AirBnB

Last night I put our spare room on AirBnB and today it has been booked for one night with our guest arriving in a couple weeks. With the low price I asked and the fees I have to pay out, I will get about $30.

Today I went shopping and spent $185.28 on things for our guest, including this beach shower curtain. Its not horsey or western at all but the bathroom is light green and there is already a beach watercolor painting in there.

I DID purchase totally westerny material to make curtains for the 2 big windows in the room. I've got leather scraps to use as tie-backs. There is also a new small lamp that I'm going to put spurs around it to make it westerny.

In horse news:

This horse is Penelope, sporting a home made grazing muzzle & I'm going to get a couple for the minis from the gal who makes them. I have real fleece that I will add as padding so there will be minimal hair loss. Instead of having one long piece around the crown of the head it will have snaps on each side to attach to halters.

Stable Comfort Six Week Review

I'm so happy with the Stable Comfort stalls, if we ever build another barn I will DEFINATELY add them again.

Right now the two mini ponies are each in a stall but only to contain them, not for added comfort. Their little hooves barely make an indent in the rubber tops.

But the big news is that this big guy, Mack, DID need the soft mats and they saved him a lot of pain. When he came here he had pads on his hooves and less than a week later he was lame. Pulled the pads & shoes and he was DEAD LAME. So lame his owner contemplated putting him down. but we put a bunch of straw in the stall and left him over night. In the morning, he as good as new; no limping and looking great.

The size difference between the minis and Mack is HUGE and all the horses like the mats. 

Prices that I paid were $789 for each 12x12.5 stall plus $300 each for delivery. But I decided on one 12.5 X 24 mat so it could be used for foaling or layups in the future. 

The price plus delivery was TOO MUCH but since I live in Washington state and these Stable Comfort mats are produced in Canada, right across the border from me, I decided to spend $100 on fuel & go pick them up myself. 

We bought new regular 4 X 6 stall mats for the other two stalls, costing $250 per stall so for the Comfort Stall mats it was only an additional $500 each stall. Not a bad price for the good feelings we get when we see Mack walking easily and the ponies happy.

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.

Interesting

I wasn't able to make it to the Appy Club meeting the other night, had to work so I could get a check to pay for hay for my hungry horses.

I learned today that there is $1,000

MISSING

from the clubs checking account

and the treasurer is the person who is known here as CRAZY MOM.

No one else besides the president has access to the account or the check book.

The horse, Mac, is settling in. Yesterday he was DEAD LAME and his owner was considering putting him down. She pulled his shoes and left him in the soft stall with lots of bedding overnight. This morning hes doing much better and able to walk on his hooves fine but we were all scared.

Had trainer come check him out, shes doing us some HUGE favors like screen shotting EVERYTHING they post about us. She said its not something shes going to show us unless we NEED to see it because its all so mean.

Sad, A Week Later

R.I.P.

Katie Phillips

If everyone on earth were as happy and funny as Katie, the world would be a better place.

Last week Katie worked the 8pm-4am shift at Southworth dock. After she got off and was on her way home, she came across a car that had run out of gas. Katie drove to the gas station, got gas & was putting it into the car when she was struck & killed by another passing car. That car fled the scene.

A couple days later they found his car with evidence that matched what was left at the scene. He hasn't been back to the dock and he hasn't been back to work. But the cops know who it is and are looking for him.

Turns out he was a regular commuter, always took the 4:25am Fauntleroy to Southworth boat and worked in the shipyard. Its on video, his pulling up to the F dock in his older gold Impala, getting his ticket scanned by the ticket taker & him being on the boat & exiting the boat at SW at about 4:55am.

We were told Katie didn't suffer and for that I am grateful.