Back To Work

 We've been home a week and during that time I worked 50 hours, 10 is overtime on a holiday so I'll earn about $1000 that day, now for my second week I'll work 60 hours so worked time is 110 hours plus a holiday, which for the regular holiday time I'll take as comp.

I did not plan on working so much right off the bat but its available and I'm high enough in seniority to get better shifts but honestly I enjoy every position on the dock.  Mostly I sell but traffic and plank are as easy as pie.

All this OT is due to the FIFA in Seattle; they are paying for extra people to be on the dock so I said 

SIGN ME UP!

The OT will be about 70 hours each week through July 10, by the time it's over I'll be wiped out.

Another Vacation Just Around The Corner

 We'll be heading to Pioche again in just a few weeks, leaving here as early as September 18th and not having to be back before October 4th. Between then and now I'll be working full time and I'm sure OT as well, and I'll be forced to work other docks. I greatly dislike working the other docks, I don't know those jobs as well. The 'Triangle" of Southworth, Fauntleroy and Vashon Island are all confusing on the best days and when you throw someone like me in the mix there is a good chance of fucking shit up. Stupidvisor Phil made sure to fuck with Tim and I by making me go to Fauntleroy yesterday and Tim is at Southworth today. There is NO reason to do that besides their POWER. Irene told me it's because those docks had a lot of over time this summer, so I told her so have we, shit Tim and I had over 24 hours in the last 2 weeks, 15 by me. 

I simply do not want the stress of working other docks. Night before last I didn't sleep well, was awake every hour fretting if I had missed the alarm and was late catching the fucking boat; Thats not healthy. Then when I did get to Fauntleroy it wasn't warm at all, the predicted 80* was a FUCKING LIE and I froze my ass off because I'd taken just my vest, not a coat. 

So I need this vacation.

Between now and then, I'll have a lot going on. Tomorrow I'm working the Bremerton morning sellers shift 4:15-2:15 and after that I have to start getting ready for my medical procedure Friday morning. Getting ready will consist of a shower in medicated soap tomorrow night and no eating after 11pm. I can have water to drink up until 4am or so. I'll have another medicated shower in the morning, then have to arrive at the hospital by 8am.

What is an ERCP (endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography)?

• This exam involves the use of a slim, flexible lighted instrument called an endoscope is passed through the mouth and through the stomach into the duodenum (the part of the small intestine that is closest to the stomach) to examine the opening of the bile duct (the tube that carries bile from the liver and gallbladder into the small intestine). A thin tube (catheter) is passed through the endoscope and inserted into the tubes (ducts) that lead to the pancreas and gallbladder. A special dye is injected into these ducts, and x-rays are taken. This helps the doctor see stones, tumors, and any areas that have become narrowed.
• The exam is performed under sedation to minimize gagging and discomfort during the procedure.

 

This is my second ERCP, to remove the stent they installed 2 months ago. I was asleep for that and will be asleep again. I'm sure I'll feel just fine afterward. 

I'm sure the stupidvisors will find work at the other docks for us to do in the next week and I'll do it but only to bring in a paycheck. I will not go above and beyond for anyone. 

Next weekend Lan and I will have to go pick up Amble from the trainers in Granger and I am looking forward to that. Mostly I'm looking forward to having her here so I can ride her.  When we do go to pick her up I hope to get a couple whings done, 1 is another lesson for me and another is to get her harness fitted to her. Shit, I don't even know if it will work with the cart I have for her.

Then 1 week after that is VACATION. I barely have enough time to make plans!! We aren't going to have loads of cash for doing all the work we'd like to do so we'll do a little work and spend a lot of time on the sxs. We haven't done that a lot lately and that's important to us, its WHY we bought a house in Pioche.  I want to some day take it to the Arizona Strip 

and ride all over Utah and much, much more of Nevada.

Labor Day Weekend

 I have two appointments at 11am today, one with a new dentist office and one phone call with the anesthesia office. I hope I can wing it for the phone call.

I have no plans other for the weekend, not even working, yet. This last 2 weeks I've gotten 15 hours of OT with OT the week before as well and that's straight back from surgery and extended medical leave. My check will be nice but it's exhausting working so much.

We had a shift bid for the Fall season (September 21-December 21) and I have chosen a 30-hour PT selling shift instead of being on-call this time around. I can sleep in every day, still feed all my animals and get home in time to feed them again. There is potential for a few more hours and I could potentially work another shift on my days off. If this doesn't work out financially for me, then its only 3 months and I can go back to oncall but I'll be expected to do graveyards a lot. If thats all I would have to do it wouldn't be so bad but mixing them up with 4am and 2pm starts is fucked up. I've offered to do the graveyard if they extend it to five 8's but 'we can't do that'. Well fuck you then, no one will do it.

