Our Ranch in Story Brook Downs

Our Ranch in Story Brook Downs


We have a small ranch at the edge of Story Brook Downs, just enough room for my two horses; a palomino named “Star” and a Mustang pinto named “Shelby”. Thirty acres of green pasture with a bubbling brook and a small swimming hole, more than enough room for my horses. The barn, painted red of course, but small, just enough room for them, the farm tools, a potting table for plants and my riding gear. I have a neighborhood high school boy who helps keep up the place and care for the horses. We also have my cat Meat Loaf who is a real love. The man in my life is Bob and we have been together for a long time now and we are very happy.

Our house is two stories high, with two bedrooms and two baths. It is painted bright, sunny yellow and made out of concrete block which has been smoothed out so it is always cool and dry inside. From the front you see a two car garage, the large window into the kitchen, and the oaken front door with a window pane displaying a yellow rose with a textured border that I crafted myself with glass paints. The rose matches the eight smaller roses in the glass panes in the garage door. We have a large oak tree in the front yard, no grass, but a four-tiered waterfall fountain pond filled with Koki. The oak tree shades the downstairs bedroom and the sleeping loft and the bath upstairs. The sleeping loft overlooks the living room which has a 15 foot high panel of glass and French doors at the bottom that open onto the patio in back. Above the French doors is an arch, also painted with a large yellow rose that I did myself. The rooms in the living room are filled with comfortable furniture that has two conversational grouping areas of chairs with a couch in one grouping and a love seat in the other. A round oak table with four chairs sits between the kitchen and the living room with the extra leaf in the alcove closet and one of the extra two chairs in each bedroom.

In the sleeping loft upstairs I have my International Dateline pictures of when I crossed it on my way to Australia and two collages of my cats and of my Dad when he and I were younger. The sleeping loft bedroom and bath are painted a robin egg blue with a lighter shade of blue for the downstairs bedroom and bath. The kitchen is painted a sunny yellow, paler than the house and the counter is shaped like a horseshoe with an open cabinet facing the oak table in the dinning alcove and the living room, which is painted in a butternut color. The counter makes passing food to the table easy and also serves as a buffet area. I’ve hung my cast iron cat trivets on the kitchen wall but they are also used as they are intended, to hold hot foods.

Green plants are in every room plus on one wall in the living room with a 100 gallon fish tank with gentle Angel Fish, tetras, and two kinds of glassfish. The gravel is a sandy color with lots of coral formations completing the tank.

Our friends live all around us in their houses, so we have a great neighborhood. Our village always seems to have birds singing and we hold special and even mundane parties and picnics in the village square. On the Fourth of July we always hold a Town picnic and a brilliant fireworks display. It is always a good time had by all.

For Thanksgiving we draw for a hat to pick who will Host the dinner each year and then the planning beings! We draw to see who will bring what part of the dinner and who will cook what deserts, of every part of the meal is covered. More than one person will always cooks the turkeys, so one person isn’t left doing the whole job.

On Christmas we do the same thing and also pick for presents and chip in for the price of the Christmas tree. The tree fits well with the high ceilings in the living room. It is always a great gathering and we all have a lot of fun.

We have very little crime other than the silly pranks of the teenagers throwing toilet paper on the trees on Halloween and the little left over confetti from the Homecoming football game and dance at the High School. Story Brook Downs is a quiet and very lovely and wonderful place to live.

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