Sad News:
We lost our battle to save Scout. He died in the hospital on Wed. He was a beautiful, kind, and gentle horse. He was often my inspiration. He will be greatly missed.

Hugs for Scout.
He has been in the Peterson Smith Equine Hospital in Ocala since March 17. He is undergoing tests to determine why it is so difficult for him to eat. I cant express how much we miss him. It's like a sad cloud is hanging over our house.
Someone is missing...

Hey aren't you kids supposed to be in school?
Sledding Florida Style

Turtle Mound
These kids are sitting on top of a huge mound of oyster shells. If you use your imagination you can visualize some Timacuan children hundreds of years ago on the same mound. This is where they piled their empty shells. At one time the mound was 75 feet tall. It is thought that they would use this mound to escape the storm surge in a hurricane. I told the kids that the next time we would take kayaks and gather our own oysters, eat them and throw the shells on the heap. You know a re-enactment of sorts.

Just playing around with Connie's website - picturetrail. Fun stuff!

What a fun day...Jack and Leah spent the night and we all went ice skating. Jess leaves tomorrow and we will really miss her. As for this evening... well they are all hanging out in the kitchen together. They cook and eat and look for more to cook and eat. I guess it's the Italian side. I think I will go see whats on the menu.

Jessie's here...and that's always a good thing.

Ashley's friend Alex took this photo of her on the wall in the backyard. I liked it so here you are. Hope you like it too.

Pinewood Derby!
Andy's car won first in design. ( second row second to last car ) He called it THE FORCE and it had a little Yoda guy driving. Jack had a race car style and it was extremely fast. (blue car third row) Both boys had a great day at the races!

With courage, strength and true de-vo-tion, Columbus sailed his ships numbered three. Rocking tossing ov-er the o---cean, Nina, Pinta and Santa Ma---rie.
Ok so that was pretty much all he accomplished but that doesn't make this little ship any less cool. This is the Nina, and she is a caravel. A caravel is a small compact ship that was used to explore coastlines and rivers. There were no quarters below so the men slept on deck. Apparently traveling the 29th parrallel is fairly pleasant and they had little weather to contend with. Hmm. I wonder if they had sunblock. Made entirely by hand without the use of power tools this is said to be a close replica of the Nina. The dingy was made by a 14 year old apprentice while his family built the mother ship. The kids (Andy, Jack, Leah and Will) had a good time climbing around on this boat, helping raise the sails and pretending to stear the dingy.

Poplar Place Farm Horse Trials

OK, if these two look cold it is because they were. The temp was 28 degrees, with a 30 knot wind and snow flurries. This farm is located on Pine Mountain in Georgia. Phanny saw steep hills for the first time and seemed to like them. On cross country she raced up a huge steep hill, jumped a roll top at the top and landed heading down the hill on the other side. Kind of like a roller coaster. She loved all of the excitement and new jumps but questioned the need to go in the water jumps. (She prefers sunny days at the beach for her swimming.) There were riders from all over the globe at this show because Fl. and GA host the winter shows. Kim Severson and Winsome Adante were there (Ash has a poster of this team on her wall) and Ashley was able to sit at the water jump and get pictures of her coming through the water. Apparently Adante doesn't mind the cold water.

Friday night
good friends
and all weekend to
recover.

Ashley News:
Ash has been riding everyday to get ready for her 3 day horse trial at Poplar Place Farm. Marcelo Barros, 4 time olympian is working with her. She calls him Mr. Pain, but she says it with a smile.