Thanks to Ollie for passing along our information because he believes we have a worthy cause and mission! Make sure you tune in to 850AM on Monday, October 20 at 7:45am. We will be interviewed on KFUO AM. You can also listen live at www.kfuoam.org
We’ll be talking about our upcoming events and our programs. We have some interesting and fun things coming up!!!
I thought I’d start telling ya’ll about our horses. Tanner, he’s our old man, is a gentle old soul and just wants some loving. Outlaw is a curious sort who will clean his teeth on your hair if you’re not careful! He loves to be in the middle of things and will even come when he’s called(if he wants to)! Ginger is a little robust shall we say. She is sweet and mild-mannered. Poor girl. For the past few weeks has been fighting an abscess that we are trying to get healed. They all love apples and carrots but we have to make applesauce for Tanner since he’s missing some teeth. If you’re coming by, feel free to bring some carrots and apples, and applesauce.
So there seems to be some confusion in regards to the last blog. Yes, we made progress towards our goal of the minimum of $6,000 last week. However, we did NOT reach $6000 last week. We still need over $5,000 to get through the end of the year-and that just covers the roof over our head and utilities. In the coming weeks, we need to have hay delivered for the horses, build a shelter for them, buy more program supplies, and fix the furnace. So the $5k is the bare minimum to keep Building Dreams Ranch alive. We want to thank those of you that have called to check on us and many thanks for the prayers. God continues to show us His promises and is answering many heart-felt prayers.
Thanks for those of you who answered our plea this week. We’re not out of the woods yet and still need your support as our email said. The $6000 is barely enough to keep utilities and rent going for the rest of the year. We want to thank one man in particular who took it upon himself to seek out people’s hearts and raised a good portion for us in 72 hours this week. What’s more important, however, is that this man, through his experiences at BDR and what happened this week, gave his life over to Christ!!
We still need to build a shelter for our horses by mid-November and purchase hay to feed them! The hay is going to be, at least, $540 just to get us through 4 months. We have many other projects that need to be done as well. We need fencing to divide the pasture so we can seed and prepare part of it to have good grass in the spring. We’ve estimated what this would cost to do an electric tape fence and it will be a minimum of $450 for the t-posts, charger, and electric tape. These costs are just to get these supplies. We live on a ranch with no tractor, mower, or any farm equipment. Even when we get the fencing, we’ll need someone to donate the seed and the mower, or their time, to seed our pasture for us.
Potter’s House, which is now the detached, 3-car garage, needs to be outfitted and brought to code. We’re cleaning and painting that tomorow for our work day but we still need flooring, heating and cooling, and a bathroom out there. Oh-we need a furnace for the house too!!!! We do have a working unit but need another one for the other floor.
OUR BIGGEST NEED IS……… $1.5 million to purchase BDR’s property!!!!! Since we are leasing this property there are limitations to what we can do. We know we are supposed to be here and that God has made all of this happen for a reason. Any help you can provide to help us attain the funding to purchase our home and continue serving our children is graciously appreciated. The children we serve thank you in advance for what you’re going to do for us, as do we.
Stay in touch! It’s been a wild ride this week and I’m sure more’s to come!
We’ve been using rope to fix our fences in the places where boards are missing or the fence is leaning. We are out of rope and in desperate need of fence!! We continue to get calls and emails from people offering to donate their horses but we also cannot do this until we divide the pasture into smaller pastures-which requires fencing. We also need to build a shelter for our horses for the winter since, as you can see on our “Upcoming Events” page, that our current barn is lacking. If you feel lead to help in this area, please give us a call!
We’ve been in our new home for just under a month now! I can’t believe how time flies. We have many needs(our website is being updated with them) and the list keeps growing. Right now, one of our biggest needs is for fencing materials. There are currently 3 horses on the property but it is one big pasture. Until we can divide this up, we can’t introduce new horses to our herd. With that being said, do not let this deter you from contacting us if you have a horse you are looking to donate or rehome. We know God will come through with the provisions for the fencing and the horses. We have looked into electric fencing, wood fencing, and telephone poles. If you have any of these materials and would like to donate them, we would greatly appreciate it. Also, with winter approaching, we need to build shelters for our horses. If you’ve been to the website, you’ve seen the condition of our barn. There’s not much in the way of protection from the weather there. We want to leave the structure/framework as it appears to be sturdy but take down the remaining wood and use it to build run-ins(3 sided buildings with a roof).
This is only the beginning of many projects and needs. Be sure to check out our “Event” page for listsing of work days and projects and our “wish list” page for the many items of which we’re in need. As always, if you feel led to give a financial contribution, we would appreciate it.
As of tomorrow, we will have spent 20 days in our new home! I still can’t believe this is where God landed us. It’s so magnificent and grand. While this huge need for land has been met, we have many that have been born. We will be updating our needs page on the site for those of you eager to help. We need everything from firewood to fencing, paint, downspouts, floodlights, and more. We especially need a gator, tractor, and a F250. Don’t let the fulfilling of the land need fool you. We still need corporate sponsors, private investors, and foundational backing to make our program a success.
Hey Day was this past Saturday and we had a blast! Everyone who came out had a great time fishing and jumping on the velcro wall. We want to thank Terry Swalley and everyone with Cedar Lake Farms for ensuring our event come off without a hitch(no pun intended).
Many have asked to see pictures of our home and I will post some here. I hope to get more up on the site soon.
Again, obtaining land was just one of many hurdles. Now, we have to continue to raise money to purchase the land and to run our programs. Our home and land need a LOT of TLC and our supply list more than doubled. We’re working with the city, county, and state for permits, licenses, etc. We need to have an engineer or architect do a site plan, clear out some brush, seed our pastures, and more! For all of you that continue to want to volunteer, we’ll let you know as soon as we have the supplies to build the barn, fences, seed the pastures, paint, etc.
We want to thank you all for your continued interest and support. Now that we have so much going on, I will do my best to keep this blog updated!
