Packing For Travel

We'll be leaving on another trip to Pioche in 9 days and let me tell you, I'm pretty stoked.

We'll first drive to Dugway Geode Beds in Utah, where we will dig for geodes and I thing we're guaranteed to find some. I'll be taking a shovel, bucket to carry them, spray water bottle, all sorts of things. 

They are in Simpson Springs, Utah

This is one area

This is what the area looks like. 

I've read that the BLM goes out & digs up more areas once in a while.

I hope to find a couple cool ones, I hope to find enough that I can share and give a few to Jeremy so he can cut me one.

Then we'll continue on to Pioche. There are several ways to go between the two places but the dark purple line is one we haven't taken before.

I've been planning the things I'll be doing when I'm there, one of which is painting the basement walls. Currently they are gray concrete and purple paint. I've read that you're supposed to use a certain kind of paint on concrete but I'm sure they didn't use that special stuff before so I'm going to paint over it with the paint I have, a light gray. It might brighten it up a little bit.

I'll be pulling weeds again, tumbleweeds. 

Lan will be working on the sewer lines and a bajillion things inside the house. We're ramping up for when we take down the bathroom, utility room and kitchen but there's so much to do before then; basement, clearing out the interior of the rooms, 

We also need to pay a few bills while there too, the garbage bills is $150 for the year, too bad we can't just pay for the time we're there, and the truck tabs are $741 (yikes) but I have called our local DMV and its half as much to get license and tabs in Washington than it is in Nevada.

We will utilize the town pool, its ALWAYS nice to go for a dip when its blasting hot.

We're leaving home on May 21 and heading to Utah but we'll need to sleep somewhere along the way so we got ourselves a free truck canopy and we'll build a bed in the back. The bed will need to be big enough for Lan to sleep on it, so at least 6'3" and that only gives him a couple inches leeway. 

Lan wanted to paint it but that's just one more thing to do and he's already too busy doing shit here and he did point out that it matches the SXS.

Yeah, we'll be taking the Can Am too, its why we bought the house down there in the first place.

Oh yeah, we've got the shed frame up, now just needs the roofing put back on and I'm hoping to find Costco garage sides for free that I can put on it. It has seven 12' corrugated green fiberglass panels for the roof but one is broken so I want a clear or opaque panel, for additional light.  We're going to store the new cart and Kenny inside this.

 

Vacation Begins In 48 Hours

I'm very thankful for the new truck we got in May, this 2025 F-350.

Diesel, 4 doors, 12 cup holders, 4 wheel drive, A/C. Our previous truck only had 1 of those things, being diesel,

It wasn't set up for towing like they bragged, we had to put a lot of money and work into it to get it set up for that. So far, we've hauled Amble to Yakima and back and took the sxs out to Tahuya once and I'm happy to say it hauls pretty dang nice. Now we'll be hauling the sxs to Pioche, 1,000 miles, and we're confident it will go well.

Amble came home 3 days ago and I've ridden her but it was only a pony ride, she will not move forward for me. First I tried with the cheap Cashel saddle and it was a no-go, then bareback and that was much easier to stay up there. I definitely need a 3 step mounting block.

I've posted a bunch of photos of her with a cheap Wintec saddle that might fit OK but its not going to be the one I ride her in forever. I'm really sad the $900 saddle I really like doesn't fit.

 

Ordering

I need one of these inside the arena to hold the gate closed; currently we're using an old rope tied around the gate & a post.

I was at Coastal & Wilco yesterday & neither had them but we checked online and local Ace stores have them for $12.99. After going through my email I saw Chicks had a sale on manure fork heads & since Wifi broke a tine out of mine last week I decided the $5.99 price was good enough for me. And I ordered 2 gate latches, a few dewormers, a little cowboy stationary set & a small decorative key hook with a horse on it. 

The ponies are stubborn but we're sticking to them. Shadow is about 33" tall and easier to catch and handle but he hates being touched on his off side.

Gus is harder to catch and tough to work with because he is stronger. He is about 37" tall. 

Both the boys are super duper cute and some day should be productive members of society.

We catch & lead them around, touching every part we can get our hands onto then we let them loose in the arena to run and play while I clean stalls. Today its POURING rain so they are stuck in the stalls but at least they are soft stall floors, they have plenty to eat & drink and the stalls are big.

I worked last night midnight till 4am & will do it again tonight. I was lucky this morning to be able to sleep till 2:30pm, something I haven't done in YEARS. 

