Pumpkin Carving Party in the Barn

Rick's work (Hopewell Culture NHS) decided to have a jack'o latern walk at their park. The state prison grew and donated the pumpkins for the walk, but Rick was short on carvers. So............ we invited some friends (many of whom work with me at OEPA) to come over Friday and carve! We held the party in our old renovated barn since the weather was rainy. It turned out to be lots of fun. Kids got to pet the goats, see the horses, feed the pigs, hear the turkeys, and get messy! After it was all said and done, we had carved over 50 pumpkins! Thanks for the the help everyone!

On saturday, Rick loaded all the carved pumpkins and made his way to work to prepare for that evenings festivities. His staff lined the outside of the earthworks with hundreds of jack'o laterns. Our daughter, Raven had a great time helping her Ranger daddy. Though, she was right behind him blowing all the pumpkins out! Three, what a great age...... It was truly beautiful and the community loved it! I hope that the park decides to do this for years to come.

After the event, we loaded the pumpkins all up and braught them back to Sandy Rock Acres to feed the pigs and the goats. The circle of life :)

Horses have arrived at Sandy Rock Acres

Horses have arrived at Sandy Rock Acres! We have decided to adopt two horses to come live on our family farm. Rick (my husband) should have known that it would only be a matter of time before the pitter patter of large hoofs were heard around our farm.

I remember spending quite a bit of time with the horses on the farm growing up, including my adorable pony, Flicka. And then, in my teenage years, I had my horse Sundance. Once we got married and purchased a farm of our own, we began preparing the fences for Sundance to come and live with us. Sadly, he died before our fences were complete. There remained a smoldering need for horses in my life. The smell of horses and the creaking sound of leather saddles just made me urn for them more.

I found myself passively looking at horses “for sale” adds. I envisioned myself on a Percheron, riding on top of our hills. There is nothing like a heart-to-heart with my husband to burst a bubble of a vision. I quickly realized that a 17 hand horse just wasn’t practical for our farm. So, about a month later I found myself at a farm equipment auction bidding on a mini horse! Actually, in order to make sure there was buy-in by my hubby, I had Rick do the bidding. Three hundred and fifty dollars later, I was a proud owner of a mini horse named Buckeye. He was given to an Amish boy by his neighbors. The child had out grown the horse and it was in need of a new home.

Days passed, and I loved Buckeye, but something was still missing. I began looking at adoptable horses through rescues. Being a biologist, I was always intrigued with the idea of owning a Bureau of Land Management Mustang. A wild horse…..one that has actually undergone natural selection.

That is when I came upon Montana and Nevada. Montana is a BLM mustang and Nevada is her foal. The story goes like this….. By viewing the BLM brand located on Montana’s neck we know that she was approximately one year of age when she was removed from the range in Nevada. She is now about five years of age. She was auctioned/adopted off and then BLM lost track of where she was (she was never titled). Years later she shows up in an auction ring with a three month old foal at her side. She and her foal were purchased by a kill buyer and were on their way to Canada to be butchered. Several concerned citizens and one rescue later, Montana and her foal were adopted by us. They made their long trip home from Kentucky to Ohio on October 17, 2009. Montana is now approximately five years old and several hundred pounds under weight and Nevada is six months old and just a sweetheart of a filly.