If Money Were No Object

I spent a couple of hours today working towards getting all of the blankets organized for the season. Notice I said "working towards" getting organized.  As I was sorting through the first few piles of blankets re-labeling them with  names and then distributing them to the appropriate location my mind started to wander. I don't mind handling clean horse blankets, but I loathe dragging around dirty horse blankets. I don't know why but I think horse blankets have some special membrane that attracts and retains dirt and grime, and all of that dirt and grime winds up on me. 

As I continued on with my self conversation about dreading all of the dirty horse blankets in my future I had one of those "if money were no object" thoughts. I decided if money were no object I would hire someone whose only job was to carry around dirty horse blankets so I never had to do it again. I don't really mind putting the dirty blankets on the horse since I can kind of swing them on the horse while mostly avoiding contact. I really mind carrying an armload of dirty blankets out to the pasture as it is inevitable I wind up coated in whatever is on this blankets. One day, when I reach that point in my life where money is no object, I will post a help wanted ad for my very own carrier of dirty horse blankets. 

I relayed my thoughts to Jason and asked him what he would have if money were no object. Originally he said he would have an unlimited gravel budget. Between our driveway, the barnyard areas, around the water troughs, by the hay feeders and around the gates in the pastures we have well over 50 loads of gravel spread around the farm (we aren't sure exactly how many because we finally stopped counting). We're about to add another five loads this week to replace some gravel in a few areas and we would really like to have about 15 more loads. The unlimited gravel budget was sounding nice.

Upon further reflection Jason said to forget the unlimited gravel budget and he would just pave everything. Pave the driveway, pave around the gates, pave around the water troughs, pave the barnyard areas, pave in the hay barns, pave where the hay feeders go in each pasture. There would be nothing on our farm but grass and concrete. 

Surely I am not the only person that has these types of musings? If money were no object what would you have?

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Winston, Lotus and Faune

Traveller and Maisie

Walden and Fabrizzio

Lucky and O'Reilly

Stormy and Rampal

Grand

Noble and Fabrizzio

Murphy and Wiz

Sam doing some post-meal licking

Renny

Truck Waving

I was driving along in the truck the other day, waving back at the other truck drivers I passed on the road who were waving at me. Sometimes I have deep thoughts while I'm driving. My deep thought the other day was a one I have pondered before but never really answered. Why is it when I am driving a truck people in other trucks always wave as we pass each other on the road? Is it assumed that all people who drive trucks are some kind of kindred spirits and were we to find ourselves standing in line at the convenience store together we would immediately start chatting?

When I had my recruiting company and was hating corporate life I went through the same phase that many people do, trying to buy toys to make myself forget about how much I disliked my job (I disliked my own company - that was successful!). Every year I would get myself a fancy new car, each one nicer than the one before. I was still unhappy despite whatever vehicle I was driving but I guess I was testing out the definition of insanity. You know, the one that says insanity is doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a different result.

Getting back to my point, I can state with authority that, for example, BMW drivers do not wave at other BMW drivers. The same goes for Infiniti drivers and Mercedes drivers, they do NOT wave at each other as they pass on the road, or maybe I should say they didn't wave at me. So why do people driving trucks wave at other people driving trucks? Anyone know the answer?

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I took this picture just because I love our new farm and I enjoy looking at it in pictures.

Lucky and O'Reilly hanging out

MyLight and Silky

Romeo and Gus

Fonzi

Winston and Faune

George

Rampal

Clayton and Stormy

Rocky

Cuff Links and MyLight

Marital (Dis)Harmony

Today, after fifteen years of practice with two women, I think I've mostly figured out how to keep a harmonious marriage. In fact, the metaphor that would most aptly describe my marriage to Melissa most of the time is "like a beautiful piano concerto". Having said that, when one is building a business and a life with one's partner, there are lots of opportunities for "crashing cymbals" .... the metaphor which best describe our disagreements.

