Gypsy Trails Sign and Round Pen Completed!

We are still working hard here. In fact, we are getting pretty worn out and are thinking we may need to take a break soon before we burn out.  Our latest outside projects include fixing one of the fences that Savannah and Bellarina did some damage to, fixing a broken water pump and finishing the round pen! Today was my first day using it, and I loved being able to play with Hanovi in there.

When I came inside, I was exhausted from the heat but glowing from joy.  All our hard work has led to this point, where I can actually work with the horses and learn more.  It was awesome!  My friend Julie made a sign for us, and we hung that tonight too.

I think I will smile every time I see this sign! It turned out so well!
After all our work tonight, I asked Nathan if he'd help me scoop.  He hates scooping, but he agreed.  I was walking behind him when I saw how he decided to scoop.

He cracks me up.  If there is a physically easier way to do something, he will find it!  I love being out with the horses at night because it is the only time of the day where it is not unbearably hot.  And I get to watch the sunset, which is an added bonus.  I love how Gypsy is captured in the sunbeam here.  So peaceful!

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Aric Visits Us for the Week

Aric and I share the same birthday, so we usually try our hardest to spend the day together.  Last year he took his week's vacation and spent it with us up at The Villages.  This year he did the same to spend the week with us at our new place.  On our birthday, we went out to eat and then went to the movies.

Beyond that, we have just been hanging out at home.  He has been spending time with Atlas.

He has also spent some time with me and the horses.  Today we groomed them, and they looked so nice afterwards.

I missed a picture of Gypsy after her grooming, but here is one of her and Chevy.  She has a bit of a crush on Chevy and follows him around all day long now.

The ponies are doing great.  Bella is still growing like a weed. She and Sophie are becoming more and more comfortable with me.  Mia is moving more slowly, but I see progress in her also.

The guys started on my birthday present tonight: a round pen! I am so excited about seeing this going up.  It will give me space to work with the horses one on one. 

Poor Ava and Aubi did not make it into the pictures this week, but they are both doing great too! We are really enjoying our life here out on our little piece of land in the middle of nowhere!

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1st Big Project This Week Done: Back Pasture

The past two weeks, I have been back to super busy mode.  I wrapped up two big projects.  The first one is one I have been working on for weeks: the back pasture.  The pasture looked like this when we moved in:

Our neighbor Micah bush hogged it for us.  It was good enough to let the horses use it after that.  There were still tons of trees back there though.  So Nathan used the stump grinder to dig out the stumps.  At that point, we were almost done.  What was left was the most time consuming though.  I had to go out and pick up all the tree branches and stumps by hand.

This is the third pile I have stacked up to be burned later.

Finally this week I got to the point where I could use the lawn mower back there.  And when I was done, we actually had a nice pasture back there!

Sometimes when you are working two to three hours a day at something, it begins to feel like you will never get done! This was one of those projects for me!  So I was especially excited to be able to see how great it looks now that I am done!

Now we just need the grass to grow in, giving the horses plenty of space to run and food to graze on!  

We are getting there!

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Clearing the Back Pasture and a Sneak Peek

I have been working hours each day picking up horse waste and clearing the pastures.  I still have tons to do in the clearing area and the waste area is ongoing.  After a few long talks, Nathan and I decided my time/energy would be better spent on directly working with the horses so we decided to step up the pasture clearing so I can drag the pastures instead of always scooping them.

There were some trees in the back pasture that I just couldn't dig up with a shovel, so Nathan rented a stump grinder to take care of those.  It was really hot and tiring work!

He got all of the big stumps up in one day, and now I can drive the golf cart back there to clear the smaller ones by hand! 

I will try to get a picture this week of how nice it looks since he got the bigger trees out.  When we took the grinder back, we grabbed a couple of chairs for our front deck.

We now have a place every night to sit and watch this:

Today we were going to start cross fencing the front pasture, but Nathan worked on dragging the pasture instead so I got out the paint brush and started a new house project.  Here is a sneak peek:

This one is going to take a bit of time so I might not have a finished picture up for some time! 

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Mother's Day

We had a different kind of a Mother's Day than I've had for the past few years.  But it was very typical of the time period when I had five kids still living at home with us.  So it felt "normal" to me.  It started with me making breakfast with a nice view.

After breakfast, it was outside to do clearing the back pasture and fencing the front pasture.  It was hot outside, so we took lots of water breaks.  I stopped to make lasagna and a cake.  I saw then that the girls and Daniel had sent me the nicest texts wishing me a nice Mother's Day.  It made my day to see that after working so hard all morning.  

Then Austin joined us and gave me the Mother's Day gift I asked Nathan for.  He helped put up the fence posts.

He also brought me a card and flowers.  How sweet is he?

The guys finished up all the posts.  So the only thing left at that point was the wiring and electric box.  We will go back later and put up the permanent fencing.  Auburn came home and surprised me.  She brought me a sweet card and a beautiful flowering bush to plant outside.  It was even purple!  I was really beaming at this point.

The horses just hung out front, relaxing and eating the grass.

It is a wonderful thing to see Chevy hanging out near the guys while they are working and making all kinds of noise.  When he first arrived, he ran away from Nathan when he saw him.  He has decided he is ok at this point and barely glances at him.  Don't get me wrong: he still keeps one (or two) eye/s on me to make sure I am still around.  

It is still huge progress though!  And of course our town mayor is supervising things from her perch:

Surrounded by love, what more could I want for Mother's Day? It was a good day!

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Front Fencing is in the Works!

Nathan started the front fencing this past weekend and has worked every spare minute he has on it.  Since he is working alone so far, it is taking a long time.  What he has done so far, looks great though!

I am so touched by how hard he is working to make the horses space as great as we can.

He is also working on his horsemanship and helping me maintain consistency with the horses.  He is going great!

I think he is getting rather attached to the horses now that he can spend time with them too.  I have the fun job of clearing/scooping the pasture.  Which means I get to see really sweet moments like this:

You will have to excuse the lousy quality of my pictures.  My cell phone is about the only camera I have in my hands these days.  My other cameras are just not horse pasture friendly enough.  Some day I will get out just to get some nice pictures of them though!

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