Just Horsin' Around - Thoughts on Central Texas Real Estate and More

Just as there are many, many songs about home and houses, things close to our heart, there are equally as many about horses.  Looking for these, I found several on youtube that I think you'll enjoy.  I know I did, everything from Ghost Riders in the Sky to Tennessee Stud.  (Of course, I'll listen to Johnny Cash sing the phone book!)

Tennessee Stud, Johnny Cash

Small Victory, Garnet Rogers

Wild Horses, Natasha Bedingfield

Wild Horses, Rolling Stones

Wildfire, Michael Martin Murphy

The Old Grey Mare, Appalachian folk song

The Old Grey Mare (ain't what she used to be), folk song

Back In The Saddle Again, Gene Autry (written by Ray Whitley)

Ghost Riders In The Sky, Johnny Cash

Rawhide, Frankie Laine

Run For The Roses, Dan Fogelberg

As before, I'm sure there are many songs that I've missed - please add them in the comments and I'll add them to the list. 

Driving home, I heard "Houses in the Field", by John Gorka, on the radio,and I got to thinking about songs about house and home, and songs that mention house or home, and thought I'd make a list. 

If I knew that a song had been recorded by multiple artists, I wrote in who wrote it rather than all of the performers.  If it's predominantly associated with one artist, but written by someone else, I tried to find and note that, as well.

Houses in the Field, John Gorka

House of the Rising Sun, The Animals

Pink Houses, John Cougar Mellencamp

Little Boxes, Pete Seeger (written by Malvina Reynolds)

Home on the Range (written by Dr. Brewster Higley)

Our House, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Burning Down the House, Talking Heads

A House Is Not A Home (written by Luther Vandross)

When A House Is Not A Home, Willie Nelson (written by Roger Miller)

Step Inside This House, Lyle Lovett

The  House Is Rockin’, Stevie Ray Vaughan

Home Sweet Home, Motley Crue

Country House, Blur

Houses on the Hill, Whiskeytown

Two of Us, Beatles

Green Green Grass of Home (written by Claude “Curly” Putnam, Jr.)

There have to be a lot more on, or mentioning, this topic, so dear to our hearts.  If you know of any that are not on this brief list, please, mention them in the comments and I'll add them to the list above.  I'd love to have a very comprehensive list.  (I'm about to start working on a similar list about Horses In Song - will post that here when I have enough to get started with.)

Summertime is upon us.  It's been hot, very hot, hotter than usual, in Central Texas this year (though "usual" is a VERY relative term when referring to Central Texas weather).  Summer officially started just a few days ago, and on that day, I was coming home, driving up the long driveway, and saw this scene that I thought I'd share with you.

Memory (chestnut mare and, hopefully, foal-to-be), Manny (bay stallion, sire of hopefully foal-to-be), and the Donkey Girls, Hepsibah and Texana, were having an afternoon snack in the shade of the willows beside Little Donohoe Creek, which runs through our property. 

Upon hearing the diesel engine of my old Dodge pickup, Memory and Manny raised their heads, checking to see if by any chance I needed assistance with important duties such as unloading feed.  Reassured that their aid was not needed (Morgans are all about helping - especially if it applies to feed, but just about anything else, too, I've had one pick up a fencing tool and start hammering on a fencepost with it when my back was turned), they returned to the Important Job of Grazing. 

This is life, in the summer, on the ranch in June, 2008.  For some of us, anyway.  Those of us with four legs. 

While I've been so busy, we've also had some relocation clients that moved to our place.  Yep, brought 'em right home with me! 

Per the ag appraiser, we needed some more cattle in order to keep our agricultural valuation for tax purposes.  So, we asked Mr. Goode, the gentleman who leases the land next door to run cattle, to pick us up some likely looking heifers at auction.  Eventually, he found us some, and brought them home to us.

They were a bit skittish the first day - after all, they were in a new community, in a new "house", didn't know the neighbors, didn't know the ropes.  Being a good neighbor, I took them a nice casserole (actually a bucket of calf starter) as a "welcome to your new home" gift.

That was a couple of weeks ago. Now, they know when I'm going to be fixin' supper, and they're waiting at the gate for me when I arrive.  They'll eat cubes out of my hand, sticking their long blue tongues out and wrapping them around the cubes.  They've settled into the community, gotten to know Lydia (their closest neighbor, my 31-year-old Morgan mare), and the dogs J.D. and Joey, and in couple of years or so, will be contributing to their community with calves of their own.

In the meantime, they're just adorable.