Surprise-no RAIN!

Today's rain prediction was off by about twelve hours, I guess. Thank goodness though, as it let us catch up on so much that has needed to be done but cannot be when it is always raining. I got both yards mowed--which is about 3 or 4 hours of mowing. That helped repair the back yard where Sly, Fonzie and Twist have torn it all to hell where they kept coming into it over the last week while we had a fence malfunction. There was not really much to mow as they have been working on it so much, but it does look way better. There were many piles of horse poop on the back porch, which is always charming. I know it as Sly though, as there is evidence that he stood in one place for a long time, or repeatedly and pooped on his own poop--since it is by the window, I know it was him, as he always likes to come look for me at the back door. My boy loves me.

Barry got the new jump wires on the gates, so that problem of the malfunctioning fence should be resolved. He also cut down a bunch of irritating little saplings, which for some reason makes a huge difference in how things look.

The rest of the day was spent working at the farm.

Poor Gypsy is fighting having this baby. She has been stalled with little turnout lately, as I knew she would spit this child out in the mud given the opportunity.
She got to go out for a while today, and she did not even appreciate it. She spent most of the day looking at me, over the fence, while I did everything else.
She even looks depressed to me. She has gone six days later than she did last year, which was her maiden year. So she is 346 days today. No wonder she is miserable. I am so excited to see this baby --so she is not the only impatient one.
I also was able to give some baths, since it was 75 degrees. It does not show up in the pics, but Sly was almost metallic after getting the winter dirt out of his coat. He did not even get a thorough bath, but a basic scrubbing.
He is such a pretty boy. I think he is wondering why he has not been to the farm to see his ladies, and I have not broken it to him that he may not be seeing many of them this year at all. I have turned down outside requests and am considering giving most of his ladies the year off and only using our outside breedings.

Twist got a bath too--and he changed shades at least 6 times from filthy to his almost white color.
Grandpa has evidently forgotten what the point of hay is. He has been staying in the bull shed area and forgetting to go out to the round bale. I think he is trying to avoid trudging through the mud, and who can blame him for that? And it does not really matter since he is on Senior anyway, but it seems sad to me. Late afternoon, Barry suggested we throw him out with Gypsy in that pasture, to perhaps get her moving instead of standing at the gate looking pathetic. That would have worked great except he really likes grass, so he did not move very much, other than to roll and move to different sections. He was very excited to get real grass again.

Looks pretty good for a 29 year old man, doesn't he?

Also while at the farm, we had to chase down Haida Girl to Regumate her in anticipation of her upcoming breeding to Sophisticated Catt, and her recent episode of stalling has clearly made her half a loon. She was having so much fun out in the pasture that we stopped what we were doing to watch her put on a show. I don't know that I know many horses more athletic than that one, but of course, she quit when I got out the camera. Aries had to have her Lutalyse shot in anticipation of Dr M's visit on Tuesday, also to have her bred to Sophisticated Catt.

While out there, we got some shots of other random folks, including Melody's little girl, who is awful darn cute. I do not know however what the llama impression is she is doing here.

And no, she still does not have a name. I am leaning toward calling her Bijou, which was one of Lorna's early suggestions. It has grown on me, and then someone else suggested it, so maybe it is meant to be.

Two young men, Reno and Uno were captured and dewormed and told some unfortunate news. They too will be seeing the vet on Tuesday, for the brain surgery most young men need. I love me some mass gelding day, and it has been four years since I have had many to do all together. Two is not so much, but it is more than one so it qualifies for "mass gelding day". Uno in particular is a really nice colt, put together so nicely, and has a great attitude. I hope to get him out for some pics tomorrow, if we get a break in the rain. If things go right this week, they will see the farrier as well.

Cash had her foot dressing changed. I think the abcess is settling again, as she seemed a little ouchy today. I will have that addressed again on Tuesday as well, if this round of treatment does not draw it out. This one is taking a lot longer than usual, for some reason. She got to go out with her baby girl last nite, and we left her diaper full of iccthammol on her and turned her loose. Man did she have a good time. She looked ridiculous, running balls to the wall while wearing a baby diaper and duct tape on her foot, but whatever. She was only out for a few hours, but it did her good to get to buck and carry on and play with her little girl. Hopefully, soon, that will be her full-time status.

Barry started getting the big horse trailer ready, in anticipation of our big trail ride with some internet crazies, and Headleys and Jodi next week. The weather has stabilized enough that he could fill the water tanks, which will make life much nicer for me when I have to stay there with Gypsy this week. Although, God willing, she will spit this child out tonight, so I can really keep the doc busy when he is here Tuesday morning.

It has been a long day, but we got so much done, it was very satisfying. I have been sinning nonstop on the food and drink since Thursday nite, so I am back on the wagon tomorrow. I am at 29 pounds down which is pretty dang good. I already need a new hole in my new belt. My trainer had to cancel Friday, so I feel like I have not done anything, even though I certainly have. I am already addicted to that.

