SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder

Its Fall, when everyone gets depressed & grumpy.

I try hard every fall not to let the changing weather affect me but sometimes it still does. 

I hope you all have a great Fall and Winter.

In horse news, Wifi and Amble are happy to be back together and eating pasture grass. There's a big storm rolling in and I'd like to have them in the barn but right now the truck & dump trailer are in there with a load of currently dry firewood. I do not trust the mares to leave the truck alone or not hurt themselves on the trailer so they will stay out front with protection for the weather under the huge Fir trees.

R2 & Sarah will be joining us for dinner, steak and salmon, I can't wait.

 

Stallion + Mare = ?

Amble is in Spokane, Washington, meeting her new mate.

His barn name is Bubba, his real/registered name is Wisteria Farms Birthday Boy.

I took Amble to the vet office in Newman Lake and they examined her, said she had ovulated 12-24 hours earlier.

She had to have a double dose of tranq to get her to relax.

The vet gave me a shot that will be administered to her today, then in another 4-5 days she should be in heat and Bubba will live cover her. Then the vet visits to see if she is in foal & if she is, I will drive back to Spokane/Chewella to bring her home and hope we get a baby in 340 days, Thursday, August 5, 2027.

The stallion owners are Kirk and Brandy Preston and they're sort of scamming. I asked specifically about mare care and she said it was free but once I got there he insisted I had to pay & wanted $45 DAILY. Fuck that, asshole, I agreed to $20 fucking daily but not a penny more. So if Amble is there for 21 days, minimum, then thats another $420 that I'll need to pay them, at least. But if thats an issue, I can find another place that will be cheaper and better care. If I were to pay $45 that equals $945 and I could take her to a damn nice boarding facility for half that.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Wifi has never been a single horse living alone, ever before in her life and shes lonely.

 

Overtime At Work Pays Off

 I've spent so much of MY time working that now its finally paying off. Over 60 hours overtime in June, then 40 in July, now I've already gotten 10 in August. Summer is the time of plenty but in winter its a time of drought and us on-calls will struggle to get hours. The state requires we get 40 hours each week but they don't do it until we beg for it.

I got a nice check again today and I'll be putting a significant amount into the safe for hay and our fall trip to Pioche. I've already got an envelope overflowing with cash & think I need to get another way to hold it all.

We're heading to Pioche September 25th till October 3rd. 

There are many ways to get there and we try to go a different route each time.

This is the most direct & fastest (16 hours drive time) route and the one we'll probably take this trip due to only 1 week off.

But look at all the options, we could go thru Vegas but we hate Vegas.

We could go thru central oregon which is beautiful but seems like such a long drive.

Thru California to Tahoe & then over...

We only have a week so it'll be the direct route.

And we HAVE to have a plan on exactly what we're going to do while there. I'd LOVE to put in another window, get rid of the old one with the built in A/C unit that Lan broke on our last visit. We can take another unit, that's not an issue, but I'd like to get a window in.

We also need to prep for next spring when we're going to rent an excavator for a full week and remove the back two rooms and the old bathroom and then we have to make new outside walls. Or something, not sure on that yet. We WILL need a lot of wood, nails, screws, saw blades, etc, etc. We might need to take more than 2 weeks for next springs trip.

And we HAVE to have a plan in place for a roof over it.

I LOVE planning trip and things to do on the house while we're there.

Horse News:

Ambleside now has a properly fitted saddle and its XXXX Wide!  That girl needs to lose weight.

Saddle Fitter Sarah found:

 an older Wintec for $330.30

Gullet system $140

3rd saddle fit $50

And me riding alone for the first time in the new to us saddle

Two days later this became available, a Gypsy Gold 'Appleby' saddle for $1,200.

I'm supposed to haul Amble over to The Riding Place on the other side of town tomorrow to check it out. I do have the cash for it but then I'm stuck with the wintec too. Oh well, I might never get another chance to purchase a saddle like this while I have money to buy it.

