What a day!

Ok. Now I really need to go on vacation. Permanently. That's it. I'm done. Finished. Out of here.

Lets see, we finished last night with an unfamiliar head peeking in the door at us when we went to do chores. Aspey. Sigh. Grumble. Moan. Yes, the wonderful, obnoxious horses had taken down another large section of the fence and they ALL were in together. Kicking up their heels, chasing each other, squealing, bucking and farting. Being that it was only 5 degrees, I wasn't quite in the mood to put up with their antics.

News flash. I have bronchitis. I also have cold-enduced asthma. And I have a finger that throbs in time with my heart-beat. Not the best combination of horse-mom. Even in good weather that combination is never good.

So, needless to say, I am NOT extremely impressed with my equines. Still NOT!

This morning I went to let everyone out and the stock tank was near empty. Great. Cold water and cold weather. My fav-o-rite combination. NOT! Almost as much fun as pulling hose in cold weather. Groan.

Then I go to my regular weekly appointment with the wonderful lady who helps me unscramble my brain. Ok, most days she does. Today, she just added a little water and set it to the 'puree' speed. Sigh. I know, I know. Brain work is supposed to be hard, but isn't there enough hard in my life right now. Me and 20 billion other people on this planet. No, I'm not going to suck it up. And I'm not going to stuff it. That's what got me in this mess in the first place. First, I'm going to breath. Yes, I have to suck on my inhaler more these days, but, damn it, I am breathing. That seems to be the good news and bad news all wrapped into one.

So, on my way up the drive to the magic lady's office, my GEN light came on in my truck. Great. Just what I needed. My truck to decide it needed a trip to the shop only 2 days before my planned trip down south. Well, I guess it was better to do it now before I got on the road and stranded somewhere. So, on my trip home, I used my extra key and broke the law. Gasp! BAD ME! I locked my truck shut and left it running while I got my prescription and filled the tank. I absolutely did not want to get stranded in this weather. Went to the vet (only owe a little over $100 on my vet bill :) the grain store - to keep my boy's happy, and then the bank. Gotta deposit them checks! My house sitting job for the last 10 days is helping to pay the gas on the way down!

So, got to work. Left the truck running and went inside to call the local auto parts people, who told me to 'come on over' and they would get out their little fancy machine and hook it up to my truck. Turns out my alternator was fine, as well as my battery. Just a little thing like a somewhat shredded serpentine belt was my problem. Ok, bought the belt - thank you, Ford Guy, for having pity on a lady with her dumb Dodge (now, NO bashing here. I LOVE MY TRUCK! It's mine, it's mine and it's almost paid for!!!!). Then I went back to work on a wing and a prayer that I would make it. Stopped by the garage right around the corner from the Library and the sweet guys there took me right in and twist, loop, twist, got the belt off and the new one on! In a matter of minutes!!! They are the BEST! Yeah! The light went off in the truck and their fancy little gadget said I was good to go!!!! Trips back ON!!!

My daughter was covering for me at work, so I had to stay a little longer to finish up the work I didn't get done. Then home, to do barn chores in 1.5 degree weather. Have I already told you how sick I am and that I can't breathe? Cool. No, COLD. And my finger hurts like HELL! SO, after tromping out to the barn, clean two stalls, come back inside, suck on my inhaler, sit by the wood stove trying to warm up and catch my breath, go back out, clean two more stalls, you get the idea. Promoted slave labor by having my girls each take a turn pulling the sled out of the barn to dump it in the manure pile. I shouldn't be keeping all the fun to myself, now, should I? Kinda like this dictatorship, sometimes.

So, as I'm trying to muddle through these last couple of days, trying to count the hours until I'm headed south, though the math is kinda fuzzy as the oxygen levels aren't quite high enough, gasp, my wonderful, loving, supportive husband tells me to put on my scarf. Now, I don't know what he thinks that black fuzzy thing is around my neck (my SCARF) and the blue thing is over my nose and mouth (a mask from the ER visit). Needless to say, I didn't say much. Was thinking LOTS but didn't have the breath to tell him off. THAT totally sucks.

SO, back out to the barn, hell, breathing is over-rated, anyways, to finish putting the horses in. With my mask AND scarf, thank you very much, pin head.... (Ok, ok... don't get all excited here. We do love each other. After almost 20 years of marriage, if I were going to leave him for saying something stupid, I never would have married him in the first place. And he is going to take care of the kids, animals and house while I am gone. So I don't want to piss him off too much. But can't let him get away with it, either. :)

I finally get back in the house, catch my breath and tell him off - after he gave me a check for my trip. See! Told you he loves me no matter what!

So, I'm off to the shower to steam my lungs before bed so I can sleep. Added an extra pillow to the top of the bed to keep my head elevated and the lungs working better. It's predicted to be in the low 60's on Monday and Tuesday in South Carolina!!!! I'm so ready to go.

Writing up my pages of lists - things to pack, things to bring, lists for grain and horses, dogs, birds. List for the Library volunteers for while I'm gone...

