Dedicated to the Dream

Well, if you are friends with either James or myself on Facebook you have already seen our news. If not, then you're in for a surprise! Here's a little hint: we have a lot of party planning to look forward to and this has been a long time coming (eight years to be exact, eternity if you believe in fate).

So, the purpose of this post is two-fold: first, to show and tell you just how amazing our Kentucky thoroughbred farms can be and second, to announce our engagement! 

Let me walk you through a glorious October day in Versailles, Kentucky. James had told me that he thought some of the thoroughbred farms had the availability to give tours and we had discussed getting a few of these scheduled so that we could continue to add to our Authentic Kentucky experiences (but if we keep opening up distilleries, at this rate we will never run out of blog fodder!). As it turns out, he has a friend who knows someone who was now the Maintenance Manager at one of the biggest and best race farms in Versailles. We had already planned to spend the day bettin' on the ponies at Keeneland Racetrack so it just made sense that we would stop by for a tour of their homes on the way! Throughout the week I kept asking James about the tour: Are you sure we can go? What time is it? Who's this guy again? The entire time I got the same vague answers. Finally, on Thursday, James let me know that his connection would be at the farm on Saturday and had obliged to let us come and take a little drive through on our way to the races. I was thrilled!

These are the kinds of "farms" that take your breath away. Imagine a postcard of Kentucky. They probably took that photo here. James explained to me that we may not even get to see any horses this day, because he didn't know what the "tour" consisted of. I didn't care, seeing the land alone left me in awe.

We started our day with some Heine Bros. coffees where I commented on a pumpkin sticker they had given me. "Look at that! Your first surprise of the day..." he quipped. I brushed it off without much thought because, to me, the tour alone was going to be full of surprises!

We sipped our lattes as we drove the long and winding back roads toward Lexington. We didn't know what we were looking for, but James told me "Charlie said we'd know it when we saw it". I kept my eyes open for a large farm with a green and white star and something that would let me "know". When we pulled up... we knew.

The view of the office as you pull up to the main gates of Winstar Farm.

When you arrive you pull through large gates adorned with stone pillars and topped with horse statuettes. From behind the gates you can see a massive stone and glass building perched atop a rolling hill, overlooking lakes and pastures - this is the office. The horses watch you as you drive past.

We parked and got out of the car to meet Gerry, who showed us the office first. Immediately when you walk in you notice the massive trophy case, and there, in front, is the large, gold, Kentucky Derby trophy (estimated worth over $90,000.00 in raw materials alone). It took me several minutes before I could break my gaze from the famous award, but when I did I was shocked.

I begged James to hand me his phone so I could start taking pictures and as he did.. he was shaking. It was quite chilly that day, so again... I brushed it off.

After my eyes adjusted to the light I could see a large open room with plush chairs, a massive stone fireplace, and gigantic paintings of horses. Gerry told us a little about each horse, pictured and walked us through. I could have stayed the entire day just asking about items on the walls and on display in these rooms, and I can only imagine the conversations that take place at the tables.

But, there was much more to see... We were whisked away in Gerry's truck as we drove through the 2,400 acre farm. There are over 26 miles of roadways winding from barn to barn, over 24 residences for owners, trainers, veterinarians, etc. and over 130 miles of the iconic black four board fencing.

The owner's home.

We drove past house after house, barn after barn. We learned about the original farmhouse built on the 200 year old farm, the birthing stables, the paddock routines, and everything else.

Finally, we arrived at the Stallion Barn. I peeked over the dashboard at another, equally as impressive stone and brick "barn". Gerry barely blinked when he told us we had to stay within arms length of the horses... because it isn't so much our worry about your fingers getting bitten off as much as we are worried about a horse choking. We pulled up in awe of the building, filled with 180 million dollars worth of horse (that's approximately 20, by the way).

I practically burst through the doors. James had told me we might not even get to see horses and here we were standing in the presence of some of the winning-est horses in the sport! We walked into the atrium, a large and open center room used to view the conformation of each horse. Then we slowly walked down the side aisles, stalls on either side, with horses poking their heads out of each opening to see who was coming. 

We passed some of the greats: Distorted Humor (daddy of 3 triple crown winners), Tiznow (the only horse in history to win the Breeder's Cup twice), Gemologist, Bodemeister, Paynter to name a few... and, the winner of the glorious Kentucky Derby garland and trophy: Super Saver.

