Forever gone..

My previous barn. The property was sold a couple of years ago and we had to move on. Of course this was expected. Makes me sad anyway.

Then: Sometime in 2003

And now: 21 October 2017

I boarded there for over 20 years. It was such a thriving, vibrant place at one time. We'd had countless hours of fun. People complained their faces hurt from smiling so hard for so long. Animals everywhere all the time. Horses. Dogs. Cats. Deer. Rats. Mice. Raccoons. Woodchucks.

There was packing for shows at the crack of dawn. Getting back at the end of the day completely exhausted and getting pizzas or KFC.

There was freezing cold and howling wind. And our legendary hot humid summer afternoons. We even had a tornado come across the south side of the property in August 2004. I was out working L and I could see the weather coming from across the field. I didn't see any funnel - it was just all cloud and debris. We ran for the barn and no sooner had I run L into her stall the tornado passed about 125 yards south of the barn. We all stood in the doorway watching with "uh-oh" faces.

All nighters with sick horses. I can still remember waiting on a vet one February morning. 14 below 0 at 4:00 am. Oh how that sucked!

I buried two horses there.

It was a great property. Big barn with a quarter mile training track surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of acres of fields and woods. There were actually two barns there, one of which had been an equine rehab center at one time. It was a well known place. They had trained race horses there 50 years ago.

12 July 2009
It was spacious and comfortable. At least until the roof started to leak. Always full of light.

23 January 2011
I can't even make a guess at the hundreds and hundreds of hours there. Of course I miss it and it's so sad to finally see it's gone.

Edited to add:

I thought about it while doing stalls today. All the training time and riding time and just "horse care". 16 or 18 hours a week at the peek of show season to 6 or 8 hours in the dead of winter. I wouldn't be surprised at all if I had 7 or 8000 hours at that barn!

Corn! 2017

Of course I didn't forget corn this year.  I just *love* fresh corn.  I'll have an ear of corn at least 5 days a week during corn season.

My first ear this season:

16 July
Actually the first local corn this year was 14 July. A few days later than usual. Oh I was paying attention but the farm stand signs were late going up.

And..my last ear this season:

17 October
Last season's corn was a little better. I'd had a few ears last year so fresh and sweet I didn't even bother cooking them.
Jane and Paul's Farm in Norfolk, MA had the first corn of the season. It was reliably good. Tangerini's Farm in Millis was a reliable source of excellent corn. And Wenger's Farm in Bellingham might have had the very best this year.

And the surprise of the season?

Saturn peach
I'd seen Saturn peaches at the supermarket on occasion for some years now but they're always hard as rocks. This year Jane and Paul's Farm had their own Saturn peaches so I tried one. I was instantly hooked! They were actually a little sweet for my liking, sweeter than a peach. But there's some other kind of flavor thing going on there I can't quite pin down. And I like their size. I don't have the appetite I used to!