Melissa can best be described as a "future" thinker. By this, what I mean is that if given the time and opportunity, she can and will think through every possible combination of events that could befall us, sometimes years ahead of schedule. This is kind of baffling to me, but what is EVEN MORE baffling is that for no apparent reason she will begin to act on a set of random perceived consequences (which to her are almost inevitable) long before (in my opinion) the course of action has been set (or the problem even thought about). My usual response is a baffled, " What in the world are you doing ?" In truth, I already know what she is doing. Her thought process is quick and it has to be quickly followed by action. She is a natural born worrier who has a quintessential Type A, high drive personality. Her brain is like a bunch of hamsters running amok on a never ending treadmill.

Nobody who knows me would ever describe my brain function that way. Not my mother. Not my best friend. Nobody. Although I share Melissa's Type A personality and task focus when it comes to getting work done, my brain's natural pace is that of a fat, lazy hamster who spends an inordinate amount of time on the couch drinking beer and watching TV. I may occasionally act quickly, but I think very s-l-o-w-l-y and my brain takes lots and lots of time outs to refresh itself. Nobody is ever going to accuse my brain of working itself to death.

As you might imagine, combining these two thought processes often leads to significant friction.

I have been thinking through various problems related to building out our new farm for the better part of three months. And until very recently I haven't been doing much about said problems beyond thinking them through, although to be fair even I realize that the time for action (on some of the things I've been thinking about in my brain) is well nigh. This process has been helped along by increasingly frequent tonal changes and ever increasing volumes emanating from my better half. Really I kind of feel sorry for her. It's not that I don't want to act. My brain just isn't ready to be done thinking yet. In the interim, poor Melissa has gone from civil disagreement to red in the face yelling and about a week ago she crossed over to begging and pleading. I thought she was going to have a stroke.

Mercifully, about the time I thought Melissa was going to stroke out, my fat, lazy brain decided it was done thinking and it was (finally) time to get off the couch and engage in some serious action. As is predictable in our case, this change of pace immediately led to much improved marital relations. In fact, way off in the distance, I thought I faintly heard the sound of a piano earlier this evening.

(Melissa here: Reading this post made me think about another time when the differences in our decision making came out. A few years ago I made the mistake of letting Jason go pick out a movie for us to watch by himself. I was sick with the flu and feeling really miserable. He offered to go get us a movie to watch, under the pretense that this was supposed to help me feel better, or at least temporarily forget about how bad I felt. What does he come home with? The TV miniseries "Roots."

Let me tell you this did nothing to make me feel better or forget about my woes. In fact by the end of it I was more sick and depressed than ever. If he wanted to watch a TV series couldn't he have brought home "Seinfeld" or "Friends" or something aside from the one of the most depressing things I've ever watched? I'm not saying there weren't a lot of good messages to take home from "Roots" but come on, I was sick as a dog! )


I hope everyone is having a great week so far !

Two of the ponies, Cuff Links and Missy

Lily and Levendi enjoying a grooming session over the fence while Leo naps nearby
Baby using the fence as a scratching post
Faune grazing with Alex and B-Rad behind him
Missy, MyLight and Harmony doing some early morning grazing
Teddy having a nap
O'Reilly
Lucky
Slinky and Clay

Horse Husbands and Significant Others

Melissa attended a clinic at Southern Promise Farms, Triune, TN which began early Saturday morning. In order to get her there on time we started our chores at the very crack of dawn, which was actually kind of pleasant. Some while after she left, I finished up with chores and I headed over there...it's only 5 miles from home.... to watch her ride like a good horse husband ought to do. I did that for a little while and even managed to capture some (rather poor) images of her riding and jumping Bonnie on camera, but it was hot standing around in the sun, and frankly kind of boring being the only man watching a bunch of women ride at a clinic. I did enjoy a brief conversation with one of our blog followers who, given her equipment, looked to be much more adept than me with cameras....Hi to Kelly from Alabama !


After an hour, I had about as much fun as I thought I could stand and I was thinking long and hard about how to make an appropriate exit, leaving Melissa to her fun. About that time, I spotted my friend Jerry (who owns the farm with his wife Anita), with his truck parked and the doors open, in the shade under a grove of hackberry trees on a hill a quarter mile away (and well hidden) from the clinic. He had his feet resting on the dashboard and the seat reclined which looked pretty good to me. I bid farewell to Melissa and the other girls and eased our Tahoe up next to him for a visit.