Yesterday I went with a friend to haul her mare over to a friends place, her friend has a pregnant mare that lost its companion a month ago. Someone else loaned her their 32 year old pony and sadly he got colic and was put down early yesterday morning. When we arrived with our mare he was still lying dead in the barn aisleway. Sad, but they were still waiting for the renderding man.

The mare we took over there is a great mare, its Reign, the mare I had here with Joey for the first summer. Shes a fantastic horse.

Cuties

This is Gus

This is Shadow

They are 8 year old gelding mini horses

I think I'm in love

These two guys came down from Canada the other day, mostly untouched and terrified. We are working with them to calm & train them so we're spending at least a couple minutes with them every time we go into the barn.  I do NOT like leaving halters on but we'll never catch them without them on and now we have catch ropes attached also. Little Shadow is easier to catch and I'm hoping he doesn't need it after tomorrow.

I'll be keeping track of them here.

Littles

These little hooves might be here Wednesday.

Rescuing Mack

This is

Mack,

he use to live at our old farm with us, for 3 years.

Big Appy gelding, so smart, a stinker, awesome to ride.

He was eating so his mouth looks wonky.

His owner is a very good friend of mine, she was with me when Wifi was born, I was with her when her colt, Maverick, was born & even though she built her own barn and moved away, we have kept in touch over the years.

A little back history on Mack...

He is 18 now and she got him as a yearling. He was used for 4-H, local shows and even shown 'A' system for a while. He was a driving horse, English, Western and a little Dressage.

In the barn he was a PLEASURE to have around. This is the first horse I was able to canter on after having been thrown from Joey and I still trust this horse more than Joey and that's saying a LOT.

He had no vices EXCEPT he taught me to feed him on command.

Last year Mack was leased out to a local family for the teen daughter to use for 4-H and WASET. They agreed to take lessons from Delicia for Dressage and wanted to show him A system. But they didn't follow through with that, they were only taking him to the WASET lessons (with a crappy trainer) and local schooling shows, no lessons with Delicia, no dressage.

In fact, they damaged Mack. At a show last month he reared up 5 times in Showmanship (because the girl was using a chain under his chin), supposedly he 'destroys' stalls, he will not load into the trailer, he has no manners and he bites. Hes got ulcers and his feet were RUINED by their shitty farrier and the new one put 3" pads on. WTF? His feet look better but they still look like shit.

His owner has been VERY worried about him & his behavior for a couple months and spoke to them about it, whereupon the mom, we'll just call her CRAZY on here, totally went batshit crazy and abusive to the owner. It was so bad that the owner left the appaloosa club she'd been in for years  because this family is in it now.

Owner decided that for her own sanity, she would sell Mack to the family and offered him to them for $5,000 when his previous value had been 10k. CRAZY went batshit again, said he had all these health problems, his feet are no good, hes a biter, he won't load. 

Um, wait a second, YOU caused this to happen. 

CRAZY was hand feeding him peppermints every day, like a bag a week. They weren't making him behave, they were just bad horsemen and the stable owner wasn't correcting their bad behavior.

This last week owner spoke with me several times, she couldn't decide what to do. I knew what she needed to do and told her that I wasn't going to try to talk her into selling to them and that if she wasn't sure about it then it wasn't the right thing to do at all. She would no longer talk to CRAZY at all and daughter was unresponsive plus being a minor the owner couldn't make any sort of deal with her.

So today I took my truck and trailer over to the boarding stable and got him. They knew it was going to be today but they didn't know when or that it was going to be me, they also didn't know the owner wouldn't be there as I told her to stay down the street in her own car. I took Karen because she won't put up with any BULLSHIT and she has a lot of experience with horses.

We pulled into the stable yard, I saw the daughter, I waved and smiled, then I pulled around the circle so I was heading out of the yard. The daughter came to me and asked if the owner was coming and I told her no, I had asked her to stay away. The daughter then called owner a Coward. I just turned and walked away, got the trailer ready. Stable owner came to ask me something, then she came back and said she couldn't let me take him, she didn't feel good about it so I showed her the copy of the hauling agreement. THANK GOD I thought ahead on that point.

Then the daughter brought Mack over, handed me the lead rope and started bitching at me. Once again I turned away and ignored her, taking Mack to the back of the trailer. Right then stable owner asked if they were bringing the tack over or if we were going to get it and Karen walked away. Mack walked into the trailer and was FINE. But I couldn't get the divider closed and he decided to not be FINE and he was LEAVING, banging his head on the way out. 