This would be a great saddle for Amble if I can get her down in weight, right now she's a tank.

Oh yeah, I took her to a show last week & she got 2nd in Halter

Long Weekend

I found this on FB the other day and was able to go there to get it later that same day & bought it for $1,000.  I'm stinking excited about that.

This is directly out of the barn.

And this is at home before being washed.

Very dusty. I hadn't realized they had shocks and springs but this will make for a nicer ride.

There are a few things that need repairs and we're going to be working on them:

Black polycarbonate, also needs a piece in front of the tool area, under the front of the seat. The drivers seat has damage & it too needs to be fixed.

I'm sure the wheel hubs need grease, brakes checked and shocks checked out. 

Lan also found the double tree for the marathon cart, up in her barn above the tack room behind a bunch of other junk. Getting into that tack room was a chore, we had to go through the back of the barn and the old man had been a hoarder and never got rid of anything. 

This harness came with it and I'm sure they had it connected incorrectly, I *think* that strap behind the tug isn't supposed to be connected to the breeching. It doesn't matter, I'm going to put the wooden cart back together and put this harness with it and sell it as a set.

I found this cart online Thursday and we went to see it that night, and I paid her $100 down to hold it. 

We went back Friday to pick up the cart and at that time Lan asked if we could buy this lean-too for $100 and she accepted. 

So we returned Saturday to get that. That's when Lan found the biothane harness and I took it because the cart came with a harness, which I didn't take. I did find another saddle & didn't take it but should have. Oh well.

Paying $100 for this lean too was crazy as the panels are at least $200 new, they have no rust and are heavy duty. There are 3 panels, plus the roof is in good enough shape to reuse. One roof panel is broke and I think we need to replace it with a center strip of clear or opaque so we have more light in it. 

We are planning on putting the cart and Kenny under this lean too, behind the barn.

 

Things To Do This Weekend

We rented an excavator to do 4 jobs around the farm this weekend.

1. Make a road along the fenceline to the back corner

2. Dig up the frost free hydrant to replace

3. Level the spot beside the shop where the RV is sitting

4. Bust up the hot tub & bury it in a hole & cover it with the fire 

Or, that's all things Lan will be doing. I mowed a large section of the front pasture to have a tack sale in there this weekend. I will move all the cars to the back so there's room for the guests to park.

I've got saddles and all the other crap not needed any longer and I'm going to sell it all, or as much as I possibly can. I'm sure I can get about $300 for Joeys saddle and maybe $800 for Wifi's dressage saddle. There are a bunch of old bridles and other junk too. 

I've got some household crap to sell too, actually lots of crap.  

Kitchen appliances, some clothing, a few other things. 

I just want it all gone.

Brandan 'fixed' the photos on my computer and now its all ruined, nothing is in the folders as they should be.

 

Tack Sales

There is a tack sale an hour away from our farm and I'm planning on being there early. I have my saddle fitting forms, and Sarah the saddle fitter, will be there doing her thing so if I have any questions she will be able to answer them.

The sale should have about 30-50 saddles and maybe, just maybe, 1 of them will fit.

IF none fit, there is a saddle 90 miles south, nearly into Oregon, that will work for now but its $650, its a POS and its a long way away in case I have to return it.

Wish us luck.

Re-evaluating Life

 I've decided to not do the John Wayne Riders & Wagons ride across Washington state this year. Its been a Bucket List item for 30 years, I wanted to do it with Joey but never got around to it. Now, I have Amble and was planning on it with her this year but we're not ready; I don't have her saddle figured out, I don't have a cart that fits yet, I don't have money ($3,500) to buy the cart offered last week, I need to sell these ones that I do have that are way too small and I don't have the $2,000 to pay for the ride this year.

We DO need to go to Pioche and work on the house there and we do have cash for that but its a separate account and neither of us are getting into that money.

I also have a big too much personal debt and can certainly pay more of that off.

