We Had a Dream

In July 2010 we attended Nature's Harmony Farm Business School for a weekend seminar.  We came away realizing we already had the perfect customer base--our kids and grandkids.  We had moved to Zephyr Hill Farm on a whim, but that summer weekend the whim became a dream.  We dreamed of Zephyr Hill Farm as a place our children and grandchildren would love to visit, to experience God's amazing creation--especially His creatures, and to build lifelong memories.

On December 23, Jim and Monique arrived with Charis, who turned six on the 28th; Kol, who will be four in January; and Eden, who will be two in April.  Jenny, Jean-Marc and their dog Tai arrived from Ohio on Christmas Eve.  Kara had already been here for several days with her dog Bonnie, cooking, baking and decorating up a storm.  Katie and Cameron could not join us as they were heading to New Zealand the day after Christmas.  We missed them, but the celebration went on . . .

All kinds of fun were on the menu, like jumping off the Kubota . . .

getting horsey kisses . . .

and tickles!

Kol and Charis lifted Eden up for a horsey kiss, too . . .

while Julie was just her perfect size.

Not even big, tall Romeo could faze Eden, a truly fearless animal lover.

Charis discovered the fall leaves . . .

and everyone piled right in.

On Christmas Eve we sang Christmas carols around the table after our dinner of fresh Ohio tamales and homemade grass-fed beef chili.

Christmas morning began with one of our favorite traditions.  Everyone has to stay in their room until Dad and Mom (or Didi and Mimi) turn on all the Christmas lights.  Finally, when everything is ready, I give the cue to come downstairs by turning on Percy Faith's "Joy to the World" at 99 on my Bose player.  It definitely wakes any stragglers!

This has for many years been our way of beginning Christmas morning with the joyous announcement of the birth of Jesus.

Full of exuberance while she waited for the slow grown-ups, Eden raced around and around the room . . .

while Charis and Kol clapped their hands over their ears to dim the pealing music and followed suit.

Like the rest of us, Jean-Marc enjoyed a cup of coffee while Santa Herb distributed the presents, assisted by Aunt Kara the Elf.

Jenny kept her camera poised to capture Christmas memories.

Eden helped Jim open his gift of grass-fed Zephyr Hill Farm beef.

Charis and Kol exercised enormous artistic talent and generosity this year, and Aunt Kara was the beneficiary of an original Charis work of art.

Monique shared Eden's joy over a stuffed doggie from Aunt Jenny and Uncle Jean-Marc.

And finally, after a treasure hunt through the house, the children found Didi and Mimi's present in the basement, an HO train complete with an antique village from Mimi's childhood, a mountain tunnel studded with real West Texas rocks, and a little farm with a pasture full of animals.

We were blessed by five full days with the family, loving every minute (except the ones I spent sick in bed). Sunday found everyone heading for home, whether Ohio or nearby Chattanooga.  Before the grandkids left, they had a few last requests . . .  Eden got to say goodbye to the animals.

Charis got a birthday kiss.

Kol and Eden talked to the cattle over the fence.

And there was time for one last romp on the hay bale playground Jim and Didi had built in the hay barn.

Although we made many happy memories this Christmas, there's one I'll always remember.  Monique told us that when Kol woke up the morning after Christmas, he asked her, "Mama, is this a dream?"

"No, it's real," she reassured him.

But she was wrong.  It was a dream--our dream come true!

An Eventful Week in Review

This has been an eventful week that would definitely get mixed reviews.

On Sunday I found Robin laying out flat in the barnyard with one leg curled under her and the wing on the same side partially splayed out.  She was very cold and snuggled into me when I picked her up.  I brought her into the laundry room and put her in a milk crate lined with hay with some water and crumble at hand, and I put a floor lamp with lots of wattage next to her to warm her up.  She ate and drank a bit and seemed pretty bright-eyed, although she didn't seem at all inclined to move.

On Monday Kim Newswanger arrived to pick up Tiggy, and of course we went out to let Kim say hi to Ebony since Kim was her first mama.  You can imagine my shock when just as I was taking this photo, Kim said, "What's this?"  Ebby had a lump on the underside of her jaw just about where Kim's hand is in the photo.  Neither of us knew what it was, and it was very hard to see through the long hair under her jaw, but it was obviously painful.  There was a small scab which I picked off, and it had a small amount of pus on the inside.  A call to the vet was in order.

I had warned Kim that I have not been able to make friends with Tiggy.  This is as far as we've gotten--and only while she's eating!  As soon as the grain is gone she backs away from me.  Her "safety zone" has gradually gone down from about 10 to 2 feet, but she is definitely wary of us.

