Hearth and Barn Team
Meet the animals who benefit from the sale of all of the items on hearthandbarn.com including the reason for all of this -- beautiful Star Dancer who inspired it all.
Kelly Gray
Luckiest animal Mammas ever, lead hay wrangler, coop cleaner, joy tree maker, Star Dancer protégé.
Hearth and Barn 'joy trees' origins
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When Star Dancer my horse came to live with me, I had no idea how much love and labor go into rehabbing a senior horse with so many medical issues. But somehow, Star Dancer told me we would be just fine -- and that she would make a way for me to provide for her specialized vet care.
After building her a shelter, I had a bunch of fencing material left over and she inspired me to repurpose it into these little trees to sell at vendor markets. When Star Dancer passed away and gained her angel wings in December of 2020, I still had several animals to support and felt overwhelmed with my grief over loosing this beautiful horse. To cope with such a painful loss and cover the expenses for my remaining eight animals, even after she died, I continued making Star Dancer's joy trees for Bianca, Pixie and Dash, who all have chronic medical issues that require constant, costly medical intervention.
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I make each joy tree by hand from cutting the wood with a chop saw to custom-cutting the moss for each joy tree. Thanks to Star Dancer's inspiration, they help cover some of the veterinary expenses for my animals and other emergent rescue animal expenses. ​
Thank you so much for supporting these animals with your purchase of our joy trees.
