Well, we survived the blizzard of 2009. We actually got very little snow compared to south of us. It was must worse there. The gov. closed all the roads in the state for a couple of days. The north wind was gusting up to 63 mph. It was bitterly cold. We do have drifts that are quite deep, lol. Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all

Here it is Christmas Eve 2009! Winter storm watch issued for us. From the maps, it looks like it could be bad. Gary put new bales out yesterday and we have plenty of gas for the generator. Now the generator is not big enough to run the house but it will run the water pump. This is good. At least the horses will not run out of water and we can use the potty! That's a good thing, lol. The wind is howling out of the north and it is 35 degrees. Brrrrrrr. Blizzard on the plains. No new picture today. If we get snow, I will be sure and take pictures of it. Have never really seen a blizzard so that will be a new thing. Glad we spent time building run-ins and the donkey house. At least all the critters can get inside out of the wind. All the horses have been eating hay like crazy. I think they knew something was up. Putting on an extra layer of fat for the storm. I'm glad we are not traveling today, we could get stranded somewhere!! Everyone be careful and have a wonderful Christmas season. Remember, this is Jesus's birthday, not just a holiday. God Bless us every one.

How things looked in 2008

This time of year, we tend to look back and try to find things we have accomplished. The bottom 2 pictures were taken the day after we closed on the ranch, March 13, 2008. The top 2, I took this morning. The barn was divided in half by a full floor-to-ceiling wall. The west half of the barn was knee deep in human trash. Not in bags mind you, just thrown in there. The shop was the same way. We went through dozens of industrial trash bags cleaning it up, using a scoop shovel but mostly just picking it up piece by piece. Don't think I have ever been so glad to get a job done. It was nasty. But now, we look at our little piece of red dirt and smile. We have done a lot in the last year. Built 3 run-ins, round pen, deck, and lots of fence. The only fence left to do is the one around the house to make a real yard. Weather permitting, we will work some more on that this week. We have accquired 5 more rescue horses and the 5 rescue donkeys. Another cat and another dog. I think that is a lot for a little over a year and we can be proud of ourselves.

This is Star peeking through the rails on the new deck. It's finished, now we are waiting for the fencing wire to come in. As well as the gates. It's been too cold to work on building the fence for the yard anyway. Yesterday morning it was 15 degrees here, brrr. Nothing like warming your cold face on a fuzzy, warm horse's neck. The farrier came yesterday and we trimmed the 3 adult donkeys. They stood still while their hooves were trimmed with the grinder, wow. Huge improvement over last time. Donkeys are so very smart. They learn very quickly. The baby BJ also got hers touched up. She on the other hand, has yet to learn this process is not painful, lol. The new cat, Little Man has taken up residence in Pokey and Sweetheart's hay bale. He likes being outside and "talks" to us while we are in Pokey and Sweetheart's run-in during feeding. Pokey and Sweetheart got their feet done last week. Pokey stood very nicely too. Blind horses just take a little time and effort to get them to do things without being scared. Pokey knows our voices and trusts us completely. All is well at Hawk's Acres.