Well..it's been months since I added anything to my blog. It's time to get started.
For anyone who doesn't know me, it's hard to know where to begin!! I've been reading Melody Johnson's blog (my absolute favorite quilt artist) and I've gotten to know her so well as I've read her archived entries...and learned so much about quilting and dyeing!! I don't have much to teach, but this blog is meant only to record the events in our lives because I sometimes don't even believe myself the things that happen to us!!
We've had an eventful and exciting couple of months...moving ahead in just about every area. It's hard to believe that some many "dreams" are coming true all at the same time. We continue to work night and day on this little ranch of ours, and the ice sculpting business is going gangbusters!! We've almost doubled our sales of last year which is WONDERFUL, but it doesn't leave much time for all the other things that we want to do! We bought two huge freezers over the past summer that we are trying desperately to get up and running. The freezers require three-phase electricity and that's proving to be incredibly expensive...maybe as much as $12,000 to install. After that we'll have to face the costs to set up the freezer and get it running. It's our hope that this holiday season, we'll be able to have a huge freezer full of incredible ice sculpture displays for the "Ice Cutter's Christmas". It's a big hurdle, but I think we'll get it done.
I have always wanted some Sebastopol geese. They're unbelievably hard to find, but a month ago I actually found a farm in Oregon that was willing to sell four goslings to me! They arrived two weeks ago...tiny day-old babies...who traveled over 2,000 miles to get here. Now...just two weeks after their arrival, they are at least 8 times that size. It's hard to believe they're the same birds!! If you've never seen Sebastopol geese, you just HAVE to google them and see some photos. Nancy (my sister) says they look like they have wedding dresses on. They're elegant and stately, with super curly feathers. They were in the house for the first few days...staying warm under the lights and then they moved outside to the little "chicken tractor" cage that Jay built for them. Now we can move them around the yard and they can have fresh grass every day. They seem very happy. We're working on ideas for a permanent home for them and (in keeping with the Silver Star Ranch theme), we're thinking that the idea of "brides" won't work very well and so we're thinking that maybe they look a bit like saloon girls...dancing girls! Jay's going to build a coop for them that looks like a little old west saloon and we'll put up a sign that says "live performances daily". With the addition of our four geese, I realized that the number of animals on our little farm has just topped 40!! No wonder I'm so tired after feeding every day!! I have 9 horses (7 of them miniature), 10 English Springer dogs, two little sheep (I guess that would make them lambs), two adult miniature goats and one little month-old kid, at least 7 chickens, two rabbits...and then.....we found one more that we just couldn't resist. Last week the semi-annual "Tradin' Days" took place in Conroe. Jay has always teased me about needing a 12-step program for farm animal addiction has finally admitted that he loves them all just as much as I do! He wanted to go to Tradin' Days with me (which is not exactly a first...but VERY unexpected!!). We no sooner parked the truck than I saw a HUGE steer with a saddle on his back! I looked at Jay and said "He's going home with us" and he laughed out loud..."I don't THINK so!!". We went to see him and realized that they were offering rides on him for $5.00 and photos on his back for $1.00 and people were standing in line to ride! He's a long-horned Hereford and he's amazingly gentle. She had a sign up that announced that he was for sale too...!! We pet him for a while and felt badly for him. He's a beautiful, serene, elegant animal...who was standing there tolerating all the attention and giving rides to all takers. We left him reluctantly and went to see all the animals...bought a few chickens (and I talked Jay OUT of buying a pot-bellied pig) and then went back by the steer. There were two couples there...both obviously deliberating about buying him. One old man turned to his wife and told her to go home to get the horse trailer (to take the steer home) and then stepped over to this steer to pet him and this animal...who had been unbelievably tolerant of all of those people sidestepped!! He so obviously didn't like that man...!! All of a sudden, Jay walked over to the steer's owner and said "I'd like to buy him" and we did!! Now he has a home here on the ranch. His name is Pecos Bill and he seems VERY happy! He's so gentle that he's in the pasture with all my little horses!! I have a feeling that he'll be ridden every once in a while again...during the Fire and Ice Cook-off and maybe when we have other special events here, but mostly he's going to live a life of leisure.
