It’s days like today, well, actually, since Wednesday morning
(and it is now Officially Friday morning)(Opps, a friend pointed out that it is actually Thursday, not Friday ~ Guess I’m more out of then I thought!) that I absolutely hate!!

Don’t get me wrong, I love my life. I love everyone in it. BUT, I started back to work, on the graveyard shift. So, it’s been a very long day for me.

Yesterday, being Christmas Day, was a very quiet one. We awoke to rain, not exactly what we need in our saturated yard, but I’m not really complaining, as we can use all the wet we can get after the past couple of years being so dry. The sun did show it’s glorious rays, and we spent some time out on the front porch that Nathan just finished.

I had promised Nathan I would not do any “work” yesterday, so I “played” with a crafting project I want to get done, and played on Facebook, while Nathan got the living room ready for painting, and played with the horses. It was way to wet for me to be outside wondering around the yard.

From 2009-12-26

The dogs stayed out most of the day, and Boo Boo ended up getting a bath because she looked like a mud pie! But, that is okay, she loved it all the same. Boo Boo and Henry are getting along great, even though he is a pain in the butt and likes to aggravate her and Grayson both.

From 2009-12-23

So, from our family, to yours, we hope you had a wonderful Christmas, and wishing you a prosperous New Year!

While most of us are probabaly already thinking about our Thanksgiving Day menu, and a few of you have even shared that you have a bountiful “Black Friday” shopping spree planned complete with hot chocolate and the family in tow, in the small town of Horton, Kansas, a lone modular log cabin stands bare against the night sky. It’s once cheerful windows are dark, and the sounds of joyful laughter and the smells of supper on the stove are not wafting on the wind. Instead, it stands desolate against the cold night air, awaiting it’s robust and cheerful owner to come home and re-claim what is rightfully hers.
On the evening of November 6th, my friend Pat was forcefully abducted from her home, and taken away from all who loved her and held her dear. She had a busy day planned the next morning-shopping with friends, a chili supper, and several phone calls theroughout the day from her large and extended family. The day never dawned for Pat…not the way she planned it, at any rate.
Her sons and daughters lie awake at night, trying very hard to make ANY sense of this terrible turn of events. They have lives to lead, jobs to show up to, children to bathe and dress and feed, and yet, every move is made with one ear always listening for the telephone to ring…and when it does, the combination of dread and hope saps whatever little energy they may have sustained from a half hour of uneasy slumber, or a few hasty bites of food that now tastes like cardboard, no matter how thoughtfully prepared, or lovingly bestowed.
There are no real leads…..there is hope that flares briefly, then is doused like a bad wooden match. The days march on endlessly, and the end is nowhere in sight. The realization that the Holidays are fast approaching is like a knife in the heart to this loving family. The 12 Grandchildren have not been told too many details as to where “Grandma Nin” is, and the hours are slipping away relentlessly, as Thanksgiving approaches, and Christmas looms in the not too distant future. So many happy years…so many wonderful cherished family memories…..could this REALLY be the beginning of the end of hope and reality as this family know it?
The Kimmi family has something very rare and shining about them. They have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not the kind of faith you hear about where they go to church on Sundays and do as they please Monday through Friday, but a deep, deep love and trust that encompasses the whole clan, and they have what Christians call “The Peace that passes all understanding”. God bless them….. it is the only thing holding them up right now. They still believe God is in control, and although they do not even pretend to begin to understand why this has happened, they just know that it has, and they continue to go out and search high and low with the hundreds of friends and volunteers that have come to help, and they continue to spread the message that “God is love”, because that is what Pat would have wanted them to do. When the night sky begins to turn purple with clouds, and the lght begins to fail, the search is over for the day, and the friends and volunteers go home to their families and their warm cheerful kitchens, and the Kimmis stand silently and pray for the strength to do this over again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next….until they have an answer to the only question they want answered right now:
WHERE…..IS……SHE???????