We had to corner Tiggy to catch her and put Kim's halter on her.  I've told Kim all along that she's a cow whisperer and that as soon as Tiggy meets her she'll melt in a big puddle of chocolate all over Kim.  It wasn't quite that dramatic, but Tiggy warmed up to her pretty quickly!

With a lot of coaxing, Kim led Tiggy out to the trailer, and she hopped right in!  One thing that made me feel a tiny bit better was that Tiggy was actually grinding her teeth as Kim led her--the process was apparently that agonizing!  She recovered quickly--after just a few days at her new home, she comes right up to Kim for treats and scratches.  I told Kim that my story (since Tiggy isn't telling a different one) is that this smart little cookie heard in utero that she wasn't meant to be ours, that she was meant to go back to live with Kim.  I think she's just been waiting all this time for her real mama to come get her, so why waste any affection on me?  :)

After Kim and Tiggy left, we switched animals to different pastures.  Now that Tiggy is gone, we don't have to keep Royal two pastures away from her, so we moved the cattle up to Kara's pasture, their winter sacrifice pasture.   Angel, Brandy and Julie had been in the back of Kara's pasture getting to know Romeo over the electric fence, but I wanted them to have a lot more room for their first official meeting so we put them all out where the cattle had been.  Of course everyone took off galloping!

While Angel and Brandy found some green grass, Julie went over to meet Romeo.

"Hi." BAM!  I guess being the smallest and lowest on the totem pole, she wanted to put him in his place right off the bat.

Romeo realized Julie was not his Juliet, and he high-tailed it out of there.

 Of course the harem followed right on his heels.


Don't we have a colorful bunch?  (In more ways than one!)

We also have some very opinionated ladies, and Brandy's opinion is that SHE is the Alpha mare!

Finally the girls hared off on their own and left Romeo alone.  He has always been a sweet, peaceful guy and pretty low on the totem pole as long as we've known him.

As the sun set, equine relations seemed to reach détente.

Meanwhile, I had called the vet about Ebby's lump, and he said he'd try to get here in a day or so.  I was worried that she might have something called "lumpy jaw," which I knew was serious, and I wanted to get her seen as soon as possible.

Finally I finally found a vet who could come on Wednesday.  So that afternoon we got Ebby in the squeeze chute to get her lump checked out and see what had caused it.  The vet shaved the lump and gave her a thorough examination, including looking inside her mouth.  Although he had never actually seen a case of lumpy jaw, he said that it is usually located farther back on the jaw, closer to the cheek.  He said that Ebby's lump seemed to be an abscess, probably caused by inflammation from new teeth, and it appeared to have already drained.  The lump, while still tender, felt thick and didn't have an open channel.  As a precaution, he cleaned it well with an antiseptic and took a swab in the small bloody spot that was visible after cleaning.  The culture would take a week to get results, and he told me to keep iodine on it in the meantime.  I felt reassured, although I was still concerned.

Wednesday morning I had noticed that Robin seemed to be going downhill.  Figuring it couldn't hurt and might encourage her to move, I fixed up a pen for her on the back porch in the sunshine and put her there with food and water.  She simply lay there, uninterested in anything.  When the sun moved, I shifted her to take advantage of the warm rays.  Later that afternoon when I came back to check on her after treating Ebby, poor Robin had died.  I was glad she'd had the sun on her back for her last morning.

Late Thursday afternoon I got a call from our main cattle vet.  He had hoped to get out here but wasn't going to make it, so he was checking on Ebby.  He said that he was pretty sure she had an abscess and that normally he would drain it and give her a shot of Excede, a long-acting antibiotic.  Since it had already drained, if I wanted to meet him somewhere, he'd give me the Excede.  So Friday morning I got Ebby into the squeeze chute and gave her the shot--although it wasn't quite as simple as it sounds.  Cows HATE shots!  Nevertheless, thanks to the squeeze chute, Ebony got her Excede.  I was glad to see that the lump had shrunk some more and was definitely less tender.

By this morning the lump looked smaller, although I think Ebby may always have a lump of scar tissue.  She let me scratch it, though, which I took as a good sign.

Herb had clued me in to something he had observed, and I could hardly believe what he told me.  So I took the camera with me this morning so that I could write a fitting end to the story of this week.

It may not be too surprising to see Romeo pin his ears at Julie and tell her to leave his grain alone.  After all, she was the first to try to kick his teeth in!

