Drone

A friend brought his drone over today and did a preliminary video of our farm

He got several videos and many photos

The horses weren't impressed with the buzzing and ran for the hills

Mostly we were looking to see what it currently looks like and what we need to do to improve it looks. Theres still some cleaning up and putting things away but for the most part, it looks pretty good.

The machine itself was much smaller than what I thought it would be

Here he is, doing his thing

Photo taken from the back of the property towards the front

Too bad the so dry out now

The bright sunlight was drowning out a lot of the color

When he comes back, we're planning on it being in the early morning so the sunshine is on the front of the house. I also want to know when it will be beforehand so I can make sore the barn is clean. He flew the drove through the barn! twice!

In other news, I have purchased additional plane tickets for our trip:

 London -  Carcassonne, France $35.01

Dinard, France - Dublin, Ireland $63.27

Dublin - Newcastle, England $38.94

Then I realized Michelle & guy aren't planning on going to Ireland so I cancelled that leg of the trip.

 We'll be staying in France for the first week and will see MUCH more of it. South for 2 days, then middle eastern section, Paris (Mona Lisa!!)

We will go to Omaha Beach, where Lans grandpa was at during the war and then back down to Carcassonne to fly back to Stansted, England, $43.84.

Returning the rental car to Carcassonne airport and having it for a week costs less than having it for 3 days & returning to Dinard airport and negates the expenses of the cancelled plane tickets.

I'm not actually cancelling the plane tickets, we'll just not use them unless we decide we'd rather go to Ireland. But they drive on the wrong side of the street there & we'd crash.

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. 

Snowy Farm

Miniature horses can handle the cold and snow just fine, as shown here by Gus. He stood outside in the snow and it melted off his back but froze again on the hair on his sides.  

This photo was taken day before yesterday when we had 2 inches of snow.

Its snowing good again & up to 8 inches 

Heres our home from the road

The barn with just 2 inches. Its so deep now that I wore my snow shoes to go out there & walked around clearing a path for the hens to come outside. They still didn't.

Southworth beach from the dock yesterday morning

Friday night at about 3:45am. John came down & did the best job he could for me.

It snowed 10 inches that night. I didn't have a shovel, except the broken one, had to borrow one half way thru the night. Only 6 bags of salt. I shoveled the sidewalk 3/4 of the way up to the sellers booths, then came back down to the bridge & shoveled there, over and over again. As soon as I cleared it off, it was covered again.

I got off work at 8am and it was coming down hard. Got to within 2 miles from home & the road was closed so had to back track to Fred Meyers where I picked up cold meds, then went to the freeway and drove the 2 miles at 30 MPH till I got to my exit. 

Horses aren't too thrilled about being locked in the arena but at least its not locked in stalls like so many barns in the area. I know a lot of people fear for their horses lives in this weather but they do need to be horses. I'm going to take their hay up to the top of the pasture tomorrow and let them eat up there but I'll have to be sure they get their hooves cleaned out when they come back to the arena. Snow balls in the hooves can hurt them.

Lately

Wifi got a new halter for Christmas 

but its an off brand & doesn't work perfectly with the cross ties. 

I'm going to try reversing the dross ties & see if that fixes the problem.

Here she is in the new blanket Meghan gave her. Tough1 brand.

The neck has an adjustable gusset

I've had 5 of these waterers for 8 years & haven't installed them anywhere.

Went up to the mountains on New Years Eve

Crystal was packed

Later int he day we went into Seattle & parked on Queen Anne hill to watch the Space Needle fireworks. That was amazing.

Then we caught the Bremerton ferry home. A perfect day.

Hes Fat

Gus is really hairy

and 

Gus is fat

His mane is thicker than ever before too

He Could Be Mine

Mack

He has been offered to me

He is one amazing animal

A Few New Things

The front fence is new because the assholes took to wandering in the frikkin road. They've been contained in the back pasture this last month while this was put up.

Notice the fake gate at the far end? There is an old easement there that we want to maintain so even though there isn't really a gate, it looks like there is.

This is what this section of fence looked like, it had old rotten posts, barbed wire, field fence, hog panels and rotten boards, all being held up by the plethora of weeds & bushes.

Today we gave these boards to a guy who is going to put them up on his fireplace wall. 

This is NOT the section the horses went through, that was the field fence 

between us & the neighbors.

What it looks like without any fence.

What else is new? Hoka One One has brought back the original Clifton 1 running shoe & these are the ones that made running fun & not a chore. I'm going to have to go buy a pair & if I still love them I'll get a few more, before they decide to upgrade them again.

And this is new. I won a contest & this is my prize.

I Rode

I rode, but only for a few minutes, on Mack. 

Then 3 days ago I got an injection in my foot, into the Plantar Fibroma.

In the 1st photo the bright white dot is the middle of it, all the darkness is the lump.

I was given a lidocaine shot to numb my foot, that went into the back of my ankle and it took about 4 minutes of him poking the needle around into the proper spots.

 I spent 12 minutes massaging the medicine into the area.

Here is a raw shot of the needle inside my foot. It began at a size 6.2mm in size, the previous biggest it got was 4.9mm. 

Here is an 'enhancement' of the same photo.

It was mostly numbed but once in a while he would hit a nerve & it would feel like my foot had a hot poker on the heel.

This part of the procedure lasted about 8-10 minutes.

Afterward I put on my boot and came home. I had to borrow crutches from Mora and she also gave me a Lidocaine gel patch. I cut it down to three 2"x3" pieces and put 1 onto the bottom on my foot. They last 12 hours. The 3rd is on now and I'm sure it has helped a LOT.

I used the crutches for 2 days, today is the 3rd day & I'm able to walk without them but still in the boot. 

All this foot lump tumor BULLSHIT has a name, I'll go into more detail at a later date.

HORSEY NEWS:

I was too cheap to order harness pads for $10 online so I paid $30 and made my own.

At least I used a color I like.

I'll get photos of them actually ON Gus later.

Gary is coming out to trim horses tomorrow.

A little Laugh

I ordered a new blanket for Gus online and it came yesterday, just before I had to leave for work and I didn't get off till midnight. Then today I had to work at 9am & was supposed to get off at 2pm but had to stay until 6pm.

Finally got the chance to go see how he looks in it & this is what I find..

The Freakin tail flap is sewn on crooked. 

FUCK.

Last week the big horses (Mack) pushed down the fence in the front pasture and left. They were out on the road, which is an extremely busy thoroughfare with a speed limit of 45, so everyone goes 60. Fuckers are lucky no one got hit & killed.

I got a call at work from my neighbor, 'hey, your horses are in the road'.

Luckily the neighborhood came together and got the assholes back in the arena.

This is what they knocked down.

This is where we cleared it out, removed all the old crap & put up new field fence.

Because of tree roots its not possible to put wooden fence up here, or we would.

There was about 200 feet replaced.

Worlds best ladder.

Stretching the new fence.

Front fence Sunday

What it looks like right now across the front along the road, with NO fence at all. We mowed all the weeds & bushes down & now I'm surprised how shallow the ditch is, it felt/looked really deep before.

From the road.

And because the horses were locked in the barn a bit longer than normal, I went outside to feed the next morning & Mack had redecorated. FUCKER. So he stayed in the arena every night now, I don't care if those boards get chewed, I DO care if the stall doors get chewed.

This was the 2nd time Lan & I came to the farm, we brought Tank over. He wasn't feeling well, not one bit well. He died a couple days later.

And here is Gus, learning to lunge. Two weeks ago he couldn't understand to even walk forward at the end of the rope.