Home Looks Great

Who doesn't like gravel?

OK, so lots of people don't.

It does look a lot nicer than tall grass growing up the side of the house and rotting the outside wood. 

No one likes rotten porch rail either

So its now repaired and painted with a fresh white coat

And the floor is clean and treated

Inside the house I took down Uncle Mels blanket and put my favorite horse picture up on the mantle, Its called 

Morning At Lumahai Beach by Kim Star

I need to vacuum the bricks and clean the fireplace

And the driveway is about 20% bigger now that Lan has cut the grass off the asphalt. We knew it was a bit bigger but in the 4.5 years we've lived here we never bothered to clear it off. Now its all spiffy.

Took this yesterday morning and sad that my phone didn't get the actual colors of this BEAUTIFUL sunrise. It was blue & gray and the cloud made it so we could look directly at the sun for a minute.

I'm going to miss this when we move.

Aw, here's Gussy. It had rained on him a bit and I had just spent and hour giving him a spa treatment. He just GLOWS with good health.

It was so good to have quiet time with him. He was nice and calm and enjoyed it. He didn't call out to the other horses and paid attention to me.

I haven't been able to spend much quality time with him with Soren here because he is so loud, he runs in the barn, screams, makes a ruckus. The other day he chased Gus out of the arena and made Gus slip on the concrete & hurt his legs. I was pretty fucking mad since I had JUST told him NO RUNNING in the barn. Sent the kid into the house screaming.

Gus has a muzzle he wears when hes out on the pasture but he got it off twice while in the back pasture so I've been leaving him in the barn in a run with a little grass in it. Tomorrow I'll leave the big horses in the middle pasture and hope no one does anything stupid.

I emptied the water trough in the front pasture yesterday and it had an inch of sludge in the bottom of it. Tomorrow I'll scrub it all out and refill it. Its so icky I don't know if the horses were even drinking out of it. There were two 6" gold fish in there a month ago, they were 4 years old but gone now. I'm sure that was local raccoons; little assholes.

Nope To HGTV

We decided to not use the HGTV lady to sell our home & not have it on the show. She was too pushy and didn't know enough about equestrian properties. She had zero interest in the Comfort Stall matts, didn't care about the quality of the stalls nor the barn itself. She looked at it but didn't 'care' about it. I want someone to sell my farm that loves it for what its worth and brings a buyer that will also love it for what it is, an equestrians dream.

Today I had an appointment in Woodinville for the deposition for the accident that happened 5 days after IMAZ when I was in the back seat of the car, an innocent passenger. We spent ALL DAY getting to & back from Woodinville & the fucking attorneys didn't have any record of my appointment. FUCKERS. This is the second time they have screwed up; last time was March 29th & they called me while I was in Idaho & said the attorneys were all there waiting for me to show up. The letter they sent me said MAY 29TH and when I got home I found it & called them back. Fuckers didn't even apologize for screwing up. If there is another screwup of any kind, I'm going to get another lawyer & if they try to make me pay them 1 red cent, I'll sue them for being incompetent. Fucking idiots.

The kitchen tile work is all finished, now we're finishing installing the plug ins & dimmer switch. We still have the hood fan to install too and then it will be finished.

Since my niece is here there have been a few changes. Shes got the cool room with the nice barn door closet. Now her son, my great-nephew, is coming soon too. She hasn't done a damn thing for him, she thought he would just sleep in her room with her in her bed. But hes 7.5 years old & boys that big don't sleep with their moms, they need privacy and a place of their own to play. She hasn't gotten him any toys nor bought him any new clothes. She seems to think his dad is going to bring ALL his toys & clothes here with them in an electric car with the step mom & step sister but I am thinking he going to have a grocery bag of dirty clothes & thats it.

I found this free captains bed & went & picked it up, then last night Lan & I put it together. He had to fix a bent nail & glue a broken piece of wood. I also had to go pick up the mattress. I spemt $287 on Spider Man sheets & a blanket, plus another blanket, Spidey beach towel and several more shirts & pants. I'm got about 10 toys for him, a few cars & trucks, some legos, a couple other things.

He needs a lamp, a toy box, more toys, new undies and I NEED to remove that window blind & find something different. Kids & blinds with strings don't go together.

I'm trying to make arrangements for him to go to a week of summer day camp. My friend Tina has a horse day camp for kids & that might be fun for him. 

One Year Review: Stable Comfort Stall Matts

We've been using the Stable Comfort stall matts for about a year now & it's time for a review.

I originally had Joey & Mack on them, Joey is  TB gelding weighing about 1150 and Mack is a huge Appy gelding weighing about 1250. The matts held up to their weight FINE but Mack was terrible on the stalls. He broke the dividing wall between the stalls, chewed the doors and demolished the runs. It was easier for ME to keep him in the arena at night.

But then he would whinny at all hours if the others went out to the runs & he couldn't see them so Joey went into the arena with him.

Now its just Wifi (900 lbs) in one of the stalls & I use the other one for hay.

Here is her stall. Its standing up GREAT to the use. Shes in it for about 12 hrs every night and currently we have the run door closed (due to the gutter leaf protector being down from snow). In the mornings I always let her out first so shes much less likely to pee in it.

This is the stall right after I cleaned her poop & stripped it of shavings. I still have to use 

EXACTLY THE SAME AMOUNT OF SHAVINGS 

that I ever used before to absorb her pee but I don't have to put in enough to make it soft. But I NEVER DID bed to make them soft because they have the attached runs to go outside.