Next Friday I have the procedure to remove the stent from my bile duct and there's probably no issues to be expected. Unless my stomach decides to over react to the non regulated bile or something?? That will be done on Friday September 6th. The following week we will need to go pick up Ambleside from her 3 months of training. I'll probably get a lesson with Wil at that time. I will FOR SURE ask them to help me fit the biothane harness to Amble so I wont be guessing.  I should ask what size shafts Amble will need so I make sure the ones on the cart are alright. I did tell Wil that they should sell me one of their marathon carts since they have so many. 

 Clay Maier is the trainer and I heard the other day that hes really sick and the lessons have been totally cancelled. He got sick in Boise and was admitted to the hospital where he had a stroke. I do hope that he's going to recover and continue as he had been before.

We drove 190 miles to see Amble and pay for her final month of training, the final $1,100. I've now got $6,600 paid into her for training, not counting the cash I paid Nina since she didn't do shit for/to/with her anyway. It was already 93* in Granger so I didn't take any lessons, we just gave her some loving.

Then we were on our way up north 200 miles to Leavenworth and beyond, to Index. There, we left the road and drove up to a gold mine and explored that. I don't recall the name of the mine but like all Washington mines, it had water in it, everything was slimy and it was chilly inside. We did see lots of Iron Pyrite so it had shiny stuff.

After we explored that mine we tried to find another trail to a second mine. We knew where the mine was but it was high up on the side of the mountain, only a mile as the crow flies but probably 2-3 with the downs and ups and switchbacks. It was already 6pm, it was only about 73* here but I was getting eaten alive by bugs so we decided to return another day.

That lead to another 100 miles to drive home. We had left at 8:45am and got home at 10pm. A long, nice day spent with Lan. 

My pay check showed up Friday and I was glad to see it was the full amount.  I have another procedure in 10 days to get the stent removed from the Gall Bladder issue and I'm hoping I wont have to miss any work due to that. 

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.

Life In General

I've started my Fall shift at Southworth dock; on Friday mornings I have to ride the boat over to Vashon & back. Its cool to be in front of the tag line when the boat is coming in.

Here is the tapestry I paid $13.99 for, its very light weight and darker than they showed but we hung it anyway. I think its kinda cute.

Thanksgiving turkey turned out great.

Our guests, ended up with 16.3 all together.

Had to have 2 tables, decided to go with a T so there was enough room for everyone.

We had our parents, cousins from Canada, friends from work and one of my boys.

Can't wait for Christmas

Puyallup Fair 2018

We had Joey, Wifi & Gus spend the nights in their stalls last night with the use of their runs for the first time. They all did well.

Mack spent the night in the arena because he is big enough that the others can all see him and not freak out that they can't see any other horses. So he knocked down this board and drug these blankets into the dirt. 

Then I went to the Puyallup Fair with my pal, Tina.

This ISN'T Tina.

We ate huge corn dogs.

I watched how this guy braided tails, now I want to try it with Gus.

Then I watched this gal braid Franks mane. I think I could do it with Gus's mane.

Old time poster.

The Walking Dead bobble heads

I bought scones and ate a lot of scones. Then I gave Wayne & Linda some, because he fell down & got hurt. I helped him get back up.

This is Frank, the dark blur on the left. He was a stinker.

Taking a tractor ride just to rest our feet.

Hand painted ceramic, won BLUE.

Bumper Cars!!  These were so much fun.

Round Trip

Right after we started our long drive to Canada to pick up my stall mats I received a text about the train derailment in Dupont telling me I'm lucky to be heading north.

Yes, lucky indeed.

My heart breaks for everyone involved.

It took about 3 hours to drive up to Canada and find the place we were going, Karen was navigator and I drove the whole way. She did back the trailer into the loading yard. There location is on a island in the middle of the Fraser river.

The yellow roll on top is mine & is now in my trailer.

Here is a ton of stall mats.

We had all the paperwork to return to the states with it but Customs & Border Patrol decided we needed extra attention.

So we went and stood in line for a half hour & then spent 15 minutes explaining what they were & telling them this was indeed made in Canada. They wanted us to pay an extra tax.

After an extra hour we left with all our money in MY pocket, not the nations pocket, and we were on our way. This handsome guy agreed to let me take a selfie with him. I thanked him for keeping us safe.

It was a 13 hour drive R/T, I totally went off my diet and ate 2 huge BAD/delicious meals but it was still a lot of fun. The mats are still in the trailer as I write this since I got up at 3am to spend a couple minutes with Lan before he heads to work. He will unload it this afternoon and it will be stacked in the barn.

