Farm Friday - A Day in the Life

Farm life is a lot of work and you have to want to do it, or you need alot of money, lots of time and lots of help.  As I also work full-time (from my home office) and my husband works out of town during the week, all of the farm chores fall on my shoulders.  It makes for a very busy life. 

I used to not be a morning person, but now I am both a morning person and an evening person.  I have to be bi-polar in order to get everything done.

The clock goes off early. Most mornings between  5:30 and 6:00 am.  The cats are waiting for breakfast.  Truman is usually waiting for his cat treats.

Not a breakfast eater, so typically go out to the barn to feed the horses next.  They usually hear me coming and great me with a neigh a nicker before I get to the barn.  It is about 400 yards from the house to the barn.

I wear these this time of year:

In the winter, I wear this which is about as industrial as it gets, but there is NOTHING warmer than this baby.............and I doubt there are any photographers around waiting to click my photo for the next issue of Vogue, maybe "Farmers Weekly"....

Mucking stalls is about as unglamourous as it gets but taking care of the animals is not work to me, and I only have three to care for, and no more!  I always do the stalls in the morning, getting the hard work done first thing.  But it does not take long.  My next farm project is setting up a compost pile, so that I am truly "green."  Hope to have it set up by the end of summer.  These are leaves but you get the idea.............

Horses are turned out most mornings unless it is really muddy or really raining.  They love their turn out and don't want to stay in. This time of year they are in at night and out during the day hours.

Right now there is so much lush grass that it can be very dangerous for horses, you have to watch them closely or they can founder, which is very painful and detrimental to horses. I worry a lot this time of year.

I go to work in my recruiting business from my home office.  It is enjoyable work, have some great clients and I can set my own hours, well, some of the time.   I've been doing this a long time and it is great to find something you enjoy doing that allows you to also have a life. 

Since I work from home by myself, most of the time, I make an effort to get out of the house.  So many days, I travel to I-81 for lunch.  A quick bite a Wendy's, I love their salads, helps break up my day.  Kinda boring I know, but it works for me.

I always ride at the end of the day, not sure why, but I'd rather get all my work done and then not worry about being somewhere at a certain time, although I do make a lot of calls at night for my work, but typically after 8 pm.  It is hard to find time to ride three horses in one day and work, and I don't ride every day, but I do try to keep at least one horse in very steady work.  Right now, Sega is the fit one and she is horse showing, so she gets the priority ride.  I also don't ride for long periods of time.  A 20 minute hack is all she needs.  April, the baby, also gets shorter rides as the attention spans in the young ones are limited.

A quick ride or two, and it is time for dinner.  For the horses.  Since the stalls are done, it is only a matter of haying, feeding and watering the beasts.

By 7:30 pm I am typically back at the house (earlier in the winter months) and the cats need feeding again.  (More treats for Truman).  This time of year, I sit out on the patio, read my Wall Street Journal, and enjoy what is left of the day.  My dinner comes after everyone else's!

If I have any energy left, I clean the house and sometimes I needlepoint. This is one of my many current projects:

I am usually in bed by 10 pm.  I try to read before I go to bed and have been trying to get through this for many months, but I can't keep my eyes open.  Still on chapter two....................

Can I add a few more hours to my day?


Ode to Diana

On the eve of the "big wedding" wanted to deliver an "ode to Diana" who surely must be watching the spectacle that became her some 30 years ago. I remember getting up in the wee hours of the morning to watch her step from the carriage in that huge dress that was "so Diana." 

It is hard to believe that it has been 30 years since then, I remember it so well.  Diana was not a country girl, but she adapted to that life early on, to please Charles I am sure.   The world will be watching tomorrow morning and my alarm clock is set like the rest of the world.

My how time flies.....................

Wellington & Company Equestrian Antiques

Finding good antiques has gotten so difficult, so I was thrilled to discover Wellington & Company last year at the Keswick Horse Show (in Virginia).  They have the best selection of equestrian antiques I have seen anywhere. Pricey, yes, but they have great stuff from jewlery to furniture to vintage signs. 

