Equus Villa Farm

Keep Our Son-In-Law In Your Prayers

2013-06-18T21:35:00.000-05:00

.. Daren is deployed to the Middle East. One of these was made for each of our Grand children... which I find both endearing and heart wrenching...

We love you and miss you very much. I pray the time goes by quickly so you can come back into the arms of your family.

Raising Chickens in 1934

2013-04-01T19:07:00.001-05:00

A friend sent this to me. It is an ad from Montgomery Wards for day old chicks. Click to enlarge.

Oh Innocence - We Replaced The With "Knowledge"

2013-03-29T08:08:00.000-05:00

This is so very important - a quote from the book The Hiding Place..the autobiography of Corrie Ten Boom.

"Oftentimes I would use the (train) trip home to bring up things that were troubling me, since anything I asked at home was promptly answered by the aunts. Once, I must have been ten or eleven, I asked Father about a poem we had read at school the winter before. One line had described a young man "whose face was not shadowed by sexsin." I had been far too shy to ask the teacher what it meant, and Mama has blushed scarlet when I consulted her. In those days, just after the turn of the century, sex was never discussed, even at home.

So the line had stuck in my head. "Sex" I was pretty sure meant whether you were a boy or a girl, and "sin" made Tante (aunt) Jans very angry, but what the two together meant, I could not imagine. And so, seated next to Father in the train compartment, I suddenly asked, "Father, what is sexsin?"

He turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but to my surprise, he said nothing. At last he stood up and lifted his travel case from the rack over our heads, and set it on the floor.

"Will you carry it off the train Corrie?" he said.

I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning.

"It's too heavy." I said.

"Yes." he said, "And I would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It's the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger, you can bear it. For now, you must trust me to carry it for you."

And I was satisfied. More than satisfied - wonderfully at peace."

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

People often tell me that I was born in the wrong era. I understand why they say this. I prefer to ride sidesaddle and love the costuming that accompanies it. I cherish the handmade, individually created and the antiques over just about anything new and /or plastic. I live with a wonderful sense of overflowing joy and contentment... but Ahh - this is a not just a choice. Joy and contentment are gifts of the Holy Spirit.

I find these days we, as a nation, are no longer slowly turning away from God, we are running away at breakneck speeds.

Early Easter Egg Hunt!

2013-03-14T15:19:00.001-05:00

Emily, Daren and the kids came down for a weeks vacation...and oh my gosh we have had so much fun!!

Since we will not be together at Easter - we decided to just have out own little Egg Hunt. Here is Don and Daren doing the manly job of hiding the eggs. I was peeking through the window.

Hope the colorful eggs over by the chicken coop don't confuse the hens!

To say the kids were impatient ....

..well that was a huge understatement!

down the stairs we headed..

and Daren made them turn around and close their eyes until he said "GO".

..and they were off

hey Madison, I think you missed one

A Difficult Week..

2013-02-07T20:34:00.000-06:00

You know how they say that bad things happen in 3's. I do not know where that came from and despite what I am about to share with you... I do not believe it.

Last week was quite difficult for us. It started out with our 4 month post treatment appointment ... where we found out that Don has yet again, relapsed. He is still positive for Hepatitis C. Despite the news, Don went straight back to work after finding out.. I went to the park and walked around and prayed. On my way to the doctors office that morning I told the Lord that no matter what, I trusted Him. My life has been in His hands since my conception and nothing had changed. As I walked through the park, I could feel Him with me.

A few days later we found out that our son-on-law Daren, is going to be deployed for a 6 month tour. Our daughter Emily was understandable ... heartbroken... but she is a strong woman and we will make the best of it, She is going to bring the Grand children down here this summer and we will plan lots of fun things!

and a few days after that, Don called me and told me he was laid off of work... a job he had only had about 6 weeks...

With every incident I made a point to give it all to God. I slept well. I did not find myself in fits of worry or frowning... and after the initial shock - all was calm. I have had this overwhelming feeling of comfort... of being really loved.

..and about losing his job.. well before the day was over, he had an interview with a new company and he starts his new job tomorrow!

The Exact Spot...

2013-01-22T13:59:00.003-06:00

..of our future home!!!

Tall pine tree to the left will have to go - or it will be sticking up out of the garage! Will post a pic when it is all cleared out.

Breaking Ground

2013-01-21T19:15:00.000-06:00

Last year we had electricity run to the back of the property, the place where we want to build our home. It cost a LOT. In fact, honestly I was shocked by how much it cost to do that.

Well today, we hired a gentleman with a bull dozer to come in to do 3 things; clear out and level an area for a round pen we are putting in, bull doze and burn some dead trees and ... CLEAR OUT THE PLACE WE WANT TO BUILD THE HOUSE!!!

