Hello King Farm Blog

Wow! It's been quite a while since I've posted on this site. Quite a bit has changed...we now have arena lights! We installed 2 - 1000 Watt lights on the roof of the barn, that shine down onto the arena. It was a bit of an experiment, but it has been a successful one. The light is plentiful in the arena, as well as the surrounding areas. This is a real luxury for me, and any of my boarders who ride in the evening.

We also have a few new horses, Willoughby and Davi. Willoughby, a beautiful chestnut Hanoverian warmblood, belongs to Katie Dougherty, now Kunde,who is a long time student of Ellen Eckstein. Ellen Eckstein is our dressage coach. I met Katie through Ellen and Susan, and she has found herself in Davis for the next year and a half, while her husband goes to school at UC Davis. It has been great fun riding with Katie, as we help remind each other to stay on the correct path in our training, and we've both noticed improvement. She's also helped me out feeding the horses when I've needed it, which is so great. She's just a very nice person overall! Davi's owner, Tessa Moren, is also a connection through Ellen. I don't know Tessa very well, as she just moved her horse over a month ago. But I do look forward to getting to know her. Her horse Davi is very sweet!

The biggest news on the farm is that we've signed our buiding contract, and will start building the granny flat very soon! I will probably high jack this blog to document the process of construction along the way. Be on the lookout!

Spring 2009

Spring is here, as indicated by our blooming trees, flowers, and plants. It was also near 90 today, which is the reason I'm posting this blog at 12:13 am. I CAN'T SLEEP because it's too warm, and being pregnant magnifies the heat. Oh man, at least I don't have to go thru the summer like this, I'm less than 2 months away from the big day.

Our pond looks more like a pond, and our mower is working, so things are much easier to keep manicured. We're still saving up for a tractor and watering machine for the arena, but I don't think that's too far into the future.

More mowing!

Now that our riding mower is running properly, Ali has been hard at work mowing all of the out of control grass that has seemed to spring up overnight. He bought some cool ear muffs to match the mower, and listens to his iPod underneath the muffs. He's been doing a great job, and you'll get to see the beautiful farm if you're coming to Eva's Birthday Bash at King Farm next weekend! :) We've also got lots of purple wildflowers blooming, combine that with the sunny warm weather, and I just think it might be heaven on earth! Enjoy the pictures...

It's feeling like Spring!

The sun has come out, after days of rain and wind, and it is such a welcome sight. Yes, I know we need rain, and more of it, but I don't feel guilty enjoying the sunshine after storms and clouds. This weekend Ali mowed more around the farm, and we bought a weed wacker which doubles as a weed wacker and total body workout! :) We had family visiting this weekend and played whiffle ball and football at the farm, which was a lot of fun.

Coming Spring 2009

As always, we have so many future plans for our farm. It seems as we cross one project off our list, another one takes it's place. Two things that I am researching right now, are barn fly spray systems and arena watering reels. These two additions will arrive by late Spring 2009, in an effort to make it more pleasant around the farm.

I was able to keep the flies at bay for a while this past summer by daily stall & barn cleaning, spreading manure & shavings and releasing fly predators, but by August, they were pretty much everywhere, which is no fun for animals and people! Another issue was the dusty arena. It was doable with one horse in the arena, but more than that and you were eating dust! I tried to keep up watering it as often as possible, but it was pretty hard. The water is holding better in the arena now that the weather is cooler. I'm able to water in the evening for about 1 and a half hours, and it holds thru the next day. The only area it really dries out is around the rail, which of course is where everyone rides. (Except me, I'm miss circle circle!) :) So, I've narrowed it down to 2 water reels, and will be purchasing one come springtime before the weather gets too dry.

The trees are growing and the flowers are blooming!

I know the title suggests it's springtime, but it's true. Our trees are growing, especially the Mulberry, Sycamore, and Purple Locust. The leaves seem to be multiplying at an incredible rate. We've also planted a type of flowering sage which is my new favorite plant. It's low-growing, with delicate colorful flowers at the tip of each stem. We've got red and peach flowers. The best part about them are that they are so easy! Drought tolerant and do well despite poor soil-my kind of plant! I'm already looking forward to spring when the trees will be sprouting their new leaves-I can't wait to see how much they grow! I'll try to snap some pictures this evening and post them tomorrow.

The farm is doing well. We're finishing up the second pasture, finally! We should finish it this evening and it will be open for business tomorrow. We just have 2 areas to "horse proof" inside, and then it's complete. The horses will enjoy it because there is actually grass in this one to eat. The other pasture is extremely overgrazed.

We've welcomed a new boarder in the past few weeks, her name is Julie and her cute horse is Otto. We have a great group of horses in our barn, and a great group of people that belong to the horses.

Ali and I will be busy trying to get things in line this fall for the winter months ahead, the main thing being DRAINAGE!

Updates

Well, we have 1 turnout pasture finished, and its beautiful! It's a good size, I'm really pleased with how they turned out. Now we can keep the horses from tromping thru our lanscaping which is new in front of our barn! In addition to the new trees, we planted different types of drought tolerant grasses and plants to soften the front of the barn. I think it looks great!

We also have a new boarder, Lynne and her horse Star. Star has been a great addition to our little farm. She's beautiful and sweet. Soon we'll welcome another boarder, Julie with her horse Otto which will fill our barn. Yipiee!