The best day I could imigine!!

Many of you know I've been thinking dreaming and working towards farm work with horses for a while now and yesterday I felt one step closer...

I've spoken of Duane VanDyke several times well yesterday with he, his daughter in law Sara and "adopted daughter" Maria I went to a "historic farming day" at the Yamhill Museum... I couldn't have imaged a better day!








The tractors and old time farm equipment where awesome.. and most of you know I have a thing for old tractors...



but today they where superseded by the horses : ) ...

"The Girls"


Duane Driving - see one hand : ) for plow and one for horses... (some day I'll get there)

So I have had a little driving time with duane's horses but never with a plow... And let me tell you it was thrilling!

It's a pretty amazing feeling to have this team in front of and the plow between you swiftly churning! The thing that surprised me the most was how "fast it feels" when you see plowing it looks so peaceful, quite and slow... well at least for now as a beginner it's NOT SLOW !! and takes a lot of focus and also you have to remember to relax too as the hoses pick up everything of course!!



so there you are behind this team with a big heavy piece of equipment and "your up!"... so you ask and of course Duane's horses are serious well trained workers so these guys (actually girls in this case) get right to work there's no "plodding" along slow and steady... imagine football players running at the big heavy bags and pushing them there's speed and power and focus on these horses part! it's awesome..



and there there's the plow!... that reminded me of steering a boat but with a little more muscle behind it... if you over correct there's a tiny lag and then your plow is careening off the wrong way quickly! and then that "mistake in your row" will cost you for the next few passes as you correct it... then there are rocks and things in the ground that toss you around too... again quickly correcting that slow gently image I had now that I've actually put my hand to the plow.

The end of the row ... now I will say this is my favorite part! there's a little rush of "man that was a good one" or "ok now I got to fix this or that"... as you get to the end you sort of "toss" your plow on it's side then stop and turn your horses and when Duane does it let me tell you it's pretty darn smooth!! When I got to the end of my first furrow I got my plow over and then pretty much yelled my "whoa" to the team I was so worked up!! I was not looking like the calm peaceful farmer let me tell you : ) I look forward to someday being good enough to be able to whisper my whoa .. : )


Sara worked along side of me and was sooo patient THANK YOU SARA!!!... she's a pro! The first few passes she worked the team along side of me so I could get the feel of the plow and then she gave me the lines! She's been at this a while and has a natural feel for the whole process!! I'm learning a ton from her...

So my deep thanks to Duane for all his time patience and kindness!! and to Maria and Sarah for all the tips and helpful guidance as we work with the horses!! I'm learning so much and LOVING every second!...


Maria is my "teacher" for learning to be calm in all situations... I've never met a woman who is more unflappable - if I could learn just a tiny but of her calmness and peace around the horses I'd be a way better horse woman!!





These mules where great - funny and hard working!!


Sara and Sadie

The plows we used





Sara on the plow


Maria on the plow


Duane's "finish" ... feast your eyes on that straight perfect finish!!!

Danger!! I just got a digital camera with video

now I'll never get any work done...

Back home in one piece

Well the trip to Ethiopia was quite a journey... it's an amazing country ...

the most important thing first ...

I present to you the GORGEOUS and wonderful Miss Elsa : )


now Miss Elsa is happily settling into her new home in Marin, Ca (not a bad life if you ask me : )

I did keep a sketch book for the first part of the trip till I was struck down with what we affectionately called the Ethiopian plague which well wasn't fun BUT we made it home thank goodness

here are a few pages.. this book belongs to Elsa now - although I need to get it to her...







Upon coming home I was greeted by the farm and tried to happily jump back into life.. but sadly I will say I did have to spend a few more days lying down then did have some visits to my Naturapath and got sent home with 2 prescriptions and about 4 bottles of homeopathic stuff and lots of marching orders for how to eat extra healthy.. I followed all these orders as since coming home my plague had turned into a horrible upper respiratory thing which had turned into bronchitis and was moving quickly towards pneumonia.. I thought I could "power through" with rest and water and citrus ... "wrong" I decided I needed help finally when I woke up on day four of being home with not one but two eyes swollen shut and covered in thick gooo (yuck) so I rinsed off my face and decided driving while not totally safe was necessary (my husband was gone to CA for some family stuff) ... so although I haven't' touched antibiotics ever in my adult life.. when my Naturapath took one look at me and prescribed them I figured I should go with it... so reluctantly I filled my three day pack of Azithromycin ... needless to say that Sh-t worked and now I'm back to playing with horses and holding down the fort while Brian is away.. I'm sort of glad he left so that I could get well and not get him sick...