When Karen got back she got him in again and I closed the divider but he was leaving again before I could let Karen out so I just opened it and we let him go. Once again we got him into the trailer and this time we hooked the divider and Karen climbed out through the window. 

And then the theatrics started. The daughter was BAWLING big and loud over by the barn, all for attention. Karen and I just laughed.

The whole time we were at the farm was about 15 minutes.  I passed Macks owner as I was leaving, told her we would talk back at my house. When we got here Mack unloaded by jumping over the ramp and he wasn't paying particular attention to his owner but she immediately began to set him straight. Meanwhile I was telling her word for word of what had been said, which wasn't a lot. 

We tried to get him to walk into a stall and he wouldn't go in so he got a little reminder lesson on manners.  Then he walked right into the stall. He only whinnied for my horses once, then he settled down. That's when we noticed he wasn't RIGHT. He was drugged and over the course of the day we saw it wearing off. 

Since Mack had been at our previous farm, he knew Joey well so after an hour or so, we turned him out with Joey and Wifi. Joey was HAPPY to see him, snorting and squealing while Wifi was hesitant to approach him. She surprised me and stayed in the arena for a while just watching the boys. When she did approach, she kept the fence between them. 

By the end of the day they were all hanging out together but still wary of each other. I put Joey and Mack into Comfort Stalls and left Wifi in the arena where the boys could see her. 

Mack is 16.2hh and Joey 16hh but since they are built so differently it seems like Mack is a lot taller. You can see in the photo Mack in the stall and he can easily put his head over the divider. Joey can

too but its more difficult for him and Wifi cant get her head over it at all.

Obviously, Mack is staying here and he will be for about 6 weeks. His girl will come over and work with him but hes just going to be a horse and have some time off to recuperate. Hes going to be getting lessons in manners and to pay attention to the person who is working with him. If he tries to run over me hes going to get a lesson but it shouldn't take more than a couple times and if he bites me hes going to think I'm killing him for about 3 seconds.

Tomorrow I'll put all their hay up in the back pasture, way up on top, very spread out. Then I'll put Wifi into one of the temporary stalls in the arena, put Joey in with her and Mack in next. Lastly, I'll open the gate to the pasture so they can all go eat.

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.

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.

Stall Fronts

After returning from Disneyland and the land of sunshine, I spent a grumpy day at home. I just wanted to see something, ANYTHING, happening with our home updates.

 

So I sat at my computer and did a Craigslist search, STALL FRONTS, in the greater Seattle area and found this:

 

Retiring thoroughbred farm,20 stalls ,stall fronts are 12x8,we will help remove and load call or text for a look, these are locally made, heavy metal ,fabricated in the 80s ,angle iron frame ,instant stall

 

I called and he still have most available but some had already been sold and more people were showing up all the time. Called Karen:

 

Me: Want to go get stall fronts with me?

K: Yes.

Me: Can we use your flatbed?

K: Yes

Me: Can we use your truck to pull your flatbed?

K: Yes.

 

We left home at about 1pm, I had to call in to work that I couldn't make it in, just in case, and headed to Granite Falls.

 

These stall fronts are dang nice. Heavy duty, truly 2" thick, they include the wood and the sliding tracks on top. Each door weighs about 100# and the stall fronts are easily 250. Some of the wood is rotten from having had horses spitting water onto it for 30 years but most is just fine.

 

I'll need to clean them up, maybe sand blast & repaint the metal then purchase bolts to attach these to the barn, replace a few boards and then they are done.

 

I paid $1100 for 5 stall fronts ($220.00 each)

plus $100 for a single and a double window bars that can opened.

The fuel was $40 but I'm going to pay more for that

and I owe Karen my firstborn child.

 

I have search locally for stall fronts and the only ones I could find that were sturdy/strong enough are in Graham and cost $550 for the frames and are a foot shorter, I'd still have to purchase and install the rollers/sliders for each door ($125) and wood.

 

These were a bitch to get out of the barn and onto the trailer but there were 3 big guys to help, they had a welder to get rid of the old rusty bolts holding them in place and they were much stronger than us and had tools.

 

I saved over $500 per stall.

I have a lot of work yet to do on these, the entire barn needs to be built, but to have these makes my heart happy. No shitty shed stalls for my horses.

