We were invited to Albert Lee's 71st Birthday Party a few days before Christmas in Bell Canyon at the house of a friend of his. That is him in the picture with me. Both he and I were born in Herefordshire England. Here is a link with more info about Albert who is one of the greatest guitarists
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Lee

Christmas at our house with Eddy, Stephanie and their dog Hyan. Heather and Ryan.
Doug's family also came later in the day.We met Jonathan's new girlfriend and Don Peake and his girl friend came to visit as well. My mother came on Skype from England and we visited with her and my twin mid morning. It was a wonderful Christmas.

We had more rain.

It rained a lot and left a lake in the arena. Karrot and Pesky spent a lot of time pawing and splashing in it today. Roy was keeping watch and Sierra kept well away from the two boys.

Coco lets Milo sit on her back. Thanksgiving visit with Amara and Aiden at Nancy and Jessie's.

The focus has been on Coco a 15 year old Morgan mare owned by Doug's daughter.
Coco had a colic that lasted for a month and a half. Originally diagnosed as sand colic. She would get better one week and then have a relapse. Doug's ex who fed and cared for Coco was leaving to go on vacation, she asked us if we would take care of Coco. I looked for Coco who had been turned out. She was colicing again. I called the vet. The vet could not find anything such as an impaction, but suspected something much more serious. The following morning we took Coco to the vet hospital a short drive away. She was xrayed and a large enterolith or stone was seen in her colon. She had to be operated on immediately as death was the only other outcome. Doug contacted his daughter and she talked to the vet. Fortunately she had the funds to pay for the operation and recovery at the hospital. I went out side to tell the person holding Coco and she  took Coco to be prepped for surgery. I watched the operation from a viewing area, it took about 3 hours. An enterolith that weighed 9 lbs and measured 10 inches across was removed from her. Coco spent 10 days at the hospital and Doug and I went out every day to walk her and let her eat grass.Doug's daughter and grand girls also went to see her and walk her. So now Coco is back at home and is doing really well. She can not be ridden for two months, but she is making an amazing recovery.

I have been focusing on riding Karrot for the past few weeks. Almost every day I have tacked up and taken him into the arena, and then out through the main gate and onto the trails. The first few tries he would not go very far. Then bit by bit he went farther. Then stable mate Stacey invited us to go with her and after that Karrot went all the way around the shortest and easiest trail circuit. He has done that twice now and I will do it several more times before we branch out and explore other trails.Stacey and I did go on one of the other trails as well. Karrot was bomb proof. My main concern is his fitness level and physical capabilities. He is 27 now.

I was hoping to ride Coco, but she got sand colic and it has taken weeks for her to get back to eating normally.


 Below is Karrot out on the trail.and having a bath afterwards.

We moved the horses to Jessie and Nancy's, Doug's daughter and ex wifes place.

It is heaven for me, there is an arena and trails right outside the gate. I am also riding Jessie's Morgan mare Coco, who was shown at one time. We are also spending time repairing things around the place. The gates leading out were in a bad way and are now open able and repainted.

Karrot

Coco

Karrot Pesky and Sierra

Karrot

Karrot

I have not posted in a while. Not much has happened other than the vegetable garden has produced a lot of vegetables and our former house in Fort Bragg is for sale. The weather was hot and humid for a couple of weeks, and we even had rain over night and into the morning, but not enough to make much of a difference.
I have made a lot of custom pedigrees for a woman who lives in Mississippi. She also wanted me to make big 11 X 14 pedigrees of some horses that I had the master copies for. Then I saw that she was bidding on some of the pedigrees that I had on ebay that were duplicates of ones that she already had. So I contacted her about it. She said that she was "playing on ebay" and was bidding up my pedigrees so that other people would bid more. Well that is the end of my interactions with her !! I also had a customer who bought a lot of my pedigrees. I was informed by a stranger that this person had made copies of my pedigrees and was selling them on ebay. Fortunately ebay contacted him when I made a complaint about copyright infringement, my signature was on each pedigree.

Doug's grandson Aiden "fishing" at our fish pond.

The garden has grown a lot and we are harvesting a lot of vegetables including tomatoes and zucchini. The avocado tree that we planted is thriving, and we just planted a climbing rose called Don Juan, red and fragrant. This will climb up a support that Doug made from wood that came from the deck. Our new grape vine Thompson Seedless has almost reached the top of the veranda at the back of the house. The daytime temperatures are usually around 80 degress F and nights 45 to 50.

The Garden April 2014

The garden is coming along. I have planted a lot of vegetables, including lettuce, tomatoes, beans, potatoes, leeks, swiss chard in the area where the deck was. Where the swimming pool was is the fish pond with 15 fish in it, and a Haas Avocado tree is planted to the one side. We have also planted several citrus trees

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We had visitors. Our friends Tim and Erica who live in the Bay Area came with their three boys to stay over the weekend. The boys set up camp in the back yard.

Tim and Erica's boys with Doug's grandson in the middle.

At Corrieganville

The garden

The chickens pecking around

A view of the pool

Another view of the garden

I have been doing a lot of work on the fish pond and vegetable garden areas. The pond has plants in it and 15 gold fish. The veg garden has a lot of horse manure in it and gypsum for the adobe clay soil. Six broccoli plants and six runner bean plants. Planted are sweet peas, chard, garlic and arugula.