Parts of my weekend

This has been a weird weekend. Other than Friday evening, when I had sins and debauchery with Jenna and Jessica, I have been exceptionally well behaved. And for once, I was not completely over run with things to do....although now that I say that, it occurs to me that I should have fetched Vixen from the trainer where she has been waiting for the weather to break so she could come home. Crap. I better get on that.

Anyway, yesterday, the new hay came from Indiana. This is a new supplier that I am considering doing full time business with, should the children do well on this hay. He brought me huge bales about 1800 pounds of mostly alfalfa. It is not net-wrapped though, so the unloading of the two truckloads caused there to be much debris all over the front yard. I cannot stand the thought of wasting all that good hay, so I picked up what I could and chucked it into the pasture. Look how nice the children are playing while they share it! But there is definitely one in that mix that does not match.

That was my big activity yesterday--gutting Foxy's stall, dealing with hay, etc....and everything was much more difficult than was necessary because since things have thawed, it is a muddy pit over there. It is absolutely disgusting. It made me need a nap, which I do not think I got around to taking, but I did almost nothing else besides watch TV, read a book and hang out with the dogs. It was swell, but made me miss Barry, who is working hard in Houston still.

I made arrangements for the tractor to go to the shop tomorrow, so today, I had to deliver enough hay to each pasture to last a week while it is gone. I am kind of guessing since these bales are so much bigger than what we have been feeding, and since they are alfalfa and not bermuda, that will set off a feeding frenzy. My children are a little spoiled but have not had any alfalfa round bales all year, so I can imagine the excitement out there tonite. As I delivered the bales, they abandoned their Bermuda to eat what was blowing off the new bales as I drove. It was quite a spectacle. I took four bales the back, and put two in the middle--and moved some horses around so that Foxy can play in the pen with her own round bale and quit pissing up my stall. The mud was so thick that it really bogged down the tractor even in 4-wheel drive. It also blew mud all over me, which I did not notice until I was at the gym, with chunks of mud in my hair. I am such a lady.




On one of my trips home, I found that Peeg had gotten into another mess with a bag. If he was not such a kleptomaniac, I do not think this would happen so often. Cracks me up though---you would think he would teach his cat to get it off of there, but so far that has not happened.
In between all that hay moving, and errand running, I went to the gym TWO TIMES. I found a new feature on my heart rate watch that calculates calories burned based on my weight and my heart rate--according to it, I burned almost 500 calories in 40 minutes on the treadmill the first time I went. Woo hoo! That seems high, but I will take it. The second time, I did not stay quite as long--30 minutes and 250 calories--but I did not run at all the second time, so maybe that was why. I was so proud of me, though. Now we are resting, and Simba looks so cute laying on her pillow in front of the television, I had to take a picture of her. Of course the flash woke her up and she had to start her nap all over again, but it was worth it to get a cute picture of her resting. I hate to admit this, but we are bored. We have watched all the Jersey Shores we have missed, been to WalMart and the Bath and Body Works sale where I got carried away on lotions and shower gels, but will surely smell good soon, and have started two new books. We are still bored. This is so unlike us. We are easily entertained by TV and the internet and thinking about laundry, but it is just not working for us today. And we have tomorrow off, so I have a whole nother day of being bored.
I know I have posted pics like this before, of my neighbors catch pen and loading chute, but honestly, my options of photo material are limited when I am watering the boys here at the house. This is how bored I am--take the same pictures, and post them again.

I need some entertainment, or I will be forced to put up the laundry and maybe throw away some stuff. I hope it does not come to that

This and that and some other-and a Book

Here is some shocking news---yesterday afternoon, I took a 15 minute break from work (well I might as well since I am assumed to take a one hour lunch whether I did or not and had not had one yet), and ran to the gym to lift some weights. Yeah, I know 10 minutes serves no purpose, except it got me out of there to take out my aggression on something besides myself and anyone who will listen to me, and it got me in the gym for the first time. Go me!

I needed some animal therapy by the time I got home from work last nite, after all the stress and misery of my week. I did not get here until 6:30 or so and Boce keeps sneaking in the door, so I let him stay in for a while to be friends and wait for Barry to get home. It did not work though, since as soon as he gave up looking for more food and decided to lay down, Simba sniffed him and for some reason it really pissed him off and he launched off into a tirade for 10 minutes. After the week I have had, I did not have it in me to listen to the drama of yet another fat ass complaining about his circumstances. Out he went.

Barry showed up from his week in Kentucky or wherever he was at about 7:30---and I had the big idea to make some soup for his arrival home. It was going to be some sort of hit and miss plan I had, but I bought all the stuff---and then he got home so much earlier than I anticipated and I was caught up in the internetz, and it did not happen. Big failure for the wife on that one--then again, he probably would have wondered what I had done to be attempting to cook for him.