Here is the front door area and its holding up well. No matter who the horse is, they bang their front hoof on this rail as they walk out but all horses are lazy. The stall fronts we used have a metal bar across each door to hold them rigid and strong and they are the perfect height for the matts.

This is the section just to the right of the above door, under the water buckets. When we installed it the wood on the wall was rotten so Lan used the wood strip to help. It I were to replace that wall wood right there we wouldn't need to use the strip along the floor.

The robber matt top is holding up quite well. There aren't any holes or indications of them at all. They hold all the pee just fine. The pee does puddle and its a bit harder to clean up compared to a flat stall with regular matts where the pee would go underneath when I use regular shavings.

The ONLY PROBLEM I have is 

that Wifi's shedding hair sticks to the rubber matt and won't sweep off very easily. I sweep my stalls every day so there is no dirt/sand/hair where their hay falls out of the hay nets. This hair just wants to stay on it.

But this is a problem that doesn't bother me too much since horses will eat hair as they groom each other. 

WInter Is Coming

We're expecting a winter snow storm beginning tomorrow night; 

6-8 inches is supposed to fall in our area, area 2.

I have to work tomorrow night 10pm-8am.

This is our pasture this morning, we got an inch of the fluffy white stuff 2 days ago.

Its also pretty cold out & this water pipe in the barn burst but its OK, it wasn't holed up to anything. 

And there are 2 does in our pasture lately, yesterday when I put out hay they can wandering into the pasture & didn't mind me pulling around the noisy little wagon.

Next post will be of the (hopefully) deep snow we get.

Life in the barn

Gary came out to trim hooves

Gus was a ROCKSTAR!!

It certainly pays off to work on picking up hooves

Joey was good too. I kept wondering why he was so perky, it was a Unicorn balloon in front of him

I paid $5 for this halter at a sale, its a really nice one. The other night I ordered halter tags for my horses, RED will be going on the wayside

I took this right after I had to get after Wifi for nibbling on my shirt. Shes never done that before.

She's still pouting

Gary likes her feet, its been 8 weeks and they still look fantastic. One reason is genetics, one is that shes never had shoes on before, one is that I try to keep them on a good schedule for trims. I started her trims when she was a month old, never too young to learn about the farrier

Mack was a turd, pulling back, leaning on Gary, pulling his hoof away. Sigh.

I ordered him a halter name plate also, just going to put it on his halter,, not going to tell Meghan till she comes out to see him.

I ordered Gus a new leather halter and found this at Stateline Tack for less than $12, its REAL NICE and adjust able so fits him well. I'm pretty happy with it and his name tag will look good on it.

TRIATHLON NEWS:

I have signed up for the December 30, 2018 Yukon Do It half marathon so I better get my ass out there and run, at least walk. I'm so fat right now so I'm dieting and walking every day. Have lost a few pounds, mostly food I haven't eaten so I'm not full of poop. We shall see how I'm doing in a week. I plan on getting out to walk every single day and start running soon.

Tomorrow is the VERY LAST  Tri Turtle Tri and since we won't be racing, Lan & I volunteered to help with parking. Neither of us want to be out there all day so I made sure to let her know we need to come home at noon. 

It rained last night so there is a bit lest dust, I hope it doesn't rain on the race. 

I Rode

I need to spend more time doing this.

Wifi had a halo that day.

Gus trying on his new driving harness. The surcingle was much to small and the back strap (?) was much too long. This is its shortest & it went way over his butt, supposed to sit up on his hips. 

He was wonderful, just stood there & let me put this contraption all over him, he didn't mind. I need a hot poker to make more, shorter holes and I need someone to show me where everything goes & what its for. I'm sure this cheap harness isn't complete & its already proven that its not sized correctly. 

He is now letting me pick his hooves up & clean them, doesn't try to kick or anything. Gary should be impressed with this next week when he comes to do hooves.

Ripping & Tilling

The arena was ripped 4-6 inches deep today

The footing is all clay so it came up in big hard chunks

After a few hours of circles, it looked like this

Then the helper came & the rototiller was attached

It took a few runs each direction to get it good

Looking better already

But its just going to compact again so Builders Sand will be added and mixed in. After its compacted, more sand will be added on top and I HOPE to add 1 inch rubber crumble to the sandy top for better footing.

This morning we turned the big horses on the front pasture 24/7 while the back pasture is sprayed for weeds. All of them napped together.

First Wifi stood guard.

Then she laid down beside Joey for a while

And Mack had a good snooze

I signed up for the FINAL SEASON of Tribabes and last Saturday was the first BRick; 5 miles bike/1 mile run. I took my mountain bike because my shoulders/back/neck were very sore with a big lump in my muscles. 

I guess I'm going to need to spend time each day running or riding. I'm not thrilled about the swimming, my wetsuit fits someone that's 20 lbs lighter than I am now.

Farrier

Gary came out today to trim & shoe horses

This is Mack's hoof

Joeys hoof 

Another of Joeys hooves 

And Gary met Gus for the first time; Gus was not impressed with Gary but handled this experience OK. His hooves have been trimmed before but it was by the veterinarian, he might have been on drugs. 

Gus is so little 

I'm sure Garys back got sore 

Gus pulled back a few times but once he got to the fence he had to stop. His head was under the shelf but he didn't bump it at all. 

Gary let Gus act up a bit but brought him back around each time 

It harder to do mini's than big horses 

And its super cute to watch 

Here is Gus's hoof inside Joey's shoe