It is almost time for Saturday Night Live, so it is time to push post on this one.

But let's call this my first post for Camera Critters
How did I not know this was going on?

Now I am pissed

Am I overreacting to this? I think not, but perhaps I am.

When we bought this horse trailer last month, we scrambled to get the paperwork in order to go get it at a time that suited everyone.

The plan was to carry a check for the amount over what was owed on it to hand to the sellers, and our credit union overnighted the balance to their bank where the title was. They were to sign the title as we were in route, and if there was a problem and we did not take the trailer, no harm no foul- we would stop payment on the overnited check from the credit union and bring the other check home with us.

There was no problem, other than that the sellers did not make it to their bank (at some distance away) to sign the title. The wife was planning to go the next day, on her day off, and we reiterated that it must be done immediately. Note: She works for a major trailer dealer, so more than understands how these things have to be done. Husband would have no problem doing it ASAP, as his job is a little more flexible than hers.

They were super nice people, so I did not anticipate a problem, and knew that since I had the trailer, what could be the problem?

Wondering where the title was, so I could put license plates on this thing, I learned that their bank was holding the check from our credit union for two weeks to make sure it was good, and then would send the title to my credit union.

Fast forward to today: the title arrived at the credit union. UNSIGNED by the sellers.

What does this mean for me? That I have a trailer that I do not have good title to. The sellers have almost 40K of my money.

The credit union is demanding that they come down here immediately and sign this title, as they should have in all the time they had to do it. Now what are the chances that they would do such a thing if they would not go to their own damn bank to do it. Understandably, the credit union will not send the title to them to have it signed as they clearly cannot be trusted--then they would have my money, and title to the trailer, and no leverage to get it back from them. Hell, they would be in better shape than they had been WITH the trailer in their driveway.

I, being me and slightly neurotic, have emailed them all along asking them to confirm that they had signed the title and have never received a response. Barry is calling them as I type this, and I am sure they will be very nice about it.

However, NICE does not get my trailer titled.

So am I overreacting that the top of my head is about to blow off?

The big switch

I think we have actively been putting this off--the switching of the horse trailers. On the one hand, it makes sense for a few reasons that we have not-one being that we will use the old trailer as our regular running trailer, as it is foolish to wag that new big thing everywhere. We also use that tackroom ( in the old trailer) as our main tackroom--silly since we have decent size tack rooms at both locations, but that is what we do. We do most of our riding elsewhere, so it is easiest to just keep the stuff we are actively using in the trailer, instead of getting somewhere and finding that Barry has two saddles and I have none, or there is not a suitable headstall for someone in the jumble that is the old tackroom.

Have I ever mentioned though how MUCH I hate that old tackroom? So much crap is jammed in there, I would not be surprised if a pack of midget clowns started tumbling out like it is a damn clown car, I am not kidding you. I will not even tell you how embarrassing it is to have a bunch of crushed beer cans tumble out in front of people you do not know. For real, that is up there in the humiliation factor.


But reliance on the old trailer tack room has to stop. We have decided to go to an AQHA ride this weekend, so obviously we want to take the new big trailer. Which means we had to break down and move the stuff in. I had no idea this would lead to such discord in the marriage.We have conflicting priorities in this thing.

I have a soft spot for the new tackroom. I LOVE it, for a few reasons, but the main one is that I can actually reach the bridle hooks! I could not in the other one without crawling up in there like I was robbing the place, and inevitably getting hung up in something or dragging something unwanted out on top of myself. It is also bigger, so I do not feel trapped when I am trying to find something. Because I love it so much and want it to stay nice, I was very particular about what Barry put in there. Heck, I was even irritated that the generator has to live in there!

There are four saddle racks, but only three are installed right now, which is fine for this weekend, since we are going by ourselves, so three saddles will suffice. There are only four bridle holders in the door, which would be fine for normal people, but I have a jillion. And they might as well be in there--heck some even still have tags on them!

Simple solution for me--put the extras in the mid-tack! As well as the lead ropes, halters, etc

That is not as easy one would think, because evidently Barry feels about the mid-tack as I do about the rear tack. He does not want my stuff junking up his mid-tack room. If you thought I was nuts shopping for comforters, and dishes, etc, you should see him bungee-ing up stuff in the midtack. Lord have mercy, he is like a new bride.

See the problem? There are more than 20 bridle hooks in his midtack, and even I will admit that I do not need to haul around more than 20 headstalls. That is excessive even for me. But 10 is reasonable. Or even 8. I mean, you never know what you will need, right? And you sure have to have some lead ropes, right? You can never have too many of them. I am being reasonable, but there ought to be at least 5 of them since we can haul 5 horses--and, yes I know, they will likely get in the trailer with one having lead them there, but you cannot be sure at our joint.

