Wifi is 10

WildFire, aka Wifi, is 10 years old today so I'm sharing photo of her over the years.

This is her mom, Sunshower, 2 days before Wifi was born.

And this is early in the morning in 2008

Yearling

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old

7 years old

8 years old

9 years old

10 years old

More Barn

I went ahead and ordered one 12 X 12 Stable Comfort stall matt for Joeys stall. We will have to go to Canada ourselves to pick it up but it's OK, Lans cousin lives in Abbotsford so we can make a long weekend of it. Or go in November while I'm on vacation. Or have Kari bring it to us. Lots of delivery options.

Its going to be nice for his body to lay on a soft floor.

Ironman Coeur D'Alene 70.3

I've decided to sign up for Ironman Coeur D'Alene 70.3 which will happen June 24, 2018. I'm kinda excited for it, I haven't done a tri since IMAZ so it will be a full 2.5 years. I've begun walking a couple times each week and will use my training plan to get in shape.

Lan bought a bike roller

and I plan on learning to use it. It doesn't provide resistance but gives you a better workout because you have to use your whole body and pay attention. 

I've been looking through my tri equipment and haven't been able to find my mini fanny pack I used for running. Sure was handy for carrying my car keys, ID and car keys when I ran so I'll have to get another if I can't figure out where this one is.

In horse news:

The cement has been ordered for Friday and I'm stinking excited about it!!!

Sunshower has been leased out to another family for a lifetime lease. I'm missing my girl so much but at least shes being used now. Shes got a 34 yr old mom who is horse crazy and a 7 yr old girl, plus a couple little ones. Couldn't ask for a better life for her. Shes close by and I can see her if I want.

Now, Too Start Building

Its time to start building the new barn. I've only gotten 1 estimate, must check in to getting more.

Big Things

When we first saw this farm this is what the back pasture and arena looked like, all over grown with black berries and you couldn't see the ground for the grass & weeds.

 

We tried using the stalls but they kept flooding every time it rained, like, a foot deep.

 

 

So we built temporary stalls inside the arena and have been using them for 1.5 years.

You can see on the right side of this photo where it still leaks in.

 

 

This lean-too has been dismantled and now all that remains is one wall along the arena and the roof.

 

This is the arena side, all rotten from rain water that comes off the arena and goes right down the front of the stalls.

 

Here it is, mostly dismantled. We had to bring in more footing, it still flooded up until a month ago. It will again if we don't keep up on it continuously.

 

But we are now getting the new barn built and I can't wait to start.

I'd like a 12 ft aisle and five 12x12stalls with attached runs, one of the stalls being a wash rack.

We shall see.

I might just get 3 stall floors cemented, add dividers and outside walls and call it good. That would save me thousands of dollars.

 

Julia told me today that they are planning on having Roses go home by springtime so pretty soon I won't have their help with feeding and cleaning but also won't have her here fighting with Wifi. They go at it like teenage sisters. I'll give them some stuff to make their transition easier, maybe a corner feeder and a hay rack, They've got buckets and stuff.

 

I am really hoping I can get an aisle-way that has the brick look to it, it would be better traction but also look nicer and someday in the future it would have a better resale value. I don't plan on living here forever.

 

 

I'm sure this is much closer to the barn I'll end up with than the one featured above. But I WILL NOT have spaces between the stalls dividers like this, you're just asking for injury and broken boards doing that. I'm going to find some stall mirrors and the horses will be happy thinking they can see another horse. I want the stall fronts to have openings for them to put their heads out but I also want to be able to close those. I do not want them bending the bars like happened in the old barn.

 

Shit, looking at these stalls, they are only 8 feet across in front since the doors are 4 feet wide. Not big enough for horses, maybe this is a mini barn.

 

 

Black Friday

Today is Black Friday, traditionally the day everyone goes shopping in the big stores and malls, fighting over the 5 TVs on sale for a super good price, pushing old ladies into the street in order to get her place in line to get through the door faster. I've only gone shopping on this day a few times and not for Christmas gifts but usually for groceries or a piece of lumber at Lowes.