This morning our first project was to run by the vet to get Simba's meds then go look at some hay, which turned out to be at the house where some family friends lived when I was growing up. I had not been there in probably 17 years. This place is really my dream place, and to know it is for sale right now sure did give me a little thrill. Then I remembered that I already have two properties, and with 4 jobs, I could never afford this place. It is truly beautiful and it was nice to be back there.
The owners have/are relocating out of State and have sold all their horses except this one, a 23 year old gelding who is the perfect family horse. He has years and years of experience toting young children, trail riding, showing, and just being a good citizen. I told him I would spread the word on him, as this is just the kind of horse people are always looking for and can never find.
If I had a kid, I would snap this dude up in a heart beat. If anyone is looking for the perfect kid horse who is sound and sane as he can be, with the perfect temperament, get in touch with me and I will hook you up.
Because he is not used to living along, the neighbor sent over a mare to be his friend. She is enjoying her time not as low man on the totem pole and is so content--she wanted to be with us the whole time, but made sure to keep her eye on her new friend the whole time. It is a win/win situation for everyone.
It made me happy to know that these people are taking such good care of their boy, that they got him a friend.

After that we went to WalMart for basics, and I always get worn out there. Now that they have remodeled, I cannot find the freaking potato chips--and I do not know why I care since you know they won't have the Reduced Fat Ruffles anyway. But what if they come back? And I will never know because now the towels are where the chips are supposed to be. I cannot take that kind of stress. I did discover some new flavor of ham in the deli--honey cinnamon. Whose big idea was it to put cinnamon on ham? How long has this been going on, I ask you? I do love me some good ham, which is kind of funny since I also love me my pet pig who is also ham, but that is how I roll--just a bundle of contradictions, aren't I?

I did however break down and buy the first of the Twilight books---I feel like an idiot being the only one who has not read them, especially since I also did not read any Harry Potter, nor am I about to.
We came home from there, and of all insane things, I COOKED lunch. I made spaghetti. I am not a fan of sketti but Barry is, so I cooked it up with some meat and mushroom sauce. Who am I all of a sudden?

I can tell you that all that domesticity kicked my ass. I did not get much sleep last nite so I decided to take a nap--naps are some of my very favorite things. Reading a good book to lead into a nap is one of my favorite things.
There is never any sleeping alone around here--which is why I was up until 3:30 am last nite (Tequila kept farting in my face while I watched TV so I had to search for a dog free zone to get to sleep). Today, since I was particularly serious about my nap, Slater got tapped for the nap---this is how he likes to sleep---upside down and flopped over on top of me.
Thus started a nap I needed so bad that I slept almost three hours without even turning over in bed, I was so tired. Even Slater's snoring did not interrupt me.

The best part was that when I woke up, Barry had moved hay at the farm, fed everyone, put Grandpa's winter coat on him since it is cold and ugly and flipped a load of laundry for. Can you imagine how nice it was to have things happen while you are sleeping?

We then went to a movie--we saw Zack and Miri Make a Porno and laughed our fool heads off, it was really funny.


I have a new book to give away....somehow I ended up with two copies of this---I already read it and either gave it away or lost it, but it was a good book. I will send it out to the first person who requests it----"It only Takes a Moment" by Mary Jane Clark.

Hope you all are having a great weekend...I am trying to talk myself down from this stress by focusing on other things, like some volunteer opportunities. The best way to get happier is to focus on doing for someone else---its good karma, I think. Do any of you have any projects like that you are involved in?

A new high for me

Gracious Lord, hay just gets crazier and crazier.

We finally received our delivery of timothy that I ordered in July. Mid-unloading of the semi, the power steering fluid started pouring out of the tractor, so that pump needs to be replaced I guess. One more thing to be added to the list.

Then we went to our regular hay broker to pick up some more of the good alfalfa mid-squares. We have hit an all time high for it now, at $250/ton. Lordy Martha. It is good stuff, but man does that hurt. Thank goodness we are able to afford it.

We also picked up a couple of bags of Chaffhaye--something I have wondered about for years. I always wondered if it was all it was cracked up to be, so we shall see. I am trying it in small amounts on Grandpa and Lucky (and I gave some to Squeak and Rock too since they were standing there), and they all got into it. Since it is already broken down a bit, it should be easier to digest. Mostly I want to know if it is a viable alternative in the future, should we ever have hay obtaining problems.

You can read about it here http://www.chaffhaye.com//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14&Itemid=27

Big night in the barn, etc

Since I felt like I have done nothing this week, last nite shaped up to be pretty big--of course it did, I wanted to watch TV!

Marvin was here to do more feet--he trimmed Diablo, Hotrod, Squeak, Cash, Melody, Square Baby and Sly, and worked on Nita's feet. She now has thrush to go along with her abcess, which I kind of suspected, but had not seen in so long, I needed another pair of eyes to confirm it for me. That I knew where the thrush medicine was (unopened as I have never ever needed it), is a miracle in itself. That healing is now underway, thank goodness for that.