Plus, there are only three blanket bars, maybe 4, in the rear tack room--and we definitely have to carry more than that, as we quite often sweat up an entire set of them and they are not dry by the next time to ride--so we need a full second set. Plus, folks like Twist use more than one at a time, cuz he is so special and all. Plus, we have trail riding pads that are thick cushy things, and then we have the performance ones like the one Barry will probably be buried with and my Impact Gel, etc. And we sure cannot leave those around the farm, or cats will lay on them--I do not think so. The last obstacle I need in my riding evolution is to be sneezing while I trot--I have enough problems.

This means I need to order a swing out blanket bar to be permanently installed in the mid-tack--but until then, we can use a hanging blanket rack that we can take out and use to dry them when we are camping.

When I suggested putting that in the mid-tack--which after all is for TACK, not bicycles like he thinks it is--you would have thought I had suggested birthing his first born and sacrificing it.

I can tell this is not going to be as easy as one might think.

We got it!

This is our new trailer, that I was afraid to talk about until it was a done deal, which it is now as we are in the process of wagging it home. We absolutely love it.

It is a 2004 Keifer Built Genesis 144 XE, which means it has a 14 foot shortwall. Four feet of that is taken up by a mid-tack, which I think I will really like.
This is the mid-tack--man will it make a difference to have some space to operate in. I think there are 8 bridle hooks, and I can reach them all! A lot of this model of trailer has this area finished off for bunk beds, but I see no need for that foolishness for us. Because the next room is the bathroom, if need be, we could leave the walk doors open and air condition the whole thing, so someone could set up a cot in there---or a dog bed would fit well too.
It has storage all down the side, under the mangers
It has a wrapped roof rack for hay, as well as a winch to haul it up there. That is Barry standing on top of the ladder checking it out.
This shot is taken from the door, and is not so good. Directly in front of the door are two massive closets, to the left is the bathroom, and the right is the kitchen, facing a leather couch that folds out into a bed. The kitchen has a sink, two-burner stove, microwave, fridge and freezer, etc.
This is the mirror over the bathroom vanity--I could not get a good angle to take a picture of the bathroom.
This is the bed area, and it has so much storage up there it is amazing. I could put half my wardrobe up there--and BOOKS everywhere. Just to the left is the TV thing, where you can rotate the TV to watch in bed or on the couch. And there are cabinets beneath for the DVD player, etc, and just to the left of that is the stereo, which plays both inside and outside of the trailer. That is pretty cool.

We just love it, and cannot wait to haul it camping soon. We are going to cancel our hotel reservations for Barry's Kentucky bike race this weekend and just take this.

We are having a christening tomorrow nite--the kind with company and champagne, not the other kind that should happen in private.

Thar she goes!

Do you have any idea how long I have dreamed of this?

This is a 1974 trailer that was never nice, probably even when it was new. When we first took over the farm, we gutted it, recarpeted, re painted, re built the bathroom (I even hand tiled the countertop in there), retiled the kitched floor, painted the cabinets, etc and made it pretty decent. Mandy lived in it a while while Edward was off at some war, and after that we rented it out to a series of ne'er do wells. Some were insane, and some made meth, so I had to sic the police on them so they did not blow the place up. After that, we used it as pay for a farm hand, who was more trouble than he was worth including moving out and leaving the horses alone over Thanksgiving weekend one year when we were out of town. I gave up.

I have dreamed of having it hauled off but had no idea how to go about it. We hired a new guy to work the farm (who turns out to be on par with the other fools that came before him), but he was a scrapper who said he could have it gone in 2.5 days. I told him to have at it, as long as there was no trace of it when the company arrived last Friday. The deal was the typical scrapper deal--they do the work, and we split the money that results from recycling the stuff--as high as metal is now, that is worth doing.


These pics were taken Friday morning--he had not even gotten all the tin off of it yet, but had the good sense to call in some people who are competent to do the job. They got more done in the 30 minutes I stood there and watched that ol boy had in two weeks. As you can imagine, this was not the scene I wanted to set for the company, so I was fit to be tied that it had come to this--talk about looking like a hillbilly! This was SO not the impression I wanted to make on the company.

Anyway, it was pretty cool to see it come down.


This guy was great--he rode the roof down to the ground. All the while laughing at my idiot having told me it could be done in 2.5 days--this guy has done 100 of them and never has one gone faster than 3 days and that was with 6 guys working on it.


They are there again today working---maybe by the end of this week, it will be gone. They are down to the hard part-almost to the frame, which they will cut up and sell as scrap. The axles should bring a decent amount of change, as should the frame, as it is made out of iron.


The idiot was shocked when Barry told him to work on the trailer until it was done, and not to touch the horse stuff as Barry had already done it. I do not know why he is so surprised--if he really thinks that I believe it takes an hour to dump 3 pounds of feed to three different horses that are in stalls right next to each other and to START picking one of the stalls, he is on crack. I am not having it--he has milked himself right out of a job--which he will hear as soon as this trailer is gone. I sure do not want him leaving it like this--even though he is not the one doing the work, there is no need to invite trouble.

I cannot WAIT until it is gone gone gone gone!~ (and the idiot too)