Poor Hen

 One of our hens is egg bound.

We soaked her in a warm epsom salt bath for about 15 minutes, then I put some KY lube around her vent and put her in a dog kennel to dry off.  About 3 hours later she wasn't looking any better so we inserted a syringe (no needle) of Mineral Oil into her vent, placed the chick brooder in the kennel to keep her warm and put her back in, covered. I hope shes alive and well in the morning and has an egg to show for it.

Gary came over to trim horses hooves, all 3 were shits. Joey has a small wound on his front right coronet band so I had to doctor that. He's had his blanket on since christmas and I took it off today & he looks great. I'll leave it off as long as he continues to look OK, if he starts losing weight it will go right back on.

Wifi is fat but shes not sore like usual right before a trim.

Ambleside is now 14.3hh at the withers and shes very thick, heavy and fat. I may never be able to ride her!

Tomorrow Lan will be 58 years old and I bought him a $400 chainsaw plus out another $100 cash in his card. I'll bake his cake this evening and ice it in the morning. Last year he had 57 candles nut this year hes only getting a few.

The video from my 50th birthday has had 348k views.

February Paydays Suck

   As you might or might not know, we're rebuilding a house in Pioche, Nevada basically from the ground up. Not the foundation, but every other aspect of it. The floor, the exterior walls, all new interior walls because they were all torn out. It needs all new windows and a new roof, the plumbing is busted and leaks/pours sewage out. The electrical is a mix or old and very old, some just hangs into the middle of the room from above.

The walls are 9.5 feet tall, the house will probably measure 20x24 when we're finished and I 

*WANT* it to be beautiful.

Last payday I bought 2 dozen regular plug ins and junction boxes and a bunch of light switches plus 100 feet of interior wire. Today is the short paycheck, since there are only 28 days in February so we don't get to work to make up extra days for more pay so I only got 3 of these today. They were $52 for 3 of them.

We will put one in the kitchen, one in the living room and one in the bedroom.

Right now we have one in our kitchen and it is constantly being used. Its convenient and easily accessible. In the Pioche house it will be all of those things as well.

Cleaning Up

Jean Lee Brooks

My Mother In Law, who passed recently and I miss her.

She had dementia and was bed ridden for over a year.

She lived in a double wide mobile with Terry and now that she's gone I've been helping to clean out/up the house and let me tell you, its gross. 

It ALL stinks.

They were never big on cleaning and always had a lot of pets so the house, even though only 30 years old, it in terrible shape. Plus they were hoarders and he still will be. Dirt, pet hair, feces, filth, just junk all over. I've spent whole days over there and you can barely see a difference.

The bedroom she was in has their king size bed and her hospital bed, a couple chairs, dressers and her lifting thing. I've cleaned out most of her stuff, all her clothes are gone, I removed all her yukky old makeup and crap out of the bathroom and I removed the bedding off the bed. We've thrown everything away except a few things that can be saved or sold but they're going to need some serious cleaning first.

Terry was gone for 5 days and that's when I cleaned out most of her bedroom stuff, then night before last after he got back home and we were at our home in bed sleeping and he called, wondering where his bedding was.  OOPS.  Thinking super fast, I said we had brought it over here to wash

but it was actually in the trailer ready to go to the dump! We had to dig it out and I did wash most of it. Their comforter is too big for my machine so I'll take it over to their house and stick it in his washer. I'll put the sheets and blankets back on the bed for him.

The stink is on everything and its deeply embedded. She had a Disney sweatshirt I thought I'd like to keep but after washing it twice and using vinegar it still stinks so I threw it away too. This was our second load of junk removed from their house, this one weighing 1,380. Thats a LOT of junk.

The house still stinks but its getting a little better. He gave away the stupid pug that just shit wherever and a gal I know took the 3 horses that were basically neglected in the pasture. I gave her a couple of blankets for them and she's giving them all the care they desperately need.

I have brought home her nice jewelry but left most of the costume stuff, which she's got a large standing case that's full that I'm pretty sure she got when her sister died 10 years earlier.  There were over 20 of the tradable Disney pins and some solid gold necklaces, one weighing .9 oz of 18k gold.  I have no idea what happened to her wedding ring.  All these things will go back to Terry after her family gets done taking everything they want but some of the cousins are vultures and druggies and deserve nothing. One of those tried to take the China that Jean had promised to me.

 

Already Fixed The Awning

That was quick, we went to Lowes, got 4 screws and put them into these brackets.

Before

After

Not perfect but good enough

We just need the awning to hold on till we get to Pioche, then its going to be parked in 1 spot till we're finished with it, in a few years.

 

The Trailer Awning

When we paid $1000 for this trailer we knew we were getting an extremely good deal, no matter what repairs it might need. We knew there was water damage and found out after we got it home that the awning needs repaired too so here are the before photos. We're just hoping we can get it fixed RIGHT and of course, we'll be doing the work ourselves.

