California... the next leg of my journey

WOW! Here I am in northern California, on a pretty Icelandic Horse farm owned by a friend of Kydee's (where I ride and work in Duluth). Annette and Bruce Coulon are their names, and their farm is called Mountain Icelandics (Check it out at: http://www.mountainicelandics.com/). There are about a dozen horses here, and this place is really pretty!

If you wondering what all the horses names are I'll try and name them all. There's Gilfa, Hekla, Klaudis, Freya, Mosa, and her baby and I have no idea how to spell her name, but it sounds kind of like Flickra. Those are all the horses in the first barn. Then there is Batman who is Annette's daughter's horse, Thokka, Ligfey or something like that, and then 2 borders. Catla and a gelding which I can't remember what his name is right now(his name reminds me of the name Brutus:), but he is the same color as my friend Kristen's horse Fjolia. Then there is Donny, the black lab. He is so cute he follows me everywhere!! Oh!! and then there is Annie's grey miniature poodle, Picasso, he is really cute to and he has a Mohawk. Annie is Annette and Bruce's 26 year old daughter who's staying here for awhile, too. So that's the jist of the animals.

My bedroom is at the end of the hall and has a big window facing I don't know what direction, but just outside there is an orange tree!!

The whole place is fenced in and the driveway has a gate, so the horses just roam free where ever they want-- except the boarders, they get to go in a grass paddock. I will eventually take pictures of the house and the barns, but the weather isn't suppose to be nice tomorrow.

Today, my first full day in California, was very nice. It was probably in the late 50's to early 60's. I wore a long-sleeve shirt the whole day and was perfectly fine. We cleaned the 10 stalls this morning which was really easy 'cause Annette uses wood pellets like Kydee (instead of wood shavings). After that we started to groom all the horses because we were going to have people here tomorrow, but got canceled because of the weather. After cleaning the animals, we cleaned the barn and the tack boxes.

By lunch time we were starving so we ate quick and went to the grocery store to stock the fridge and cabinet. When we came home we put all the horses away and gave them their nightly hay and then got ready to go to a place called Petrakliffs. Its a place where you can paint your own pottery and then come back a couple of days later and get your finished product. Annette and I both pick travel mugs to glaze. We're really hoping that they'll turn out as cool as we want them to!

When we finished our mugs, we went to a restaurant called Papalos for Bruce's dinner meeting. I had chicken enchiladas with rice, refried beans, guacamole, and sour cream. We came home and gave everybody their nightly grain/mash that they get. And now I'm sitting here at the computer typing this up :)

I'll be posting photos and blog updates pretty often. I'll be here for 5 weeks, then will go to Tijuana, Mexico for a couple weeks, then to Albuquerque, New Mexico for another couple weeks before I go home in March. There should be lots for me to blog about!
Don't forget you can email me... ceocon16@gmail.com.

Until next time...