Our Swimming Pool

Hubby's waiting on me to watch a movie. Here's a quick post to show you the swimming pool at Galloping Grace. Nothing but the best for our kids and visitors. (And yes, the trough gets me nervous--especially since Grant has now experienced how fun it is to be in them.)

Probably not the safest activity, but they sure had fun. Happy Saturday to you.

(No word of the day--post was too short and silly to even try.)

Let There Be Life

And there is!
I've mentioned in the past that we do not have running water at the Ranch. This posed a conundrum for Max when we learned we would be receiving donated trees. New trees need water. As inconvenient as that was for us, there was no getting around it.

It's a real good thing my hubby's so smart and such a thinkin' man. He solved the problem by buying water troughs and enslaving young children. It's worked out beautifully.

Isn't this a happy sight?! Our sweet little donated trees are flourishing!
Uh, well most of them are. We are just happy to see life in them. It's a pretty tough place where we are. The wind rarely stops blowing, and it's dry with a capital D! Max said the water is 1,100 feet down. (That's why we're not very thrilled with the idea of having to dig a well.) The water these trees are getting comes from the buckets of dedicated volunteers. Thanks to all of our water crew!
You are making a difference! AAACK! We interrupt the new growth with this shot of our resident problem child. I was happily taking pictures of all the new leaves when I noticed this. Looks like a little too much roistering on Poncho's part! He is out of control!

Enjoy your weekend.

Water Crew

We do not have running water yet. That's OK, because we know God will provide when the time is right. In the mean time, we have a wonderful company, Joiner Construction, hauling water on a weekly basis. Some weeks are harder to coordinate getting the water out than others. If they cannot make it by Friday, they'll try and come out first thing Monday. Most weeks this works great. The horses have just enough water to make it, and then that glorious truck pulls and we all do a happy dance! But some weeks the horses must be thirstier than others. Some weeks we get real close to running out. We were a little concerned this past weekend, so Max sent in the big dogs to haul water from the tree troughs to the horse troughs. At most, the horses only had a day's worth of water left. He wanted to make sure they made it through the night. Good thing we have such a helpful work crew and that most of the water stayed in their buckets. Can you see the determination on Claire's face? Grant really likes to be on the water crew. It's one of his favorite jobs. Dalton and Spencer were great to have around. They were a little more effective than Grant and Kaley and much more serious. It was all about getting the job done. This is that cute Parker kid again. Turns out he can carry water as well as he can scoop poop. He fit right in on the crew. He hauled a whole lot of buckets back and forth.


Nice work, kids. No, child welfare does not need to be contacted. All the children want to do this manual labor--really, they do!

Bill Joiner and Joiner construction, thank you so very much for all those hundreds of gallons of water. We, the horses, and the trees are beyond grateful.

Bobbin' Around

We have been blessed with great weather lately. (Well, except for Sunday and part of Monday.) I was actually hot in my t-shirt the other day. Brooke, who is so hot blooded that she never wears a heavy coat, made the mistake of wearing a long sleeve shirt. After complaining that she was hot, Ms. Trish suggested Brooke go dunk her head in the water. With very little hesitation, Brooke dove right in.

"Yeah. That feels better!"
Let the chain reaction begin. Monkey see, monkey do.

I think Carlos and Garrett thought that was almost as much fun as looking for lizards. Our mission for Galloping Grace is to bring pure joy to children. Mission accomplished. Should we sell the horses?