Lily's 12th Birthday Extravaganza Super Special Plus

Hey everybody, today me and my dad are going on a trail ride into a pizza place.

What you doing this morning?

I'm giving my chickens water. I just did it.

Can you go let out the pasture posse? I was gonna move them, but I'm not gonna have time.

Yeah, I'm about to go feed them.

I don't have time to move them because we've got to go. Bailey and I's date. We gotta leave in just an hour and 15 minutes. You coming? You gonna help me milk today?

Yeah.

What's your idea of putting them on the cooler?

So that I can see where I'm pouring.

I like to put them on the counter. Apparently she likes to put them there, but it makes sense. She can get at it and pour it.

Piece of advice: never walk behind a horse because it might kick you.

Ah, have you been kicked?

No.

I'm gonna say never turn your back to a cow.

Yeah.

I see, puts the milk at your level. Have you ever been trail riding?

No, I have not.

Ooh, I think you're gonna like it. Yeah, it's like hiking but you're on a horse. Biltmore Estate, can't think of a better place to take my little girl on a date. Fortunate enough to have this in our own town, aren't we? People come from all over the world to go to the Biltmore Estate.

Isn't this place beautiful?

To think we have 8,000 acres right here and basically next to downtown Asheville. I think it used to be like 80,000 acres, owned all the way way to Pisgah. I think this driveway, they used to do horse and carriage, and it took them an hour just to get from the entrance to the house. Look, that sign says slow horse crossing. You think we'll cross this road?

I hope. That'll be funny.

We made it there. You gotta pay attention to these stables too, Lily. See how they've done them? You're totally ready, aren't you? Yeah, horse pants, horse cowboy boots, cowgirl boots. It's the closest thing I have to cowboy boots. You think it'll work?

Yeah.

All right, thank you, ma'am. Thank you, sir.

That's a lot of horses.

Yeah. Whoa, this is your dream, huh?

I don't know if I'm even gonna own this many horses.

There's so many horses. You ever seen so many horses in one spot?

Um, yes I have.

These must be the carriage horses. They're huge.

Looks like drafts.

Yeah, you know you can get carriage rides here too?

Yeah, I think those are— one of those are carriage horses and then I think the other ones are Clydesdales.

You want to see the ones over here and watch them work? Wow, there's a big crew picking up the manure, putting it in the manure spreader.

I wonder what horses we're gonna ride. There's Pintos, Chestnuts, Lipizzaners.

Appaloosas. Are these breeds you're saying, or are these color styles?

Breeds.

Oh, you can go through here. We're gonna ride one of those carriage.

Should we go look at the stable? Yeah.

What about this stable?

Yeah, maybe not so long and stalls on that side and not so high.

This one's concreted. That's nice. This is a carriage stable, it looks like.

Yeah, it's— well, I think that's that area because they can pull the carriages into there.

Lily, can that one see?

Yeah, it has an air net. Okay, they're waiting in line to get petted. What kind is it?

I think it's a chestnut.

You think we're gonna ride one like this on the trail?

Maybe.

Do you see their big hoofs?

Yeah, yeah, I might be actually—

that's a draft horse, isn't it?

Yeah, that one looks like a riding horse.

Yeah, and look, look at the one behind this one. Look how little. Maybe that one's not grown up. I wonder why do you think it has this mask?

Eyes might be sensitive to flies.

Oh, what, do you want to pet another one? You want him to move on? Here it comes, you get another one.

That's a problem.

How can you tell?

Has light skin.

This one's waiting in line too, Lily. Look at this gigantic water trough. You gonna drink all that? I think it's probably 500 gallons. This is a tall one and dark. What's this one?

Pretty like a Friesian.

A what?

Friesian.

How do you know all this about horses?

I have a book.

I exaggerated. This is a 300-gallon, but still, that's a lot of water.

8, 9, 10, 11— there's probably around a dozen and a half horses in here.

You have to have it, and they fill it up probably twice a That's like, uh, 60— 2,400 pounds of water. And you think they fill it up twice a day?

Probably.

How long you been working here?

A year and a half.

You like it? Yeah.

We do ask that you take everything out of your pockets and stick it into a saddlebag here.

Cool, huh?

You gonna be able to jump on one from here? Look how tall they are. I bet you're getting the one in the far back because it's smaller. Is the brown one yours? What kind is it? Yeah, that was definitely you. Look how short the stirrups are. He likes his brakes.