Distorted Humor

Super Saver

After we gawked back and forth at each other (the horses and I) for quite a while we walked out of the barn together. There, in front of us, laid out like a quilt, were acres upon acres of rolling pasture. Horses lazily walked past, glancing up from their grass occasionally. The morning mist was just lifting from the fields and all you could see was everything you imagined a Kentucky Horse farm to be. It was picturesque. It was perfect.

So there, while we were posing for a photo, with the Stallion Barn behind us and Kentucky before us, James dropped down to own knee and pulled out the most beautiful ring I have ever seen in real life.

Of course I said yes... when I, eventually, could speak.

I wish I could give you more details, a play by play of the moment, but I was so surprised that I can't remember exactly what was said. Everything was spinning and I was giddy and thank goodness Gerry was there to take pictures or I would have a hard time remembering what happened at all! I can tell you that I honestly had not suspected a thing or even had an inkling of an idea that anything was going to happen remotely soon, which made it that much better.

I can tell you that as soon as he stood up we hugged, kissed, and he told me that this was not the first time he had been to the farm... He and Gerry had been in cahoots for over a year. And for the first time that day, I saw his accomplice smile.

We laughed and hugged and our secret audience in the barn came running out with congratulations all around. After I finally caught my breath we were bustled back into the truck to finish our tour. 

I'll be honest... the next few barns, the practice track, the fields: they were all a blur. A big beautiful blur. I remember discussing the state-of-the-art treatment facility and some of the resources the farm had available to the horses, such as a giant, horse-sized jacuzzi and water aerobics. Understandably, I was a little distracted.

After we left the farm James and I sat in the car. I ogled my ring and gushed over everything. I had a million questions! Did my mom know? Yes, she helped pick out your ring. Did you ask my dad? Yes, he's terrible at handling serious situations. Were you nervous? Of course. And the list goes on...

I could not even begin to show my gratitude to Gerry, Larry, Charlie and everyone who had a hand in the coordination of our visit. And I definitely need to thank everyone I know who was able to keep a secret! This was an amazing experience, something I never expected, and the tour alone was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

If I had written down, exactly what I imagined a perfect engagement to be... this would have surpassed in every aspect. Everything was so well planned, so thoughtful, and so perfectly "us". Much like our relationship in general, James never ceases to amaze me. 

Before we left, Gerry made sure to drive us past the "old stallion barn". They just so happened to be setting up for their own wedding...

Big Blimpin'

In case you were wondering what has been keeping us away lately... we have good excuses...

...Like that fact that the PGA Tournament is in town! This means that the small airport by our new house has been incredibly busy lately. There are private planes (I imagine with little tiny putting greens in them) buzzing overhead constantly. I drive by the airport every morning and night, so I am always on the lookout for new things (the newness hasn't turned into annoyance just yet). Well, this past week there was something too big to miss: Blimps!

Every day my interest grew. It started with, "cool, a blimp!", then escalated to, "I need to see that...", and finally, after spending my entire morning commute debating the internal workings of a blimp, I sat at my desk and peered out my office window. Lo and behold, the MetLife Blimp. Bobbling around like a toy in a bathtub, a literal sign in the sky. "I need to be inside of that."

Within the hour I had a date set up with Snoopy 1.

So there we were this past Saturday morning, tromping through the wet grass along the runway, with the already gigantic airship growing ever larger. It hung there, attached to a mast, just like a huge balloon. It floated around, bouncing in the wind, while we spent the next two hours grilling the pilot, Alex, with all of our inquiries. You would be surprised how much you never knew about blimps.

Now, you know me well enough by now to realize I had done some fairly extensive research on the topic before I ran out into the field and climbed into it. I knew there were somewhere between 13 and 42 similar blimps in the world. I knew there was a bag-in-a-bag concept that made it float. I knew that their primary responsibility was aerial coverage for sporting events, not flying around inquisitive little women.

In addition to the clarification that there are probably closer to 13 than 42 blimps in the world, Alex was able to answer every question we could come up with and then some. So the four of us, James and our friends and I, got to grilling.

MetLife has three blimps in the entire world: Snoopy 1 & 2, and Snoopy J (based in Japan). We were visiting Snoopy 1, more like Snoopy 1 version 2.0. The original Snoopy 1 was the longest flying aircraft in history at 25 years in the air and over 30,000 hours in flight. Surprisingly, only retired because the gondola needed updated. Snoopy 1 (version 2) has been in flight since January of this year, so it was just a wee baby blimp!