 



Out Of The Mud Horse Show

SeaSpots Appaloosa Club had the first of 3 Out Of The Mud Horse Shows today at Stormy Acres. It was our first time at this venue so we were really hoping for a small turnout. There were about 10 riders, mostly all English and it was a good day, not too cold or windy. We worked out a few kinks and after getting this all figured out we're all excited for March.
We will blast the Kitsap horse world with show info and advertisements and we hope to have a large turnout next month. There is plenty of parking, lots of room for horses inside and outside the arena and just enough room in the aisle for spectators.
We made about $354 before expenses but after dividing certain costs, like insurance, we did all right. The club rented the facility outright so we paid them $150 for today. They made that plus had rented out some stalls for horses so it all came out good.

Mostly there were Friesians but there are 4 living at that stable. Tori took High Point English and won a $25 gift certificate to Olive Garden.

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.

Still Moving

We are STILL MOVING. Its been 8 years since our last move and that was with 1 horses that was boarded out & only stuff for one horse, a 1 car garage and a 916sf house. Now our house is bigger, I have a big barn and Lan has a big garage and he hasn't even touched the garage yet. Every day I take a load over and every day I feel a bit more over whelmed.

Today I borrowed corral panels

 from my friend and made two temporary stalls for Sunshower and Wifi inside the arena. I'll put Joey in the big stall and call it good for a while. He will have access to a huge paddock & his stall is 12x24. The girls will be turned out into the front pasture.

 One stall is 12x12 and the other is about 12x20, Wifi will have the bigger one.

I wanted to put the stalls into this corner but Lan left the mower there and I couldn't even begin to budge it but I can very easily move the stalls over there once its out of the way. I already had to move the wire fencing that Lan left sitting in the other corner and that wasn't fun. Heavy shit.

I ordered some stuff online for the barn: 6 bucket holders, 40 T post caps, and something else that I cant remember... had to go to the local store to purchase 3 corner feeders because they were more online.

I signed Wifi and me up for a 12 week challenge, 40 hours/30 rides. I haven't ridden her yet but hope to do just that once I get her moved to the other farm. This is still the first week and I spent an hour washing her tial & brushing it out, nothing else. I'll take 15 minutes for the walking we did today because she's been such a brat at turn out time.

I hope Joey doesn't freak out because he can't see the girls when I take him over there. I suppose I could turn him out with them since its a big pasture but only if I'm going to be there with them and can keep an eye on them. I'd hate for him to chase one of the girls into the fence or the road.

Hagen isn't doing very well now. She's missing Tank, her belly/tumor is getting bigger and she's getting more tired. I have her on 4 pain pills in the mornings and 3 at night with half a prednisone each evening. She stresses out when we take her to the new farm but she is getting used to being there and the other day Lan was working on the tractor out back and she was standing on the front porch waiting. I'm glad she didn't wander off, into the street. One thing I will miss about this farm is the entire perimiter fenced.

I bought a new to me  Canon camera tonight, I hope it works well. paid $115 for it. We'll see. Now maybe I'll get 2 nice shots out of every 100.

So much going on

Last Saturday Wifi had her second dressage show, at Peteton Farm in Olympia. Once we picked up Audi from Delicias farm, Wifi was a happy camper and she then proceeded to act like a seasoned pro.

In the warm up arena she was nice and calm, doing everything she was asked to do.

At one point another horse bolted and threw its rider. Wifi stood perfectly still and respected & trusted Delicia, even when another hors reared up right beside her. She did tuck her tail but still stood still.

 

 

 Wifi's first class was Intro A and she was the first horse of the day to use the outside full court dressage arena.

Here is her start.

 

First tracks

 

Excellent trainer in action, coaching Caryn on Audi.

 

We were all surprised to see these results and

WOW,

check out her score!

70.938

 

I'm so impressed with my mare.

 

She wasn't too happy to wear this ribbon though.

 

At 10:17 she entered the ring for her Intro B class.

Halfway through I saw it happen, she said 'I'm done' and faltered, right in front of the judges

(of course), in the middle of the arena going across. But Delicia told her she will finish so Wifi did.

 

 

 

And they WON that class too.

68.125

 

She also won 2 bags of carrots and two $10 gift certificates to a tack store.

She's earning her keep!

Here she is just chillin', waiting for the results. 

