Tuesday Twilight

This week has been so much better! Heavy sigh of relief. Back to work and sort of back to normal.
The good news is that we have a pony adopted! YAY! To a great home, with another pony, a big pasture and a lot of love coming his way. It never gets better than this.
Congrats Wally!

Last weekend we got a lot done around the barn. We put electricity to the gate and now it is not on a battery any longer. The battery kept dying....now it has power of it's own and we will put a light on the gate as well. We also put up some more exterior lights on the barn and now we have a full compliment of light around the buildings....so much easier to clean in the dark and I feel so much braver walking around the back of the barn.

We lost a chicken during the snow, or so we thought. ...but here she came on Sunday, out of the woods, sort of stumbling around, obviously traumatized......so now she is in the barn with Bonnie, the disabled chicken. I might have to change the name of the farm....The Chicken Ranch! LOL.

The borrowed barn down the road is going well. It is a lovely barn, we wish it was ours or that we could move it to our land. Perfect size and great hay storage. Some day, some day.

We got another five ton of hay delivered and believe me when I say that we have hay everywhere! In the aisleway of the old barn and stacked to the gills in the new barn. It always feels good to have hay in the barn and full grain bins....makes me relax a bit.

Tarbaby is having a lot of discomfort with his feet. I have buted him twice a day for a few days now.......he seems a little more comfortable tonight. It makes me emotional to see him in pain and I begin to have the talk with myself about "quality of life" and what if I am selfish or just what needs to be done. We will consult the vet to keep us on an even keel. He is a nice old horse who deserved a better life than what he got. He makes me smile each morning when I feed him, as he, no matter what, gets excited for his grain/slop and he whinnies and sings to me.....but is always very mannerly in waiting and always waits for you to pour it before he digs in. He gets the slop all over his face and his old man teeth hang out of his mouth and he makes pig noises........and it makes you just love him all over again. I wish I had known him as a younger horse, I bet he was quite the guy.

I am thankful for the volunteers who continue to help us with cleaning, building and maintenance. I couldn't do it alone....this is a rescue for all of us, by all of us.
Thanks to all of you who share your time and resources.

A special note to Susy.....we will miss you for a while....be safe, be strong and come back soon!

Christmas is right around the corner.....wow. I am so not ready...but I guess I never am. I should get busy!

My family adopted a new cat from the shelter......we have finally decided on a name....Samson...I am sure it will get changed to Sam in short order.....! Welcome Samson to our family. He fit right in, likes the dogs and even likes the other cats...now how did that happen...no drama? Here?

Pony Up fortune for tomorrow:

You will remember something long lost and bring it to the present.

Fearless Friday comes around

Oh my gosh, what a week.........snow, bitter cold, frozen pipes, dead batteries......fallen trees, power outages that lasted for days......I am so ready for some better weather. Tired, chapped hands....the list goes on but I will spare you.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Pony Up friends! I hope your day was better spent than mine. I spent hours hauling water, pushing flooding water out of the barn, fixing pipes, arranging heat tape onto pipes, putting extra insulation in cracks and crevices of the well room and checking generator. Thank God for the generator..that is all I can say.....and then finally........Thanksgiving dinner. Just in time..

Happy to say that today, all is well.....paddocks cleaned, water tubs cleaned and filled, stalls scraped.......grain in the bin. Finally a quiet minute to myself and a glass of wine with my name on it. Maybe next time we will be further and better prepared.......just think, it isn't even winter yet! Yikes!

A huge thank you to Ryan for helping me today......what would we do without you? Thank you...we owe you a hot lunch! Also thanks to Caryn for helping me pre=make most of my Thanksgiving dishes....always a pleasure to have you in our home! Thanks to Brenda for taking extra care of the ponies in this ugly weather.

