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.

Another Trip To Idaho

We spent 5 days looking at 18 properties in Idaho & Montana and found this gem.

Besides the 2 stories you can see, theres also a basement.

We were looking to downsize but its bigger than the place we currently have.

Here is the garage.

From the road.

Property has 20 acres.

Wishing well & that odd shaped thing is an underground bunker.

I'll probably use it as a fruit cellar.

What I love.

Its a shared entryway with the neighbors and we haven't met them yet but one of their friends seemed like a great lady so we might just end up liking them a lot.

This is the barn. Its small & far from airtight but the inside can be reconfigured to hold Wifi & Joey.

The shop. Couldn't see inside but its large.

Another shed, hay storage?

Wrap around porch with the 2 long sides covered.

The garage has a food storage area built inside it.

We couldn't see inside the building on the right but theres a pipe with water coming out if it so we're thinking a spring. It drains into a half buried water trough that's under the lean too,

The fences are mostly all down around the 5 ish acre front pasture but I kow a guy who does beautiful fences. Most of the 20 acres goes out the back into the woods on the hill. Theres an old forest service? easement? road that winds around through the back. We need to find out if its got public access of what.

The electricity wasn't turned on so there were no lights & no water. When we go back for the inspection we'll take a genny & get all that up & running, at least for a bit.

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.

Gus, September to October 2018

Can you see differences in Gus in one month?

 Different things happening with him are:
He is out on pasture without his muzzle all day.
He is in his stall every night, with hay, senior grain & alfalfa pellets + raspberry leaves.
I've been lunging him 3 times each week with lots of trot to walk transitions.
He is getting groomed more often.
His winter coat is growing in.

I wonder what he will look like in another month?

I bought 2 new inner tubes for the cart.

And put padding on the arm rests. So far this thing seems ready to go.

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.

Halterless gus

Gus without his halter loose in the arena for the first time since April 4th.

He's got a handsome face.

Now that Shadow/Laddie is gone, Gus really loves to play with his treat ball.

Lan has the outside runs just about finished. The electric rope is up, tape along the tops but there needs to be a bit more rope inside.

This was as he was taking down the old wooden fence.

Another view

And with it getting cleaned up and mowed. The pile of sand is buckshot, it will be the top finish in the runs. We need another 6 trailer loads, about 36 tons.

This is out back, there's still a lot to do out there too