[drivingpairs] Oak Hill CDE, etc.
- From: Merrie Mills <mynorvegicus@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: drivingpairs@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 22:26:46 -0800 (PST)
Greetings, all!
Please forgive me for cross posting! But what the
heck... I as usual am way behind the curve. I was
going through some emails that I've kept, and yes, I
will answer you guys! I SURVIVED OAK HILL COMBINED
DRIVING EVENT AND WON THE PRELIMINARY PAIR PONIES!!!
True, there were only two of us, but I hadn't competed
in 10 years, and my ponies were barely fit!
I wrote a story, with pics, which I am sending to the
Driving Digest. I can't email it out because the pics
make it ENORMOUS -- it won't even fit on a little
floppy A-drive disk thingy. But-- I also edited the
story and have a shortened version, sans pics, which I
can yank into an email.
That's the good news. The bad news is that thanks to
the BRAC Commission, my husband WILL be transferred:
either from Williamsburg, VA area to St Louis area, or
to the Charlottesville, VA area (which we hope will
happen). Non-military people out there might not
recognize BRAC (Base Re-alignment and Closure)... that
bit where the Federal Government is trying to save
expenses by closing down military bases. Considering
Homeland Security, terrorist threats, etc., I
personally think it's a bad idea... besides, the
government, as usual, will spend MORE money taking
steps to SAVE money than
if they just plain left things the hell alone. But
that's my personal bias. I work for the Army, too.
Still, there are certain agencies the Dept of Defense
can't do without, and my husband works for one of them
(I could tell you what he does, but then I'd have to
kill you).
Bottom line: We will be selling our dream home/dream
barn. I'm heartbroken over it, because of the blood,
sweat and tears I've put into it, and the labors of
love I've done, such as varnishing the inside of the
barn (75,000 square feet of varnish, thank you very
much)... building permanent driving
hazards and cross country jumps... all on our six acre
horse farm in the middle of an area in which it is
getting more and more impossible to buy horse
property. When the time comes, we shall advertise the
place in the driving magazines....
We designed our barn and had it custom built... I have
an 8-stall barn with the stalls in the center and a
track around them... also, my saddle room is two
stalls, back to back; harness room is two stalls back
to back; feed room is two stalls back to back; and I
have a "cross aisle" which also is two
stalls back to back, so you can cut through from one
side of the barn to the other without going around.
The tack rooms have doors on each end as well.
Basically, I have a covered arena/track with 8
double-stall units in the middle. Works for me, quite
well! Our problem here is the heat and humidity in
the summer. We don't even have doors on the ends of
the barn;
we have a high roof to combat the heat, and it works
pretty well to get the breezes through. We have snow
maybe once in four years (over an inch deep), so
winters are no problem. As my husband says, "We'll
have to put doors on the barn when we move to
Charlottesville!"
And I also think of my assorted skeleton projects... I
have some animals buried that simply will not be
"ready" during the next year (or possibly sooner); I
can hardly request to a new owner to let me come bring
a backhoe in to dig up some old pony bones... people
either think it's a neat project or a macabre
ritual... I know that when my two current pony
skeletons are complete, they will be worth around $6K
each! I have a dear friend who, about 40 years ago,
was doing a pony skeleton project. The family moved
from Hampton, Virginia to just west of Williamsburg.
She suddenly remembered her half-rotted pony, dug it
up, and carried it in the back of her station wagon
all the way to the new place. I've got a pretty
strong stomach, but the description she gave was about
at my limit. I will NOT do something that gross!!!
At any rate, it won't be the end of the world. It's
just that I had planned to spend the rest of my life
here, and now my "secure" plans aren't! Somebody will
get a really neat place, that's for sure!
Laura in Virginia
"My furs are not in storage or draped across the bed,
They're hanging from the cage door, waiting to be fed."
"So long as I remain alive and well I shall continue to feel strongly about
prose style, to love the surface of the earth, and to take a pleasure in solid
objects and scraps of useless information." -- George Orwell, 1947
Remember: STUPIDITY IS A SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASE!
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