Western Style Decor

Western home decor has become extremely popular in recent years. Horse and ranch owners are not the only people noticing the country home appeal of western style furnishings and accessories. America's fascination with the old west, and a time of great adventure, has made western furnishings a popular style in home decor. Every homeowner should have a "Happy Place" that brings them warmth and a down home country feel.You do not need to live in the western part of North America to decorate your home with western style decor. Whether you have a few items here and there, or decorate the entire house in a western theme, you’ll be adding a feeling of adventure and old west charm to your home. Western style furnishings are unique, with a casual charm and feel all their own.
At www.buckcreekhorseranch.com our family friendly website is the perfect place to browse and find ideas for your ranch home.

High School Graduation Day

Saturday was graduation day for our second daughter Molly. We had a celebration party at our place afterwords and had a great time. Luckily the weather was beautiful and no thunderstorms blew threw as did the previous 3 days. The day before, there was a major storm that had 60 mph winds, and rained so hard that 4 inches of water blew up against the doors of the school and started running in through the doors and flooding inside.
We are very proud of Molly as she graduated with over 3.5 grade point average and even received a small scholarship to help with college. After the ceremony a proud Grandma(my Mom) was there to have her picture taken with Molly and our oldest daughter Karla.

Feed the Fjords!

Today we let our horse herd go down to an area that is over grown with grass and blackberry bushes. They were in hog heaven. Had to take lots of pictures and show off some of the best ones.

Lana and her friend Amy took two fjords and went for a ride some place an hour north and as they were going up the freeway, Amy saw another Fjord owner/breeder going by and it was Catherine from http://www.hesthehaven.com/. Amy called her on the cell phone so they stopped and visited and found out that Catherine was on her way to Portland to take some puppies to a dog evaluation.

It was quite a surprise for them to just happen to be on the freeway at the same time and see each other like that. Small world!

Wedding Cake Decorating

My wife Lana is a cake decorator, and this weekend she was busy with a wedding cake. I have to show off her work because she is very good. Lana was a decorator at the local grocery store but with the slow business they had to close the store and now she is not working. So now she is doing cakes from home and lots of people have been calling for cakes. Wedding season is just around the corner so she is getting quite a few orders, along with birthday cakes too.

Lana has a new website pitcherperfectcakes.com

Lana's maiden name was Pitcher, so everyone that knows her in town, knows her family name.

Here is a picture of Lana in action.

And here is the finished cake set-up a the reception;

Here is another cake Lana made a couple years ago;

Anniversary Arch

A few years ago when we bought our small ranch, my wife Lana said that she always wanted a driveway arch. So evenings and weekends at my work, I secretly started building one. I work at a steel fabrication shop, so I gathered all my parts from scrap left over from projects that were headed for the scrap bin. Every piece for my arch was recycled. The best part of the plan was to use existing posts that were already in the ground on each side of our driveway entrance. This made my job much easier because it gave me a base to start building the arch. The other best part of my project was that we would be celebrating our 20 yr. wedding anniversary that summer and I wanted to make it for Lana as a surprise present for her. Of course in time it was hard to keep making excuses for why I was at work more than normal so I had to give in and tell her what I was up to.

I took many measurements and drew up a sketch and then started putting together parts on the floor to come up with a design, and found everything I needed to make the arch. Then I had to build it in pieces small enough to lift and handle because I did not have a crane to lift the parts. It ended up being 3 separate parts that I brought home and with my pick-up truck, a ladder, my brother, and my two daughters , we put it together and no one got hurt in the process.(warning don't try this at home)LOL.

We finished putting up the arch on a day when Lana was at work, so I was able to wait and see her come home and for the first time drive through her new Arch. She loved it and it was the best anniversary present I could have gave her. That summer we had a big family party to celebrate our anniversary and everyone loved the new addition to our ranch home.

Jeffy's Friend rides a Fjord

Recently our son Jeff had friends over to play and we saddled up horses and let them have fun riding around. Our fjord Elisie is so good with the kids that all we did is put a halter on her and tied off the lead rope for reins and let them ride. Didn't even need a bridle. With inexperienced kids riding, it is easier on the horses mouth when they pull hard on the reins or try to turn so we just use the halter. The boys had a great time riding and Elisie was a perfect Fjord as usual.