We're approaching the final count down. You do the math, again, tonight. I'm getting up Saturday morning at 8 am, letting the horses out, cleaning the stalls, then I'm outta here!

:)

Only 3 1/2 days to GO!

I'm chomping at the bit. Worked extra today to make up for the fact that I'm (insert music here) 'goin' on vaction, yeah, goin' on vacation, yeah!'

A wonderful lady who volunteers at the Library on Saturday came in to day and put the book/doll display up for me at work! Thank you so much Jeanne! It truly makes the library look great and it's one more check mark on my list of things to do before I leave.

It's still cold out. It's almost 8:30 pm and it's only 5 degrees. Sigh. Can't wait for South Carolina! Weather forecast is for lows of 40 degrees, highs of 62 degrees! Can't wait for sunshine and warmth!

So, Mr. Chomp-on-Mom has cooled his heels to me. Didn't want to snuggle in my lap last night as I sat on the couch. Tonight, he's curled up in the chair across the room from me. Maybe the message made it way loud and clear to him that he shouldn't use his mom as a chew toy. My pinkie is swollen to the size of my thumb and it throbs like crazy. I have to clean it twice a day. Gulp. But it's doing well. It truly only hurts when I bump it, which seems to be like every hour - no joke. But, so far, it doesn't seem to have any infection and it's stopped oozing.

So, after my wonderful husband had supper ready when I got home from work, I need to put on a few more layers and go out and do barn chores.

I need to finish cleaning out my truck and get packed for my trip! On the road, again, I just can't wait to get on the road again!!! (Oops, forgot to inser the music part first! lol)

Have a good night!
:)

When it rains, it POURS!

Well, that says it all. Oh, you want details? Sigh. Picky, picky. Ok, here goes....

I've done IT!!! I got my weeks vacation down south! I leave Saturday morning, come hell or high water - or snow, sleet and freezing rain :) I have a 4 wheel drive truck and studded snow tires, and, if need be, I can go further than South Carolina to get out of the snow.

My new boss starts work on the week of the 23rd. Yahoo! So, after a few days of training, I will be back to my regular schedule of 6 - 10 hours a week. Not the almost 30 I've been putting in.

So, off to the garage to get an oil change and check in at my other job so everyone knows I won't be around. After sitting, yawn, for almost 2 hours, they get my oil changed, my air filter changed and my tires rotated. Got home in time to hear the most god-awful noise meet me at the front door.

My daughter was feeding treats to the dogs and the lab and the pug went after each other. She has the lab by the collor and the pug had a hold of the lab, and the lab had hold of the pug. I jumped in, as I have done infrequently in the past, and the little sh*t of a pug looked right at me and bit my finger. So, after separating the dogs, calming down my hysterical daughter, and taking some very long, deep breaths, I headed off to the emergency room. Where I sat for another 2 1/2 hours - they were very busy. Hmmm. I laughed at the doc - who decided against stitching it up as he is sure it will heal more completely left open (kinda looks like hamburg coming out of the slice on my finger) all bandaged up and with a prescription for penacillin, telling me to take it easy and keep it elevated, clean and use it as little as possible. Yeah. Right. Just like the vet telling you to keep the bouncing off the wall dog quiet for 10 days while they heal from surgery. I assured him I would do the best I could do. With my fingers crossed. He only rolled his eyes when I told him I had 6 horses at my house.

So, needless to say, I didn't make it to the grain store, the vets to make a payment on my bill, to the bank, to my friends to make the second to last payment on my truck, and to pick my youngest up at basketball practice.

So, at least it's my pinkie that's all chewed up. But on my right hand. Yes, more than once tonight I have banged it, bumped it and almost smashed it in the stall door. Yikes! Good thing I only have 3 days left and then I'll be in my truck, headed SOUTH with NO children, NO husband, NO dogs, NO horses, NO job...

So, I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to do all the things I normally do with my right hand with my left hand. You try it. Bind up your dominant hand for the day and see how even the simple little things like going to the bathroom are most difficult.

So, I'm doing laundry and starting to pack. Going light as it's just me. Can't wait!!!

Didn't I predict it?????

Well, what did I tell you? I told you a few days ago that the furry monster who lives in the ground would come out and SEE HIS SHADOW! Damn, Phil... it isn't enough that we got an additional 20 inches of snow the other day, but now we have another SIX weeks of winter. Sigh. We would have had six weeks of winter whether or not the stupid ground hog saw his shadow. I'm surprised, that with all the lights aimed on his burrow, that he didn't see more than one! HA!

That's ok. I've got something up my sleeve that I'll let you know later in the week. PBFFFFFT! on Phil.

Well, at least it wasn't so cold out tonight doing chores. I only had on 1 coat, a scarf and my rubber grippy gloves. And I was grooving right along to my audio book on my MP3 player and worked up a sweat! And my toes weren't freezing. It's now 8 pm and it's still 30 degrees F. outside! I know, I know - they're calling for a cold front this weekend. That's ok. I've got an ace up my sleeve!!

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?