I'm sad today, having made all these life plan changes.

Jerald Cart

I'm putting a little effort into fixing up the Jerald easy entry cart I've got. It was supposed to fit Amble but its way too small, it's for a 14hh horse, not a 15.2hh one.

this first photo is a google image and how mine is supposed to look.

Heres mine now

I sanded the pieces a little, so it would accept the new clear coating. 

I'm pretty sure with about 4 coats that it will look just short of amazing, for it. The boards have 1-2 coats on each side, the shafts have 3 on the back, just 1 at this end.

I've ordered & received most of the small parts it needs to make it complete and I'll still need more, I'm sure. I bought a new singletree (which needs a few holes in it) and a cross bar (which needs to be shortened) but I didn't stain either and I also didn't sand them and I think you can tell with the cross bar but oh well. I'm not going to have it any longer than I need to.

In other news, the beautiful saddle I bought for Amble has been sold for $1,000 (I had $1,300 into it & never used any of the pieces) and the consignment store gets to keep I think 20% so I'll get a nice check to put toward a marathon cart <- IF Teresa and Will have one to sell me. 

Today I had another lesson with Staphanie but I went to the barn where her 2 mini's are living and I drove Bo. Hes a skinny little guy, has a disease that took all his front teeth but they all get the BEST vet care available.

These are Laddie, the mini I gave her in 2018 and Bo, the little guy with no front teeth. Sweet boys.

Stephanie dolled them up and I took photos for her & she ChatGPT'd this photo.

 

Motivation

I'm trying to stay motivated, trying to keep the house in order and actually clean it up some. I took an extra day off yesterday and got the kitchen clean and started on a couple piles on the kitchen table. My house is not a pig sty, but with both of us working full time during the short days and we easily let things go and it ends up taking a full day once a month to get it in order again.

I am going to bring the horse cart up to the patio and begin taking it apart to sand and refinish it. 

I do need to take more photos too.

 

Winter Blues

I miss my brother, I miss my best friend and I miss the summer sunshine. 

I've been feeling rather emotional and depressed this last week and even though I just had a vacation, I know I need to get away again. I'm going to start planning my next vacation & the fun part is that I have two options, either go to Pioche with the sxs and do some work on the house 

OR 

do the BUCKET LIST  thing I've been planning for a long, long time.

Riding Amble across the state. 

I had originally planned on doing that with Joey but, life. Now I have the means to do it, I've got the time scheduled off and another horse that can go with me.

I've been working on Ambles cart; Meghan had taken it apart to 'refurbish' but she lost all the parts and did none of the furbishing. SOOOoooooo... I paid $200 for parts two days ago and I know I'll need to spend a lot more, I still need trace holders & they're $22.99 before tax and shipping plus I need two bigger wheels and tires since the cart is a good 8" too low to the ground for her. The shafts need to be level and that isn't negotiable. The harness needs a couple parts, not sure if I've ordered those or not... 

I also need to get her saddle fitted to her correctly or get another saddle and I just simply do not have the funds for that. I also need a 6" ported curb bit and good luck finding one thats not $200.

Dirty Feather

 Black Orchid Ambleside

Shes got a lot of feather but thankfully not as much as so many Gypsys. It's enough to be impressive and gorgeous but at the same time not too heavy and cause problems.

On Thursday we're going to have a visitor, Stephanie will be coming over to help me get our harness sorted, the biothane harness I purchased for $900 & had shipped here from southern California. I know its got 3 pieces missing, 2 of which are the ones that will attach it to the cart. Stephanie is also going to be teaching me how to drive, since Amble already knows how to be driven.

The photo above is Amble with semi clean feather and tail, which this IS NOT a current thing. She hasn't had them washed off in quite some time and I do not want them dirty when Staphanie arrives. So on Wednesday afternoon, after I get home from work, I am going to give them a good washing.

I will be taking the Dawn dishwashing soap to the barn with me and I will follow directions I have had written down and attached to my computer monitor for over 10 years.