The blimps are more commonly called airships, and understandably so - as they operate more like submarines than airplanes. The propellers on the back push air behind them, like a boat propeller, as opposed to pulling the air through, like a plane.

They also fly from one event to another and are working almost every single day of the year! The longest flying time recorded in a blimp was a day and a half. Our pilot's personal record was 16 hours with a co-pilot, and 13 hours solo flying. There is also a crew of around 14 guys tracking the blimp from the ground, and to help land and take off, if the pilots need a pit stop. They don't need an airport to land, so wouldn't that be nice to come outside and find a blimp in your backyard? They only need room to set up the mast to hold it, and enough space for the blimp to rotate around the mast 360 degrees at will.

We walked round and round the airship, inspecting every inch and staring, wide-eyed at the massive ship floating 15 feet above our heads. They can fly up to 10,000 feet in the air, but typically hover around 1,000 feet, so everyone can read the sides.  The outer "envelope" is filled with helium. The balloon (ballonet) on the inside is filled with regular air from the outside to increase or decrease the altitude (the air is heavier than helium so an increase in air would bring the blimp down). The wind doesn't do too much, since they cannot fly in bad weather, but what the pilots watch out for are thermals - rising gusts of hot air that surge and twirl. When you see a blimp bobbling around like I did at work, chances are it is a thermal causing it.

They can fly up to around 65 miles an hour (with a good tailwind), but the average speed is 35 miles an hour. If you're like me you are thinking that's a really long air-trip from here to Chicago...

While we were pondering more questions we were able to grab hold of a rope attached to the car on the blimp and give it a tug. At 75 pounds lighter than air, it didn't take too much tugging. The blimp slowly came towards us. The steps folded out and James and I were able to climb aboard! The first thing I noticed was there was no steering wheel! You steer the blimp much like you would a wheelchair. Some are automated, but this one still contains the simple design. You roll forward to point the nose down, and backward to point the nose up. The direction is controlled by foot pedals. Seems simple enough! Our pilot explained that it is one of the first controllable flying technologies, but they are constantly still being studied. If that wasn't simple enough, it also takes regular 93 octane gasoline.

So while we were floating around in the car, I started to ponder some more... being my realistic self I started to think of all of the terrible things that could happen at 10,000 feet above ground. Here are some of the reassurances: There are static wands to divert electricity if the blimp gets struck by lightening; yes, the blimp has been shot before (somewhere between California and Tennessee) but the air leak is so slow that it is unnoticeable; um, no, they have never sucked a bird into the engine (most birds see it coming and have plenty of time to fly around...); and no, there are no parachutes on board.

Are you ready for some randomly assorted fun facts now? I thought so... The car is only attached to the blimp by cables, so imagine if there was some slack in the envelope... The mast that the blimp is attached to when grounded can withstand winds of up to 100mph. This was one of the only blimps that can be fully illuminated for night time flying. The blimp gets a bath with regular soap and water. Our pilot has never thrown a paper airplane out of the window and does not recommend it. He has also never jumped up and down while in flight (we wanted to know if the blimp would go up and down, too, but we decided the force created from pushing off would negate the sudden loss of weight).

Airship pilots cover hundreds of thousands of miles in the air, cover every major sporting event you can imagine (from foot races to NFL games, to, obviously, the PGA tournament), the most amazing thing our pilot, Alex, has seen from the air would be Tokyo from above. Don't worry, we've requested they come back for the Kentucky Derby.

All in all, there are only around 13 blimps in the world at any given time, and this one can only hold 4 people at a time - depending on their size, I am so thrilled to say that I am one of the privileged few who have stepped foot, and then floated above ground (IT COUNTS!), in a blimp! Think of us the next time you see Snoopy 1 traipsing past your high rise window, or lazily hanging above your baseball game.

We have to thank MetLife for making it so easy to achieve this feat and being so willing to work with their fans. I have even been told that if you tweet them and ask, and they are in the area, then don't be surprised to see the blimp circling your backyard bbq.

Of course, we also owe a huge THANK YOU to our pilot, Alex, who didn't bat an eye at any of our million questions, and was ready and willing with answers to all of them. We hope to see you again in May!

Finally, a blimp does not actually make the sound "blimp!" when flicked. You're welcome.

Guh-Lorious.

