WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

March 31, 2018

In our last blog we had just arrived at Whispers of Hope Horse Farm in Wichita, Texas for a NOMAD'S project.  Jerry and I and 5 other couples and a single man.  We came to work and that we did!

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Whispers of Hope Horse Farm is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization with a 100% volunteer staff.

No one is paid so that the children and vets can ride for free - there are many therapeutic riding facilities but few if any others offer lessons for free to everyone who meets the criteria.

It is a facility designed to assist physically and mentally challenged individuals through therapeutic riding at no cost. Whispers of Hope Horse Farm’s goal is to provide a safe, educational and therapeutic environment for the horse and rider in a Christian based atmosphere.

Founder and Executive Director Mary Elizabeth Pearce donated the use of the acreage at her farm and has committed herself to making the facility a successful ministry for riders, their families and the many volunteers.  Mary Elizabeth, pictured above, works a full-time job in 2 days, that's right 2 days.  Monday and Wednesday's she leaves early arrives home, often after midnight and gets 30+ hours working in HR.  The rest of the hours she works before and after students on Tuesday's and Thursday's - Saturday.  She has more energy in her little finger than most of us have in our entire bodies.  Many of the staff are also challenged - Michael and Tyler above are both on the Autism Spectrum.  They both work 40 hours+ a week.  Tyler lives at home with his family and they bring him every morning and pick him up in the evening.  Michael has a small trailer on the farm that he lives in.  Many of us are getting tax refunds this time of year.  If you are looking for a wonderful place to donate, that really needs your help, and you can be assured the money will be used for the right purposes (no administrative costs are taken) 100% goes to running the farm please google Whispers of Hope Farm and go to their website donate and give what you can - even $10 is a blessing and greatly appreciated.

The outside of the barn

Inside of the barn with beautiful wooden stalls - The barn was all built by volunteers

I mentioned earlier we went there to work and work we did!!  

Although we also had a lot of fun and made lasting friendships.

4 of us ladies, including yours truly, scrubbed the outside of the stalls and the 3 panels of the door on the inside.  The worse part was in the corners where the horses ate - holy mackerel they make a mess!!  The black plastic are large bags we put over the feeding bins so we didn't get them all wet.  As you can see there was an amazing difference between before and after.

Here Mariel and Judith are applying a sealer to the wood after they were cleaned.  

As I said we also had fun.

Gracie became my favorite horse - whenever I went any where near her stall she always came over to greet me and nuzzle.

She seemed to appreciate that we worked so hard to clean her stall.  She is fine in this picture it was just windy and it was bothering her eyes.  She could see out with no trouble.  Gracie appreciated what we did and her stall really wasn't to bad but Jack across from her was an absolute slob - I was so HAPPY when I got his stall finished!!

It was fun working in the barn the first week and learning the routine.  The horses all eat at 9:00 and if they don't see people working on feeding them they have their heads out of the stalls and make noise.  Then about 11:00 they all go out to various pastures.  The stalls are open and they just follow one another outside.

The horses out enjoying the sunshine

Two little minis - the kids love combing them because they are so easy to reach.  

I have never seen so many horses lay down and sun themselves - until you get used to it you are afraid they are dead

But they pop right up so you know they are okay

The guys needed a tractor for a dock they were building and of course after about an  hour it quit working but they figured it out got the part and it was back in action

The NOMAD's Team that was at the farm the three weeks prior to our arriving built a small bathroom in the barn - and when I say small  I am not kidding.  Sandy painted and caulked it and had to sit on the toilet to do it

Jerry and Steve spent more than a week working on getting a horse trailer road worthy that had been donated to the farm-there was no doubt why it was donated!  Many of you may remember Gabriel.  He is Steve's diabetic service dog.  This is our third project with them and Gabriel is absolutely fabulous.

There are volunteers that come out and help at the farm with the horses and their pay is getting to ride once or twice a week.

Volunteer cleaning a stall

This was a new group that had come in to volunteer and they were being given instructions

Mary Elizabeth's husband is the pastor at a very small Methodist Church in Wichita Falls and our second Sunday of attending the man who leads the songs was away so Mary Elizabeth led the songs and did a solo.  She has a beautiful voice - she is a woman with many talents.

Some of the other projects included digging a long trench, this is just a small portion of it, and laying pipe so that the furthest out corrals had water.

This is the break room and storage for supplies used in their summer  camp programs - they were in desperate need of cleaning and sorting - this is before we started

and after

Before

After

The result of moving many many boxes of old computer paper outside so we could clean and it getting windy out!!

We start every morning with group devotions but it is sometimes hard to concentrate with that little face looking at you :-)

All three NOMAD dogs got along really well and had fun outside everyday

Teddy like his dad enjoys Home Depot

We all worked on building a shed.  It was a race against the rain that was coming but we got it done.

Yeah the last wall fit!!

Truly a team effort

The finished product

A group of the men also built a fishing dock.  There is a small pond on the farm and the men from Wounded Warriors had expressed an interest in fishing.

Some of the guys had to get in the water to sink concrete footings

We are hoping the men really enjoy fishing and relaxing on the pier

Several of us went to an Indian Pow Wow that was very interesting

4 of the ladies and the 3 dogs decided to take a walk and to go see Wichita Falls on a beautiful sunny day

However the sun disappeared and we had heavy rain - we hid out under a  bridge - actually ended up being kinda fun

A picture of Jerry and I at devotions one morning 

 After three weeks we said our goodbyes.  Lots of hugs and see you down the road as we headed south to Livingston, Texas last Thursday.  Waco, Texas was a good midway point so decided to go see Chip & JoAnna - however they didn't show - LOL

The line into the bakery was really long.  We didn't wait but the people said it was moving pretty quickly

The inside of the Magnolia Market is beautiful as you would expect.

Fed Ex does well.  Free shipping if you spend $100

Huge area outside for the dad's and kid's to play while mom shops

Many areas to sit and relax and eat from one of the many food trucks 

Jerry getting some Alabama Sweet Tea in Texas - go figure

This kitty actually posed

 Friday we arrived in Livingston, Texas to volunteer for a month at the CARE Center - will tell you more about it next blog but basically an independent living facility for people that live in their RV's.

Every Friday afternoon is root beer floats so we arrived at a good time

Last night's Blue Moon

All the volunteers were invited to a campfire last night to welcome the new April volunteers and to say good-bye to the ones from March that were heading out today and tomorrow.

And of course pictures of Vincent.

This one just melts my heart

Tomorrow is Easter so we want to wish you all a Happy Easter -  Hugs & Blessings, Carol, Jerry and Teddy

He is Risen - He has Risen Indeed