TN Vacation

Matthew and I spent the last two weeks on vacation at my parents' house near Jamestown, TN.  We had been planning a trip out west (Matthew saved up extra time off) but that just wasn't going to work this year so we decided to spend the time hiking, horseback riding, and golfing with my family instead.  My parents spent the winter in their "new" retirement house and we stayed with them there instead of at the cabin.  Although the house needs a lot of work, it was much more spacious than the cabin!

 

The weather was beautiful most days and my mom and I, along with a few friends, got in a lot of riding.

 

Matthew golfed with my dad several days and we spent one of the rainy days (it turned out to be just a little drizzle, not the all-day rain we thought it would be) touring a whiskey distillery.  We drove up to Kentucky planning on going to one distillery but saw a sign for Maker's Mark on the way and ended up there instead.  The tour started outside and took us through several buildings and the entire process, from mash to bottle.

 

Here is one of the giant mash tubs.  It is made of cypress (100+ years old) and is two stories tall.  The room smelled like bread from all of the yeast in these tubs and they even let us stick our fingers in the mash and taste it!

 

Maker's Mark only has this one facility and many things are still done by hand, including cutting the labels and dipping the tops of the bottles in wax.  A lot of the bottling process is done by machine though and here Matthew and I are standing by the bottles as they are filled.

 

The tour ended with a tasting, of course!

 

We tasted four different bourbons.  The first, called White Lightning, was 130 proof whiskey straight from the distilling process, no aging.  The second sample, traditional Maker's Mark had been aged 5-7 years in charred oak barrels.  The third was "over-mature" and had been aged more than 7 years, making it undesirable (although Matthew actually liked this one best!).  The fourth is Maker's Mark's new product Maker's 46.  It is made the same as the traditionsl but has extra pieces of charred oak inside the barrels to give it more flavor.

 

We learned how to properly taste each sample by looking at it, smelling it, and then swooshing it around over our tongues before swallowing.  My favorite was the traditional, I found it to be sweeter and have less burn than the other samples.

When we finished sampling, we headed to the store where my parents each bought a bottle and got to dip it into the wax themselves.

 

After visiting the distillery we decided to stop at a local winery that we had passed earlier in the day.  I did not participate in the tasting, but here is everyone else enjoying a sample of local wine.  The lady on the right is the owner and gave a great tour of their small operation.

 

The day after the rain, we got about an inch of snow!  Mom and I did not ride this day but did get a ride in every day for the rest of our visit.  We totaled about 100 miles for the two weeks.

 

Matthew joined us for two of the rides.  Here we are on one of our favorite trails.

 

Mow and I in a creek.

 

My mom is still riding her now 31-year-old horse and he really is a trooper!

 

Here's Matthew and I at one of the overlooks we rode to.

 

Aside from a few short walks, we only got one real hike in during the trip.  Here we are along the Big South Fork River.

 

Many of the spring flowers had started to bloom along the river including this Virginia bluebell.

 

We also found several morel mushrooms both hiking and horseback riding.  They made a tasty treat!

 

We had Easter dinner at my parents' house with some of our riding friends and ate rabbit pot pie (a favorite of our friends) with carrot cake for dessert.

 

The two weeks went by too quickly and before we knew it we had to pack up to come back home.  In addition to all four horses, we brought our cat Bagheera with us since she is on a special weight loss diet.  When we started packing to go home she wanted to make sure that we didn't forget her!

Busy, busy, busy!

It has been a busy few weeks around here at the Lazy G Ranch.  I finally got a load of mulch for my flower beds last week and was able to spread it all in one day.  Here is the before photo of the truck.

 

 

After 15+ wheelbarrow loads (I lost count!), the house looks much better.

 

And in case you forgot how the house looked when we first moved in, here is a before and after shot.

 

The same day that I did the mulch, Matthew and I installed another large raised be in the garden.  (I sure slept good that night!) He had built the rails earlier in the week and I filled the bed with compost and planted tomatoes the next day.

 

We also decided to hire someone to do more clearing in our back two acres.  We found a local guy with a backhoe that gave us a pretty good quote and he started work on Wednesday.  We had been slowly working our way around the property clearing and burning, but there was still a lot of debris in the back.

 

After one day of work it already looked better!

 

They finished yesterday afternoon and now we have three large piles of stumps and brush to burn.

 

 

And here is another before and after photo from when we moved in.

 

 

Last weekend Matthew's father Max came for a brief visit before his conference in Savannah.  We spent the time catching up, eating good food, and playing games.  I only remembered to snap this one photo of the pool table in use though.

Spring?!

It looks as if spring is really here in Georgia!  Although we still had two nights near freezing last week, the grass is growing and the flowers are blooming.  My new azalea bushes are just covered in blooms!

 

And my plum tree actually flowered this year as well.  The peach tree has buds but they are not open yet.

 

Last weekend we added a small 4'x4' raised bed in a corner of the garden.  I am trying to acquire as much planting space as possible before it is too late to plant!  My tomato seedlings (started indoors) are huge and I hope to plant them outside this weekend in the two new beds.

 

Last weekend Rabi and I also completed another competitive trail ride.  We had a lot of fun and even won the horsemanship category!

 

I spent Friday and Saturday at the ride and we spent Sunday in the garden and then went to a friend's wedding.  I didn't get any shots of us at the wedding, but here we are afterwards.

 

And here's another photo of our cute animals just for good measure.

Little Things

The last two weeks have been pretty quiet around here.  We have worked on several small projects but most consisted of fixing or modifying things we have already done.

 

Matthew replaced a lot of plumbing pieces we used when running water lines around the barn with galvanized fittings in order to prevent rust.  We also decided to run water to the miniature horses from the connection at the rabbits. (The rabbit cage on the ground is for overflow while we have so many rabbits!)

Since we (usually) have little weather below freezing, the water line runs under the rabbit/mini shed and then we made a hose that connects it to the water tank. It was nice to not have to dig a trench this time!

 

The rabbit cages we purchased after our move are apparently very cheaply made.  We replaced one cage with a higher quality product that will hopefully last longer.  Matthew also made a divider to place between the cages and prevent the rabbits from spraying each other.  If this cage holds up we will be replacing the other two soon.

 

With our rabbit population explosion we are also noticing a lot of urine building up on the shed posts.  Even though these posts are treated, rabbit waste is definitely going to speed up their decay so we found some metal flashing to protect the posts.

 

Back in the garden, I had to order the rest of the kiwi trellis parts online so that we could add five high tension wires along the length of the trellis.

 

My local nursery finally had kiwi vines in stock last week so I used my gift certificate from Jane to purchase three plants (one male and two females).  Now we just have to wait another three years before they start producing!

 

Spring is definitely on its way!  Here is an updated photo of the veggies in my garden.  The spinach and lettuce are almost ready and the potatoes are already getting quite large.

 

And finally, a photo of my new riding buddy, Katy, and I from this weekend.  We have been able to ride several times together and plan to train for endurance rides this spring.

Great Weather!

We had beautiful weather this weekend and I spent most of it outside.  I rode with a new riding buddy on Saturday morning and then Matthew and I built another raised bed for the garden in the afternoon.  I have peas, carrots, onions, spinach and asparagus in the first bed, potatoes and broccoli in the second bed, and plan on planting tomatoes in the third.

We also finished a flower bed by the pump house.  Now I just need to get a pick up load of mulch for all of the beds!

 

On Sunday Matthew and I went riding with our neighbor Jean and her dog Bullet.

 

After our 10 mile ride we decided to take the miniatures out for a little exercise too!