Finally, I get to show you my favorite room of the house! James says, "Bridgette got everything she wanted inside the house..." and this is the room most evident of this. You should see him, in his ripped jeans, covered in grass clippings, looking all manly-like, under my crystal chandelier in a pale blue room next to a clawfoot tub, surrounded by marble. Tis a study in contradiction.

There is only one photo of the "before". It is dark, and small, and really sad. No one should even had have to go potty in there. When you walked in you walked straight into an acrylic seashell sink (who ever though those were a good idea?), set atop a too-small wooden vanity. Literally the sink was just kind of chilling out right there. To the right was a built in linen-closet. Very cool... but what we did was better. The shower was to the right, with a large useless header above it. The tile floor (which I actually really liked) was a matte black hex. Unfortunately, it was cracked all over. 

We were distraught. Of course we can remodel a bathroom... but this was would have been lipstick on a pig. The plumbing did not work. The tiles were all CEMENTED into the walls and floor. The room was so small and this was the only bathroom in the entire house, that there was no functionality it the way things were. So our trusty ol' plumber came in. He told us it didnt' matter what we did in there, the plumbing all needed re-run anyways. So we got to stewin'. We looked at pictures online, we went to the tile area of Home Depot and Lowe's a million times. I even drew up a layout in powerpoint... nerd. 

I am not sure when I decided that a clawfoot tub was an absolute must, but I am very glad I did. I had also decided that I didn't want one of those tub and shower combos. No ugly shower curtain hanging around this bad boy. We needed a stand up shower, also. So we got to knocking and tearing, smashing and dumping. By the time we were finished the bathroom was not an actual room. There was a gaping hole in the second floor where it used to be. Only floor joists on the bottom, and rafters on the top. At this point in time you were able to stand in the basement, look up through the living room floor (because James' beer chute), see through the second floor where the bathroom was, through the attic, and out the roof. Yes. and yet, we kept working. [You can see more photos of the "during" nightmare here.]

We worked through a million ideas in our heads (should the bath have a separate door to the master bedroom? should we open up another window? Should we move the bathroom down the hall?) and finally landed on one that would work. We were going to turn an old cedar closet into our shower. We stood, each, in the cedar closet and pretended to shower, debating whether or not it was enough room. We were going to go for it. 

Everything went. The tile was attached to the walls with a good 3-4 inches of mortar and cement, along with some serious wire mesh. The bathroom was MY job. I used the killer banana to rip apart the tile and drug, one garbage can at a time, all of the old material to the dumpster. This was my part of the project. I was so excited when everything was gone, but also terrified to see my bathroom. Having "the vision" is sometimes really difficult when there is nothing there to even compare it to.

So we got to building. We moved the toilet to the opposite wall, added a tub drain and had the closet plumbed. The vanity was the only thing that stayed in it's place. We re-enforced the floor joists, and started from the bottom up. We placed and set our heated floor, if you remember, before we did anything else. We built our walls and our built-in shelf above the tub, ordered said tub, and ordered the vanity from Lowe's. 

The tub was glorious. It arrived in a giant crate, like a wild animal, and opening and assembling it was like a dream come true. Guh-lorious. The vanity, on the other hand, was a freaking disaster. I try to be civil... but when you bring me a marble vanity with the base cracked, your going to have to take it back and bring me another, and when that one shows up, and it has a cracked backsplash, you are taking that one back too... Regardless, we went through FIVE vanities before we found one undamaged, but at least Lowe's dealt with me and my insanity. They had someone literally drive their own truck back and forth to the house. This was my project and it was going to work out.

Finally we were able to lay my beautiful marble hex tile. Every single day I walk into this bathroom and sigh. The floors are so beautiful. I am so in love with the marble hex. It is like walking on fabulous little sequins every morning. How could you not have a good day? Luckily the tile came in sheets so we didn't have to lay them each individually. Now, again with my insanity... I actually made our contractor lay it twice. I wasn't happy with the first time. I can't even imagine the guatemalan curse words he had conjured up... But the second time, it was perfect. He had also tiled our shower with white subway tiles and it had turned out beautifully.

Now, we did have to go back, due to the mortar being darker than the tile, and scrape away any mortar that had seeped in between the previous little white pieces. James and I did this with tiny little screwdrivers, while laying on the floor, in the freezing cold. I remember it being frigid, and frustrating, and my knuckles had hit the tiles so many times that they were all bleeding, and I was crying - this had been a very difficult month for me. I laid on the floor, with bloody knuckles crying because I was so grateful that this sucked so bad. So grateful that I could do something like this. So happy and sad at the same time that I was lucky enough to even realize how terribly shitty this menial task was. 