1. Wash tail

2. Condition.

3. Soak in white vinegar

4. Using Dawn, wash feather, deep down to her skin, watching for anything in there that might irritate her or cause concerns.

5. Wash, rinse, condition again

6. Leave in conditioner, aka Cowboy Magic

I'll leave her overnight in her stall with a deep bed of shavings. In the morning they will be dry and fluffy and as long as there were no issues noticed while washing, I will brush them out let her hang out in the arena till noon, when Stephanie arrives.

In November I had the riding instructor over to give ME a lesson & Amble bucked her off. I do not know if that was due to an ill fitting bit since I have a 5.5" and need a 6" or if it was the saddle not fitting properly. So I have ordered a saddle pad with shims. 

This is a dressage pad but I am hoping it will work with she short western saddle. I could not find any in a pony length.

Planning

I'm planning my 2026 and it includes learning how to drive my mare.

Ambleside has had 6 months of professional training by people who know what they're doing but unfortunately I live 200 miles away from them so it wasn't easy to go there for MY lessons. 

So I've made arrangements for MY lessons with a local gal, Stephanie. She's actually the first person who let me drive her own pony and is the one who got me hooked. Our first lesson will be her coming here to check out my harness, to teach me more about it and tell me what kind of parts I need (tugs, I think) and what I might need for the cart. I also have the wagon and I'll need to make sure I've got the correct attachments for that as well.

This is my harness but in these photos I wasn't 100% sure how to fit it to Amble. Our trainer, Will, made it fit correctly and he is the one who pointed out what is missing.

Also for 2026, I'm going to be taking riding lesson as well and those are starting this week, 

December 5, 2025 with another local lady, Liza, who will come to our farm to teach me. I'm pretty sure I've got all the gear I need but I hope if there's anything I'm missing that she can tell me about it. 

This photo was taken before I cleaned the saddle. Its old and beat up but after all the saddles I tried on her, this is the best fit. Maybe we can upgrade in the future but for now I'm happy enough with it.

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More travel plans have been thought about: traveling to Palm Springs in January.  It is now cheaper to fly into Las Vegas and rent a car than it is to drive our own car down there, plus gives us a LOT more time with Michelle & Guy. 

 

Next Trip

 We've got 3 weeks of vacation next May-June and we have several choices of what we'll do:

1. Ride Amble on the John Wayne train cross state BUCKET LIST ITEM

2. Go work on Pioche house

3. Travel anywhere and do whatever happens

4. Stay home & save money

5. 

1. I've been wanting to ride Amble (had planned on Joey but that didn't happen) cross the state for eons and now I actually have the means to do it. I've got the horse, she's trained and will get more training before then, I have a job that pays me well enough to afford it, we have the truck and horse trailer and there are the John Wayne Trail folks who put this event on every year. I have two choices, ride or drive her since I've got the covered wagon.

2. If we choose working on the Pioche house it will be that much closer to being livable. We could rent the excavator and get the bathroom, utility room and kitchen removed and a new exterior wall put up. We'd need (guessing) the excavator for 3-4 days at about $300 daily, new exterior siding and the wood to make the walls, building plans, patience and so much more. I don't even know all the stuff needed for this job. You don't just go knocking down sections of a house and not foresee issues. What if we accidently knock down the entire house? 

3. If we choose to travel, I'd like to go see parts of North America that we haven't seen before. Driving along the Trans Canadian Highway might be fun, or all along I-90 from beginning in Seattle to the end in Boston, or travel more of the mid west. The options are endless.

4. Staying home... hhhmmm... We could still go do daily trips, go to Mt Rainier or the Olympics, go on some trail rides. There are so many things we haven't done in our own state. Staying home allows us to repair fences, work on cars, house repairs, visiting family.