We also weaned CC and Squiggy. They do not care. Diablo and Fuzzy got their PKI shots and moved to the back pasture, as did everyone but Rock, and Square Baby who is going to stay up here try to eat herself into a growth spurt like everyone else is doing. I am planning the moving around of horses to different pastures--this sounds easy but is not so much. The first priority is having horses on the same feed program pastured together---so those on the regular 3 pounds of Strategy a day go in one pasture. Weanlings and yearlings are on much more feed than that so they need their own field. I have never pastured babies with yearlings before, so that will be interesting. Ideally they would go in the middle pasture, since it is bigger than the front one, but I do not want them on a fence line with their mothers---just in case. That forces there to be a lot of kids in the front pasture together which is not very big--but then again, neither are they. I might put Foxy with them, as she is getting bossy to Gramps and Lucky and taking their senior feed. No that wont work, as Vixen is in there. Crap. Surely by the time the weather changes, I can swap again and put them in the middle pasture with way more space.

I also have the few older mares that need some feed to consider--I think I will put them with the twos and other 3-pound eaters, and hope they do not get too bossy.

Meanwhile, easy keepers and fatties are in the back pasture on the miracle hay not eating Strategy at all right now. They just do not need it. After last nite, there are more of them back there than there ever have been this year, so that hay will go faster than the others, but we can work that pretty easily.

The goal this weekend is to confirm the perimeter of the hay field, and put really hard keepers out there---I am going to try Gramps, and Lucky--maybe Foxy can go there as well. Playmate too. It is probably 12-14 acres but I have to be very careful not to overgraze since it is the hayfield...so they will only stay a couple of weeks and be back to their regular places

This is a lot of thinking!

It is funny to see Marvin work with Mel and Square Baby--he says they are kind of dumb, which is good in that he can convince them of anything way more quickly than he can the others, who are too smart to take his word for anything right off the bat. Diablo got a much needed come to Jesus--she acted like such a cow. It is probably uncomfortable to hold her legs up with that huge belly, but that is no excuse to misbehave. She needs an exercise program. I measured her last nite and she is 14 hands and 1081 pounds! Can you imagine? That is one hefty sister! I left my camera hanging in the barn last nite so I wont have pics of all that until tonight.

The only one that weighs more than her is Hotrod at 1097...and she has probably three inches on her. I did not measure her height. I do love my measuring stick, but I see Barry rolling his eyes everytime he sees it coming. We measured Fuzzy too and she is right at 14 hands as well, and 860, I think. That seems kind of light and she does not look light at all, so I dont know if that is accurate.

I think we did Mel too but I dont remember that one. She looks so much like her grandsire Freckles Playboy it is creepy---she stands just like I remember his ads looking. Maybe she looks so much like him as her dam was by Freckles Hustler as well, so there is a lot of similar genetic material in there.

The BIL Jeff is probably coming down for the weekend. We are going to go tailgating at SIU in the morning for my 10 year law school reunion. I cannot believe that it has been so long.

The other BIL Edward has his birthday this week. Then he and Mandy got a big blow about the adoption of Gabi---they hit a speed bump and were sent back to the starting line again. It is appalling what that system does to people trying to do a good thing.

I just ordered two more semis of hay to be delivered next week. Surely I am close to having all we need. I screwed around and got beat out of the cutting I wanted, but this stuff tests out real close to that---lets cross our fingers it does. The girls look as good as they EVER have on this hay right now, and I get a little giggly every time I look at them. I feel really good about it.

I had lunch today with the State's Attorney who is retiring and his number one man who is running for the position. Also with them was Bob, who is a story unto himself. Suffice it to say we laughed until we hurt with some funny stories, and I learned that no one has any idea what the hell went on at Madison's house with the arson. Great.

Have I rambled enough about absolutely nothing?

What kind of week will this be?

It could go either way.

Barry will be gone all week- he is in Bloomington IL today and will be home really late, then will leave for KY for the rest of the week. That doubles my work, but is not really bad anyway.

My main anxiety of the day however is that the semi of alfalfa will be here today--I am waiting for them to call to say they are near. I am so excited, but anxious that it will be as good as I expect it to be, and that Hutch will actually come over and unload it from the semi in a timely manner, which he said he would do, but you never know. I am frustrated that we spent the whole weekend fixing the many problems of the tractor only to have the hydraulics blow up at the last minute, so that I cannot unload itmyself.

I hate depending on people. It makes me feel so helpless, and I am not normally that.

On the other hand, it is gorgeous out with a high of 85 degrees today.

I need to clean my house some, and maybe I will have time to ride tonight. This is the last day of Nutrena feed for one set of horses, as everyone else is turned over to the Strategy- by tomorrow, they will all be on it. That is very exciting.

The smell of money

We went to pick up a bit of hay today. All my plotting about round bales for the pasture horses and it snuck up on me that I was running low on quality hay for the stalled horses. Leave it to me to outsmart myself. I had ordered some of this, but it has not yet come...so we had to make an emergency hay pickup.

I think I am officially a redneck when my first thought upon seeing this shed full of hay was "MAN, what I couldn't do with all that hay!"

I only got to get 8 mid-square bales, for a total of 6,816 pounds. Leave it to me to figure out to the penny how miuch each and every pound cost, but no need for us all to be upset by that piece of doom.

The smell of fresh sweet hay is one of my favorites, right up there with Hawaiian Tropic suntain oil which makes me think of vacation, and freshly bedded stalls.