Barn Construction

Woo Hoo!

My barn is oficially on its way up. One more step toward being able to offer trail riding, training and boarding at Murphy’s Place. Framing is complete, trusses up and metal should start going on today.

Monday the first wall went up.

Ember is "helping". Every time someone lays a board down, she grabs it and runs.

Getting closer to complete every day!

 

Hopefully the metal will be on before the weekend is over!

One more time, WooHoo!

See ya!

Crystal

End of Fall Color?

Well, it looks like the beautiful fall colors have just about faded out completely.

However, if you look closely, there is still a glimpse of gold, orange and red here and there.

If you want one more peek at the last colors of fall, come visit and explore the woods before it’s too late.

See ya!

Crystal

Added accommodations!

We are in the process of finishing the basement at Murphy’s Retreat.  When it is completed the max capacity will be 12 people instead of 8, with another full bath as well.

I’ll post more photos as the progress continues!

Beautiful Fall Day

What a beautiful day! The fall colors are starting to really show.

This was the view from the deck of Copperstone Cottage. Our guests, Jim and Terri, left us a great little gift. It is a copper pitcher that matches the decor of the cottage perfectly. Thanks guys!

I went to the river to see how things were looking down there. The landing was carpeted in yellow-gold leaves. It was really pretty.

I love fall days like this one.

Ember has her eye on something.

Do you suppose this is what she is looking at?

Large hornets nest.

Yikes! I think I’ll be careful not to disturb that!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this lovely day as much as I did. See ya!

Clear water

It’s amazing how clear and beautiful the river gets after the main floating season passes.

My border collie pup, Tag, taking his first taste of river water.

Tag's first trip to the river.

Well, back to work. See ya later!

Finally blogging again!

This summer has been crazily busy around here! Murphy’s Place had guests all but 9 days in August and we have been working on some horse facilities. I now have an awesome 100 ft. round pen for training and lessons and the new barn is officially under construction.

round pen

The new 4 stall barn is still in the beginning stages, but we do have the foundation poured and the plumbing lines run.

barn foundation

Gerald and I have also started team roping. My horse, Razzle, is coming along nicely as a head horse and we bought an older, experienced heel horse, Pappy.

Razzle

Pappy

Pappy may not win any beauty contests, but he give everything he has every time you ask him. He’s a good old guy and a good teacher.

I’ll try to remember my camera next time we practice so you can see us in action!

We are learning from Gerald’s cousin, Tracey, and I am trying to get her to offer lessons to our guests. If anyone is interested in learning to ride and rope, let me know. I’ll try to talk her into it!

We start by roping a dummy on the ground, then from horseback and finally graduate to real cattle. It’s a lot of fun.

Well, I have horses to saddle. I’ll try to be more consistent with my blogging and I’ll keep ya posted on my roping progress.

See ya!

Crystal

Murphy’s Place Float Trip

Murphy’s Place now has a couple of rafts, some kayaks, tubes and a canoe. On Saturday, we decided we should take them for a test float, just to be sure they would be safe for our guests. We recruited some of our neighbors from Highway T and gathered at about 1pm at Murphy’s Retreat. By 1:30, we were on the water.

floating along

fun on the water

It was a perfect day. Warm enough to enjoy the river, but not so hot that you never wanted to get out of the water. Gerald and I started out in the kayaks. Those things are awesome!

shooting the rapids

We love the kayaks, but I have to admit, Herb showed us up. He could maneuver a raft full of people and coolers as good as we could the kayaks. I think he may have been showing off.

Captain Herb

We floated about 4 and 1/2 miles. It was perfect. We stopped 2 or 3 times rest and swim.

Afterwards we had a BBQ at Murphy’s Retreat.

Boats all loaded. We survived the trip!

Jon and Peg had to miss the float, but made it for supper.

dinner on the screened in porch

I had a great time. I hope every Saturday this summer is this much fun!

See ya!

Crystal

Ground hog trouble.

I am having a problem with a groundhog down at Murphy’s Retreat. For some reason, he has decided he needs to be inside the screened in porch. I have seen him a couple of times, but he is very quick. I just get a glimpse of him as he dashes under the fence and off the bluff. He has a hole down there somewhere. However, I don’t have any trouble seeing where he has been.

I’m not sure what to do about the little bugger. I usually have a dog or five with me when I go down to clean, but he does his best vandalism when nobody is around.

Here are my faithful kelpies standing guard (or taking a nap) on the patio, valiantly protecting the screen door.

Guard duty.

Livi, one of my Jack Russell Terriers, takes the job much more seriously.

No groundhog is gonna' get past me! Grrr!!!

Well, if anyone has a good idea about how to discourage a ground hog from eating screen doors, please share!

That’s all for now.

See ya!

Field Trial

Weekend before last, Gerald and I, my brother Keith and his wife Dailene and our friends, Nick and Becky, headed out for Illinois with two trucks full of running hounds. We were going to the Midwest Goodman field trial, a trial for our preferred breed of coyote and fox hound, The Goodman Hound.We took 16 dogs in two dog boxes.

It took us about 5 hours to reach Olney, Illnois. (Home Of The White Squirrels)

White Squirrel

That’s where our motel was located. After unpacking our clothes, we headed on out to the 380 acre coyote pen, where the field trial was to be held. We unloaded the dogs and settled them into their kennels.

Carl Stevens kennel

One of our dogs, Dagger, immediately managed to get himself stuck in a barrel that was standing on end.

Dagger in a barrel.

After saving Dagger and getting them all fed and watered, we headed over to the main building to enter the dogs in the hunt.

Entering hounds in the field trial.

Our friend Gina is the secretary and does an awesome job of keeping everything running smoothly. It is an insane amount of work to put together an event like this, and she makes it look easy.

Giving Gina all our money.

Now, number time. For the judges of the field trial to be able to tell the dogs apart in the field, they have to be numbered. We bleached most of our dogs and dyed black numbers on them while we were at home. That makes a lot less work after you arrive at the field trial.  A few were too dark to bleach well and had to have black blankets dyed on and white numbers painted on before the hunt. You can’t paint the numbers on too early, cause they feel itchy and the dogs chew them off.

Sam getting his number.

All this went on Friday. At 5 am Saturday morning the hounds are cast (turned loose) in the coyote pen. They are given scores based on their performance by judges out in the field. They run for 5 hours.

After the hunt was called at 10 am, we went out and found all our dogs and caught them, took them back to the kennels and let them rest till the bench show.

Gathered around the campfire.

While they rested, we had dinner and the business meeting around the campfire.

Crawford County bunch.

Then the bench show! This is to judge which dog has the best conformation. We did pretty good. I took Best In Show with my female, Moon. We placed several others as well.

Gerald wins 3rd with Leanne in the derby(under 1 year old) female class.

Lots of fun with good friends we don’t get to see very often.  Hope you enjoyed hearing about our great weekend!

Growing up quick!

They look alot different now! Bouncing all over the place and climbing on everything. I love to watch baby goats play.Thats all for now. See ya!