In their retirement Jerry and his wife run their 800 acre farm. They board quite a bunch of horses and keep a large herd of cattle so Jerry and I usually have more things to discuss than we have time to get it done in. But we both had time this morning and we took advantage of it. Pretty soon, we forgot all about the girls and the clinic and were deep into discussing torque amplifier failures on International 986's, followed by discussing construction progress on their lovely new riding arena and large new horse barn, followed by a deep discussion on scopes, weaponry and ammunition.


We also delved a little bit into how much it costs us in time, effort and money to keep our respective horse women mostly happy with a dash of sunshine, which we both realize is our main goal in life. Given how much "happiness plus horses" costs, I sometimes wish out loud for better results than I manage to achieve, but since I'm still married and since my lovely wife Melissa sometimes even uses the word "happily" when describing our union to others, I figure I must be doing something right ! :)


So ladies (and gentlemen), today's topic is horse spouses and/or significant others, long suffering or otherwise. I'm always open for new ideas about how to increase the happiness quotient in my marriage, and, more importantly, I'm always open for good stories about spouses, children and significant others, so please feel free to share away !

Slinky, Lightening and Spike

B-Rad, Alex and Ogie grazing early in the morning as the sun was rising

Hemi making his way through the pasture

Homer, Leo and Apollo

A very faded Thomas

Ivan, Apollo, Trigger and Tony

Although I refer to 2010 as the year of the wild turkeys it could be the year of the rabbit as well; in the early evenings I basically trip over rabbits as I walk around the farm.

Norman, Lexi and Sparky

Apollo

Winston and Faune

Enjoying the Moment

Every year in February I wonder if spring will ever come. The pastures look terrible and the landscape just looks so dead. This year I was really beginning to wonder if the grass would come back and if spring would ever come. Usually our daffodils are in full bloom by the last week of February if not earlier. Today they finally began to bloom and what I consider to be my personal, official, sign of spring finally arrived!

The daffodils put a smile on my face every year

Our weather has continued to be so lovely, mid to upper 60's and sunshine, with an occasional day in the 70's. It rained for a couple of hours over night last night as I hoped it would. A nice, warm rain was exactly what the grass ordered and overnight the cool season grasses were appearing very green. The warm season grasses are still a few weeks away but it definitely looked and felt like spring on the farm today. The birds were singing, my water troughs all have grass pieces dribbled into them instead of hay pieces, and shedding hair is flying everywhere. Heaven.

Mina and Jo and Billy grazing in my back yard. It looked like someone had spray painted the grass to make it green overnight.

This afternoon I did something that is extremely rare for me. I sat on a bench in front of the barn. I just sat there not doing anything, and watched the horses in the pasture, watched the goats, watched The Don (the rooster), listened to the birds, and enjoyed the sunshine. This is such a rare occurrence it actually prompted Jason to come over and ask me what was wrong, I am always doing something, I don't ever just SIT. It was one of those moments when everything simply feels right in the world and you want to freeze time and treasure it. I have to admit that I never had those moments in corporate life, even as a CEO running my own successful company. There is something about being on a farm, surrounded by a menagerie of content animals and soaking up beautiful weather that speaks to a fundamental part of my being. I'm glad I took the time to soak it in and just be for a little while this afternoon.

Tomorrow is another farrier day. Tomorrow it is supposed to rain all morning, at least until noon. I'm thinking tomorrow won't be as perfect as today. However, since I had such a perfect day today I probably won't complain about being soaking wet . . . . . . . . much.

Apollo, Homer, Chance and Trigger in the afternoon sun

Levendi

Slinky

Dustin

Elfin

Chance, Homer and Apollo. If you look closely you will see that the only part of Homer (gray) that isn't solid mud is the bottom half of his head

Harmony and Cuffie

O'Reilly, Chili and Snappy

Sebastian

B-Rad

Winston and Alex with a perfect blue sky behind them

Lucky and Teddy were just hanging out

Alex and B-Rad

Faune and Sebastian