Give Me A Brake
Summer is finally here and though we have had a lot of rain this month we have gotten a lot done at the ranch thanks in part to my son Andrew who just moved to the ranch house with his family.
The Carters stayed with us during the month of May and we were busy getting them acclimated, finding Andrew a job and getting Kentucky insurance, etc., and then moving their things little by little to our ranch up the road while we were having it painted.
After the ranch house was ready to occupy, Andrew and I took the last of the loads from my house to his house. It had been rainy and living out here in the bottoms, it was still quite muddy. We had my utility trailer loaded with their white leather living room suite, a dresser and odds and ends. Andrew parked his truck in the grass and the trailer was on the walkway. As he tried to pull out, his tires spun and of course mud went all over the white furniture. Luckily it was not real leather and could be wiped off easily.
Andrew suggested pulling his truck and the trailer out with my Jeep. Seeing the heavy trailer, I was hesitant at first, but my son is just like me and when he believes he can do something he is very confident in doing it. I was still sitting in the passenger side of his truck and handed him the keys to my Jeep when he told me, “You don’t even have to move, I’ll get us right out.”
My son IS like me… and sometimes our confidence gets in the way of thinking things ‘all the way through’. His truck has a stick shift and I cannot drive it. I don’t even know which pedal is the clutch (or what the clutch is for). After hooking the truck up to the Jeep, Andrew pulled forward and sure enough, my kid was right!
The truck and trailer came right out of the grass and as it followed my Jeep, Andrew stopped the Jeep …but the truck kept moving! I saw three peddles and had no idea which one to push for the brake and I could not climb over the console quickly enough!
Andrew realized I was about to crash into him and he drove my Jeep to the upward slope of the driveway until the truck stopped. Whew!
Hay is for Horses
Andrew has been a big help at the ranch. Jason and I dreaded the day we would have to buy hay and load it up into the loft of the barn (and contemplated if we would hire someone or try it ourselves) but with Andrew now at the ranch, Jason was sure that they both could do it.
Our utility trailer was not big enough to hold all the hay we were purchasing, so our supplier, Jim Rudolph let us use his trailer to make one trip. He had a fancy machine that bundled the hay and loaded it. Is it odd that I have stopped salivating over ‘pretty shoes’ and instead I get excited when I see farm equipment?
Andrew backed the large trailer perfectly into our barn near the loft and hoisted himself on top of the hay stack while Jason got up in the loft. The two men ‘heaved and ho-ed’ the bales of hay and then switched places.
Andrew’s wife Stephanie and I were standing near the trailer hitch and noticed a gap in the hay bales and a black furry tail inside. I looked closer and noticed some white also. Thinking it was a skunk, I told the guys about it just in case they got down to the last of the bales and disrupted our new friend. At first, I wanted to tug at the tail thinking it could be one of the barn cats, but if it were a skunk I’d be sorry. It caused us all to pause a bit until we saw that it was only Lightning our barn cat. Whew!
After getting close to 100 bales in the loft, we took the remainder that was left on the trailer out in Keeneland paddock where the hay shed is. Our colt and filly were in that paddock and they came to see what the ‘big thing with wheels’ was all about. I am sure they smelled the fresh cut hay as they came to inspect and when they saw how much was there, they probably thought it was a party! Suede began to dig in to the bountiful feast and Jason tried to scare her away.
They haven’t really been fond of the hay that was left at the ranch before we bought it and hadn’t been eating too much and, being their Mama, I wanted them to have fun eating the hay and seeing if they liked it. They did!
Legend’s pretty blue eyes got so big and he enjoyed munching and when Suede saw that it was okay and her Daddy was busy loading hay in the shed, she helped herself too. I was able to help in the line of tossing and our hay day was finished!
Rearing Up!
With Andrew being the newcomer, the horses had to get used to him. One day when Andrew was taking Bette (a boarded mare) out to Belmont paddock, she reared up at him and he tried to hold her by her lead rope. I told him to let her go. Bette ran off out to the field with her harness and lead rope still attached. I wanted to scold, “Bette you come here right now!” but it doesn’t work that way with horses. You have to get into their head and think like they do. Bette’s schedule had just changed as the heat of the season came and her owner requested that she be stalled during the day when it is hot. Most horses like being free, so Bette was just excited to get back out in the pasture and wanted to tell the new guy that she did not want to be stalled.