This is the area for the round riding pen. I will try and get a picture tomorrow of the location of the dream house.

SOOOO Many Blessings!

2012-12-19T16:41:00.001-06:00

Don finished his Hep C treatment and in less than 1 month we will get the final blood test CONFIRMING he is healed!! I can't wait for that wonderful day!

We have had some hick-ups with him getting his old job back. They told him to come back ... but never would give him a start up date... strange. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months...and then we found out why - the owners sold the company.

Thankfully Don did not just sit on his laurels and wait for them. He started to pound the pavement and talk to everyone he knew associated with the business. He just started his new job and he is so excited. Now we are both reviving our dreams of building a real house!

I pray that each and every one has a wonderful Christmas...and a very blessed New Year ...

pic that inspire

2012-11-05T14:19:00.002-06:00

Traditional Landscape design by Minneapolis Landscape Architect Windsor Companies

Traditional Landscape design by Santa Barbara Landscape Architect Acanthus Design-Denise Woolery

Vermont!

2012-09-24T09:15:00.000-05:00

We were blessed with a trip to Vermont. Some friends let us stay in their lake house for as long as we wanted... Can you imagine!!!! The longest we could stretch our stay out was 8 days.

Don caught me thanking the Lord for this and so many other blessings..

This is the lake side of the beautiful house.

..and this was the amazing view!

The leaves were just starting to change colors..they will be at their peak in a week or 2.

The lake was occupied at times by small sail boats, canoes and even rowing teams getting in some practice!

It was nothing short of picturesque!

We saw so many covered bridges, I did not get pictures of them all.

If I was not antiquing .. I was doing a lot of this:

..and way way too much of this... EATING!

.. thank goodness I have Zumba tonight!

New Bikes!

2012-08-29T13:19:00.002-05:00

This was our gift to the kiddos for their birthday this year!

Yes - even I joined in on the fun!

Lunch and PE With Madison at School

2012-08-22T21:20:00.000-05:00

Our Visit To Mississippi! Part 1

2012-08-19T21:49:00.000-05:00

This was in the corn pasture across from the shooting range.

We tried out Emily's new gun and Daren did some practice shooting for hunting season this year.

Don and Trestin hung out together until we were done.

Updates ...

2012-07-28T13:38:00.001-05:00

about .. well , everything!

WORKING FROM HOME:
I stared to work from home the day after my training. It was a strange transition and I had computer problems all day. My internet would be fine for aoout 2 hours and then I would get kicked off and not be able to reconnect sometimes for an hour!. All that off time has to be paid back and I was a nervous wreck! I cried once and when I finally took some time for lunch, I took a hot bath trying to calm myself down!

Well after many calls to my help desk and the pnone company, early this week a major defect was discovered in our phone lines and now everthing is great. I love this! I was spending roughly 3 hours a day driving back and forth to work. Now I get a full nights sleep! I watch Joseph Prince every morning. I pray and just feel so much better. If all that was not enough, Don is still on treatment for Hepatitis C.  There were so many days where he was really sick and when I left to go to work, I wondered if I should have stayed at home with him. Now that is just not an issue... which brings me to my next Update:

DON'S HEPATITIS C TREATMENT:
Don has a bit less than 8 weeks left for his Hepatitis C treatment. This year seems to have really dragged on a lot slower than the first time he took the year long treatment.  With the addition of the new drug added to the cocktail (Incevic) his side effects during the first 3 months were .. well just horrid.  He only had to take the Incevic for 3 months. His Hep count has been undetectable since his 1 month check up.. which is outstanding to quote his doctor! Still though, since your blood is in every area of your body, he had to continue the treatment for the full year.

Now, he is lathargic, have extremely depressed White, Red and Platelet counts... Platelets went all the way down to 27,000 (normal is 140,000 to 400,000) which is the lowest ever recorded for him and they did take him off of treatment for 1 week...BUT, Glory Be - we can see the light at the end of the tunnel! He sleeps seemingly 18-20 hours a day and when he is not sleeping, he has little energy to do much. I am thrilled to say that when this is all over, normalcy should return!~

He will have doctors appointments after the treatment obviously, but it is the one at the 6 month mark that we anxiuosly await.  At 6 months with a undetectable Hepatitis C count, he is deemed completely healed. His cirrhosised liver at that point could even improve in both function and texture. We have our eyes set on the prize... and that is it!