This isn't going to be easy as the black material underneath is still completely intact and if we open it up we are going to then need to find a way to repair that.

 

 

Pioche

We're already planning our next Pioche trip, April 27-May 10, 2025.

IF I can get Saturday April 26th off, we will be able to leave here Thursday evening after we get off work. Usually when we leave in the evenings like that, we're able to drive till about midnight before we have to stop to sleep. Having a travel trailer, RV or camper has always been nice because we aren't paying for a cheap ass hotel room and we can boondock. 

We've purchased interior house wire, junction boxes, plug-ins and light switches for the house in Pioche and thats what we're planning on getting finished this trip. We will have to remove a lot of old stuff, some of that is OLD in this stuff (stock photo)

and some is newer. We will have to leave some because we'll need to use it for tools and lights.

We're going to work on the plumbing too so we can at least use the toilet. Tom, the neighbor, has said we can use his hose so we'll just fill the tub to have flushing water. I want to make sure all the water pipes are completely blown out each and every time we leave so we won't have to worry about busted pipes in the future.

I haven't been able to paint in the trailer because its been too cold, down into the 20s as night. The paint needs a bit of warmth to dry and even though there's a heater in there, I can't use it too much. The whole barn, shop and tack room are on the same electrical breaker as our dryer and its too much so it keeps popping off. I'm not interested in burning down any of our buildings so I'll just wait to paint.  I want to finish at least the kitchen in green paint, and the walls an off white. I'd like to put a back splash around the stove and sink but no ideas what sort yet.  The color of kitchen cabinet paint is Benjamin Moore 'Forest Floor'

In other exciting news:

Erin and I had made plans for her to come over and give me a lesson in driving Amble but shes got that nasty cold/flu I had last month and I told her to stay home. 

I E-Filed our income taxes today and we're not even getting half as much as last year due to a drastic tax cut that happened early last year. We're getting more money on each check but a lot less on our return. I could pay more into it but not going to do that, I'll just know we're getting less. This year we'll use the money for fencing around the back pasture.

I'm trying to save money for our trip but its hard, we'll need at least $800 for r/t fuel.  I think right now I might have $200 saved with potential to save $500 from each check equaling up to $2,500. I best get cracking on it. Maybe I can sell some junk, like the Metro. Thats not junk but I don't need it.

IVC Carriage ROCKS

 I received the order, had to call the company twice since it wouldn't go through online. Its a good thing I called, I was going to order the wrong items otherwise but he gave me info for correct items.

Once they arrived I discovered that there were two items here that I didn't know I already had so now I've got two over girths and an extra noseband.

This is the old girth that came with it, its pony size. Amble needs horse size.

Thats fine, I'll use the new ones because Ambleside deserves new stuff.

Jeans memorial was fine, once we got into the building. The code they provided wasn't opening the door, everyone was there at noon and standing in the hail waiting. At least there were lots of people to help get stuff set up and arranged.  The pot luck was good and after eating we all sat around and talked about jean and our memories of her. I couldn't do it, I just cried. She was loved, even though so much of the time she was cranky.

It was nice to see both my boys together again, its been a long, long time.

I've been painting in the camper a little. 

I need to get some kind of easily washable back splash for around the stove and sink area.

Why Is It So Difficult?

How come when I want to order shit it never works?

I've been online twice, I've called 3 times and finally went to the bank to get this shit figured out and still the order wont work. So fucking frustrating.

 

New To Us Harness Is Here

Today Ambleside's harness came via UPS.

I paid $900 for it used; that included 2 bridles, shipping and its carry bag.

What it didn't include was a noseband and a girth/belly band & over girth that would fit her.

I'm trying to order the parts but the website isn't working properly. Ugh.

 

Being Sick Sucks

 and I'm tired of Lan bringing home all the fucking illnesses he can get around his office. 

I went to the doctor yesterday for a completely unrelated issue, new to me doctor, hes Holistic and even though he can prescribe most things, he likes to hand out natural remedies. I'm OK with that, as long as it works.

BUT

while he was doing his routine exam he felt a nodule in my thyroid and told me to go get blood work done (we had planned on getting it done already) so I came home, made an appointment but today, after fasting for 12 hours overnight, I went to appointment and there was nothing there from him.  I went to another lab in the next town on the other side of our home but they had nothing either.

The pharmacy DID have the 1 single pill I needed so yay, I hope it gets me well.

I had originally gone to see him for weight loss and now with worrying about the fucking nodule I'm not so sure I need to worry about the weight right this minute.

AND

the well pump has gone out suddenly and a new one is anywhere from $100 - $800, depending on exactly whats wrong with this one. Last month Lan said we need a new pressure tank too and thats going to be another $500 because I'm sure if we replace the pump the old tank would go out & fuck up the new pump.

I'm over here trying to save money for our trip down to work on the Pioche house but at this rate we'll be having a staycation.

Jean

 

My Mother In Law Is Dying

 Dementia is an awful way to die.