She also was telling me – “I am out here grazing, why do I want you to come near me and possibly put me back in that stall?” So I went to the middle of the pasture and knelt down to show her that I was in a relaxed mood and not out to grab her. Sonyador (another mare) saw me and was curious. She also likes to be petted. When Sonya came over, Bette saw that it was okay to come over too and I was able to get her harness and rope off of her. I gave her a pat and we’ve not had her act up since.
Rocky Top
Stephanie and Andrew have enjoyed being at the ranch and Stephanie has been working on her fear of horses. She has come a long way and can be around them without being as nervous now. I made her get in the round pen with me while I worked with Suede and that helped her to get over a lot of her fear.
I wanted to take them to Swift Walk’n Farm in Dover Tennessee where we bought our Tennessee Walkers. It is a little over an hour away and I hoped to see my friend Mandy who manages the stables. She was already gone, but one of the ranch hands named Sam took us around to see a few of the horses and the new babies.
Andrew came across a beautiful gray roan mare and she took to him. He would not leave her when we walked to see more horses. He was bonding with her and I knew that meant trouble.
Andrew was falling in love with the gray mare. When he saw that her name was Rocky Top (Andrew is an avid Vols fan) he had it in his mind that he had to have her and she was meant for him.
He was in the middle of interviewing for a job at Tractor Supply in Murray, but had not been hired on yet and his first few paychecks would be spoken for to get settled and pay bills before he would have any money to buy a horse. I knew it was a lost cause and he needed to turn off the pitter-patter of his heart for Rocky Top. She was the perfect age and a seasoned trail horse.
We loved our visit to SW Farm, but as we left I felt like the mean mommy who wouldn’t buy her baby a toy. My heart went out to him, even though Andrew is now a man and not a little boy and he knew it was impossible right now, but I know he is hoping that they won’t sell Rocky Top until he saves up the money to buy her. He got the job as assistant manager at Tractor Supply, so hoping one day soon he can go back for Rocky Top.
A Hog and a Puppy
As summer approached, the pasture was not only full and green, it was full of weeds! We knew that we needed to have it bush hogged and we are planning to re-sow the fields after this summer. For now … we needed a Bush Hog to keep the weeds down.
We had our landscaper Allen Williams from Murray spray the fields to kill the weeds and Jason ordered a Bush Hog from our John Deere Dealer in Paducah. We have made friends with him on Facebook and when I saw that he had Labrador puppies he was giving away, I asked Andrew if he wanted one (hoping to make up for Rocky Top). Andrew wanted to have a puppy for his daughter Ellie Cheyenne, so I told Stephen to save us one of his pups and when our friend Jeff delivered the Bush Hog, he also brought Stephen’s pup for Ellie. Ellie was joyfully surprised and she named him Rufus.
Since we bought the ranch in March of this year, we have come a long way. We made it through the snow and the rainy season. We learned what equipment was needed to take off manure (and we highly recommend the MillCreek SS Deluxe!) and we also learned that we need a conveyor belt to load hay in the loft because Jason and Andrew said that would be the last time they load hay like that!
We have put up a round pen and worked with our babies, we have a wash rack built for bathing the horses and we have a John Deere tractor to drag the arena and to use with the manure spreader (and it is so easy to use). We have plans to re-fence the paddocks and hopefully that will happen before spring 2016.
Life at the ranch is hard work, but hard work is a great feeling and operating a ranch is a job I enjoy! There is plenty of adventure and I learn something new every day.
A few things I have learned recently…
The solar fly traps with the horrible-smelling yeast solution that I tried is too messy and smelly for me to bother with. A fly zapper and a large fan in the barn helps tremendously along with taking off the manure and keeping clean stalls. I may also try the ‘fly predators’ I have heard about.
Horses are animals of prey and not predators – they first think of protecting themselves (instead of harming you) when they behave the way they do – so taking the time to think like they do is a way to understand them better and know how to respond.
Baby horses don’t fit in fly masks very well and trying to use them was a futile attempt for me – Legend pulled his and Suede’s masks off.
Don’t take your son to a horse breeding farm unless you both have the money to bring one home.
jen@jenjeffrey.com