About the barn:

The roof is finished and he is ready to start installing stall fronts. After we have the first two in, I can start with outer walls and the divider. I had planned to put the soft stall mat in the first two stalls and have the divider wall come right down to it but Karen pointed out that a horse could still cram a hoof under it. So I'll plan on putting the divider boards in with a 12" spacer on the bottom. They can still nose each other but not get hurt that way, I hope.

I hope.

We will be using plywood on the inside outer walls and 2x10 or 2x12 boards as dividers between only the end stalls; for the wash rack it will have permanent walls.

I'll use white hardboard panel boards like this photo so its light & bright like my old barn had. I'm even going to paint the ceiling white.

I found this photo on the internet & really like it; its got so many things I like. Small shelf for cleaning items (except we will have an outside door on that back wall), overhead sprayer like I'm going to install, drain, bright lights. The cross ties are recessed so the horse can't step so far forward into the aisle. I might make the overhead shelf a little bit bigger to accommodate the small hot water heater. I need to be able to reach it easily with at least a broom handle as its got an on/off switch so it isn't on all the time, no use heating water I'm not using 24/7. 

This is another stall I like, its got an overhead heater installed. Ours will have a stall front so it can be used as a stall if needed so probably any shelving will be temporary.

I picked up one of these IKEA metal carts for the barn

and am currently using it for the Christmas wrapping supplies. Its sturdy and strong, might be perfect for holding soaps and wash stuff... horse hair, dirt, broken hose nozzles...

I should just plan on getting another one for in the house because I really like it.

Picking Up Stall Mats

It's going to be a long day

But totally worth it in the end

Its like going to another country

Tomorrow I'll be driving to Canada to pick up the Stall Mats I have purchased for Joey & Wifi. These are actually one single mat but will be used as two 12x12 stalls with the ability to make one 12x24 stall simply by removing the divider. My ponies will be sleeping in comfort.

Now that the entire roof has been replaced (I keep saying its a new barn but its just a fixer upper of the old barn) we will start installing the stall fronts. We aren't going to sand blast them & repaint because the process of sand blasting it too time consuming and difficult. Next summer I'll pressure wash, wire brush and repaint them.

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. 

Great Days

This fall has been great; beautiful weather, perfect job, happy horses and busy life.

 

Even though this October has had the 3rd highest amount of rain in recorded rain history, it hasn't been awful. We did spent 2 weeks in Hawaii and missed a lot of it.

 

 My job has moved to Southworth and that is different. My hours for the winter at 8pm-2am, there are only 4 boats and I only have to do 3.5 of them. The outgoing traffic attendant lands the first one and I load & send it out. Except Saturdays, Mark is pretty fucking lazy.
Usually the boats are a couple minutes late so they literally land, unload, reload and leave. I don't have to spent tons of time standing around waiting for cars that might get there in time to sail. Its a 2 destination dock so getting used to that has been fun but I've gotten it down. If I make a mistake its not hard to fix, its not rocket science.

Yes, there is mud but we've got most of it under control. The horses have a covered area to escape the nasty stuff and there is the arena for working them. Plus, if I need to haul in I can just call Karen and she's always up for more horsey time.

 

I took Sunshower and Wifi out to Amy's barn the other day and bathed both of them & now have their tails wrapped, hopefully those last a while. Today in the mail I got a new polar fleece cooler for Wifi, its pretty dang nice and was less than $30 for the blanket, 2 de-wormers and shipping. The blanket is a pretty raspberry color, has 2 heavy duty Velcro straps in front, one belly band and leg straps.

 

I'll be taking one of my mares over to Karens to be ridden this winter, probably haul over Tuesday, ride, leave her there and go back on Thursday, ride & bring her home. That way, Karen and I can play and ride too.

 

I always try to keep track of the 1st frost of the season so I can worm the horses 30 days later and while in Hawaii Julia said it was frosty but Karen said it was only a bit on the tops of gates and it hasn't been cold or below 40 since then so I'm not counting that as the 1st frost. I have to wormers, now just waiting. Last year the 30th day was December 11th.

 

I've been doing some house cleaning and getting rid of shit. Today the bi-fold doors in the bathroom were removed and given away. Yesterday the green folding chairs were given away along with a curtain rod. I have SO MUCH MORE junk to get rid of. Its not all junk, if it were then other people wouldn't be wanting it either. I have a lot more stuff to go through and a lot of its junk. I don't know why I feel like I need to save so much crap. I don't want Brandan and R2 to have to go through it all when  I die.

Fort Ebey Kettles Run 13.1 Half Marathon

Fort Ebey Kettles Run 13.1 Half Marathon was the 2nd HARDEST half marathon I've ever finished, (1st hardest being Tacoma City half marathon, which was my first ever half marathon)

with 2750 feet of elevation gain.

This was all trails at Fort Ebey State Park, Whidbey Island, Washington.

