Last day of the year..........Thursday

I leave the house this morning and there is fog......hanging in the low spots of the road, looking like clouds which have fallen from the sky somehow. It rained during the night. I get to the barn and get started.......water tubs need filling........the paddocks are squishy under my feet.

Jake is not feeling too good this morning. Lethargic, runny eyes and he didn't finish his hay. I run my hands over him, rub his ears.........and then take his temperature. No temperature noted. I give him some new hay and he nibbles it. HMMM> I will keep my eye on him as I feed everyone and it will give me something else to worry about today....by the time I start serving grain he is a little perkier and he hollers for the grain. I pour it in his bucket and he eats greedily. I feel a little better. Although somedays I expect to find him dead.....I don't want him to die. I want to see him with weight on and able to move without such huge effort. I am impatient with weight gain. I can gain about ten lbs in two days....no sweat....so I am wanting to see an immediate difference in Jake. It takes time when starvation has robbed you of muscle and fat....

I feed the chickens and make a note that I must clean the coop on Friday.......nest boxes too.
Paddocks will need raking too. The mud gets ahead of me....the chores get ahead of me....
Speaking of chickens, the little speckled hen is laying eggs on top of the closet in the barn......WAY up there. You have to use a ladder to get the eggs. All those nice nest boxes and a custom coop........and she lays eggs in the barn.

We will put an automatic gate in this weekend and a security camera at the farm. Necessity, unfortunately. We can watch the security camera from our computers......very cool.

My mother is ill and will have surgery next week, so my blog may be sporadic......a few lines here and there. I would appreciate your prayers for my mom......
Note to Mom: I love you and will be there for you....probably even cook for you...think positive thoughts. We will get through this.

Some days hit us like a ton of bricks. Sadness that puts a heavy weight on our hearts and minds. ...hard to shake off, impossible to forget and yet we must continue on...no place to stop that would be easy......keep going.

Tomorrow is 2010. Too strange.....George Orwellian. Think about how much has changed in ten years and what is to come in the next ten. The impossible becomes the norm.
Happy New Year........be safe and sane.........get home early....and have a designated driver PLEASE!

Pony Up Fortune for tomorrow:

Take care of the small things before you go.

Wednesday comes around

Up early, leave the house late.......it is cold, as usual.....a double feature now that it is raining.
Soggy paddocks, steamy breath from warm grain........chickens in the barn. Jake has made a mess, which really only means everything is working. When I dump his grain slop into his bucket he pushes my hand and the bucket away so that he can start the business of eating.
Soon I have a virtual chorus of slurping and bucket thumping which I find comforting.

I feed the cats and tell them that today they really must leave their room.......I take the tiger striped one and place her on the hay bales......but she runs back to the safety of the room....so I take the calico and put her on the hay.....and she too runs back. Hmmm....stockholm syndrome....it must be.....I leave the door open for them as I do each morning so that maybe they will venture out. The chickens feel free to go in and get the dry cat food crumbles, one even laid an egg in their bed...but the cats won't come out.

The weekend will come and we have chores to do........move manure piles......fix some fencing....groom horses.........move hay, tractor work......arena fencing. ...boy those horses are hard on the arena fence.

Pete the peacock is still hanging around and I guess he really is not leaving on his own. I thought he might find his way back to his own farm. How do you keep those things on your own place because it seems like they just wander....for miles. He is hanging with the chickens and they don't seem to care. He walks around with them and naps with them...and he clacks his beak at me. ...as some kind of warning to not come close. ...not sure why, because he runs if you walk after him. He makes a strange noise somewhat like when you blow air through a reed that goes on an instrument and he makes it over and over again......every once in a while he screams a high pitched noise that sounds like "help me". No kidding.


On my way to work and I listen to The Honeydrippers sing "Sea of Love". ..
Traffic is light and I think that everyone except me must have the week off. No Starbucks this morning........just my home brewed stuff in my new travel mug. There will probably be Starbucks for lunch.

Off to bed, lots of things to do tomorrow.

Pony Up fortune for tomorrow

Say yes and follow through.

Just another manic Monday

Up early......it is raining, still cold.........one load of laundry, all dogs fed..........coffee made, in the shower.......off to the barn.
I listen to Sarah Vaughn........yikes.....just listening to old CD's........no oldies station this morning.
To the barn and I turn all the lights on, feed the cats, let the chickens out.......the horses scold me for even thinking about feeding those cats first........the cats meow and love their canned food. I always give them canned food in the morning. Something hearty to start their day.

Jake moves slowly this morning, almost painfully. I worry about him as I fix his grain.......he feels well enough to creep forward into the barn and "steal" hay. I let him.........at this point, I may always let him....whatever he wants for as long as he wants.

