Evening Chores

Well, dinner is finishing up in the oven. Time to think about evening chores. First, today, we had to shovel off the 2 feet of snow from the top of the pole barn. Hmmmm... you do the math, I'm too tired. The pole barn is 12 feet by 24 feet. Two feet of snow. I don't know how many cubic feet of snow, but there was a layer of ice that was about 1 1/2 inches thick under all the snow.

So, pile on all your layers. Two pairs of gloves. Snow pants, jacket, hat, boots, all over the top of three layers of clothes. Oh, yeah - don't forget to pee BEFORE you put all your gear on. Sigh.

Out to the barn. Turn on all the lights. Go to the hay loft and throw down 3 bales of hay. Carry the bales through the narrow path in the snow banks to the main part of the barn. Make two trips as there is no way (at least I can't) carry them all at once. Stretch up to get the scissors off the beam. Snip all the bailing twine. Carry it over and put it in the over-filling bucket of twine. Bring hay to each of the 5 stalls in the barn. There's a little left over? Divide it up and tromp to each stall, again.

Open up the grain bin. Measure out grain for each stall. There are 5 bags in the bin. Not all grain. The air-fern ponies and mare only get hay-stretcher as it makes them think they are getting something like grain, but not. Since I only have 3 buckets, that means two trips... Smokey, Lacey and Abner all get a 1/2 quart measure. Elias gets 3 1/2 quarts, but there's another step to his. You have to go to the coffee grinder. (Don't laugh, it works better than anything else I have tried.) You take off your gloves. Take off the cover of the antibiotics, count out 12 tablets, put them in the grinder, put your gloves back on, plug it in, and grind away. Shake it every once in a while to make sure there aren't any big lumps left to be spit out. Take off your gloves (I can't get the cover off with my gloves on) and dump the powder into the grain bucket. Put your gloves back on. Shake up the grain to make sure the powder gets distributed over the grain. Dump it in the grain bucket in the stall. Go back to the grain bin, where Buddy gets 2 quarts of grain and a scoop of heaves medicine. Shake up his medicine into his grain as you walk back to his stall. Go back with all the buckets and close up the grain bin for the night.

Get out the 5 gallon water buckets and the 2 1/2 gallon water bucket. Then out to the spigot on the side of the house and start filling the 5 gallon buckets with the 2 1/2 gallon bucket. (Now this step only works if you remembered to slam all the ice out of the buckets BEFORE you started filling them with water. If you are lucky, then they only have a little bit of water/ice in the bottom, not floating brown blobs swimming around with the ice.) :( Carry 5 gallon buckets in to fill the tubs in the stalls. Smokey and Abner only get 5 gallons. Lacey, Buddy and Elias each get 10 gallons. That's 4 trips to the barn with 10 gallons of water - again, you do the math, I'm too tired.... each gallon of water weighs how much?)

Then to the shuffle to get everyone in the door. The pushy ones, Abner and Lacey, are usually the last ones to be let in. Every day. Yet, they still insist on taking their turns first. Every day. Sigh. This should be old hat by now. So, with the rope around your neck, you go out the gate, latching it behind you. Up to either Elias or Buddy - usually Buddy, as Elias refuses to still go in before him. Then back to the gate, encouraging the others to move their butts out of the way, trying to convince them that today is not the day that they get to go in first. Then comes the subtle movement to get the horse started down the aisle without getting caught between the horse and the stall and smushed along for the ride until they squeeze past you. (Here's a hint - if you are stuck between a horse who weighs 1,000 pounds and the wall of the stall, YOU are the one who usually ends up with parts being squished. NOT fun.)

Now, a little perspective on size. I'm not a tall person. I'm 5' 3" . I'm also a bit 'stocky.' Not fat, but I'm not going to blow away in a strong wind, either. I use it to my advantage in dealing with the horses and hooking and unhooking the trailer. Nothing a little ballast won't help! The ponies aren't bad - around 10, 11 hands. The mare is 14.3, maybe 15 hands. Buddy is 15.3 hands and Elias is 16.3 hands. I can't even SEE over his back. So when I'm leading a horse through the butts larger than mine (he,he,he) it can be kinda intimidating that I can't see over them. Fortunately, they know who's the head bitch mare - and her name isn't Lacey.

So, once Elias and Buddy are in their stalls, then comes the major cluster move, where Smokey, Abner and Lacey all think they need to come in at once. So, after shuffling them around and call each by name - the one who is most patient comes in first - everyone is in their stalls. Sounds much more efficient and smoother than it EVER is...

Think we're done? NOPE! We aren't done yet.

Out to the back of the barn and into the pole barn. Get a bale of hay out of the stall. Break it open and throw it over the fence into Aspey's area. Then you have to go back through the barn, to the hay loft, where her garbage can is with her grain in it. Get her bucket of grain, turn off the fence and take it back over the fence into her area. Make sure the stock tank still has water in it, and make sure the heater is still plugged in and IN the tank. Pat Aspey on the head and climb back over the fence.

On your way back through the barn, shut the back door. Make sure it closes tight and latch it shut. Double check to be sure that Lacey's stall is latched. Abner's stall is latched. Grain bin closed. Turn off the light over the grain bin. Shut off the light by the door. Hang up the stall guard on the door. Plug the electric fence back in. Double check Buddy's stall latch. Close Smokey's temporary door. Make sure it's latched. Turn off the overhead light. Double check Elias' latch. Turn off the main light. Close the barn door. Latch it tight and put up the bar across the door. Double check to be sure the hay door is shut tight. Turn off the yard light.

Whew. Done with chores for another night. This is my therapy. The thing that brings order to chaos. Puts peace in my day. The munching of happy horses in their stalls, all tucked in for the night.

If, for some reason, like the girls are going off or it's been an especially rough day, I'll go back out to the barn about an hour later. Sit on the bucket in the aisle. Listen to the horses munching. Sighing. Making their contented 'settling in for the night' noises. There is nothing like horse noises in the barn at night to put me in even the most serene of moods. My piece of heaven on earth.

Another night of happy horses in clean stalls with full water buckets and munchies galore to fill their faces with. Sigh. Now I can go inside and take off my layers, hang up my gloves over the wood stove, peel off my boots and snuggle them to the stove, also. Tuck my toes under the dog on the couch and watch a little tv until it's time for bed.

Another good day.

Sigh. Will spring ever get here?