RIDING ASIDE:
I think most of you who read this blog, also go over to the Riding Aside blog. If not, here is a short quip about that. When Don started his treatment, we decided that we would do anything possible to keep me very involved with the horses. Many marrriages fail when one partner has to go through Hep. C treatments. It is not only physically demanding, but also emotionally. It is MANDATORY that the patients take anti-depressants during treatment.

With my training, it gives me 1 day a week and an occasional horse show that takes me away from the world of doctors, diagnosis, injections and such. Also, since I am quite a physical person, at this time when my husband cannot accompany me in many physical venues, this and taking Zumba classes has solved my restlessness.

I have now taught 3 of my own horses how to work in a sidesaddle and 2 horses that reside at Bluebommet Farm. This is my passion ~ given to my by God!! I am working towards showing Sport, my 5 gaited Saddlebred in the World Championship horse show in August 2013. This event, whether I place or not, will make a pin point in history as there is (so far) no record of a woman who has ridden sidesaddle in the 5 gaited classes at the American Saddlebred World Championship show!

ME PERSONALLY:
Zumba
Like I mentioned above, I started to take Zumba exercise classes with my youngest daughter Joy. I LOVE it!! I now do it twice a week and would love to find another class so I can up that to 3X a week. I will say however, I went to a class at another location recently and it was not very fun at all. It really depends on who the teacher is!

Weight Loss
My initial motive for taking Zumba was to continue to lose the 15 pounds I had gained since my hysterectory. One of my girl friends introduced me to the Dukan diet and when I read about it, I knew it was something I could stick with. That is where my weight loss journey began. I weighed in at 140 when I started and now weigh 131. 6 more pounds to go! I lost about 5 pounds and then kind of plateaued.. until I started this class. Then the weight started coming off again.

Hormones
I am still taking the bio-identical hormones, via cream on my forearms 2 X a day. It is wonderful in the aspect that it stopped the muscle deterioration (sign of internal muscle deterioration is peeing when you sneeze hard or cough!), stopped the hot flashes and night sweats and Don says I am nicer! ha ha.. I'll trust him on that one. I sleep better and although my sex drive has not returned to 100%.. well - at least I have one now!

On the down side, I forget to use it even though I keep it in my bedside table! I have heard about getting an implant that would deliver the hormones at a more consistent rate. I have not looked into that yet. E-mail me if you want more information about this. It is hell to suffer with menapause symptoms! juliesize at yahoo

THE FARM:
Chickens
Last year we sadly had a masacure of our chickens. All but 1 were killed. It is so tempting to let them out to free range, which is what we were doing, that on one of those occasions a predator came in. It was sad. We brought the one lone hen into the barn to live until we were ready to introduce her to some new baby chicks we purchased .. get this ... through the mail! We ordered 20 pullots (sp??) baby girl chicks. The reason we ordered 20 was because we did not think 20 would survive shipping.. but they did. We now have 10 Barred Rock hens and 10 Columbian Rock hens that are just now starting to lay.... OH MY GOSH - what are we going to do with all these eggs when they start laying in full force! I love eggs and because I only eat egg whites, I do go through quite a few of them on my own... but up to 20 a day??? Going to have to hang a sign outside that says Eggs For Sale!

Horses
The only real new horse news is that we sent Brittany (Sport's Mother) back to Stoney (Sport's Father) to be bred. It was a last minute decision, but because the stallion owner was here and offered to haul her back for free as a part of the deal, we sent her to Tennessee. Nothing happening yet.. but hopefully they can tease her into heat one last time this season and we can get a full sibling to the best horse I have ever ever ever bred!

Sheep
We had 3 baby sheep this year...and 2 were a set of twins! Twin sheep are not normally rare for sheep.. unless you are talking about the breed we have, so it was a big exciting deal for us! On the down side, every one of our babies was a ram lamb. We need all ewe lambs next year to make up for this year!

THE FARM:
Close to our heart is the development of this farm. We replaced much of our wood fencing with black improved PVC type fencing and it is just beautiful! We put in an additional outdoor arena and left a large open area for a covered riding arena. We rean electricity to the back of the farm which cost a pretty penny that we were not expecting and planted lots of Red Shummard Oak trees down what will be the road to the back. Still to go is the actual road, a well and to continue on with the house plans. Not sure if the house will proceed the riding arena or the other way around. I do dream of opening up a Sidesaddle Riding School for girls calls ... can you guess... Riding Aside!  But then again, I so want a real home. I love our barn-house, but envisioned it only as a transition point into a home large enough for my family to be comfortable in when they come to visit.

Ahh - I will just do my best not to get into the way of any blessings that the Lord has for us and it shall all come to pass!!!

**I know this is a lot to read.. but I have seriously neglected this blog. Maybe now that things are settling down with my work, other things will start to line up as well!

