I haven't exactly gotten the hang of posting on this blog, so somehow I have ended up with a second entry today instead of just one. I'll figure it out eventually!!
We have new babies here at the ranch and I couldn't resist posting a couple of photographs! Our new miniature donkeys...Glory and her little boy Kioti (I'm just not thrilled with the spelling of Quixote but I like the way it sounds...so...some creative spelling on my part). I've always heard about how gentle and loving the "long ears" are, but I never would have believed how wonderful they really are!! One their first night here I dragged a chair into their little temporary pen and the baby came and laid his head in my lap and Glory hooked her neck over my shoulder...rugging her face against the side of my face. Incredible. I have been spoiling them with little treats and I've learned that they just LOVE green grapes!! If you go out they always greet you with that "tin man" hee haw sound and if you have grapes they'll literally try to pick your pockets. They are more wonderful than I can even describe. I have lots of loving little miniature horses too, but none of them are as sweet and gentle as the donkeys. Bliss....
I went out this morning and found Jay working on his new freezer all alone! He had already set up 8 of the huge 14' panels and had already started on the roof! We're ice sculptors by trade (have I already told you that?) and we host an event here at the ranch every year called "The Ice Cutter's Christmas". We have always had ice sculptures out on display through the woods, but in the Texas warmth, they only last for one night. People come and ride the jingle bell hayride around to see the sculptures and all the Christmas light displays and we have storytellers and ice sculpting demonstrations...lots of food and everyone takes the little tour through my quilt studio. We lived in New Jersey for several years and held the event there and the sculptures often stayed up for days...even three weeks one year!! One year Country Living Magazine came and did a feature story about the ice and the last year Charles Osgood did a story about it on CBS Sunday Morning....it was incredible! We've been back in Texas for 14 years, but 5 years ago we just decided to go ahead and carve the ice and hold the event...even though it would only last for one night.
This past summer I found a huge freezer on Ebay and bought it for Jay...and we travelled to Florida to pick it up (and spent a wonderful week at Disneyworld along the way)! We looked like the Beverly Hillbillies coming home with two huge trailers loaded to the max with freezer panels and refrigeration, but we got it here!! We finally have all of the electricity upgraded and the freezer is going up!! Hopefully this Christmas he can carve some extreme sculptures in his 40' X 20" freezer (ultimately it will be twice that size!) and the people here can see what he can REALLY do! I found him today...soaked through his clothes from exertion...putting up panels almost twice his size...but he's getting it done!
