-17T12:56:00.000-05:00

Oscar...you are going to have the best time! You will have your own yard to horse around in. Don't think for one minute that you are going to get out of bath time!