And it may not be surprising to see Angel, close to Romeo and warning Julie off, especially if you remember that Angel knew Romeo long ago before he went to Texas.  What is really astonishing is what you DON'T see in this photo--Brandy!  That's because Brandy was up eating hay . . . which she could finally do after Romeo left.

Meet Romeo, the new Alpha!  Angel--the only one who didn't try to kick him--is his sidekick, and Brandy--the former Alpha--is neck and neck with Julie for last place.  I think Romeo is saying that the moral to this story is:  "He who laughs last, laughs best!"

For Love of Romeo

In July 2001, we returned to the States after eleven years in France, leaving behind two wonderful horses, Tsar and Vanille.  Herb promised Kara and me that we could have horses in the States, and we didn't wait long to take him up on that!  I found my Angel in November.  The lady who ran the horse farm where I boarded Angel promised to look for a horse that Kara could use for jumping.

On December 1, 2001, Kara saddled up Just Romeo, a five-year old registered Quarter Horse who had been in the University of Georgia equine program, both English and Western.  Kara was allowed to try Romeo out for a week before deciding to buy him, and it just so happened that a jumping competition was taking place that day at the horse farm.

Kara and Romeo hit it off immediately and began collecting ribbons.

Six ribbons out of seven competitions was not bad for a first ride!  Two weeks later we took Kara back to the horse farm to meet her 13th birthday present.  It wasn't much . . . it was "Just Romeo!"

I was usually riding Angel at the same time Kara was riding Romeo, so I don't have too many photos of them, but I did get some when they did a Ride-a-Test at a local polo venue, Bendabout Farm, in April 2003. 

Although the jumps were low, Romeo performed beautifully as always.  Jumping was his and Kara's real love.

Neither Romeo nor Kara cared much for dressage, which was (unfortunately) what the lady who ran the farm preferred.  She tried her hardest to extend Romeo's trot, which was very comfortable trot, but tended to resemble a Western jog.

Romeo made a reliable trail horse and a fun family horse, too.  For Hallowe'en that year, my daughter-in-law Monique dressed up as "Juliet" and rode her "Romeo" in the farm Hallowe'en parade.

No matter who was riding him, Romeo was, pure and simple, a "love."

In July 2004, we trailered Romeo, Angel and our two dogs all the way out to far West Texas--a long-time dream of Kara's and mine.

My brother- and sister-in-law always generously provided horses for us to ride when we visited, but having our own horses with us made that trip very special.

They both adapted to the rough west Texas country as if they'd been born there . . .

. . . although they both also found a new affinity for every tank and water hole to cool off in.

Romeo was alert to whatever he heard moving through the brush nearby, but as steady as always.

When we decided to move Angel and Romeo from the first farm, the place we found to board did not have a riding ring for jumping.  Along with Kara's changing interests as she grew older and found new friends, this meant that she wasn't riding much any more.  We thought about selling Romeo, but we hated to part with such a good horse.

That was how, in March 2005, Romeo headed out to west Texas to live on a family ranch.  It wasn't so much a "goodbye" as a "see you later."  We did see Romeo several more times when we were out there, and Kara got to enjoy riding him.  But then we all got older and life got in the way, and for seven years we didn't make it to Texas.  

When we finally did, Kara had a poignant reunion with Romeo.  It was clear that we weren't the only ones that had aged.  Romeo wasn't a five-year old youngster any more, but an eighteen-year old senior horse.  He was fine and healthy, but Kara realized that sooner or later he would die on the range and be eaten by buzzards and coyotes, because that's the way things happen out there.  She realized that she wanted him to come Home. 

And that is how, at 2 a.m. on Monday, Sept. 8, Romeo came home.  The commercial hauler had a pretty adventurous time getting his semi-horse trailer down our lower drive and up a hill in the pasture to turn around, but everyone made it safely.  The driver and I walked Romeo up to the barn and got him settled for the night.  (Kara was still in West Texas, having had to delay her flight to allow her to be there to get Romeo loaded.)  The next morning Romeo's new "harem" was waiting as close to his stall as they could get, his old friend Angel (the black mare) eager to greet him.

Romeo isn't the best traveler, although he does much better in an air-ride commercial trailer, so we'll be feeding him up a bit as he settles in and gets used to his new life.  He probably thinks we dragged him from Heaven to Hell, it's been so horribly humid here compared to what he's used to!

On the advice of our equine vet, Dr. White, Romeo will be in quarantine for three weeks until any danger of shipping fever is past.  He's already gotten his immunizations to protect him against Georgia's illnesses.

Meanwhile, Julie, Angel and Brandy are waiting impatiently--for love of Romeo.