ok – not really true

Ok – actually it’s not really true that not much is happening…. Patrick just told me that we are busy, busy, busy and here I am posting that not much is happening. So I better straighten up! We still have our canadian friends here – they pulled in on December 27th and I guess like it so well that they are still here. They stay in their RV though – and are pretty selfsufficient. They came with 4 dogs and one cat. The cat (Tigger) we hardly get to see. Sometimes she sits on the windowsill and looks out. The dogs get along with ours well and so we have 8 dogs running around and ‘helping’ – Patrick and “Ignaz”, from Canada, have fenced and cross fenced the hill behind our house. Our neighbor wants to turn her cows out on the hill, so we needed to update the old fencing, put up new cross fencing and clean out the fence line along the existing fence. The weather got nice and warm again. So the droopy plants were even harder to look at. But tomorrow it shall rain again and then we have another cold front coming…. yeah… it REALLY can get cold down here! Our canadian friends were laughing at us…. then they started to wear their polarfleeces as well … however we ended up wearing down jackets when they still had  sweatshirts on. So anyhow, we had a few nice, warm days (enough for the first tan lines this year), so we could catch up from the last cold front. Sounds like we become fair weather farmers, huh?! Well, the horses don’t work all that great if it goes from upper 70’s and sunny down to the low 50’s and windy …. they feel the temp changes just as much as back ‘home’ before it started to snow…. anyhow, on to the next ’set’ of company….. tomorrow I”ll be leaving for Punta Gorda. I get to visit with my parents and meet my aunt and uncle that flew in from Switzerland – and my godson who came with them! So my godson, Philipp and I will be heading north the next day. Philipp will stay with us for a few extra day till his parents join him next week. So we’ll have him for ourselves for a bit. On our way home – if it doesn’t rain – we’ll stop by Busch Gardens…. but now I”ll be getting ahead of myself – you know… it never works out as planned. So I best tell you what went on, AFTER the fact….

Corey doesn't really care if it's cold....

for not much happening….

… I have no reason to not post more, other than not much than daily activities are going on here at the Cambridge Star Farm. After our artic airflow that swept through FL for part of the week we had to play ‘catch-up’ and ‘pay’ for our slack-off time when it was cold….. everything is brown here  – it looks really ugly. Not even the plants we covered up have survived! So we’ll just have to wait till Spring and see what we have to replace and what will come back again ….

lovely picture, huh? – oh well… at least we didn’t have to deal with broken water pipes or worse. It was cold enough for us to put the doggies up in a heated room, which all but Jamie thoroughly enjoyed. Rosie got to come into the house! Talk about spoiled.

doesn’t look like she needed much time to adjust, right?

busy weekend

Hi there – well after a busy weekend we are starting off the new week with another cold front! Brrrrrrrrrrrr – all the ponies are wrapped in their warm blankies and standing in the wind, trying to munch the hay quickly before it can blow away. We had a fun weekend with our monthly mini-clinic. The weather wasn’t all to miserable – Sunday was actually downright WONDERFUL ! We had once again a fun group together and everybody seemed to have learned a lot and made huge progress over those two days. WOW! Leadchanges got done, stops got improved and turnarounds got more precise…. Saturday night we went to the Outback for a nice meal, before we crashed and went to bed to be ready for the video taping on Sunday morning. Patrick was our camera man and has captured memorable leadchanges forever

the days are a blur….

….well if the rest of the year is just racing by like this first few weeks, than it will be scary! I don’t know where the days go! Unreal! The whole week just has been a blur. I guess mostly riding and enjoying the beautiful weather… trying to get enough time on horseback in, that we don’t have to feel quite a guilty not getting them all rode, when it really does get cold down here! I wish all our friends from up north would be so kind and close their doors and windows, so we don’t get their chilly temps down here!!!! But NO! THEY ARE ALL INTO SHARING! So I’m sure next week I’ll have plenty of time to have more posts on the blog

Here’s Ceena, our little Roan Mare we bought at the Futurity Sales – we really like her…. this is probably the 4th or 5th ride on her, so not much Basic Handle there, but she just is so willing and trying so hard to figure out what we want from her!

A trip to St. Augustine

Since we have so much company at this point we took Sunday off to visit St. Augustine. How can we live in Florida and never even check out the oldest  European city in the United States?!

 The area was first visited by Ponce de Leon in 1513, but it was Juan Menendez de Aviles who established the first settlement, almost half a century before the first English settlers landed at Jamestown. St. Augustine grew to become the Spanish center of power in North America for almost 200 years. The 100 settlers went through the same sorts of problems that all colonists in America had to endure: a history of wars with the British, French and Native Americans, famine, plagues and one unique problem, hurricanes….

So our trip was spiked with lots of Florida and US History, which we very much enjoyed. We took the little red train (sightseeing bus) and off we went on a city tour for 2 hours. Then we had lunch in the old town and after a short walk with some icecream in hand we ended up heading home again. What a nice Sunday – and the Sunshine State came through to its name. We enjoyed the whole day by balmy 80 degrees!

From southern horses to northwestern horses….

Here are some pictures from Tex (Kathie Neu’s gelding she has bought from us a few years ago) and Gucci (Patsy Walsh’s mare she has bought from us last March) – how those formerly southern horses ‘winter’ through the snow…. Thanks guys for sending the pictures…..

TEX - bought from us by Kathy Neu

 

GUCCI - bought from us by Patsy Walsh

Here are some pictures from our Christmas…

taking care of Misty

 

Corey eating a Christmas Treat

 

Patrick preparing another feast...

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!

Hi there – I can’t believe how quickly the time just flies by us! The Christmas Holiday and the slide into the 2009 just happen way too quick! We have had the privilege of spending a lot of quality time with part of our family – of course we’ve missed the ones that weren’t able to come and visit! What a surprise we got on the 27th of December when long time friends from Canada pulled in with their big Motorhome and their dogs and their cat – how exciting. Patrick has known those people for over 20 years. Matter in fact he has worked for them for a year and a half during his stay in Canada. So the joy was great to see them again and we hope to have them stay here for a while longer! A few days ago, we were excited to welcome Daniela, our former exchange student from Switzerland, for a few days. She’s visiting from New York this time, since she has gotten a job at the Swiss Embassy there. So you see, never a dull moment at the Gruninger’s. We hope that you had a wonderful slide into the New Year and that things will prosper for you!

Have a GREAT 2009