A Visit to Goat Hill Farm, June 2014

Following attending Mercy's graduation ceremony in Austin, Michal and I headed to Goat Hill Farm.  She and her brother inherited the property and an old farm house from their parents.  The farm is just outside Hamilton, Texas.  Her brother has updated the old home and Michal and John selected a site away from the front gate with lovely views for their home.  

If you have never heard of a "dog-run house" I'll try to explain how it is built and why it got that descriptive name.  Think of the house being built around a porch that looks like the letter H on its side and the roof covers all of this - 

The kitchen was away from the rest of the house because that's where the heat was. Because the porch was open the dogs could run through the house - thus the name.  John and Michal made a variation of this.  Their suite is on the same side as the kitchen, thanks to air conditioning, and the guest quarters are on the other side.  They also installed glass "garage doors" that can be lowered to close the dog run and this is where they have their living and dinning rooms.

Here are some photographs of the home:

The view of the house from the main pasture.

Views in the kitchen.

The sitting area in the master suite.

The bedroom area.

This photograph is of the living room in the "dog run" area and the ladder to the grandchildren's loft.

This view of the living room shows the garage door that can be raised to allow the breeze through.

The front door.

Michal on the back porch.

For getting around on the farm, Michal uses a Gator.  The dogs, Colt, Kota, and Rue, love to run but to protect them from blade grass, which can kill a dog, and burrs, she puts them in T-shirts.

Michal in her Gator.

The sign on the dash - seems appropriate for any vehicle.

Michal and her well dressed pack.

Here are some views around the farm.

Note Colt sneaking up on a cow in order to do some herding.  Cow wasn't happy.

Not exactly like the horse barns of northern Virginia (see previous post).

You can see how dry the tank is - the hull of a boat is shown at the top where the water should be.

Tree is estimated to be over 200 years old.

The farm is also going to be the family burial site but so far only one grave is there.  Two years ago their beloved dog, Nickie was killed by a rattle snake.  We visited the grave and found that the cross needed pushing up.

Well, we couldn't stay on the farm too long, even though just sitting and listening to the rain on the tin roof was delightful and enjoying the SILENCE was marvelous, headed out.

Our first stop was in Clifton, TX (yep, there's one in TX and VA) to do a little wine tasting.

We didn't actually visit the winery, but it has a lovely tasting room in Clifton.

Here are a couple of shots from the tasting room:

Next, following a tip from John, we went in search of the perfect chicken fried steak.  This brought us to Hico, TX (that's HI co, TX).  Note the hitching post -it's still used.

The search for the steak lead us to 

Here are some shots in and around the restaurant:

That's mirangue towering over the pie.

Cowboys do not remove their hats inside.

Note that the chicken fried steak is only $9.99.  The waitress took one look at Michal and me and said we'd probably prefer the ½ order.  It was more than enough and we would have been happy to pay the full price.  I chose the onion rings and they were the best I have ever had.

Remember - this is the half order!

Here are some shots of downtown Hico:

This is the local TX-Mex restaurant with a really long bar.

The local popcorn shop and the sign when closed.

Just a friendly reminder.

The local barer shop has a B and B on the 2nd floor.

Across the street from the barber shop we met Denise.  She was TX friendly and invited us in to look around.  Her client was getting a major frosting job but we weren't comfortable taking shots.

If you're really interested in Billy the Kid this is the part of TX to visit.  Seems there is a huge rivalry between Hamilton and Hito concerning where he is buried (some say neither place as he lived a long life and died in New Mexico - who knows.)  Anyway, you can visit two museums as each community has its own.

The City Council was just leaving following their meeting.  Now here's an idea on what to do with your old table cloth.

No road trip is complete without a trip to a chocolate shop and we were lucky to discover that Hito has a great one:

It was an amazing few days and I'm so happy I had them.  Thank you, Michal.

Hunt Country Stable Tour, 5/24/14

For several years Renee and I have been wanting to go on the stable tour but either the weather was awful or there were scheduling conflicts.  This year everything was perfect - no conflicts and the weather was lovely.  We hopped into Baby (that's the M3), dropped the top, and headed to horse country early in the morning.

