About Us

We moved to the foothills of NC because it felt right. Larry retired from Shell in 2005 and for the first time we had the luxury of deciding where we wanted to move, rather than where the Corporation wanted us to live. We finally had the time and space to try all of the things in life that we had put on hold for many years. I wanted a barn and green pastures, and Larry wanted to garden, landscape, and grow things. I have always been passionately involved with horses, and especially loved the large boned, solid, athletic and sensible breeds. The Irish Draught horse has all of those qualities and more. When our son and his family decided to move near by, we thought the Connemara ponies would be a perfect fit for the grandchildren. I am fulfilling a long ago dream of having the pony I always wanted as a child and enjoying the pleasure of watching my grandchildren ride.

Among the many reasons we love living in the foothills of North Carolina are the beautiful sunrises. We always wake up to a different scene out of our windows.

I have always wanted to have the opportunity to ride horses with my grand children. Here we are! Aubrie and I are waiting for the 2011 Yadkin Valley Hounds Opening Fox Hunt to begin. I am riding Elphin Chickadee and Aubrie is riding Gately's Red Robin, our two Connemara pony mares.

Retirement has kept us busy. After doing enjoyable research at the local vineyards, we decided to plant 100 grapevines that were imported from Southern Italy. Larry is in charge of growing the grapes, and I will be the one to master winemaking. We plan on adding new pages to this website as we expand our activities and website skills so please check back from time to time.

We recently completed a wine making room in our basement. Larry purchased stainless steel equipment from Italy to process the grapes and two large tanks for aging the wine. The 2010 harvest yielded 30 gallons of wine. That is 150 bottles!!

In this picture our grapes are almost ripe enough to harvest.