I warm everyone's grain and give extra beet pulp to TarBaby. We are trying to get a little more weight on the old guy. He eats his slop well, but lacks in the hay department. He is very long in the tooth as they say and a very sloppy eater. He has grain/slop all down his wall and onto the floor. He has worn a spot in the dirt where he sticks his leg out for Beaver......the "you try to bite me, then I try to bite you game"...... horses are so very playful.

Beaver learned to get his head through the gate that separates him and the filly.........and after he gets his head through, then he can get a hold of her grain bucket. She screams at him and he doesn't care...she kicks and he kicks back. Everyone has a personality.......everyone has likes and dislikes......some play well with others and others must live in their own paddocks.
Winston plays rough and so he cannot be trusted, especially with an older or down on their luck horse. He threatens through the fence and tosses his beautiful head...kicks up his heels and scares the rest of them. It is not infrequent that he gets a hold of Churchie's blanket and rips it or helps Churchie remove it. Clowns.

Our new volunteer was at the barn tonight and she brought a friend.........nice people. Welcome!

I got most of the tax information done...ready to file........such a lot of work, so little time to do it. The accountant has been after me for a couple of months. Life can be so complicated over uninteresting things.

I washed my truck today......the first time in .....ummm.........well, I won't say. I also vacuumed it. It was SO dirty. Looks brand new now....and um.....now I need to do the horse trailer. The horse trailer needs washing, and maintenance.........wheel bearings.....greasing.........and probably more stuff that I don't know. Soon..........soon.

I keep waiting for things to slow down and they never do. Funny isn't it? Never a dull moment..so I do what I can, when I can, keep lists of what I intend to do and prioritize it each day. I need a full day to myself...........no horses....no chores.........maybe next week? ROFL.

Pony UP fortune for tomorrow.

It is not what you are going to have, but what you already have.......

Sunday.....long holiday almost over

Wow.....the holiday is almost over, the new year almost here. We had an uneventful weekend.
No major projects going, just the everyday chores that must be done. ...cleaning poop, grooming horses and cleaning the barn.
Saturday we cleaned paddocks and stalls, then went to the feed store and got grain and bedding.
The shoer came and TarBaby, Max and Winston got their feet trimmed. Jake was on the list but he was not all that steady and so we decided to wait another week. His feet are a mess, but are really the least of his problems right now.
We gave haircuts to everyone and cut tails so that they won't be stepped on. We checked weights on horses........and Vinnie is FAT......so his grain ration is cut down. We added some grain to TarBaby's and we added vitamins to Jake's ration.
Jake spent some time in the sun today and yesterday.......he got a little sweaty and so we put a cooler on him for a while....he was dry when I came back this afternoon and I reblanketed him.
We got him a new blanket yesterday so that the old one can be washed. He is still eating good........cleans up all of his hay and is very vocal for his grain. He is coming along and I have hopes he will make it.
We had a lovely Christmas......nice homemade gifts from several people......jams, cookies, and various desserts that I do not need to eat for another year. ...several bottles of wine. My favorite Leaping Horse Merlot......
A nice holiday party with lots of great friends......what more can you ask for? Oh and the sun was out too..........such a bonus. I said today that it is only four months until April....four short months.......and the weather will turn around.....the days will be longer.......the pasture will be better ............no frozen hoses, no using the defrost in the truck.
I came home this afternoon and got some stuff done that I was putting off...........TAXES....end of the year stuff.........I paid some bills too........early, so that I won't have to mess with it later this week........I love to be caught up and finished.....I am sure everyone else does too.

I switched the horses over to Allegra Cadence. So far I like the quality and they seem to like the taste of it. I cut mostly everyone's rations down except for TarBaby and Jake. I increased their beet pulp. We have mostly TB's and the grain equals high spirits.......can't pay attention.........I have to run around the paddock like a screaming meemie kind of thing. Because we have volunteers.......we have to keep them safe from hyper active hooves and 12oo lb bodies....not just the volunteers........me too! It is easy to keep feeding what you feed, but you really must pay attention to weight and how much hay is wasted. Fortunately, I throw very little hay out when I clean stalls.......they clean it up and waste a very small amount.

So one more holiday to pass and then we are home free for a while......January always seems to be a long month. It will be hard to start writing 2010......it even sounds weird....doesn't it?

Hopefully tomorrow I will have a full report on our Sully and Yukon....both in foster homes. No news is good news I hope?

Enjoy your week.

Pony Up fortune for tomorrow:

Be particular when you listen ........ and listen well.