Farah's New Farm~

 Friends have invited Farah to come & live on their beautiful farm.  A little closer to us than where she's been, with the added advantage of having acres of fields for us to ride & explore.  The roads are less busy than nearer to Glenwood & dirt roads are close by.

The Barn~

This pretty little barn used to house pigs, but that's been over twenty-years ago.  It's stood vacant for a very long while.  With a concrete floor & a new roof, it has the room for a nice large stall, tack room & hay storage too!  We'll be replacing the glass windows with polycarbonate panels.

Inside~

Inside, we've started to strip things down to the floor.  Butch has some repairs to do & stall walls to build.  A wall will go across the room where the support post is, with a gate to allow access to the rest of the barn.  The door will be widened & we'll be adding plywood on the walls & stall matts.  Farah will be able to have her wall & hay feeder again too!

Butch clearing the concrete apron~

 The south side & west end of the barn has a concrete apron that goes out for several feet.  This area will get fenced for a nice large paddock.  It will be super to not have the mud right up to the building!  From here, she'll have a path down to the timber, a bridge across the small creek & pasture on the far side.

Evening~

It will be the first time since moving here, that Farah will have her freedom.  A pasture to graze in, spring fed creek & timber to roam.  As we see how she does, there's room to expand her space & even a secondary pasture area that we can use to rotate the grazing if need be.

Beautiful Sunset~

We're so happy that our girl will have a place to live where she can thrive & enjoy being a horse.  Janice & I are already looking forward to sitting back & watching her graze.  Next, we'll be setting fence posts, pulling wire & hope to have her moved by month end!

Where to Begin?

It's been a month now since Farah & I have been on a trail...  My wrist - was probably sprained - since it's healing way faster than I thought it would.  It's still sore if I try to do anything with it, but I can use it & figured it would be good enough for a ride.  We've been visiting her every four-days - it was time for her annual Adequan series.

Today, I felt like we were back to square one.  I loaded my saddle, bridle, pad & planned to do some road riding.  The one thing I forgot - was my helmet!  You'd think after all these years, I could remember that!  Anyway - our girl was covered with mud, so a good grooming was in order.  Her neighbor screamed at her departure - I closed the door between those stalls & the main barn.   It amazes me that Farah can ignore him the way she does.

In the round pen~

Once I had her cleaned up, I let her out into the outdoor arena & she took off at a gallop.  I'm sure she's wondering why we haven't had our usual trail time.  She looks good, her weight is good, she's stayed amazingly fit - considering our latest month off.

Checking out the other horses.

I had my new stick from Dennis Reis - it works great.  As usual, she bucked, kicked, leaped into the air & stretched herself out.  Finally she settled into some nice extended trotting & was very polite about changing direction when I asked.

Other way~

After yesterday's beautiful sunshine day, it seemed strange to see the sun give way to cloud cover by mid-morning, a cool breeze too.  I'd worn warmer tights & wished I hadn't - we both worked up a light sweat.

There's grass over there!

I heard a lot of noise out on the road - the county road-grader was at work, so it would not have been the day to try road riding anyway.  The operator was scraping the shoulders & leaving the excess material out in the middle for his next sweep.

Feeling more relaxed~

By the time she slowed & came up to me - we were both ready to be done.  In another week, we'll actually be headed south through Missouri for a horse camping trip to;  Brushy Creek, MO.  I'm so looking forward to some time with my mare & days of riding new trails!

First Full Day~

The day warmed up quick!  I was anxious to see Farah's boarding stable.  It was only a few miles to the farm.  The drive was steep with a bit of a tilt to it.  Butch had his hands full with the truck, camper & trailer.  The parking was tighter than we'd anticipated.

Farah's new barn~

Farah was instantly excited when she unloaded!  With other horses in the barn & out in the pasture - she was checking everything out!  We put her in the round pen - deep with sand.  She took off bucking & running!  Next, a drop to the ground & roll!  We looked around - a very nice place - big stalls, well bedded, with auto-waters.  I'd reserved a stall - there were no outside runs available.  We decided to leave her out for a while, I wanted to see the house!

One of the three town water towers~

It was only a seven-mile drive to our new place!  I loved the corner of town where the house was located.  The neighborhood looked nice & quiet.  Walking in the front door though - I knew our work would be cut out for us...  We'd had the interior completely painted before our arrival.  Flooring installation was scheduled to begin tomorrow.

With street parking very limited, Butch wanted to get the Bronco unloaded & car-hauler returned asap.  We parked the truck & horse trailer where we thought they would be out of the way.  Once the Bronco was off - we hitched it up to the car-hauler & drove east out of town - to return it to the U-Haul dealer.

Trailer returned!

As we were returning to town, I got a call from a man who identified himself as a local police officer!  He asked if the Ford truck & trailer parked on the curve was ours?  Well... Yes!  He then asked where we were & how long it would take us to get back?  When we told him it would be minutes - he replied the school buses would be driving through on their way to the nearby elementary school!  He was worried they wouldn't be able to squeeze by :-)  

At home~

When we arrived - I had to ask how on earth he'd found my phone number?  As luck would have it - the painter we'd hired lives just up the street.  He'd seen the officer by our truck with those stand-out Washington State plates :-)  Disaster adverted :-)  Welcome to small town America!  :-)

Returning to check on Farah - we found her covered in flies!  She came running to us!  I sprayed her down & put her into her stall - she settled right in & checked out the water.  Back at the house, Butch parked the truck in the drive.  We'd already planned to live in the camper until the flooring was installed.  Let the remodel begin!