How I held up my end of the schedule last nite

Surprisingly pretty well!

We got nine horses trimmed. Marvin and Luke arrived around 5 and I had the first three ready to roll. I got them started, then ran home to get the mail ( I am looking for something), check on the dogs and Boce and flip the laundry. Upon my arrival at home, I thought things looked wierd--

I have part of a new driveway! We have had constant troubles since we moved here with the tiling under our driveway---there is a small creek that runs (ha-runs is a funny way to put it since we are in a drought) from the neighbors property, across ours to the next neighbor. It washes out all the time no matter how many tons of rock we put in, which just washes away and makes everything worse. There were huge holes in the drive and you had to come to a complete stop to avoid smacking your bumper on the way out of it- that is how bad it was.

We have been asking the township to hook us up for a year and a half and BAM- yesterday it happened! I sure did not expect the asphalt that we got, but I am all over it. We have a new culvert under it and maybe 40-50 feet of asphalt. I do not want to see that bill, but I am so grateful they worked us in.

Anyway, I swear I was only home twenty minutes (long enough to check my email again, and call Barry about the drive), and when I got back, Marvin was on number two and Luke was detailing a third. This is particulary noteworthy, since they were 2 yearlings (Voodoo and Ding) that can be unpredictable about trims like all babies can, and one two year old who has never been fond of having his feet done. Target and Ding were angels--who would have predicted that, while Voodoo gave Luke some grief---completely opposite of any behavior he has ever shown. I REALLY like that colt, despite his rambunctiousness last nite.

I could see this was going to be quicker than anticipated, so I got them all vaccinated, dewormed, and groomed and turned out as quickly as possible, while getting the next few horses lined up and ready to roll. I had every stall full in the front barn, and horses tied and lined up on every other avilable surface. Snap came in to have hers done real quick, and so did Rock. Meanwhile, Fuzzy escaped and Madison had to chase her down to put her up--it was not her day for a trim, but I guess she wanted one. Playmate got in the lineup and Madison played beauty shop on her (made her look like a streetwalker truth be told, but Mad had fun) while she waited her turn for her trim. They all got dewormed as well, and vaccinated according to their needs (which reminds me, I need to order more modified live rhino shots).

Meanwhile, the donkeys tore down two boards to the bull shed area, so I replaced those, and once again thought of beating Barry to death for not using screws instead of nails on this stupid fence.

Mojo came in for his trim, he has always been a good boy. This was NOT his night. I made the mistake of mentioning that Marvin had a 15 minute average going on and BAM- it all came to a standstill. Mojo acted like he had never had his feet done in his life, and took a solid hour to simmer down for Marvin. That was IN the stall by the way. This demonstrates why I love Marvin so much, he does what needs to be done, takes no shortcuts and gets the job done. He kept asking me if I was SURE Mojo had been done before. Of course he has bucko, by you, since he was 6 months old! He just had a brain fart I guess. By the time an hour was up, Mojo stood quietly with the lead over his withers, his foot in the air, practically asleep--the Marvin touch is still in effect.

To add complications to the Mojo Hour, a ruckus ensued behind his stall. They way our barn is configured is sort of confusing if you have not seen it, but there are six stalls in the front barn. We were using the three that face outside for the trims. Directly behind them, with hay feeders for a divider, are three more huge foaling stalls that are made out of solid oak. The boards go up and down and the walls are probably 10 feet tall on the sides, with half walls on the front, with v-mesh instead of stall grills. Because the oak was so hard when we built the walls, we pre-drilled the holes we would then nail into. We must have gotten carried away, as sometimes, the nails will work loose (with a little help from the occupants, mind you) and a board will come loose. I fight this one board constantly between stall one and two. I re-do it, they take it down, and we go round and ronud like that constantly.

These silly fillies had managed to work loose another board and were passing back and forth through the wall, like it was a tunnel! They had to duck under the middle brace that goes horizontally across the length of the wall, but they did it. Evidently being a bohemoth like Riot hurts her ingress and egress chances, so she took down a few more boards. I just keep hauling them out for Barry to fix when he gets home, and today I am picking up plywood or OSB to reinforce the walls so they cannot push on the back side of the boards and knock them out. I will fix their wagons yet! I refuse to be outwitted by varmints under the age of six months.

All in all, we got nine trims done--all the yearlings, Boogie and Target, Rock, Playmate, Snap, and Foxy. Several others got their shots and dewormed, I cleaned one stall (could not bring myself to gut the two that needed it, they are beyond my help!), threw away a bunch of crap that was just laying around, and fed. We are taking next week off and will resume (and perhaps finish a full round?) in two weeks. That is crazy talk- by then it will be time for babies first trims.

I did NOT empty the feed out of my car. I just did not have it in me. Mark that down as a failure

I got home ahead of my anticipated time, at 8:25. Fed the boys, the dogs, the pig, did a load of laundry and got in the shower. I did not have enough energy to even make a new pizza, which happens about once every ten years. By then it was RAINING! RAINING I SAY. At my house. It was like the twilight zone, so my computer went berserk. I fixed that. I figured out what had happened to jack up my camera, and figured a new way to get pics downloaded than the traditional way. I edited like I do practically every nite and sent some out to interested parties, and asphalt pics to Barry, lest he not believe the driveway was actually fixed.

I did not do any OSAD work. Hell, I had to rewind Big Brother twice to see what had happened because I was so sleepy I could not keep track. I was disgusted by the ouster of Jessica and Eric, just FYI. Even the dogs were ready for bed by 10:30.

Today is a new day, and I have only four errands to run--vet, East Side Lumber, pharmacy and if I had any sense, catch up on my overdue oil change, but I bet that does not happen.

See--the stories of my high energy drive to accomplish are greatly exaggerated!