Guess What?

2012-07-18T20:30:00.001-05:00

I am in training tonight until midnight... to be a work at home agent!!! Yes - that is right... no more 3 hours on the road every day .. no more driving in bad weather..no more dirty bathrooms.. Sadly - I will miss seeing my friends though. BUT - the good way outweighs the bad in this situation!

My favorite 4th of July Pic!

2012-07-10T21:00:00.001-05:00

I can add nothing to this wonderful picture!

What a Great Day!

2012-06-27T21:13:00.000-05:00

Every single day when I get up, I talk to the Lord. I tell Him good morning and tell Him that TODAY would be a GREAT day for Him to come back! I continue by saying that if today is not the day for that - to please bless my day, bless and protect my family and then I go on and discuss whatever issues come to my heart.

When I started to do this .. a noticable amout of blessings have been sliding towards me ...and I LOVE it. Today was a day of double portion blessings. You see, not only did I find out that no other woman has shown a 5 gaited Saddlebred horse in the Kentucky State Fair sidesaddle and that next year I WILL be the first......

...but also that I was approved for the at-home-agent program at my work!! Starting in mid July I will no longer have to drive 3 hours per day to get back and forth from work .. but can stay at the farm and work. OH MY GOSH - I can even go outside and scratch my pets on the head during my lunch break!

Venting..

2012-06-16T21:43:00.001-05:00

Don has an abcessed tooth. It is not as simple as it sounds. The meds he is on have been hard on his teeth. Since his platelet count is so low, he cannot have an extraction done in the dentists office. He has to be checked into a hospital and have 1 or 2 platelet transfusions prior to the extraction, have an IV of antibiotics and spend the night to make sure the bleeding is completely stopped before returning home. This also cannot be done in a regional hospital, but must be done in the Medical Center in Houston. After our apointment with the liver doctor, we had to go and see a dental surgeon. He gave Don 3 prescriptions and we made arrangements to go to the hospital. I thought we were all set to get it taken care of until we found out the bad news.... our insurance company denied the claim prior to the surgery. I was more than angry. A dentist will not touch Don and the hospital will not allow us to check in unless the insurance will cover it...so here my poor husband sits with an abcessed tooth, wigged out on medication. To top it off, for some reason, Don is now running a fever. I do not know if it is separate or something having to do with the tooth - but he has been in a bad way all weekend. Don had his blood work done again recently and again his platelets dropped - now down to 32,000. Now I understand why he has been getting nose bleeds almost daily. The dental surgeons office is fighting for us. They are sending the blood work back to the insurance company as reason for this needing to be done in the hospital and not as a simple dentist office procedure. Please keep Don in your prayers.

Zumba..

2012-06-12T21:41:00.001-05:00

..was amazingly fun!! Can't wait to go back. Next class is on Thursday night but Don has to go into the hospital for a molar extraction. His platelets are so low that he has to have a transfusion before and after the extraction as well as an antibiotic IV. He has to stay over night to make sure he clots up. We should be home on Friday. Thank you Joy for staying at the farm and taking care of ALLLLLL of the animals!

Still Dieting..

2012-06-11T16:26:00.003-05:00

Only lost 3 pounds - but I am determined!!! So determined that I am taking a 1 hour Zumba class tonight with my daughter Joy. Just wanted to tell you that today in case I am too sore to type tomorrow!

Still Dieting..

2012-06-05T23:04:00.001-05:00

I am at the stage where I alternate eating all protein one day and then protein and certain veggies the next. It is called the Cruise part of the plan. My progress is very very slow, but I feel good and do not have a problem with cheating!

Let's Get serious!

2012-05-29T13:03:00.002-05:00

.I finally told myself. I needed to loose 15 pounds .. in essence the weight I have gained since my hysterectomy. I started a diet called the Dukan Diet, created by Dr. Dukan. You can goole it. I am on day 4 and have lost 3+ pounds. It starts out as seveal days of pure protein, so I know much of what I lost is water weight.. but I feel so much better already and the true test for me is that I have not been climbing the walls wanting to cheat!! I'll let you know how it is going!

Happy Mother's Day..

2012-05-12T23:02:00.002-05:00

..to all my Mommy blog friends!

Is this too much to ask for?

Feed Buckets....

2012-05-09T21:08:00.005-05:00

NOT just for eating anymore!!

Yes - we had twins!!

Meet Fitz William..

2012-04-24T22:14:00.001-05:00

..our newest little ram lamb!

Sadly we had a little ewe lamb that was born dead a few weeks ago. Our herd is a bit lop sided right now as we have 3 ewes and 5 rams!