5. I could simply leave it up to Lan and see what happens. 

Vacation Days

 I keep thinking all my time off for the year has been taken but then more and more things come up. Yesterday we got an invitation to go to a family gathering on the Saturday after Thanksgiving in Centralia with Lans dads family, then last night Lan told me his dad invited us to go Merrys house for Thanksgiving, and Lan agreed, telling me after I got home from work. 

I just want to be home. I don't want to go to work but I must, so I go. Right this minute I'm sitting here thinking about going back to bed but that's not happening either, since I have to get into the shower in 15 minutes. 

I have a part time shift at work right now with Thursdays and Fridays off, so Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas and New Years Day, all the holidays off. That's great, till I WANT the extra pay to pay bills and have enough to save for expenses and feed us. I'll have to find out what time Merry is thinking about having Thanksgiving and if its later int he day I could work a morning shift then COMP the free 10 hours of holiday pay to use at a later date.

In January we're going to be driving to California to meet up with Michelle and Guy and I'm excited for that, just a few days to mess around. 

I've got May 21st through June 13th, 2026 off for the cross state ride, a bucket list item for me. If I can't do that ride, I'll haul my mare with me down to Pioche and ride her in the desert.

Last night after work I went to a meeting with the 40 Something Cowgirls and they couldn't stop talking about how much everyone loves this one guy who lives in eastern Washington and is the best trainer and we should go to the cowgirl camp they have there mid-summer and only costs $1,600.  Right. I need a local trainer I can haul to that doesn't cost hundreds just so I can learn how to make my mare move forward. I don't know if this group is going to be right for me.

Days Away on A Mini Vacation

 I have a lesson on learning to drive Amble tomorrow morning and I'd like to do it as early as possible, as its supposed to get up to 91* over there. We have decided to go camping tonight so we won't be driving for 3.5 hours at 0'dark:30 in the morning to get there.

I've checked out a bunch of the camping areas around Yakima and a few of them are on the Canyon Road between Ellensburg and Yakima, I don't know if I'd want to camp at any of them. The day use is OK; camping is only $5-$15 but the people are sketchy. They'd probably end up partying all night & we'd get no sleep.  There is the Sunnyside RV Park and it's still reasonable at $37 per night with electric and a pool but we'll be there too late to swim and leave too early to swim.  I did leave a reservation request with them so if the guy calls back, I'll ask about late arrivals, since we wouldn't get there before 10pm.

I'm excited yet nervous to drive Amble and to ride her. I'm not nearly as good a rider as I used to be and I've never driven besides one single time. This is why I need to go over, to learn to drive.

Paid Family Medical Leave

 I don't know where you're from but here in Washington we've been forced to pay into a long-term care insurance for the last 6 years. They didn't ask us to vote on it, we don't even get a choice, it's been forced on us since the beginning. Now I am able to take advantage of it.

I didn't know about how this worked until after I got sick with the gall bladder issues but coworkers told me that I could get money. So, after I got onto FMLA I started trying to figure out the Pain Family Medical Leave, PFML. It was a pain in the ass, the website is through the unemployment office, and it was hard to figure out, especially while I was sick and in pain, stressing about making payments to bills let alone all the medical bills. It took me 3 weeks to get it all figured out but FINALLY I got the first payment, which was 2 weeks at once since I'd taken so long to do it. 

I was able to pay bills plus since I'd received a week on a regular paycheck, I had enough to buy 3 tons of hay for the horses too. I get a payment each week which is great but trying to figure out this new budget has been very difficult. Then last week I accidently made an extra truck payment which wasn't needed and then I had zero money for medical bills. So I stressed myself out even more over that. 

I should be getting another payment tonight at midnight and with that I'll pay the internet and Pioche house payment. I suppose I should pay that fucking electric bill too and that fucker is $300. UGH. I have to pay $30 for a pair of used riding breeches since the ones I have are size 7, from when I was fit. I'm going to be going over to see Amble on Thursday night, taking a lesson on her Friday morning.

