Happy Holidays!!

Well, another year has passed. Just seems like they go by much quicker these days!!

Will and I are now living in Penn Valley, CA -this is just west of Grass Valley in the Sierra foothills. We are just below snow level, about 1 hour from ski slopes, have a lake at our back door (literally) and deer, turkey and other wildlife just out the window. It is wonderful!!!! We have three dogs – Sheba and Dusty are 6 year old Golden Retrievers. Gavin is a 2 year old Black Lab – we trained him for Canine Companions and had hoped he would become a service dog for the handicapped, but he didn’t quite make it, so we now have him back as a pet.

William turned 19 in May, and is living in Chico. He completed his freshman year of college at Butte Community College and is currently taking a year off from school to figure out what to do next. He is currently working at Target in Chico.

Michael and Andrea are in Half Moon Bay, where Michael is an electrician – he has had his own business for a number of years. Andrea has a full time job at home with their two wonderful children. Alexis is 6 and in the first grade. Joey just turned 3 and can’t wait to go to pre-school.

Will retired on January 1, 2005. This was after 30 years at IBM and 2 years at Hitachi (who purchased the division of IBM where Will worked). I retired from Cisco, after 12 years, in July. You might ask what we are doing with all our spare time? Well, we are trying to figure out how we ever had time to work!

Five years ago, we went to the Draft Horse Classic, here in Grass Valley. We saw Belgians, Percherons, Shires and Clydesdales – these are not normal size horses, but truly the gentle giants they have been nicknamed. Will decided that someday he would not only have the horses but also compete in the Classic. He realized that dream this year.

Right after Christmas last year, we become the proud "parents" of a retired team of Belgian work horses from an Amish farm in Iowa. Missy and Lady were well trained and were going to teach us everything we needed to know about harnessing, driving a team of horses, pulling carts and farm equipment. We met wonderful people in the draft horse world willing to teach the tricks of the trade.

In May, Will was in his first competition – log skidding, obstacle course, and just pleasure driving. He won ribbons in most everything he competed in with Missy and Lady. In June, there was another competition in Grass Valley – this was to qualify for the Draft Horse Classic in September. He and the horses did well, more ribbons were collected and he qualified. In September he competed in log skidding, Gamblers Choice (obstacles) and farm implement classes at the Draft Horse Classic. No ribbons, but just the thrill of being there was enough.

Another first and thrill for will happened in mid-October in Rio Vista at the Bass Festival parade. We teamed Missy and Lady with Ben and Jerry (a friend’s team of Belgians) and Will drove the 4-up in the parade. It was everyone’s first parade (horses and people) and everyone did fine.

Now, you might ask what I have been doing? Well, feeding, washing, grooming, braiding tails and mucking stalls are my part of these horses. I do help put on the harness and get them hooked up to the various carts and farm implements they pull. By the way, in the June competition, I also competed in an Amateur Driving class and came home with a third place ribbon! But Will is the main "teamster" in the family.

In addition to the competitions, we have participated in a number of draft horse demonstrations in the area. We took them to a children’s horse camp where we gave wagon rides and let the kids drive the team. We spent a day at a harvest festival giving wagon rides and demonstrating plowing and harrowing of a field. We did Halloween wagon rides for a local church and a farm implement demonstration at a local kids Halloween play day at a local stable. We would also harness them up and give our friends and neighbor’s buggy rides or have them mow the pasture when the weeds got too high! Always something to do.

In early November, Will added two Clydesdales to our stables. Ryan is 3 ½ and Ross is 10 months old. It turns out that this was a good addition as we lost one of the Belgians about a week after Ryan and Ross joined our "family". It was a sad time but the Clydes helped with the loss of Missy – both with us and with Lady. Lady has shown the two boys who is boss and now they are getting along just fine. Ryan is already working on his training to pull carts, wagons and farm equipment. Ross will follow in the next year and hopefully in the next couple of years Ross and Ryan will be ready for competition.

Oh, and I did forget to say in February Will also got Rambo, a Tennessee Walker, for his personal riding horse. And in September we added 10 egg laying chickens to our zoo as well. So 4 horses, 3 dogs and 10 chickens – what is next? Who knows – Will always did want a ranch with animals. Goats, sheep, cows – we will update you next year with the continuing story – I have a feeling it isn’t over yet!!!

What else have we been doing? Well, we remodeled our kitchen (4 month project), went to Hawaii for 10 days in March, and spent two weeks in July in Colorado and Idaho visiting family and going to draft horse auctions. We also went to Europe for three weeks in Aug/Sept. – Holland (Will’s homeland), Germany, Italy (Rome and Florence/Tuscany) and Austria (Kitzbuhl and Salzburg). Will’s brothers – Joe and Theo, as well as Joe’s wife Cathy – were with us – made for a great family vacation.

We wish you and your family a very happy and healthy holiday season!!!

Paulette, Will and William

Pics below – left to right, top to bottom - - - - Will driving the 4-up in Rio Vista parade; Ryan, Will and Ross (the new clydes); Alexis on Missy, Joey on Lady in Hollister; Paulette and Will at the Coliseum in Rome; Paulette and Alexis; William and Joey; Andrea and Michael