Front Cover Hendricks County Flyer

Here is the link to our story in the Flyer. They did a nice job and hopefully will get us some business.

http://www.flyergroup.com/archivesearch/local_story_085133537.html

First Lady Daniels Visit

Lots of excitement at the Ranch yesterday as Hank FM 97.1 and First Lady Daniels paid us a visit. Lori, one of our volunteers called in to the radio station a few weeks ago to suggest Mrs. Daniels come out as part of a promotion the radio station was doing. She picked our job to do for the day and came out to ride.

It was a lot of fun. She really surprised me with how real and genuine she is. She was a good sport and went through all the activities of grooming, saddling and even riding. I could tell she was a little nervous but once we got going she did a great job. She even asked about coming back out and taking some lessons. That would be very exciting for us.

Dave and Ed the host of the morning show on Hank FM, were a lot of fun as well. I think they really enjoyed being out there and are going to bring their kids out to ride. Corinne and Carissa were down there and got to meet everyone, very exciting for them I am sure. I think they were most impressed with the fact that Dave and Ed get to meet in person all the country music stars.

We also had the Hendricks County Flyer out and made the front page of the paper today 3/26. Hopefully the publicity will be good and we will see some new riders coming out. I will post links to the HankFM web site next week after they post the video they shot yesterday. They will be have the First Lady on the show at 7:35 on April 3rd to talk about her experience and debut the video. The video will then be posted on their website.

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Too Soon for Me

Well here we go again. Marie is really getting much better at moving the animals ahead of the flood. Lucikly Joe and Ande came by to help her this morning. I was stuck at work and couldn't get home. She started moving the goats and miniature horses and llama late morning and got everyone situated for now. We closed the gates for the front pastures and put 20 horses in the barn. We left 10 others outside in the high area behind the main barn. Water is not too bad right now but will probably get much worse tonight as water continues to work its way south from the top of the county. Looks like we are going to get some dry weather for a couple of days which will help to move some of the water out. Not going to say dry things out because I know we are a while for that.

Already getting people calling and wanting to ride. That is a good sign for this season I hope. Lots of scout troops booking dates etc. We are looking forward to a real good year. Hope to see you out here this year.

Thats all for now.

Winter

Lots of snow today. Got the drive way cleared and some other areas. We are still working on the cabin for Marie's parents. Right now just waiting on the logs from the log smith. He said he wants to get it up by the end of February, so we will see. Pretty much have everything done that we can until then. Hopefully it will be soon as we would like to have them in by the end of summer.

All the horses seem to be holding up well in the weather. Hay is plentiful and the price is right.

I have been thinking about trying to save an old barn that a friend of mine has. The barn is around 100+ years old and will be torn down and burned if not taken down. I would like to take it down and use it for the garage for the new house. We will see what the barn taking down guy says when he gets me a price.

Thats all for now.

time for a change

With the change in season comes changes in pace for us at the barn. With the start of cold, wet snowy weather our riding is pretty much non existent. Everyone says that they can't wait to ride in the snow, but as soon as it gets here that is a different story. I am a little leary of letting people ride in the snow anyway, especially if they don't have a lot of good experience. It is so easy to lose control and fall if your horse slips I don't really want to take that chance in this sue happy culture.

CJ and Cece have been riding a lot lately. CJ is taking riding lessons with Ron, one of our instructors right now. It is amazing how he has progressed. Last night he was cantering bareback. This is a big change from last year, when he said he would never ride a horse, had no interest in horses. I think he is going to be one of the better riders in the family.

My father in law and I have been working on our house for ite seems like forever. We are probably 8-10 weeks away from getting the logs delivered. I am sure it will be late summer early fall until we are finished now. About a year over schedule. But when everything is custom I guess you have to go with the flow.

Family Fun Night

We had our third monthly Family Fun Night last night. Marie had the idea a few months ago to give parents with younger kids a chance to come and ride and enjoy our facility for a lower price than we usually charge. We have had good turnouts the last couple of times but had about 30 families here last night. The weather was good and we had a lot of fun. The kids were playing with the animals, especially the kittens. Playing in the mulch pile was a big attraction for many. We had lots of riders on the ponies and horses as well as many families cooking around the camp fire. There was a row of about 15 kids fishing at the lake and all were having pretty good luck catching stuff.