These white oak trees were brought in on a train at about 20 to 25 feet tall before they were planted into the ground.

Wow.

And George Vanderbilt actually hand planted these trees up here himself. They are older than the house. They're 150 years old.

How was it? Good.

Is it easier than English writing?

Yeah.

That's just like relaxing for you, isn't it? Are you sore? I'm sore from like keeping my legs spread out.

Well, the little strips are so calm.

Look at this crop field here in the bottom. You look so nice today. You excited? Getting hungry?

Yeah.

That trail ride make you hungry?

Yeah.

It is open. There was a doubt. Maybe they're not open on Monday. Maybe they're not open for lunch. Yeah. Where do you want to sit? Here. All right, you sit right here. I'll pull your chair out for you.

There you go.

That's what a gentleman does, pull out your chair. Always think about the other person. Service. Hopefully we're teaching you what to look for in a date. If you ever go out with somebody. Yum! Gluten-free, organic. You chose the pepperoni?

I did.

I like pepperoni. I chose the pepperoni.

Why'd you choose the pepperoni?

I like it.

And we've snuck and got the family a cheese pizza to go.

Gonna be able to eat it all?

Yeah.

Slowing down? All but one. She gave me one piece.

Thank you. All but two.

You want one? You wanna order dessert?

Yeah.

Anything for you, baby. Chocolate torte. Is it good? Mm-hmm. Gluten-free option here.

What's that topping?

What's the topping? Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's a whipped cream. You could easily make some of these if you wanted. You think you would want to make these one day, or do you like brownies? I want to make this. Flowerless. Oh, Lily, I'm so full. You're gonna have to drive us home.

I guess we can't go home.

What about you? Are you full? You must be full.

I am.

Now we're gonna just have to take the family here sometime. You're gonna remember this?

Yeah.

Good.

You should also see if he'll open the door for you too. Yeah, that's a sign of somebody looking out for somebody else, being a servant. Do you know that? Yeah. Especially in the beginning. It's funny, I did that for your mom and then she was like, you don't have to do that. Just get in and start, get the car started. She had to sit in that car, that hot car for that time that it took me to get around. I was like, okay, that makes sense. Sorry. Billie, for the surprise pizza, should we give— Jonah's out here. Should we give it to him? He's here. Or should we have him come to the house?

We should have them go to the house.

Come to the house, we got a surprise for you. All right, you carry it behind me. Jonah, he's trying not to look. We got a surprise for everybody. Oh, they got us a treat! Oh, we got you a little snack. Did you expect that?

I didn't.

I did.

I almost said to you—

You expected it? I almost said you should bring them a snack, but then I was like, it's her special day. Yeah, so I said, should we let Mom in on it? And she said no. So you get to be surprised too. Hey, how's the string trimming going? Good. Oh wait, he wants me to hold him. Hey, I like this.

He cried when you left.

You did?

Well, I brought you a piece of pizza. How's the pizza? It's delicious. Is that a nice little surprise? Why'd we forget to eat there? We forgot about it. And now it's been years. We just kind of stopped doing things that we were doing before. It's a gluten-free place that will put our organic chicken. I know. Look what just came. You ready to potty train?

We got some potty training underwear.

You want to wear those?

Yeah.

This is Mano and that's Sabina. He is gonna get hopefully Sabina pregnant.

And what are you gonna do with the kittens?

I'm gonna sell some and give away some. First I clean out their litter box. I get a shovel. And take out all the poop.

All cleaned up.

Now I'm going to take out all their feeders and waters. I take the poop and the water and I walk down the steps.

I hope you go to the woods, not right here.

And then I dump out the water and put it right here.

All right, water's dumped. Why don't you put the water on some plants? I go set that in the sun to sanitize. Do you wash your hands after this real good? Uh-huh. They seem happy despite being in a cage. We need to keep him in here a week for him to get oriented.

Yeah, do you think a whole week or do you think more?

Well, Ben, his owner, thought a week, but I did put it out to the members to see what they thought. She'll get more tame too during this time. He's got to stay in here a week to know that this is home because he came from a whole different place. This is food and water. This is where you come for it. You know, these cats are part of your training for getting a horse, right? You know that? Like having to clean up kitty litter and do something you don't want to do.

Yeah, it's dirty.

I mean, there's fun to it, but there's also a lot of annoying stuff, which is going to be the case for horses.