Check out their website here.  Below is just a sampling of what they have on their website and I am hoping they will return to Keswick in May.

Love this sign.

These chairs have a polo motif:

Wouldn't this be stunning in a bar at home?

These are Staffordshire:



They have a great collection of vintage Hermes jewelry:

This one reminds me of one of my own horses:

Enjoy your Wednesday!

The Agony and the Alfie

Some people have out of control children or one with ADHD.  I have Alfie.  There is much to love and he certainly has movie star looks, but my Alfie can be agony.  He has two speeds, good and bad.  We either win classes or we are last.  You either want to hug him or kill him.  There is just no in between with this guy.  That being said, I would not trade him for the world (except on certain days).

Alfie is the one horse I kept going all winter (without an indoor arena to ride in it is really hard to keep them going all winter). But like luck would have it, he got hurt in late January, right as we were getting ready to show.  And he was going so well.  But that is Alfie. 

Not certain what happened, but it is likely he was kicked although there are no marks on his leg where the swelling took place.  The good news is that the vet gave me the green light late last week to put Alfie back in work, albeit VERY SLOWLY.  That may not be good news after all.  He is just hard.

Anyway, Mr. Alfie is going to the spa (mane pulled, coat washed, fur clipped and mane and tail conditioned).  He will look again like the show horse that he is, and not the furry black horse covered in shavings that he became these past few months).

The good news is that I rode Alfie on Sunday for the first time since January.  Hoping that he will be back 100 percent by June.

We are hoping that Alfie is back in top form very soon!

Bowwow Cards

Many years ago I discovered Bowwow Cards.  As someone who thinks "snail mail" never went out of style, and who loves monogrammed stationary, Bowwow cards are fun and very 'horsey' for less formal occasions.  Am showing mostly horse cards but she also loves dogs.

And they are inexpensive.  This Baker blanket card is one of my favorites:

These are great for those post-holiday thank you notes:

They also make darling enclosure cards for gifts:

Here are some additional designs:

This makes writing fun!

Farm Friday

There was much excitement around the farm last Saturday when the rains finally stopped and the water came rushing in.  We had our own "mini tsumani" of sorts as the many inches of rain we received ran into the creek beds and overflowed, literally.

This photo was taken from the road in front of our house and the water to the right is our creek, to the left is water in a field.  There is not supposed to be any water there.  These photos were taken after the water had gone down significantly.

Thank goodness we do not use the field to the left for anything but growing hay.  It was covered.

You can see our barn off to the right.  The horses were in that day, of course.  To the right is our creek. 

Hubby is out trying to pull the sticks from the fence line.  That is our house in the background.

Our neighbor across the street had a lot of water, but none in the house, thank goodness. The house sits right in front of a creek next to an old mill.  

Around the corner is another part of the same creek,  This creek had greatly expanded and it was really overflowing.  It took the near-by chairs sitting on the bank. 

We were much luckier than our neighbors in North Carolina.  We had some trees down, no power for about a day and a half, but no real damage to speak of.  There was a twister about 30 minutes away that did a lot of damage.  Let's hope Mother Nature behaves herself for a while.

Thank You!

Thanks to everyone for following my new blog as I get it off the ground.  It has been so much fun and I love to hear the comments from everyone!  Please keep the comments and suggestions coming.

Buena Vista Beauties

A few weeks ago I went back to my hometown in North Carolina to visit my parents for their birthdays (they were born three weeks apart).  The area where they live is so beautiful and we love to walk around the neighborhoods and look at the lovely houses.

Here are some photos from our walk.  The yards are all perfect.  The flowers were blooming and everything was so green!  Enjoy!

This house sits on a corner and I am dying for someone to rehab this one.  It just needs some tender loving care, but think of the possibilities!

This is the house in which my best friend lived, one block from where I grew up.  Her mother still lives there.  It looks the exact same!

It was a cool day and it had rained alot but every yard was mowed, the tulips and azaleas were in full bloom.  Everyone was inside watching The Masters on television.