We will continue for another couple of months until the weather turns and then start up again in the spring.

Can we talk?

We had a nice article in the paper the other day about our ranch and our Family Fun Night on August 16 th. We had decided with rising fuel prices and declining trail riding to allow families to come out and enjoy a night out for only $25. That would include pony rides in the arena, fishing, hiking, bonfire and hay ride. We thought it would be something nice for the community and increase awareness of our facility and services that we offer.

The problem arose when the reporter took a picture. As soon as I saw it I knew that we would get calls about our skinny horse. Not skinny, just healthy. Probably 75% of all pleasure horses in my opinion are probably overweight. Well the article came out on Saturday and no calls over the weekend, but first thing Monday morning here comes animal control. Now they have been out to our place before. They have gotten many complaints about us such as; we leave our horses out in the rain, snow, wind etc., we make our horses eat off the ground, our horses are laying down and must be dead, they look sad, hungry, depressed, they are rolling in the dirt, I could go on and on. Every time AC comes out everything is fine. My problem with all of this is that all of the questions, comments etc, I would be glad to answer if the person would call me directly. Why do we feel as a society now that we can not communicate directly. Anytime we have a problem we have to call the police, fire department, county govt etc. What happened to our ability to talk and work things out as a society amongst our selves. When did we change to a society that feels we have to get the govt involved in everything we do. Then what happens, we complain about how much we pay in taxes and how big govt is and how the govt sticks their noses in everything we do.

When we first started out with NVR we didn't know that you can't raise horses in Hendricks County unless you are raising them for food (that's another story), address those questions and comments to the head of Planning for Hendricks County. Anyway, one day we received a letter from the county saying we were in violation of HC zoning. We needed to change our zoning to Ag Business, ( ended up costing about 30k and a few years off my life, but again that's a story for another day). So I go and start trying to gather information about why we have to change our zoning and so forth. I ask the planning dept for a copy of the letter and they give it to me with a picture of me waving to someone from our driveway.

So it all comes back to me, one Sunday morning I am at the barn early and see someone taking pictures, I go down and wave to them and he takes a picture and then jumps in their car and speeds off. Well ends up it was one of my neighbors, whose son in law is a longtime friend of mine. It would have been real easy for him to come up introduce himself, ask what I was doing, if we was familiar with the zoning point out what I needed to do etc. Does he do any of that, no he writes a letter to zoning, saying a horse trader has moved in to town and then points out how I am in violation of zoning. What a jerk. I hope he reads this too so he knows how I feel. Am I still friends with his kids and their spouses, yes, no animosity towards them but him not so much.

We have become a society afraid to hurt any ones feelings, afraid of confrontation, everyone is worried about how someone else is going to "feel" about what we are saying. That is what we are supposed to do as a society, talk, communicate, look out for each other. Not get govt involved every time the wind blows.

I am a Libertarian ( a political philosophy that stresses personal liberty. Libertarians believe that individuals should have complete freedom of action, provided their actions do not infringe on the freedom of others. Libertarianism's distrust of government is rooted in 19 th-century anarchism. Typical libertarians oppose not only the income tax and other government impositions but also programs seen by many as beneficial, such as social security and the postal service. In the U.S. their views often crosscut traditional party boundaries (e.g., libertarians oppose gun control, as do most Republicans, but support the legalization of prohibited drugs, as do some liberal Democrats). Among the thinkers embraced by libertarians are Henry David Thoreau and Ayn Rand ) If what I am doing has no effect on your personal freedoms than keep the govt the hell out of my business. You have a problem with the way I am keeping my animals then come and talk to me about it personally. (I could go on about anonymous phone calls as well)

If you do not feel strongly enough about your opinion to do that than you should my your own business. Don't hide behind the curtain of govt and expect me to have any respect for you, your opinion or your beliefs. You want lower taxes, less govt? Than stop using it to voice your comments, opinions and beliefs. Get up and do it yourself.