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We have a bit of a time jump here, and a lot of things happening. So hold on, and hope you enjoy the ride.

LIFE

Chapter 41

OMG, so much has happened in the last week, or so. We got a load of hay delivered, and loaded in the loft. The next one is going in the storage building, along with the feed they are bringing. Our trip to pick up the trucks I bought in Seattle, and the haulers was a well spent trip. We went shopping at a few different shops in Seattle for horse supplies.

Sean and Paul picked quite a few different bits, bridles, reins, pads, blankets, and some medications we might need. We got wraps, socks, shampoos, conditioners for their hair, body, mane, and tail. A few brush groom sets, and found a bunch of used saddles. I got Sean, Paul, and Edward to pick out the best ones for our personal use.

We even found some things for Alistair's blacksmith shop. He is so going to love them. I found a bunch of used saddles for the riders to protect our stock of horses, and cattle. I had a shipment of Henry rifles coming in. I was going to make sure they were well armed, and not in danger. We still had a couple more trees deep to cut down for safety purposes. Then, we had to work on the tree line down near the heifer pens, and sheds.

We were also going by a feed & seed store to pick up some fifty gallon barrels. I planned on using them to store things like dog food in our house. I also planned on storing flour, sugar, and such in large quantities for the kitchen in the longhouse. I had quite a lot more appliances, tables, chairs for the dining area, refrigerators for the kitchen, and the front in the dining room. I had a six burner stove, huge freezer, refrigerators, mixers, a thirty six inch grill, deep fryer with six baskets. I wanted them to have anything they could think of. I was also taking quite a few of the freezers from the storage building, and putting them in the kitchen. I still planned on keeping some in the storage building for backup meats, and vegetables from our garden next year.

I had more books coming for my library in our house, but also for the library in the longhouse. I had playstations, wii, big televisions for the game room, and also for the television room. I had one for the loft in the horse barn, a small refrigerator, and two stackable washer dryer sets. I also had four stackable sets for the laundry room along side the longhouse.

Also looking into gutters with pour spouts at the end with a barrel to catch rain water. This can be used to water our garden I plan on. That leaves the greenhouse left to be built. Emmett is almost finished with the heifer sheds. We got the chicken coup, and the silos airlifted last week. Silos are up, and there are about four of the men working on the chicken coup. Hopefully by the time we get back they should be finished.

I've got Alice talking to Alaska Feed in Fairbanks about getting us chickens. They are expecting some coming in middle March. We told them we wanted twenty five chicks, and two roosters.

By the middle of next week Max is talking about sending me ten horses by airplane into Fairbanks. I told him by then we would be set to haul them to the ranch.

When we finally pulled into the ranch from our trip to Seattle, we pulled into a surprise. They had been busting asses the week we were gone. We found the heifer sheds done, and the fencing up for their field. The men were still working on cutting down the additional trees, but they had gotten a lot done. Everything was done except the greenhouse, and they were just about done with the chicken coup. They had all gone into finishing each project, so not much was left to be done. A few minor jobs here, and there, but not much else.

They had the incinerator mounted to its base, the blacksmith building was up, just waiting on the supplies to go to work. There had been another delivery of hay they stored in the storage building. The loft bedrooms, and bathrooms were done. They had unloaded the furniture putting it into each room, the longhouse kitchen was practically up, and running. They had moved the majority of food into the freezers, refrigerators of the kitchen. They had piles of wood for the fireplace in the longhouse.

The laundry room was done, and had already been used. Jasper and Peter had built shelving for the laundry room to store cleaning products. They had also built some shelving for the kitchen in the longhouse.

They had an encounter with a moose down near the heifer sheds. They said he was a big bull that came charging at them out of the woods. Apparently during the cutting down of trees they had disturbed him when he was feeding. Thank God someone had a gun with them. It took three shots, but they finally got him down. Then three men took the better part of the morning skinning, and cutting up the meat.

They hung a big portion of the flank in a cooler not being used in the storage building. They had also managed to get a couple deer cut up, and in the freezer of the longhouse.

The company putting in the wells said they would be in touch with me when I had surveyed what they managed to get dug, and primed. The company putting in the windmills, and turbines had finishd up what I had already planned, and would be available to put in more when I got ready.

We pulled the trucks down by the garage after delivering the trailers full of stock by the horse barn, and storage building. My babies were going crazy being able to just run wild. I know they were tired of being cooped up in that truck. The ladies had not been sure when we would be back, and had spent a lot of time getting the kitchen in the longhouse set up, and running. They had managed to still cook a hardy meal for them in the evening.

Today they had made chicken, beef, and red enchiladas with mexican rice. They sliced avocadoes, diced tomatoes, onions, cucumber, limes for a salad, and homemade salsa. For dessert Maggie made mexican bread pudding, and it looked wonderful. She might get to finish it if Sean turned her loose. They were to cute. I could tell they missed each other very much.