 

In other news:

Triathlon

The Kitsap Tribabes had their first BRick on Saturday, which I obviously missed, so I completed a 6/1 brick on my own today. I needed air inmy tires and couldn't find a pump so had to ride down to Lans work because I knew there was one in the car there so not only did I ride 6 miles but I had to come back up Mullenix too. Good job me.

 

I have a date at 7am tomorrow with Windy to swim at Wildcat Lake then ride bikes either  on the trainers or on the road for an hour. It feels g so good to be getting out.

 

I have another date Friday with Amanda to ride mountain bikes at Banner Forest.

Good times.

Last Diet Day

Today was the last 500 calorie day of my diet. I have been pretty good for the last 42 days, tomorrow is the final weigh in. I am hoping for the scale to say 135. it can say 135.8 for all I care, I just want the 5.

 

I do NOT want to see this:

 

I have a grocery order, it includes butter, bread, bacon...

 

And tomorrow my calories will increase to 1,100 or so and my exercise will increase also. On days I might get stuck working & have no exercise maybe I'll stick to the 500 calorie plan, to keep things low.

I will have to figure out a menu similar to this one that I can use and STICK TO.

 

In horse news:

 

I hauled 3 horses over to the Triple T Ranch for a 4-H club, all together there were about 10 horses, 15 riders and an hour of free lessons for them. I expected a train wreck but they did awesome and I was pleasantly surprised to see all of them doing so well and sharing ponies. There were a few mistakes but not harm, no foul.

 

While there I saw Wifi, gave her some more hay, some grain, some scritches and loves. She had a lesson with Delicia today.

When we make mistakes

I made a terrible mistake last Saturday. I let someone from Oak Harbor take my mare. This guy said he needed a step up pony for his daughter to use for 4H so I told him about Sunshower. They came to see her, he rode her, the daughter rode her (pony ride) and they liked her.

Sunshower didn't like them so much, she crow hopped when he rode her. But we figured it might be his weight.

Whatever, I made the mistake of letting him TAKE MY MARE AWAY.  To lease, not sold.

How fucking stupid that was.

Look at her face when I tied her in his trailer right before he drove away with her. She's like,

WHAT THE FUCK??

And then the asshole posts on FB that they really like 'SUNNY'. Fucktard. I TOLD him her name. Don't be lazy and use a name that isn't hers. Fucker.

So today I get a text from him, she crow hopped with his daughter riding so he's going to bring her back home Saturday. Bullshit. I'm going to go get her Thursday.

I'll NEVER do anything this stupid ever again.

I made myself physically ill Saturday afternoon and cried myself to sleep that night, then Sunday I had a hell of a day at work, crying because of it. I wanted to just call and tell him I'd be there at 6pm to bring her back home but Lan said I needed to give them a chance. that the little girl needed a chance to get to know her.
I won't have to worry about that now. I'll see if I can find a young lady around here that would like to do an in-barn lease. Then I can monitor her care and everything and she would have a girl of her own.  I've put out feelers.

It will cost at least $50 for the fuel if I go get her, money I don't have sitting in the truck already. It's about 160 miles round trip to where she's at.

But I can't wait to have my girl back home.

Horse Trailer Repairs

The horse trailer now has a new floor. This is the old original floor.

 

The 3 right side boards were rotten, not unexpected for being 15 years old.

Not so rotten that they were going to fall through on the next ride but it was time.

 

We decided to replace 6 of the 7 boards because

1)it will be done 

2)the ends of all the boards were rotten 

3)they weren't THAT expensive.

 

Lan had to remove the front kick mat off the wall. That's when he noticed the rust.

 

He had to sand blast a few parts, cut out some others, replace a few pieces of angle iron & sheet metal. This is the front wall between horses & tack room.

 

Lan, BREAKING BAD.

 

He was sand blasting here, had sand everywhere. Including in his ears.

 

Flintstones.

 

So hes got the floor boards in & bolted down, now just to trim the side mat that has stretched & bunched up.

 

And bring the mats in.

 

He still needs to replace the front wall mat. He didn't want to, said he would do it later. But I know when later is:

 

NEVER.

 

So I made him go to the store, get rivets and he did it tonight. That way I wont have to bitch about it forever and its finished.

 

 

Probably the only job he has ever completed in a reasonable amount of time and actually finished.

 

There is still a light pole hole between the arena and pasture, its not safe for turn out in either of those places. I didn't realize the arena had half the hole. Shit, any of the horses could have got a broken leg.