Things around here are finally getting pretty darn verdant .. much to red's benifit : )



I do have the same "complaint" as last year towards my fruit trees.. they are LATE all the other trees in my county have been blooming for weeks and mine are still teasing me! my little canyon is it's own micro climate and is about 2 weeks behind... so I wait .. I think maybe after this warm weather we are supposed to get this weekend my patience may be rewarded.. so I wait.. in the mean time I happily have the daffodils and a few other spring flowers to keep me smiling...







speaking of smiling - Duane Van Dyke has been so good to me I can't even believe it... so I saw him after I got home and he invited me to a draft day and I thought ohh how great I will get to go and watch and learn and help out... and then when the lines where handed to me I happily accepted them... Daune has been really helping me to learn the draft world and been super generous with his time.... and it's been so fun ... The carriage driving I did back east in my last life didn't really teach me anything compared to what I'm learning from my time with Duane...


(photo from http://www.onemileshires.com/)

and one more reason to smile.. I can't wait till this guys comes home friday : )

Ethopia bound and my super husband

Well I'm off tomorrow morning for Ethiopia. So no blog entries and no pictures of farm animals for just about 3 weeks (I'll be home March 27th)... My super husband will be holding down the fort while I'm gone. I'm sure he will need lots of encouragement so if anyone wants to call or visit him while I'm gone and tell him how fat and happy the animals look under his care feel free. Why Ethiopia you say.. well my best friend is adopting a little baby girl she is about 7 months old and we are going over to bring her home !! It's very exciting. I will miss the farm but I'm looking forward to this new chapter for my friend and her little girl I feel very lucky to be the one going with her on this very special trip. So till then eat well and enjoy the spring flowers.. cheers! C

Food and more Food

No wonder I can't loose any weight... : ) Our good friend John "chef gone wine dude" came to visit for a few days it was just super to see him and we had a pretty freggin amazing meal in Portland at Park Kitchen ... thanks David! the an AMAZING chef there and good friend of John's who treated us like royalty .... this was followed by some wood splitting to burn off some calories




and then a great meal cooked by a Brian and John collaboration in the kitchen thus putting the calories right back on... Brian whipped up a indoor grill insert (you know the usual...went to his shop did a quick design build and weld job!) and thus made the pork chops on the wood stove (which was filled with fruit wood) pretty darn tasty!





and John made us lentils with chanterelles ummm thanks guys!!...

This very nice visit was followed up with a wonderful Big Table dinner a few nights later.



















The Ham Brian brined and smoked was from the most recent "late girls" and lived up to expectations... the lentils from John's visit where re-purposed into a lentil soup.. yum with a last minute genius garnish by matt.. I love foodie friends...















Thanks to all that came and shared... and I'm sorry about the pounding heads on Saturday morning... at least you all ended up with all your fingers especially after the 2 am fireworks and 3 am gator rides... good times as Rob would say ... : )




(I don't think this is how you're supposed to light it)






these three are TROUBLE!!!

Thanks to Matt the next morning we soaked our hangovers in maple syrup on some killer french toast made from the beautiful bread he brought... I learned french toast is called Pain Perdu ... : ) in france and is really a left over peasant meal... I'll take a peasant meal any time like this... : )



we later then got to go visit the newest baby horse in the canyon at only 6 hours old!!! congrats Monique

the little filly "red"

as promised I took some photos of the new filly here she is -- isn't she a cutie!

she's been a lot of fun to have around she likes to play and chase with me and with the dog and she comes running when I call her...

rolling around and trying to scratch off all that winter fur

Chasing Clementine

Coming up when I called her

horsey post...

So Chief went from being a very spoiled only child Saturday to his first day at boarding school... he went to the new barn where Courtney (his boot camp mistress) will be working with him.. Mr. Chief was pretty up set when we put him the stall - he kind of pitched a bit of a fit.. and I was worried about him - as any mother with a slightly spoiled child would be : ) but after some hay from home he settled right in... I'm really happy he's there I know having more training on him will really help me to find the **perfect home** for him... Courtney's work will be good for him, me, and the person who is lucky to love him next : ) I think her work will set everyone up for success (learned that lesson the hard way)... so I was there at 7am Saturday morning to feed him and tell him I hadn't just dropped him off and left : ) .. he was doing just fine.. we had a long groom and then I took him into the big arena and left him "at liberty" (no halter no lead rope, no whip etc.)... I thought he would just run around a bit which he did a little of - but then came right over to stand next to me so I started to play with him he was free lounging, side passing giving his forequarters and disengaging... backing .. and then just playing trotting along side of me stopping right with me.. it was heaven... just he and I on his terms (i have to admit I kind of get choked up thinking about it)... I know he was sticking to me like glue because he was a little out of sorts and needed security but it was just heaven...so Miss Courtney came a few hours later and lounged him and said she was impressed with his ground work so that was nice of her and encouraging - I KNOW after watching her work with Chief she's just the right person to work with him. This whole process has been such a gift I'm learning so much.. So Courtney left me with her little filly (just a temporary swap) so I don't have an empty stall to look at a and so I have a horse to play with and so "red" as Brian named her can also learn some of stuff. Red and I are working on all kinds of new (to her things) it's very fun and she's a great little baby horse and I'm really enjoying working with her... I'll get some photos of her up tomorrow : )