2006 Pictures
At the beginning of 2006 we went back to England to visit family and friends. Ian, his brother Alex and Alex's wife Wendy found time to visit London and went to see the Queen at Buckingham Palace.
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While we were in England Nic's Mum Mags was diagnosed with cancer and was to start treatment immediately. Nic stayed on in England for a further two weeks to help her Mum at the start of her fight(at the time of writing Mags has just finished her treatment and we are hoping to see her in Ohio early in 2007). While we were in England Nic's Dad came to stay to look after the animals. While he was here he also foung time to work on the kitchen. The kitchen was originally the pink colour you can see in the top corner of the picture; I hope you are as impressed with his work as we are.
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At the beginning of Spring we started work on our front garden, which had been torn up the previous year when the new septic system was put in. After two weekends of heavy lifting ...
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...Nic took over. She put in a vegetable patch and planted many flowers. She was helped by Sniff and Finn...
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We were pleased with the results and Ian was amazed when vegetables started to appear in the vegetable patch. Hooligan was frequently a recipient of home grown carrots ... Finnigan went one step better and went straight to the source and dug up his own carrots
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On April the first it would have been Ian's Dad's birthday. We decided to buy a conker tree and plant it in Hooligan's field in Brian's memory. It seemed like an easy job. When we got the tree home in the horse trailor we were unable to shift it. Eventually we had to drive the tree to the spot where we had dug the hole. Next we got the other car and using a chain we pulled the tree out of the horse trailer and into the field. We then pulled the tree into the hole ... I am sure Dad would have appreciated the effort.
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When Nic's Dad visited us he helped us to install a door in the back of the garage. This made it easier to get from the house to Hooligans barn, unfortunately the new route took us through an ugly and little used corner of the garden. Nic decided that we would would turn "ugly and little used" into "pretty and well used". Ian felt that "functional and well used" would be OK but Nic overruled him ...
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... after Ian got rid of the "ugly" and put in the "functional"; Nic added the "pretty". At the same time we repainted the floor of the screened in porch, added furniture (including a sofa bed) and finally a television. The result "World Cup Central" ... all the major world cup matches were watched from here and on a few nights we slept here also.
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With all this hard work we felt it would be a good idea to buy a labour saving device. We went out a bought a lawn tractor to cut the grass in the garden ... Nic also felt it could be used to smarten up Hooligans field ...
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...and take Worzel for trips around the garden.
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After seeing our new lawn tractor, Hooligan and Nifty mentioned to Nic that they would need some help keeping the field looking good. They added that a lawn tractor would be nice ... the budget wouldn't stretch that far so we got a new goat. After a few different names were tried we settled on Crumplehorn for the new goat.
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During June Nic went back to England for 3 weeks to spend time with her Mum. As well as looking after her Mum Nic was able to spend time making arrangements for the Wedding Blessing we had planned for September. On returning home Nic was able to hitch up her trailer and take Hooligan out for some much needed trail riding.
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Hooligan seemed to enjoy himself after 3 weeks being of not being ridden.
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As the weather got warmer during the summer we went out kayaking. There are several lakes within easy driving distance from our house.
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As the Summer turned to Autumn the leaves started to change colour but the weather remained excellent ... during September we returned to England for our Wedding Blessing (see next section for pictures)
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When we returned from the Blessing the weather started to cool down and it was time for more indoor jobs. We wanted to finish the Kitchen by replacing the work surfaces and the sink. While America was celebrating Thanksgiving we spent three days working and finishing everything we wanted ...
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... the day after finishing the kitchen we didn't get up until after 10.00 and when we looked out Hooligan and his litle friends had got fed up with waiting for their breakfast and had escaped from their field. We found them outside the screened porch eating the lawn.
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We recently got our first big snowfall and Worzel hasn't been seen for a while ... Worzel loves the snow which is amazing as his legs are only a few inches long and one of those legs doesn't match the others.
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