Our oldest daughter Karla also rode our Missouri Fox trotter/Quaterhorse named Josie. That is my wife's favorite and Josie is the queen of the ranch. All the other horses know she is the boss. When ever there is any activity around the ranch Josie wants to be right there in the middle and see what is going on. She was the first horse we bought when we started our horse business and she will be the last to go. She is the surrogate mother of the Fjords and treats them like they were her own children. If anything around the property is going on she has to investigate to see if there is any danger close by just like a guard dog.

Now that summer is on its way, we hope to have more friends and family visit and have fun riding horses. When we want to go on long rides we load the horse trailer and head to the coast or other places that have horse trails. A close friend of ours has a ranch that he manages for his boss, and there is 900 acres to ride and we really enjoy going there.

Saturday Night Music

Well our band played saturday night and it went pretty well. We had a good time and played from 8:30 till 11:15. Its always a good sign when people stay till you are done and most people stayed. We found out that later this summer a local vineyard wants us to perform two times at their wine tasting events. Along with other events going on we should be having a busy summer.With my work being slow I will be able to spend more time this summer with playing music and going on family outings with the horses.

Spring is in the air

We have finally started getting spring weather here in Oregon. It has been so nice to be able to go outside in the late afternoon and evenings and be in a T-shirt and not be cold. The fjords are losing their winter coats and so are we. Took some pictures this last weekend and got a great shot I like to call two-headed fjord. LOL

The next photo is just a nice shot of our first baby Fjord, Tallak. He is one of our favorites. Tallak has such a wonderful personality and loving nature, more so than the others. He now 3 years old. For some reason he loves to rest his head on your shoulder when you are close to him. All the fjords love attention and sometimes it is hard to pet just one cause they all follow us around and have that puppy dog look in their eyes. Now that the weather is warmer and the ground is drying up we can start spending more time with them and start training the young fjords.

This next picture is our Momma Fjord, Elisie. She has been a great horse and gave us our two baby fjords, Tallak and Nina. She has been a great horse for our kids to ride. When we go out on trail rides our son Jeff who is 10, can ride her and we never have to worry.

Band Photos

Today I went with the Band to have some pictures taken for advertising. We are going to be playing at the Axe & Fiddle Club in town on April 14, April 18 and then at the Cosmo Cafe on May 2. Hope we do good. If things go well we hope to get more exposure and have more gigs to play at as the summer gets closer. Will try to video from time to time and post them on You Tube so friends and family can see us.
Cast of players;
Brad Markham- Banjo
Kelly White- Rythym guitar & Bass
Herb Hill- Bass & Drums
Neil Fain- Lead guitar
Annie Mae- Lead vocals & mandolin

Horse Expo

This weekend was the annual Horse Expo in Albany, Oregon. We took our Norwegian Fjord, Elisie up for the three day event, and joined other Fjord owners to represent the breed. Each day of the expo the different breeds would have a one time show of their horses for the public to watch and learn. The rest of the time was spent hanging out in the main barn at the stalls, letting people walk through and see your horses up close and personal. We met lots of nice people and had fun visiting and showing off our Fjords. Many people loved to pet and talk to the horses and many commented on how gentle and cute our Fjords were. It is a perfect way for kids who do not normally get to see horses up close, be able to touch and learn about the different breeds of horses. Here below is a picture of Lana and Amy hanging out at our Fjord Booth.
A funny thing happened the first morning we were there, we could not get into the gate because we had not picked up our wrist bands to allow us to be let in the expo. So Lana called our friend Amy who was inside the gate, and told her that they would not let us in and we needed her to bring us our wrist bands. Only problem is Lana accidently called the wrong Amy from her cell phone and called our niece Amy who had no idea what in the world we were talking about. LOL Of course we did finally call the right Amy and she met us at the gate and we got in. We had a good weekend showing off our wonderful Fjord and met many new people and made some new friends.