I'm sorry I completely forgot to update the website to catch friends up on what has been happening. Here it is June already, and we went right from winter to....well, not spring. Horses are not even completely shed out and we had a sprinkling of snow less than a week ago. My 3rd and last foal was born yesterday, a lovely black and white colt (see Foal pages). Real horse-wise, with the start of better weather, folks are at least thinking of getting new horses, and when I can get new photos of the sale horses, I'll be updating the sale pages. Unfortunately, I tried to help someone out in purchasing several horses.. they kept stringing me on for several months with promises of payment and picking up...and I got left holding onto them. So I've had to feed them all winter, and now have to find buyers again for them. (they buyer stopped returning calls, and didn't even have the courtesy to tell me she couldn't purchase them...which I think is worse than anything.) So if you saw a horse on the sales list that was gone, then back again for sale...that's why. I still have about 20+ horses to sell here...mostly yearlings, started (now!) 2 yr olds, 3 yr olds, and one 4 yr old that has been shown and ridden on trails (out of Hall of Fame mare!). All are very reasonably priced.

Health-wise: I have 1 more week of chemo to get thru, and then I will have been on chemo for 6 months. I'm amazed that the medical staff have it all figured out just how long you can be on these drug treatments before the various side effects pile up. I think most of my problems stem from low blood pressure and platelet count. Just the general weakness is what is the most annoying to me. My upper body strength is fairly good, but my legs do get weak when I try to do normal things like walk to the back of the ranch and back. I think once off chemo, this should improve the most for me, as so far, with that problem...I'm not riding. The plan right now is to finish next week, take 2 weeks of non-treatment for everything to settle down... and another PET scan. Then get with the oncologist and and oncology surgeon... to see what else to do. That part I'm nervous about, as that's the unknown right now. But considering that many (including myself) last year didn't think I'd even be around right now, I thank God for every morning I can wake up and enjoy the view out the window. Priorities do change, and I am just trying to do the very best that I can with what hand I've been dealt right now. I am still amazed at the continued support from friends and family... and encouragement from complete strangers.

I've kept pretty busy this last month trying to do some projects I'd wanted to do. I've thought of something else to start, that I think would be do-able for me to work on, but it is a fairly large project and would be completed in phases. It concerns my warehouse space in our stallion barn.

I've kept the majority of my model horse sales pieces in this space, plus the overflow boxed horses from my own collection (including Stones, newer Breyers). It is 1,100 sq. ' as it is now. The reality is that I am never going to go back to selling/manufacturing resin molds for mass sales. I've already done that in my life, and am not interested in going back to doing it. I enjoy the ceramic horses more, and while I'd like to keep offering new molds, they would be ceramic and on a very limited edition basis... no more 40' containers of 2,500 models to deal with at a time.

With that in mind... it's time to reclaim some space here! I have about 100 cases of 8 pieces of the BHR Collection resins in various assorted molds and colors. I've offered these at the end of last year to the model horse hobby at less than cost prices to move inventory, due to the fact that I could not physically package single items then. I'm in a bit better shape right now. As you can see from the photos, there is a large "cube" of case boxes which, once inventoried as to what is all there... will be offered on my ebay store. If you have any need for horses to customize, collect, give as gifts to friends... they are never going to be any more affordable than now...averaging less than what a current plastic classic Breyer would cost you. The white gift boxes shown above are single horses which also will be sold, and can be purchased on the ebay store as well, although not as cheaply, since I will have to box them for shipment...and if I am not able to do it, will have to pay to have one of my workers to do so...so there is more expense there. There are about 100 single items on the open shelves. The problem with the warehouse as it is now... is that being conneted to the breeding barn breezeway, with only sliding breezeway doors to seal off from the rest of the barn, means that you can't keep dirt, dust, BIRDS, and stuff from blowing thru. The prevailing wind is from the west and the opening to the stallion barn is on the furthest west side. If someone leaves the doors outside open... all the Nevada dirt.... and the local bird population, come thru to the warehouse. I'm really tired of the birds, and have tried exterminators, etc. to keep them out, to no avail. The only solution is to remove the inner breezeway doors (12' opening), and conventionally frame in a regular house door with a threshold. This should stop the dirt and dust problem.

So... now what to do with the space (phase 2). I would like to have the rest of my personal collection on display. I've had to have at least 1/2 of the Breyers abnd all of the Stones I own, boxed and just sitting around (alll the Stone boxes on the wall in the first photo are my own personal Stones...( and that's new 10 month old Doberman puppy, Merlin. We lost our Briard, Walker, last month who was over 16 years old... and Harley, the 14 yr old female Dobie was so lonesome). With that in mind, I'd like to make a mezzanine 36' x 12' to take advantage of the 2 story height in the warehouse. And that would give me 432' on the top level, suitable for sitting area/lounge and still use the wall space. I have a nice library for my vintage horse books, but if I have the room, would think about consolidating them there. Under the mezzanine, with the way it will be constructed, would net me another 108' of wall space for shelves (mine average about 6 shelves high.... so more than 600 lineal ft. of shelves...WOW). With the outside walls still available, I intend to close in the existing shelving with sliding glass doors, to make them more likely to stay dust free. I already own the shelves, and like them (Wal-Mart store closed a few years ago and moved to a Super WM, so I got all the store shelves at auction...very, very reasonably!). So I have pretty much all the items I need to re-configure it for display instead of sales... and have alot of floor space in the middle for other uses. I plan a fireplace there since natural gas is already in the barn, and will just have to shop for a deal on an air conditioning unit. The hardest part of this project is moving out the sales inventory, and I realize that is no easy job. I will move most of the cases to one of the oversized stalls in the stallion barn, and ship them from there. What with moving the stock, dismantiluing the pallet racks, I realize I am going to uncover a few gems I forgot about stashing around for "rainy days". I know there are several boxes of Special Run Breyers that I kept for myself. I'm not interested in having anything other than one of everything on display, so will be selling off extras. I'll list the higher demand items on ebay at auction, the ones I have multiples of on the ebay store at Buy It Now prices. Once I get things ready to go, I'll update these pages. I think this is a project I can go along with as I feel up to it, and one I can start and stop if I don;t feel particulary well that day. I think it can help with the strengthening issues I have, which might lead to more normal "ranch type" things I normally do. I can't stay outside in the sun without sunbruning badly, so until I can get the OK to do that, I'm stuck doing indoor things. With that in mind... I'd like to be able to post progress photos, and hopefully with the intention of having a grand opening big party when done! I think that would be a fine thing to look forward to!