My friends, would youi PLEASE do something for the Kimmi family right now? Would you give them the precious gift of a 30 second prayer? Would you ask the Lord to bless them with patience, peace, and a sense of direction? Would you ask the Lord to help the volunteers and the authorities find Pat and bring her home to her family? One way or the other…they need to KNOW. Please do not let Christmas come to Horton without Grandma Nin. Lord. I beseech you. In His name, who taught uis to pray…we ask for you to have mercy on the Kimmi family. Bring her home, either way, Lord.

Thank you Beth, your words have always been so well written, and I could not have said this any more eloquently. New Vision Farms ~ Arabian Horses

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I last posted! Where does the time go? We have celebrated two birthdays in the house, I’ve started my winter job for the season, and we are busy getting the last of our hay bought and put up!

Meet Henry

My daughter, Valorie, brought a new puppy home (that’s him in the picture above). Don’t let his sweet face fool you, he is a holy terror! At 12 weeks old, he is full of himself! Grayson, of course, has become a baby sitter again, and Boo-Boo just terrorizes him when they play. But, he holds his own, and is going to make a great dog.

We have already started him on the Conklin’s Fastrack Canine Microbial, and you can see the improve in his coat. He loves the stuff! I swear, I’ve not met a dog yet that has not benefited from having good bacteria in their system!

Now, we have to look at those underground fences to confine both Henry and Boo-Boo to the yard.  I’ve started my research, and after reading several reviews, checking prices, and making sure there is enough wire to cover the area we want, I have found the fence that will work for us.

With two dogs that are high energy, I want to make sure they have enough room to burn some of that energy off, and to stay fit. With the Petsafe SportDog In-Ground Fence System, we should be able to do as much of the property as we want. This system will cover up to 100 acres, and we will need to buy one additional collar. We can get the whole setup, with additional collar, and extra wire and flags for under $500.

For me, this expense is worth my piece of mind in keeping our little, four legged friends safe from running into a wild pack of dogs, or coyotes. This family has already lost one beagle to those mangie guys, and we won’t let that happen again!

Okay, so not really. But we did just get home from a trip to Georgia two days ago. Yesterday was spent cleaning stalls, mowing, picking potatoes from the garden, and getting a new boarder. Very busy day, and very hot!

We took some of our fresh blackberries down, and made a blackberry cobbler for everyone. Must have been good, cause it was GONE! Simple enough recipce too, just used a pack a cobbler mix, water, and our own berries.

Georgia was nice, but I felt like I was back in Florida again. We went down to visit my mom, while she was within a decent driving distance.  She has a new fence around her place, and it looks great. The guys who did the work did a fantastic job, and didn’t leave a mess!

We took a quick trip to Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge. A good size lake with lots of cypress heads, water lilies along the shores and an American Bullfrog! The lake, swamps, and uplands provide a diversity of habitats for wildlife. Banks Lake is part of a 13,000-acre complex known as Grand Bay, located near the Florida border. Excluding the Okefenokee Swamp, Grand Bay is the largest natural blackwater lake-swamp in Georgia’s Coastal Plain.

Banks Lake Wildlife Refuge

Water lily at Banks Lake

American Bullfrog at Banks Lake (YUMM,, frog legs anyone?)

Biologists from the Department of Natural Resources have found the predominantly pond-cypress habitat suitable for osprey hacking programs. Between 1988 and 1990, 10 ospreys were raised and released. In March of 1993, a local wildlife rehabilitator spotted the first osprey nest on Banks Lake in 40 years, an encouraging sign of success for the program.

“Hacking” is a procedure developed by falconers hundreds of years ago. “Falconry” is the art of training hawks to hunt in cooperation with a person. By raising young falcons in artificial aeries (nests), feeding them before and after fledging and controlling their release, falconers discovered that the birds were easier to train.

The technique was adopted for use in reintroduction programs because it is an effective way to raise and release birds, particularly raptors, into the wild. With slight variations the method works quite well for many species, including ospreys.

To learn more about the Osprey, visit The Osprey Website.

Our trip home was very nice. Instead of doing the I-75 through Chattanooga and Atlanta, we bypassed Atlanta, and came up through North Carolina. Lot’s of nice little places I want to go back and visit, and it was about 50 miles shorter. There are a couple of other little cut-offs we could have made on the way home, and cut more miles off, but we missed them. But that is okay, we will just have something new to look forward to next trip!