Uh, it seems Alice took a call from my housekeeper, and she had been out putting our house to rights. At present though Paul, and Angela were in a staring match. I do believe ladies we got another match. How sweet.

I also noticed the two horse trailers had been delivered, but at present all I could think about was getting a nice long shower, some pajamas, my clean husband, some food, and falling into bed for a long time. Ten hours would be wonderful.

I was lucky to have gotten eight. I was drinking coffee like there was nothing else. It was not helping though. I had to keep going...to much to do to prepare. We worked as if on auto pilot. We got the tack rooms set up, and then discovered we could use three times what we had bought. So, I knew there was an extensive shopping spree on line coming up. We did manage to get almost enough saddles, but could still use about ten more to be on the safe side. I loved the saddles we got for ourselves.

Angela had settled into her apartment over the garage. It was very nice, and plenty of space. It had a bedroom, bathroom, small kitchen, and living room. Plenty big enough for her. She had set things up very nicely in our house.

We had dinner with everyone in the longhouse, and it felt wonderful. I was thrilled to see everyone enjoying themselves. Everything was pretty well set up, but there was still a lot needing to be done. Personal touches, supplies distributed, more shopping, and more things bought for the girls were in heaven...they loved their new playground. LOL

I was thrilled to see everything coming together. We had a wonderful dinner, but I was still exhausted. I headed toward our house going to take a long shower, and climb into bed. Edward wasn't far behind. We took a shower together loving each other tenderly...not frantically. It was nice to just make love, to show our love for each other. we finished our shower, got dressed for bed, and both fell asleep in each others arms.

The following week there were six of us at the airport in Fairbanks. We had driven the two eighteen wheelers, with the horse carriers on the back. We had hay, feed, water, and medical supplies in the back of my truck. We drove our Kodiak, along with a couple of the men. We had Sean, Paul, Charlie, Alec, Tom, and Felix. I was coming prepared. I wouldn't have any one hurt...people, or horses. I could hardly wait to see the first horses.

Max was sending me ten in a batch. He figured I could use the time to acclimate to actually having horses on the property, and give the horses a chance to adjust to their new home. It was Friday, not to busy at the airport, and I was looking to set up a routine on this trip for us to be ready for another arrival coming Wednesday.

We worked our way around to the hangers close to where the airplane would taxi too. We got our supplies, medical, hay distributed, water, and some horse feed ready for them. We had a small grassy area near where we parked the trailers we would load them onto.

Sean and Paul had their medical bags with things they might need at the ready. We would wait for them to unload them from the plane three at a time. We would then unload them from their carrier for them to check them out. They would check their heart, lungs, legs, withdraw a blood sample, check their eyes, and then allow them to walk around on the grassy area for a bit. We should allow them a good twenty to thirty minutes time to kind of gain their land legs before we loaded them into the carriers.

Charlie, Alec, Tom, and Felix would be working with them while they were out on the ground. They would feed them some hay, and feed, along with some water if they wanted it. Once I had about half of them out on the ground, we would then start to load them before the rest were unloaded, and brought to us.

I had their paperwork, with their vet visits, blood work, an everything done before they were loaded onto the plane, and brought here. Everything looked good to Sean and Paul, and they had found no problems with any of them so far.

I was so pleased to hear this, and very pleased with the horses. They were beautiful. Paul also informed me there were four foals. One was male, and the others were mares. They were under a year old, but very fit. We were receiving the last three of the horses, and so far everything was fine with them.

The guys had all of them loaded except for the four colts, and the last three horses they were unloading now. They had dispersed some hay around the carrier in some feeders. They seemed very calm after their exercise off the plane. We had about an hour, or two to the ranch. I was not going to hurry the trip, as I didn't want any of them hurt.

Once they got the last of the horses checked, and grazing for a bit, I went in, and signed all the paper work for the horses. I paid them, and said I would see them again on Wednesday. I rather liked their services. They had a lot of people tending to the horses in flight, and loading / unloading the horses.

I walked out of the office, and ran up to Edward. We were the proud owners of the first ten horses for our ranch. You couldn't wipe the smile off our faces. The horse were beautiful. I had not been prepared for how beautiful they were. Plus we had four babies, and they were to cute.

Now, just to get them to the ranch, and acclimated to their new home. I could hardly wait.

Alright people, we have our first ten horses, and four babies. It is to cool. I can hardly wait to see them in their new home. We got more coming next week, and things are really starting to kick in at the ranch.

Now, I hope your still enjoying the story. Please let me know what you think.

Thanks muches for sticking with me on this adventure. It still has a lot to go yet though. So, hold on, and I'll see you next chapter.

Don't forget to go check out the group page for the story. Lots of pics of the horses, and things going on.

Thanks muches...