Horses are in need everywhere......cold weather means they should have extra hay and an extra blanket if they are old. If your neighbors are having trouble with feeding, lend a hand. We are feeding a pony who is unblanketed, old and making his living on "pasture" only.... Please help out if you are able and please call the humane society on animals who are in bad conditions......they cannot speak for themselves and depend on us.

December is right around the corner and Christmas with it. Seems too fast, doesn't it?

Pony Up fortune for tomorrow:

Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow, courage is speaking up when the room is silent......have courage today.

TOO cold Tuesday

We had a violent wind storm, with snow..and now we have no power. It is bone chilling cold...in the teens. There are fallen branches and trees everywhere.....looks like a war zone.

I am fortunate to have generator power for a while. There are 55ooo of us without power..........brr. I hope we will have power by Thanksgiving. There are many folks without any heat. I hope they can get to neighbors or family.

The horses were fed extra yesterday evening and this morning and then again this evening. I brought hot water to the barn and they got hot mashes. Chickens are cold. I made a hay hut for the barn cat and she is cozy inside....shavings, hay, an old wool coat and Bonnie to keep her company. It was hard cleaning frozen poop piles from the paddocks, so I picked them as good as I could and plan on catching up when
the weather breaks.

Tarbaby is double blanketed, but he is not eating as well as I would like. I increased the warm water in his food tonight. He seems perky enough, but I worry anyway. I am a chronic worrier....I wish I wasn't.

My truck is dead.......battery dead and I have no one to help me jump it until tomorrow...so I am driving the car. Amazingly enough, it goes well in the snow. I had it loaded up today with presto logs for a neighbor who has only a fireplace for heat in this cold.

With Thanksgiving in our thoughts, I am thankful for friends, neighbors, volunteers and family. If you have something to give, give it up and give it out! There are plenty of folks in need around you.

Pony Up Fortune for tomorrow:

When you least expect it, it arrives.

Sunday morning, coming down

Snow is falling. Chores are done..water pipes wrapped, extra food put out for birds, horses have lots of hay to munch this afternoon, hoses drained....I guess I am ready.
I am not a snow fan and it will be alright if it comes and goes quickly....although I will enjoy the scenery of snow on trees and undisturbed fields.

We had our fundraiser/auction last night. It was a lot of fund......new friends, old friends, lots of auction items, reasonble prices....great food! Mr. Williams, what a suprise to see you.

I would like to thank all the folks who donated items, my volunteers who donated time and effort, Trophy Lake for the use of the room (they did not charge us!) and of course all the folks who kept their RSVP's! I hope everyone found something that they wanted! I know I did. Thank you to the Darmer family for the donation of hay, thank you to Gail Baker for "Harriet's Bench"...we will treasure it! Thank you to Don for being our impromptu auctioneer! Susy, Caryn, Ryan, Milo, Kaydee, Rebecca, Sharon and BRENDA....(edited because I failed to mention Brenda!!!)...I couldn't have done this without you!

If anyone would like a copy of the Pony UP Video that was shown, we would be glad to copy one for you and mail it or you can come and pick it up. We will charge one dollar for each CD, plus mailing costs if applicable.

All proceeds from last night's fundraiser will be used to feed the Pony Up horses through the winter. We run through about two ton of hay per month (we have a lot of BIG horses with BIG appetites). We also use a lot of stall pellets and we try to buy damaged bags when we can. We feed senior grain, beet pulp, rice bran and alfalfa pellets to most horses...except air fern ponies. Every horse has his/her own diet according to age and physical need. For instance Tarbaby cannot eat much hay, so he gets senior grain, hay pellets, rice bran and beet pulp twice a day to keep his weight up where it should be.

The sky is getting progressively grayer as I write this......looks like it might really come down! Yikes.

I am off to do my own house chores this afternoon.....enjoy your quiet Sunday afternoon. I have this whole week off and plan to catch up on the things I never get done...dr/dentist, shopping....friends.....

Pony UP Fortune for tomorrow:

Eyes wide open........mouth shut.