Anyways, the rest of the bathroom was put together without a hitch, thankfully. The walls were painted "Mountain Peak White", by Behr. My tub was installed, the shower finally worked (for a while it was just a pipe sticking out of the wall that water-boarded you every morning - I called it "prison shower"). My $23 chandelier was rewired (James will insist it cost quite a bit more to have that done so it isn't really a "$23 crystal chandelier") and hung above my tub. After about a month or two I was able to find a mirror I liked and ordered it. We are still waiting on a few minor details - we need to hang a light fixture above the mirror, cover the bathroom vent, and eventually we would like to get a frameless glass door for the shower, but there it is. My glorious bathroom.

Every day I wake up and step onto my sequin marble floor and apply my makeup by the light of a crystal chandelier. I think it is an experience that every girl should have.  We were able to take a terrible, dark, sad space and turn it into something inspirational. It functions, it is comfortable, and it is beautiful. I am in love. 

It doesn't hurt that the tub rim is *just* wide enough to fit a glass of wine!

10,000 eyes!

Woohoo! Honey and Horseshoes has officially been visited over 10,000 times! If you haven't noticed... there has been some sprucing! The house isn't the only thing we're renovating around here...

A lot of people ask me why I blog... there is a long answer and a short answer. The short answer is that I do this for my family. Although I only live around 100 miles from them, sometimes it can feel like a continent away. Whenever we get together we share stories and pictures and have a great laugh (sometimes at eachothers' expenses). The blog is my way of sharing my life with them, when I can't physically be there.

The long answer? Well, it has something to do with the fact that I have always wanted to blog, and truly love writing. I needed something to keep me going, give me something to work on, and something to look forward to. James encouraged me to finally get started on the blog when I was in a rut - one of those crushing unemployment ruts... so this was a way for me to maintain my communication skills while still looking for a job, and gave me something to do.

The blog started out as a simple way to share the fun we had together around the Commonwealth. We were always doing something and we are always told we have "way too many hobbies". So this was a great way to share all of our learned experiences with others, and encourage every else to go out and explore, too!

So, in celebration of our 10,000th view... here are some super fun and interesting blog stats...

• There have been 146 total blog posts - ranging from trips to bourbon distilleries, farming, beekeeping, home renovation, archery, kayaking, hometown tourism, and out of state adventures.
• My most popular post so far is "Pieces of a Giant House Puzzle" - a summary of the bits and pieces of our renovation falling into place. Following closely behind that is anything that has to do with James... He's a supa-stah!
• My personal favorite post is the Valentine's day quiz... How to tell if you are dating a manly man! It's a post full of anecdotes and reasons why I love James, including things such as, "He spends more money on deer urine than his own cologne" and "You have caught him using your table runner as a napkin because that's what he thought it was there for".
• James' favorite post is... well, he can't really decide. He is torn between his own guest post about saving a dog's life, and all of the rodeo posts (mostly for the fun pictures).
• The top 3 countries that visit my site are: The US, Germany, and Russia! Thank you, Danke, and Pasibki!
• Most of my visits come from facebook click-throughs or pinterest pins. But occasionally people get to me via Google. Someone once even landed on the page after googling "are armadillos aliens". I can't make this up... the answer is no, in case you are wondering. Although technically they are not a native species so, if you like, you could consider them illegal aliens?
• My first post was on December 29, 2012 and was "The Background", it was decidedly vague. I used it as a teaser post to get something out on the site and see what happened.
• All of the photos on the blog have been taken from our phones! The last phone I was using had stored over 3,000 images from the last two years.
• Over the course of the blog we have visited 5 different bourbon distilleries, been stung by 4 of our honeybees, I have lived in 3 different houses, we have survived 2 Kentucky Derbys, and won 1 NCAA National Championship.
  
  

Whether you are a friend wanting to see whats going on, a family member checking in, or a stranger looking for ideas and inspiration, THANK YOU for showing you care, by reading. You have no idea what it means to me to, not only be able to spend my free time doing all kinds of fun things for the sake of "subject matter", but to know that I can share it with everyone I love in a form that I enjoy.

Although you have, by now, seen almost every room of our house, the home renovation posts are far from over. We have a lot of fun trips to catch you up on, and we will, most certainly, never run out of stories!