and you will enjoy them so much. We have only one of those neighbors and her name is Pepper. We have her so spoiled that when we come outside, she immediately comes to the fence for a carrot. I now buy large bags of carrots, just for Pepper.

I have a feeling I'm going to be doing the same.

Oh, & Vic, the best part for both of us is that we don't have to groom, feed, vet & farrier them! Except those organic carrots I buy might get a bit expensive if I can't manage to curtail the number I feed them!

Take a photo of your Pepper; I would love to see her.

Same here - the horse doesn't belong to our neighbor. They rent the field out but I met the owner once and asked her if I could feed Pepper carrots and apples and she said yes and I also asked if I could climb the fence with a bucket or bucket(s) and take horse poop and she said YES

horse poop!

Marvelous thing Horse Poop.
Girlfriend you are going to love them. They don't have to be longears to love you. I love horses too, just can't handle the heartbreak of them getting sick from colic.
My longears can colic too but those magnificent horses get it too easy for me and I lost one old friend to colic . I still and never will forget SAM.
Charley helped fill that spot but Sam will be forever in my heart too.
Enjoy your new friends and you may even see a couple of deer out there with them....
Beautiful horses.

Yes, the neighbors say there used to be lots of deer but then some acreage near there got cleared & the deer went away but the locals say don't worry that the deer will be back. Yes, eating my plants no doubt!

for Sam.

thank you dear. He was an old fella but so sweet..

He was 23 years old. So sweet and gentle.

23 is pretty old for a horse. For some reason he reminds me very much of a Palomino I used to ride named Rocket. He was a dandy sweetheart. No bad manners there. You could depend on him through thick & thin. His face looked quite like Sam's.

Well, I'm POSITIVE he's waiting for you in the hereafter & will whinny & come running when he sees you! We will all be reunited there.

Ann, I'm a big fan of the Rainbow Bridge, and I totally agree with you that Sam will be waiting for Charleen at that time. I love your neighbors and can't wait to see the progress on the house-building

We can't wait to get the house started either. One last thing to take care of before that stuff begins though & that is getting all our stuff up here & with us. We're resolved to close the chapter on that part of our life now. When that is done we will be moving forward with all haste & speed & believe you me, I can crack a bull whip when need be! Once construction actually begins I expect it to be built in 3 months. If dh, myself & dh's best friend could do it 21 years ago in 3 months then there's no reason it can't be done in that amount of time again. We will be owner builders but using all sub contractors & if they don't do their job --- then I'll tell them where they can get off & get someone else. I am a great coordinator & will keep subs posted as to progress so they can be ready to be on the job the day they are needed. I'm easy to get along with & to work with but I won't put up with any shenanigans. Keep your fingers crossed. I don't like to have to get my blood up but when it happens that I'm forced to then......

Good luck on the new house. Sounds exciting just thinking about the rooms.... Always two baths, I love having two baths. Be sure and keep a diary but I guess that is what a blog is, isn't it????
Are you building it on a slab or with a basement??? I always thought having a breakfst or sunroom would be great too....

A resounding YES -- TWO bathrooms!!!!!!! Down south everything is monolithic slab but up here it's stem slab so that will be a bit different for us. No basement. No breakfast room or sunroom --- we're in Fl. - enough sun to choke a horse. And the budget only goes just so far. But there will be 4 sided wrap around screened in porch. I love to be outside as much as possible. Get kinda buggy when I have to stay inside too long. And the screen will protect from the bugs as well as leaves blowing onto & accumulating on the porches.

Oh, Yes!!! I would like to have screen in porch all the way around, wouldn't that be great???? Put a good roof on the porch and it will block out part of the sun....

That's the whole idea. Roof over all the way around with 2' eves beyond the screen. Makes a huge difference in the sun baking you to death.

I would ask that you guys please continue to watch my blogs because I will be needing feedback on certain features/decisions as I come to them & you guys may have had experience with those items/things so I will be posting about those things. I know one issue is that we are going to have fireplace but I think wood burning is not a really great idea so will go with gas logs & there will be questions of vented or unvented & also I am thinking MAYBE of a (whatda ya call em) wood stove thingy. Ah! Just thought of it --- Buck Stove. So that's just one that's off the top of my head & I'm sure there will be many more. There's things I don't have familiarity with up here in the colder clime as well as it's been 21 yrs. since we last built & I'm not quite up on all the latest materials for certain things. So I will be needing help in those areas. What works & what sucks kinda stuff. Sometimes things seem like a great idea but in reality of real life it may end up being a bigger problem than a help -- ya know?

Pellet stove??? Or do you want to cut wood???? I know you need something once in awhile. Hopefully someone can help with that, we use propane here.
I think is great to ask other folks for help....

Oh, now I remember! I saw one of those pellet stoves on a house hunters once. Nah, no pellet stove for me. NO! I don't want to cut wood although we have a huge hickory which came down in a bad storm in May. It was destined --- had a hole in the bottom. But that won't stoke a fire forever. And I don't want to pay for firewood for years & years. And I don't want to encounter snakes living in the stack of firewood either! I think we'll be going with the propane fireplace. Good points Charleen. Thanks!

Roaches and rats. Don't forget the Ashes. I used to have to carry in firewood and carry out ashes. It was a mess.
You can get a fireplace that is loaded from outside the house, I do believe.You can check that out but there is still all that wood cutting....

I dont' know if you can load the fireplace from outside, but you can have an ash-pit in the fireplace that has outside access

The idea of a wood burning fireplace is nice but the practicality is anything but. We'll just be going with a gas log fireplace which uses propane.