Just Another Saturday in Paradise

A lot of people look forward to the weekend so that they can rest, or go play, as in go shopping, go to the movies, go out to the lake, etc.

Not me (or any horse person for that matter). Weekends are for packing in as much stuff as possible, so that by Sunday evening you can barely walk and are actually looking forward to the work week so that you can rest.

It's the weekend warrior mentality to the extreme.

Yesterday was the start of mine, and by the end of the day I was too tired to even get on the computer to post pictures. So here I am, Sunday morning, posting about Saturday. I should get to Sunday's post by Wednesday, I think.

Saturday started off with the usual chores, etc., then ran to town to get grain before the co-op closed and headed on out to Kingman for their tack and draft horse sale. Of course I only went for the tack sale. I still can't even think about getting another horse without my stomach doing flips. It's a good thing, though. It keeps me in check.

I did get a pretty good deal on some tack. I got a saddle, 2 bridles and 2 breastcollars for a little over a c-note. The bridles are brand new. I definitely needed more bridles. I pretty much have nothing in the way of tack so this helps.

The breastcollars are older and well-worn, which means they are flexible and already broke-in--just the way I like them.

The saddle is really nothing to brag about, but I just needed something to start my 2 year olds in. I need to save up for a trailer, so once the trailer is purchased I'll upgrade my saddles. This will certainly do for now.

The nice thing is there's really not anything that can get messed up on it!

I also realized late last night that I can take the rest of the money I got from selling my other saddle and get me a new cart! My others are old and have holes in them, which makes it slightly difficult to clean stalls and haul hay around the place in. So, all in all, I'd rather sacrific a little on the saddle and be able to get more to help me out around the farm. Hey, it's all good!

Moving on, I got most of my garden planted yesterday as well. Here's the box for my garlic and onions:

I know it looks like a box of dirt right now, but just wait a few weeks. In a few months we'll be having fajitas from this garden!

I also got my veggies planted (or most of them anyway). I still have some more tomatoes and bell peppers to plant.

Then I got my roundpen put up. Paula gets kind of annoying when she gets bored, so it's gotten pretty bad here lately. She needs to be put to work. She craves it. She needs it.

And I need her to have a job other than being in my face 24/7!

Thankfully Suzie and Paula get along, so once Suzie foals they can be buds together and that will also help with Paula's boredom. I love that Paula loves to work, but I would like to request about 10 more hours be added to each day. That would help a lot. Please, Santa, I've been a good girl.

And Paula has been, too.

And so has Eddie. A good boy anyway. Sorry about that, Ed.

I also got some pictures of the girls playing last night. That will be on an upcoming post.

As will a few posts for my beginning horse-friends (or those of you thinking about getting a horse). If the post doesn't scare you off, perhaps this teaser-photo will.

No, this is not the triage cabinet at the local ER. This is in my tackroom. And I need a bigger one.

And this isn't even half of what I have.

I think I'll go cry a bit now. And garden. My peppers and tomatoes need me.

Evening Update

Last night I finally got some pictures of Suzie and Eddie. Suzie is due to foal any day now. Her belly is just starting to finally sag into that "v" shape that comes right before foaling.

At least she has an excuse for her sagging. I haven't come up with a good one for me yet.

Eddie is doing well and getting a little better each day. We're still doing our treatments: hydrotherapy, sweat wraps, antibiotics and stretching. He gets a little more use out of his leg with each day.


He was a little preoccupied here. As with any man, he's always preoccupied with food.


Stupid herself is even doing much better! Her tumor has shrank considerably with the antibiotics we got from the vet. She's running around a lot more, too. It's good to see the old gal back in action.

Last night I also had a chance to get my garden fencing done.

This is a good place for it as it gets the most sun and hopefully Stupid can't get into it and dig up the veggies!

Once I get the veggies planted, that is.

Another project I have in store is my riding area. A few years ago we started this fence. There is a fantastic gate here to start my arena off of.

Paula can't stand to not be in my pictures....

This is the riding area. It will be the "before" shot. Hopefully the "after" shot will come later this summer.

I have so many post holes to dig. So many. Oy vey.

Spring Cleaning, Farm-Style

OK, things are finally back to normal (or as normal as they get around here, anyway) so I have a moment to post about our lazy, leisurely, relaxing Easter weekend.

Um... right.

First thing Saturday morning I met Dad in town to pick up the equipment from the rental place. I had to haul the bobcat since I had a receiver hitch on my truck.


If you've never hauled one of these things before, let me tell you, they are surprisingly heavy! I can completely see now why all construction vehicles are three-quarter or one-tons. My little half-ton was pretty lugged down by this monster!

So then I rearranged the horses so they'd be out of our way while we did the work. Eddie got the stall pen and the girls all got tossed in together.


They didn't seem to mind much.

Before I really get into what we did, I should explain a bit about this homestead. The place was one of the very first homesteads in the county, and the original one-room house is still on the place (now tucked way inside a larger outbuilding). We estimate the house that I now live in was built around 1880-1885 or so. I have a picture of it from 1891 and there are decent-sized trees around it. The Haleys were the first family to live here.

