Memorial Day 2011

Happy Memorial Day!


Today has been a quiet day.  Brad is still out of the country until tomorrow morning.  He has been in Abu Dhabi on business since Saturday 5/21.  It does tend to be pretty quiet when he is gone; so I am ready for him to come home.

our Koi - we call him Roy

Went out to our pond today to feed our fish.  We have several catfish, perch, a large turtle (not sure of the type) and one huge Koi fish.  This pond was already here when we bought the property (the previous owner built the pond and added the fish).  Currently the water level is so low (pond is about 50ft X 100ft, usually about 4 feet deep).  I am not sure how long the pond may last at this rate, without any rain.  It seems to be about 2-3 feet below the original water line and I can definitely see the bottom of the pond from our little bridge.  I am thinking maybe 2 more years and if something drastic doesn't happen, we may have no pond and will have to find a new home for the Koi fish. :(

our pond pre-drought

our pond before the droughts started

Coming back from the pond, Bucky was startled by a snake.  First time he has actually noticed a snake near him.  Previous times, I have been able to see the snake before him and keep his attention elsewhere.  Not today; he jumped and immediately started barking and growling at it and then made an attempt to chase it.  I yelled at him and he came over to me while the snake slithered away.  Looked like a rat snake about 3-4 feet long.  Yuck!!!


These last couple of days, the heat has been increasing and it is starting to take a tole on my 19 yr old thoroughbred, Classy.  He is anhidrotic (has a hard time producing sweat to cool his body).  Usually he has a pretty good sweat on him from about Feb - end of May and here we are May 30th, and today he is puffing away and I didn't see a drop of sweat on him at 3pm.  It is in the mid-90s today and expected to get hotter over the next several weeks.  I think I can stave off putting the horses in their stalls for another week and then they will be stalled during the day with their fans and shaded run-ins.  Gunner does fine in the heat but doesn't do well separated from Classy so I have to put them both up during the days and turnout at night.  I hope I can still ride Classy in the evenings after work.  I rode him yesterday and it took about 30 minutes to get him cooled off after our 45 minute ride.  And we didn't even do any jumping yesterday.

Classy's last good sweat on 05/27/11

Classy's last good sweat on 05/27/11

Let the fun continue...

Here is the first of what I hope to be many blogs about our lives at L5 Acres, here in New Caney, TX.  We (my husband Brad and I) live on 5 acres (hence the name) with our 2 horses, 2 dogs and 1 cat.

Our horses are:

Classy (1992 Thoroughbred retired racehorse chestnut gelding) whom I have owned since he was 5 years old.  Registered name is Classy Trust.
Gunner (2005 AQHA registered Dun gelding) whom we purchased from Texas A&M University as a two year old...registered name is TAMU Dun Got My Guns.



Our dogs are:

Remi (2007ish Red Tri Color Australian Shepherd male)  whom we rescued from the Montgomery County Animal Shelter in 2008.
Bucky (2009 Blue Merle Australian Shepherd male) whom Brad purchased for me as a puppy and surprised me with him on July 4th weekend 2009.  He is CKC registered as Buckys Blue Tax because birthday is April 15th and he has one blue eye and I liked the name Bucky.

Our cat is Peanut (2008 creamy orange DSH tabby).  I got him from my cousin when he was 12 weeks old.







I hope to capture on here the random acts of craziness that we call home and share them with everyone.