If you are wondering why we were interested in doing this, I guess it's partly because you always want to see how the other ½ lives (or maybe the 1%).  We saw horses living in better accommodations that most of the people on the planet.  While I remain conflicted about fox hunting (OK, so they don't actually kill the fox, they just scare the bejesus out of the poor little thing), I really do appreciate the love and care that goes into raising these beautiful horses.  Besides hunting, Virginia horse country is also big on polo and steeplechase racing.

For an interesting look at a scandal that sheds light on life in horse country, the write up on a murder that happened there in 1998 is most revealing.  See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/longterm/library/polo/polo0914.htm.  The heiress was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 60 DAYS but only served 51.

The tour began at Trinity Episcopal Church in Upperville where you picked up your tickets, map, information on each farm and had the opportunity to shop at a craft fair on the grounds of the parish.

Entrance into Trinity

Window was a gift from Paul Mellon

We headed out and found lovely vistas all along the way but having the top down turned out to be a mixed blessing - once off the main roads, the roads to the farms were all gravel and dust.  Before we even got to the first farm the car and we were covered.

This view is of a farm not on the tour and not involved in raising horses.  It was just too lovely to pass without stopping to take photos.

Our first stop on the tour was Trappe Hill Farm where they have breeding mares.

 The photo above is the horse barn and the pond is used for building up strength in the young colts without having to keep them on hard surfaces.  We did see a swimming exhibition but the photos were just of a horse's nose sticking out of the water.

Here's the history of one of their horses:

This sign in the barn helps explain the love the residents of the area have for their horses.

No flip-flops here!

Below is the road leading away from the barn.

Our next stop was Rock Hill Farm owned by a retired couple from Long Island.

Renee makes a new friend

Just back from a training ride

Stable frog.  Horses didn't seem to mind.

Next on to Belle Grey Farm.  The training facility was amazing the largest we saw all day.  By the way, there are twelve farms on the tour and there is no way you could see all of them in one day.  It is a two-day event.

There was a wonderful collection of antique carriages.

Training facility on the left, stables on the right.

Stable tour guides and horse and rider trainers.

It's all about the horses.

If you're going to ride to the hounds, you need puppies.  This little guy will be trained to participate in the hunts.

Renee makes another friend.  One of four miniature ponies.

If you are wondering why they had miniature ponies, I know we were, we found out they are used in training young riders.

This very confident and poised 6 year old demonstrated how to take a pony around the obstacle course.

After seeing these three farms it was time for a lunch break.  We decided to check out the new resort just outside Middleburg that was built and is owned by Shelia Johnson, the ex-wife of the founder of BET (Black Entertainment Television).  We were amazed that the place was packed given that rooms start at over $500.  Still it was a lovely setting, we had great service and the best bartender in northern Virginia.

A very busy doorman in proper horse country attire.

Reception area

Relaxing in the library.

Lunch on the veranda.

A lovely way to chill out.

The passing traffic.

It was hard to leave such lovely surroundings, but more horses were around the bend.

Now this is a horse barn!

Banbury Cross Farm

This is a school for horses and riders.

So sweet.

Students preparing for their exhibition.

Well done!

After that exhibition it was time to relax and prepare for the drive home.  We did see one young student fall during a jump.  Once the trainers made sure she was OK and she was back in stable and out of hearing range, the trainer explained that the fall was the rider's mistake.  She had allowed the horse to take the jump too soon after the preceding horse.  Once in the air her horse had no place to land because of the other horse.  To avoid a collision, the horse went to the right and the rider to the left.  Everyone was relieved that she appeared to be OK and was able to walk back to the stables.

Our last stop of the day was at Green Hill Winery.  The minute we turned down the drive we realized that we were at the former Swedenburg Winery.  Mrs. Swedenburg was the one who sued liquor distributors and took her case all the way to the US Supreme Court to allow wineries to ship directly across state lines.  We were happy to discover that the quality of the wine is as good as before.

It was a lovely way to spend the day in Virginia horse country.