My family purchased the place from the Benentendi family about 15 years ago or so. That's when we first moved in: my dad, my sister, and I (18 years old at the time). Of course I moved out when I went to college and moved on, but I ended up moving to the place again while my husband was in the army and was forced to go back to training to change "jobs." After our divorce I moved out again, so this is the third time I've moved back here.

During that second stint here I had my horses here and did my best to build up a place for them, but in all honestly I realize now that I was totally in over my head with the horses and with life in general. Hinesight is definitely 20/20 so I am trying very hard not to make the same mistakes twice, hence this massive effort to get this place in order!

So now that you know there is a little method to our madness, I am proud to present the madness:

Our first task was to clean up the south side of the barn. This area has always been troublesome since the first day we moved in. The volunteer trees had firmly rooted themselves around some very old cattle panels long before we ever got here. You can imagine that 15 years later they are even worse. As they say, though, no time like the present!


You can see where my dad had a winch-truck come in and try to pull the panels/trees out of the ground but it didn't work very well.

Finally, between the bobcat, three chainsaws, four strong guys and a semi-truck (I'm not kidding there), they were finally able to dig out those old panels and tree stumps!


By the way, what is this? I come around the corner from working on the cattle pens (more on those later in this post) and I see three guys standing there watching the fourth work in the bobcat.

Of course, I was obligated by paternal law to rib my dad about that. He claimed he was "supervising."

Supervising is very important work.

So anyway, we got that area all cleaned up and it is fabulous! After we get the wood pile burned on that side I can move the fence up and the pen will be even larger. It's so nice to have an old area like that all cleaned up and usable again.

Speaking of cleaning up, the next project were the cattle pens. These old pens were no longer usable (or safe to use for horses in any case) and they had to go! Plus, the fences off my loafing shed will come into this area up to the water spigot directly in the middle of these.


While the guys were working on the south side of the barn I did my best to remove the tin (and accompanying nails), panels, wire, and get it all ready for the posts to be pulled out.


Actually, in this picture the posts were already pulled out, but eh, close enough. Just imagine posts, ok?

Dad and I ran to town to get one of the chainsaws repaired (broken chain--it happens) and pick up a pizza, but before he left he had to go grab a sledgehammer for the other guys to keep working at getting the fence out.


Dad with a sledgehammer. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

So they got to work and we ran our errands, got back and it looked entirely different (but in a very good way)!

Once we got the pile burned down the next day it looks even better now. The photo below is basically pointing right at where the loafing shed will soon go, facing the camera, with the pens coming out toward the camera as well. They will be nice, big pens, shaded, with shelter and a faucet at one end. I can't wait to get it all set up now!

By the way, there's a temporary fence up there now. I had to let the girls out. They insisted on it.

They can be quite demanding like that.

So after the cattle pens we had to clean up around the wood pile. This old irrigation system showed up shortly after I left--it was abandoned, so we hauled everything off and got the area all cleared for our pile of fire the next day.

Then we put our tools away, loaded up the machinery and thanked our helpers. Speaking of thanks, I owe my dad big time. This was a ton of work, not an insignificant amount of money, and his entire weekend off that he spent helping get this place in order. I appreciate it all so very much!

It was a lot of work but completely worth it. This place has so much potential.

We were all so exhausted at the end of Easter weekend.

Not sure why Sophie was as equally exhausted, but she seemed to share my sentiments!

Ring of Fire

Well, it's actually more like a pile of fire, but it started out as a pile of wood.

Add a match...

and it all went up in smoke (reminds me of my marriage! Ha!).

Thankfully everything burned up really well, since this is where my loafing shed will go in a few weeks.

This was only one project this weekend, so lots more pictures to come as soon as I recover from the smoke inhalation.

Yes, I inhaled. It totally wasn't worth it.

Happy Easter

A Day Off?

I took the day off today to get a few things done. I can't wait to get back to work tomorrow so I can rest!

First thing I took Dad's farm dog, aka "Stupid," in to the vet. She has a large mammary tumor.

The vet put her on antibiotics and pain meds to start off with. She might have surgery to remove it next week--will just have to wait and see. Hopefully it's not cancerous. She's such a good ole farm dog.

Then I drove to Hutchinson to order my new loafing shed!


Of course this isn't a loafing shed, but it's the color I ordered. The shed will have two 12x12 lined stalls and a 12 x 6 tackroom on the right hand side, with window. It should be delivered in about 3 weeks. I can't wait!

Then I had to pick up some more meds for Eddie at TSC (since Pratt is all out of pretty much everything), had some bank business to take care of and then, since I was in Hutchinson anyway, I decided to take another load home out of storage.



This is such a depressing photo! This is all the junk stuff I have left after THREE vehicle loads!

So now, after unloading, chores, grooming the horses, and the gajillion other events of the day, I'm ready for a nice relaxing day at work tomorrow! Hope everyone has a GOOD Good Friday!