 

Last year REI decided to start something new,

 

 

I won't be able to go hiking or running but I'll certainly stay away from the stores.

 

 

This awesome signed picture is now mine. Affirmed, Secretariat and Seattle Slew, ridden to victory in the Triple Crown, autographed by their jockeys. I'm very excited to get it.

 

Bent Out Of Shape

Someone keeps getting bent out of shape about me not riding all the horses. I think its fucking funny that they can't mind their own business and that they even care in the first place. So just to make this person understand, I'll explain why I don't ride all my horses.

 

Joey is retired. He's 20 years old and has lead a damn easy life but hes got a stifle injury (inherited) that is now catching up to him and he hurts. He will continue to live here with us throughout his golden years.

I don't 'Get rid of' my horses just because they are old.

 

Joey in the shitty halter because someone stole his leather one.

 

Sunshower!

Shes the perfect mare. I do ride her, shes my trail horse now and shes loving it, a lot. Joey was always my trail horse before but now my girl is picking up the slack.

 

 

And Wifi. My beautiful girl. Stinkpot. Spoiled rotten.

Shes got a career as a dressage horse and that's going along smoothly. Shes not liking that she has to work again but she sure as hell enjoys the attention she gets.

 

 

Other barn news:

We should be able to start the barn build within the month and we're pretty excited about that. I'm going to the county for the permit next week.

 

I've already been doing the research on use of different types of woods for the walls, etc. and have been to 3 stores to price things. I know the walls so far will be about $5,000 but that doesn't include stall fronts, hardware or the roof/floor of the loft. I'm having so much fun drawing up plans for everything and then getting to redo them when we figure out I did it wrong. I wish I had paid more attention to the stall doors in the old barn but Lan remembers how they were. I know we're definitely going to use pressure treated boards on the bottom of the walls so they don't rot out from pee and the first 4 boards will be 2x12x12 so they have added strength. I've seen too many 2x8s that horses kick and get injured because owners were too cheap to purchase stronger boards.

 

 

Inside the house we're prepping to take out 1 wall and replace all the down stairs flooring. I'm thinking about adding a gray slate inside the front door and going into the bathroom. We've also priced hardwood flooring for inside the house and spoken to a lot of people who have so much info to share. I've had hardwood before but we've never been the ones to choose and install it. 

This mare

 Wifi

makes my heart happy.

Rode Today

I actually got out on the trails at Banner Forest today on Sunshower with Karen on her mare, rode about 5 miles. What an awesome time!

 

Now I want to ride my horse every day and not do Ironman next year.

Decisions, decisions.

Filling In

This girl,

 

 

Is filling that gigantic hole left in my heart when Hagen died. She's learning how to be a dog, not just a pup, she's learning to respond in the way we want. She's gentle and rough at the same time.

 

She makes me smile.

 

 

And the newest addition to the farm, chicks.

Probably both roosters but I'm hoping for a hen to brood eggs for me.

 

Then there is this new round hay bale holder. Got it yesterday at Tractor Supply for $185.

See all the hay spread out? That's what the horses ruined in 1 day with the whole bale available to them. This hay feeder should pay for itself pretty fast. I throw their alfalfa flakes right in there with the grass.

 

Enough room for them to share.

 

Tri related:

Lan is set to do the Black Diamond Long Course tomorrow at Enumclaw. He should do well but it is such a huge and competitive size A/G that he will still only come in 5th place. I'd LOVE to see him podium!!!

To make it a bit easier for him, I have filled the car with gas and stashed a $20 in the car for his after race lunch.

I signed up too but I'll be working a 13 hour day and my $200 registration fee is paying for Terry, Lilly & Brayden to enjoy MY race. I won't even get a fucking tee shirt.

 

At work:

I'll be working at Southworth dock for the fall/winter/spring season. Bremerton no longer offered the on-call days off I want and Southworth does so its there that I'lll be working. A 30 hour shift, 8pm-2am Saturday thru Wednesday with Thursdays & Fridays off. And most of all other days too, since I'll be working nights. Landing only 4 boats, all going to the same places in the same order.

