A beautiful day

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!

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

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....

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

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)

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

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

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

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)

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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.

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....

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

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!

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

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!

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