Healing And Feeling Well

 I saw the Doc 3 days ago and she said I'm good to go and can return to work and I'll have no restrictions. My return date will be Sunday August 3, so I do have a little time before I have to go back. This gives me time to go a little yard work and this morning I cleaned out about 1/5 the chicken coop. That shits heavy and the shovel is heavy, and the manure cart has a flat so I couldn't fill it all the way. 

I can't eat anything like strawberries and beans (I have though) but I can begin to test other foods to see if my body will tolerate them. Last night I ate half a chicken thigh, no skin, some mashed taters and gravy and a bit of corn. I did get back pain, so I know I over did the fats, but dinner was yummy. Today I'll have another piece of chicken with lunch, probably with some sort of chicken soup. Chicken legs & thighs are considered a red meat so have a higher fat content. I'm sticking to a constant weight and am NOT going to let myself get fat again. I know now how to look for fats and I know I can get by with a proper portion size, I don't have to eat the whole thing in one setting.

One thing that HAS been bothering me is that my eyes feel like I've touched the lids with stinging nettles; I haven't but that's how they feel. I've taken Dayquil yesterday and today and that helps so it's just allergies. I dislike taking any drugs now, I read that they're all related to dementia so I'm just trying to stop that BS from happening to me. Lan doesn't need me to end up like his mom.

Joey has been losing weight and I'm sure it's because Amble isn't here. It took him about 5 days to get over her being gone in the first place. He's 29 years old; I don't want him to be skin & bones going into winter. Wifi is fat and limping but getting around well enough. Amble will be at Teresas in training till mid September and after that I'll have to start riding her myself to keep her going. I'll have to join the saddle club again so I can go over there to ride in their big arena. 

Trailer Hacks from Dollar Tree

Went to Dollar Tree yesterday and loaded up with bins for the trailer. I've been using them in the RV and camper, so its only natural to use them in the trailer as well. 

 

I got a few of each kind; these white ones I got for putting our clothes in

I hadn't ever seen these egg bin / shelves before so I got 2. This will be an eggssellent way to keep the eggs out of the way. At home we don't refrigerate the fresh eggs, they are used or given away before they are old. In the campers there just isn't enough room on the countertops to hold eggs.

The bedroom is in the front of the trailer and the bed is made. Its NOT a comfortable bed by any means but its better than a tent.

SO FAR there's plenty of storage for whatever we need to put in it but that will become FULL as we go along.

I see NO REASON to hang clothes in thee tiny closets, plastic hangers don't fit well onto the bars and we just don't hang clothing often, we're tee shirt people.

So I asked Lan to 'help' me make shelves inside and he did. They will hold a massive amount of clothing now and this is where the bins come in.

Two of the bins fit on the bottom PLUS I can stack them with the neatly folded clothing in them to save even  more room. I have socks & undies  in one bin, tee shirts in another, pants and shorts in one and flannel shirts in yet another. I put my spare shoes on the top shelf but I will be moving those to the shelf/cupboard to the right, above my head area.

These are the curtains, same material I used for the camper curtains.

 I use elastic pony tails to hold them open so then when I close them they don't want to stay overlapped so I got these...

The colors are bright & happy and pretty much match the material.

HORSE STUFF:

Yesterday Joey turned 29 years old and I gave him a good grooming because hes just not shedding out well. He has really long hairs and a lot of it and keeps getting mats in his armpits and on his chest. So I wormed him. On his birthday. Poor boy.

He looks good for being 29

This morning Ambleside and Wifi were napping when I went out to feed them breakfast.

Amble is a BIG girl

I just love Wifi

Amble is so regal

Wifi has her udders swollen and I'm a bit concerned.

I clean their udders every week or so, they get so nasty and they LOVE to get them cleaned. Last week they weren't swollen.

The off side is smaller than the near side.

Its not the teats swollen, but in front of them.

I'm wondering if its a sign of being in heat? Neither mare acts any different when they're in season than any other time of the year.

I am looking for a stud for Amble...