I'm sure I'll be the one to mop floors and take trashes out, sweeping the dock and other shit like that. I hope the captain isn't an asshole.

Argo

This is Argo

A beautiful Friesian mare who foaled her 2nd foal 3 weeks ago and suddenly, Argo got sick and had to be put down. Argo was the same age as my Wifi, they were pasture mates when Wifi was weaned and they spent a lot of other time together. I am heart broken for her owner.

Her new filly will be raised by a 29 year old nurse mare now.

 

These are our horses, freaking out because they noticed a big hay bale up on the hill in the back pasture. They spent 10 minutes running around, snorting and freaking out over it.

 

Tonight they were all given dewormer, groomed and fly sprayed. All of them look pretty good, except mine are too fat and Roses is too skinny.

Joey had a sarcoid on the back of his rear leg and there might be another one beginning to grow on his barrel. That one is on his side and right where a cinch would go so if it is one, he is definitely retired.

 

I want to ride my horses again. I miss riding Wifi. I miss riding Sunshower. I miss riding Joey.

PC back so I can post pictures again!

 In February Sunshower got an awful injury on her chest. It took a few days of searching but we found the culprit; she fell onto a hinge on her stall gate. Vet thought it was a TPost and we searched the entire field and found no evidence of that so I was relieved when it was the hinge.

I'm pretty sure she was chased around by the boarded horse and that's how it happened.

This is what Lan found when he went out to feed. About 6x6 inches and 2 inches deep. I was heading to work so when he called I just had him call the vet and I called Abby to assist him until the vet got there.

Vet cleaned it all up

Sewed a few stitches in it. She inserted a drainage tube so that it wouldn't get full of fluids and swell terribly.

 These are the only photos I have on this computer but after a couple days I took her to a friends barn where it could be cared for a lot better and in cleaner conditions. We used TZone wound cream on it and it healed almost perfectly. There is a small bump on her chest but that's all. There was never any infection and I was even able to ride her before it was healed completely.

and my friend, Karen, is awesome and I wish I had more time to spend with her.

Good Morning Horses

Farm Sharing

Most people would think of FARM SHARING as me letting other people come here and utilize our farm for gardening or something but what I'm talking about is with the in-laws. They have 5 acres a couple miles away without any horses on it and I am running out of grass here, due to the super dry spring and summer we have had. So I asked if I could take all 4 horses over there for a month, until it rains and the grass has a chance to grow again. That way we wont have pastures of weeds here.

 

Here is there horse, Reign, in our front pasture.

They said sure, come over, we'll check out the fences. So off we go and what do we find? A total mess. No fence is complete or safe for horses, no water trough is clean or holding water, except one that is totally nasty but it could be cleaned and the pastures are all weeds. No grass is growing, its all weeds.

 

ALL WEEDS.

 

Our pastures hadn't been used in at least 2 years so they had plenty of grass when we moved in but also plenty of black berries. Lan spent a lot of time mowing them and now the horses have been grazing. The back pasture is bigger and has more stickers but less grass growing then the front pasture.

I'm thinking about buying some round bales to supplement the grass, just so they slow down a bit on the grazing. I'd love to have 10 tons stored in the barn before winter because I have a feeling this winter hay will be $500 per ton and I just can't do that.

 

All the dark spots are poop piles.

 

 

Poop and very weathered fencing.

 

 

I also want to take the tractor out there and scoop poop out of the front pasture. Lan and his dad think I can just drag it but horses don't eat around their poop so its got to be picked up.  I will do that later this week when its cooled off a bit and after I've done my daily workout, supposed to be only 75 in a couple days. Spreading composted poop is a whole other story, that's perfectly fine to do.

 

Last week we purchased 5 gallons of semi gloss white exterior paint and I'm going to repaint the porch rail and this fence. I wanted to pressure wash it first but with the sand in the well Lan said paint over the dirt if need be. Of course, I'll brush off what I can before I start.

 

I think the fencing will look pretty sharp when its finished.