So much else is happening..but this post is getting long. More tomorrow.
For anyone who doesn't know me, it's hard to know where to begin!! I've been reading Melody Johnson's blog (my absolute favorite quilt artist) and I've gotten to know her so well as I've read her archived entries...and learned so much about quilting and dyeing!! I don't have much to teach, but this blog is meant only to record the events in our lives because I sometimes don't even believe myself the things that happen to us!!
We've had an eventful and exciting couple of months...moving ahead in just about every area. It's hard to believe that some many "dreams" are coming true all at the same time. We continue to work night and day on this little ranch of ours, and the ice sculpting business is going gangbusters!! We've almost doubled our sales of last year which is WONDERFUL, but it doesn't leave much time for all the other things that we want to do! We bought two huge freezers over the past summer that we are trying desperately to get up and running. The freezers require three-phase electricity and that's proving to be incredibly expensive...maybe as much as $12,000 to install. After that we'll have to face the costs to set up the freezer and get it running. It's our hope that this holiday season, we'll be able to have a huge freezer full of incredible ice sculpture displays for the "Ice Cutter's Christmas". It's a big hurdle, but I think we'll get it done.
I have always wanted some Sebastopol geese. They're unbelievably hard to find, but a month ago I actually found a farm in Oregon that was willing to sell four goslings to me! They arrived two weeks ago...tiny day-old babies...who traveled over 2,000 miles to get here. Now...just two weeks after their arrival, they are at least 8 times that size. It's hard to believe they're the same birds!! If you've never seen Sebastopol geese, you just HAVE to google them and see some photos. Nancy (my sister) says they look like they have wedding dresses on. They're elegant and stately, with super curly feathers. They were in the house for the first few days...staying warm under the lights and then they moved outside to the little "chicken tractor" cage that Jay built for them. Now we can move them around the yard and they can have fresh grass every day. They seem very happy. We're working on ideas for a permanent home for them and (in keeping with the Silver Star Ranch theme), we're thinking that the idea of "brides" won't work very well and so we're thinking that maybe they look a bit like saloon girls...dancing girls! Jay's going to build a coop for them that looks like a little old west saloon and we'll put up a sign that says "live performances daily". With the addition of our four geese, I realized that the number of animals on our little farm has just topped 40!! No wonder I'm so tired after feeding every day!! I have 9 horses (7 of them miniature), 10 English Springer dogs, two little sheep (I guess that would make them lambs), two adult miniature goats and one little month-old kid, at least 7 chickens, two rabbits...and then.....we found one more that we just couldn't resist. Last week the semi-annual "Tradin' Days" took place in Conroe. Jay has always teased me about needing a 12-step program for farm animal addiction has finally admitted that he loves them all just as much as I do! He wanted to go to Tradin' Days with me (which is not exactly a first...but VERY unexpected!!). We no sooner parked the truck than I saw a HUGE steer with a saddle on his back! I looked at Jay and said "He's going home with us" and he laughed out loud..."I don't THINK so!!". We went to see him and realized that they were offering rides on him for $5.00 and photos on his back for $1.00 and people were standing in line to ride! He's a long-horned Hereford and he's amazingly gentle. She had a sign up that announced that he was for sale too...!! We pet him for a while and felt badly for him. He's a beautiful, serene, elegant animal...who was standing there tolerating all the attention and giving rides to all takers. We left him reluctantly and went to see all the animals...bought a few chickens (and I talked Jay OUT of buying a pot-bellied pig) and then went back by the steer. There were two couples there...both obviously deliberating about buying him. One old man turned to his wife and told her to go home to get the horse trailer (to take the steer home) and then stepped over to this steer to pet him and this animal...who had been unbelievably tolerant of all of those people sidestepped!! He so obviously didn't like that man...!! All of a sudden, Jay walked over to the steer's owner and said "I'd like to buy him" and we did!! Now he has a home here on the ranch. His name is Pecos Bill and he seems VERY happy! He's so gentle that he's in the pasture with all my little horses!! I have a feeling that he'll be ridden every once in a while again...during the Fire and Ice Cook-off and maybe when we have other special events here, but mostly he's going to live a life of leisure.
So much else is happening..but this post is getting long. More tomorrow.