 

Views of the beautiful Puget Sound and trees.

 

 

ALL UPHILL, all the way, barefoot, in the snow, hungry.

 

We rode the ferry over in the morning. This is the Kennewick, it holds 64 cars. 

 

Linda, Steve & Brayden

 

 

Before the race. Lan did the 5k, he was smart but he still had 660 feet of elevation gain.

(UPDATE: Lan finished 8th overall with a time of 37:23.8!!)

 

The weather said rain all day but we were so lucky and didn't get rained on at all. The trails were mostly all just wet and a little muddy, only 1 puddle we couldn't go around and it was at mile 1. I'm sure there are a lot of people with blisters from running in wet shoes for 12.1 miles, or the people who did the full marathon, twice on the same course.

 

Start of the race, big bottleneck because 200 people want to all get onto a single track trail. That's Linda in the pink.

That's Walking Stick Dude in the yellow. He wacked my leg with his stick cuz he was stupid.

 

See, UPHILL. Steep uphill.

 

And here is at the end, after we finished and DIDN'T GET A MEDAL because they didn't give any out. Maybe should have stated that in the registration process?? I mean, come on, I paid $42 just to race, didn't get a tee shirt either.

I'll never do it again and will strongly suggest no one else do it either but that's due to all the hills.

Oh, and no porta potties on the course, except the old shed outhouse near the very end of the course but none at the aid stations.

 

I did have a good time, got to spend 4hrs 28 minutes with my bestie. Who sprinted the last 10 feet to beat me but I still finished. And I had to wait 10 seconds for her to even cross the START line since she was tardy getting to it. so I technically beat her but if it makes her feel better...

and she did have to go slow for my sorry ass the entire second half.

Big Race Coming Up

I've got my first Half Iron Distance race this weekend, the Black Diamond Triathlon.

 

 

I've done a sprint out there, and the Olympic, this is my first HIM. Ever.

 

I've done a few practice halfs so to actually race it will be different. I'm not excited about the swim at all.

Swim- 1.2 miles

 

I AM excited for the bike ride, 56 miles in the countryside. I was out there the other day and tried to ride the course but the road signs don't work very well. I was going to right way but couldn't tell so I turned around and went the other way so I went about 2/3s of one loop. I was surprised because in the past even those hills were very trying to me but the other day I felt great and I got up them easily. They didn't feel like never ending misery mountains.

 

The run is 13.1 miles, mostly flat. I've been out there cheering for other people doing the HIM and it seems like they were always in the heat. I know two years ago it was about 90 out there. The current forecast is calling for 72* in the afternoon so a bit chilly in the morning.

 

The sucky thing about the race is that they will start the spring swimmers first, then the men HIM's & finally the women HIM's. I'm such a slow swimmer that I'll be the last out of the lake and last onto my bike. Its going to suck really bad.

 

Here is some good news:

Lan & I sold the old farm, it no longer is a cause for stress in our lives. We did get into an argument this morning about which bills to pay off because we didn't get all we had wanted and he insisted we pay his parents back. Meanwhile, I was insisting we pay off my VISA that we've been making house payments with. Fucker was up to $13,300 and I've never owed that much on credit cards before. It was freaking me out, especially since the payments were $354. But we didn't pay off my BECU and ALL of that was for fencing and crap over there so I'll still be paying $3300 to them, probably for the next 5 years. Ugh.

 

He insisted that we pay off his VISA and leave me with mine but no fucking way. I am the one who paid the $20,000 down payment for the old farm, I am the one who paid the Voses $15,000 cash plus $7,000 for their back taxes. That came out of the sale of my Tacoma house so he might think the old farm was HIS but we wouldn't have had it at all if I hadn't paid that shit. I also paid off the timeshare that he enjoys every year.

 

So we will get a cashiers check to pay off his parents for the $16,000 they loaned us for the new farm down payment, plus his dad made one farm payment for us $1,300 but after paying off the car and my VISA we are about $1,000 short in what we owe them. So they will have to wait for that last thousand.

 

And his dad will just go squander it anyway and that pisses me off. I mean, they can do whatever with it that they want but it came out of his moms 401k and should go back in to it but his dad will go to all the auctions and buy all the crap he can cram into his car or truck or fuck, why not buy another fucking RV or trailer?

 

They took this thing out ONE WEEKEND and until 2 months ago it was sitting over at the old farm. Now its sitting over at their own farm and its going to be destroyed. He paid $12,000 for it and right now it might be worth $8,000, if he was lucky. On the one weekend they did take it out after they got home they didn't clean it out. just left the blankets half on the bed, the sheets were half off and blankets half on the floor. There were dirty cups in each room and bottles half full of pop all over. They left garbage in it, food in the fridge. WTF?