Time On The Farm

Training barn at Arcuri Stables

We are in Flagstaff at the moment. I'll write more about our time here in my next post. I want to finish catching you up on our stay in Springfield at Arcuri's farm.

We actually went to the movies...twice! It was fun. We saw "Flash of Genius" about the man who invented the pause wiper and how Ford Motor Company robbed him of his invention and the ensuing battle to receive compensation and credit for his invention. It was good. Two thumbs up. The other movie we saw was "Appaloosa". Very cool western. It isn't probably Academy Award winning stuff but it was really entertaining. Two more thumbs up!

John worked some horses for Tim and Ryan while they were in Oklahoma showing at the Morgan Championship show. They did very well with their Morgans and Ryan won a really impressive World title. Congratulations to all of the Arcuris on another successful year! They run a first class operation and it shows in all of their horses and everything that they do. John had fun working the Saddlebreds while they were gone. Every morning Breezy went to work with John. He would get on his bicycle and take off down the driveway pedaling like mad. Breezy raced ahead of him as they disappeared into the trees. A couple of hours later I would look up and see John pedaling along through the trees and up to the coach and Breezy was lagging along behind him worn out from trailing him around the arena when he jogged the horses or running around the outside of the round pen when he lined them. She has an intense work ethic. Ransom stayed with me most of the time. He and I would walk the farm while sniffed everything and marked every tree, bush and rock on the place. That's life with a male dog. We usually encountered the turkeys and he would lock on and just shake with excitement at the idea that he might have an opportunity to chase them. We also played Frisbee in the arena next to where Mary was parked. There is a haystack in the arena (they aren't using the barn for horses right now) so Ransom's version of Frisbee is that I throw the Frisbee, he runs after it, picks it up and I spend the next ten minutes running after him while he runs around the haystack with the Frisbee in his mouth. We both get exercise that way. It is actually Breezy's Frisbee but she lets him play with it. She is a good and very patient big sister.

Breezy and John on their way to work

One morning John took the dogs out first thing in the morning. When I take them out first thing I always put Ransom on a leash. After he has had some exercise I found that I can take him out without the leash but first thing in the morning he is pretty fresh. Well on this morning John decided to take him out without the leash. The sun was just breaking over the horizon and it was a beautiful morning, cool and crisp. Ransom jumped out of the coach and locked on to a flock of young turkeys that were 300 feet from the coach, up a lane between two pastures. Before he could say, "Ransom" the little dog shot like a streak up the lane. As I said before, he is very fast. John whistled his ear splitting, dog retrieving whistle but Ransom was in bird chasing heaven, racing into the flock with total abandon. John told me that there were turkeys scattered everywhere, flapping left, flapping right, running through the pastures and gobbling all the way while Ransom lived out his fantasy. Finally he heard John's whistle and reality set in. It was over. He ran straight back, did his morning duties and happily hopped back in the coach for his breakfast. Sometimes he just loses his head.

People ask us what breed of dog he is. We tell them, " He's an Unolop." Some nod and say "Oh...". Other's say, "Never heard of that breed." Still others will ask, "What is an Unolop?" We are just messing with people. He is of unknown origin but the Humane Society where he came from and our vet suspect he is part Chihauhua and part Fiest which is a type of rat terrier. I suspect they are right. We call him Unolop (a nick name now) because he has one ear that stands up and one that flops over (one "uno", floppy ear "lop"...get it?). There is a lot that we don't know about Ransom but what we do know is that he is the funniest most entertaining dog that we have ever been around and has livened up our lives and Breezy's immensely! They have become close pack members, to the point where Ransom now grooms her face. It is very cute to watch. She just closes her eyes and he licks her face and around her eyes until he is satisfied that it is the as it should be. All three of us love him a lot!

Unolop in the driver's seat

Our only mishap at the farm happened when John went out to open Mary's bay door to the water/sewer area. He was going to empty the tanks. When he pulled up on the handle it broke off in his hand. I looked up from my computer in time to see him walk in the door with the handle in his hand. "Uh oh," I said. "Yeah, we've had our first big problem with Mary," he informed me. He got on the phone with the Monaco help line (which is usually no help at all) and got no help. They tried but there was a communication gap of some sort. So he hung up and remembered Bob, the nice man from Monaco that came out to help us last time we were at the farm in Springfield. We still have his card (I have about fifty cards from various Monaco employees) so he called Bob. Bob explained that he may be able to get the door open if he could get the plate off of the back of the handle and open it from the backside. Determined to get it open John thanked him and headed out to try it. I kept looking out the window to be sure that he didn't put another crease in his head and every time I saw him struggling to get his arm up in the space behind the door (check out the photo below...not a comfortable spot). I went outside to check on him regularly. Every time his arm looked more beat up. Finally I suggested that he call Bob back and have him come out and replace the handle. He thought that was a good idea. So he tried to call Bob again but he was gone for the day. It apparently was bothering him so he went out again and tried to open it with a pair of vice grips from the outside. He kept at it until he got it open. He came in the coach very excited. "You aren't going to believe this but I got it open!" He explained how he did it. "Wonderful!" I said. He went back out to empty the tanks but before he could get there he watched in horror as the door, which lifts away from the coach and then up, fell and closed again. He came back in and said, "You aren't going to believe this but the damn thing fell closed again." I said that I suspected that Murphy was busy terrorizing him. The next morning he called Bob and Bob came to the farm and replace the handle for us. Bob is a good guy. And John's arm was black and blue for a week.

John on his back on the rocks with his arm behind the door

Arcuri's came back from Oklahoma on Monday and we left to head to Arizona on Friday morning. There is a show in Scottsdale this coming weekend and on Monday morning (a week from today) we will begin our journey back to Kentucky. I'll post next on our trip from Springfield to Flagstaff and our visit to Sedona today. Spectacular...this country is just fabulous from coast to coast!