Here comes another.....

Yes, here comes another storm. They are predicting up to 15 inches of snow with possibly 1 inch of ice underneath. Have spent the last two days preparing. Plenty of feed, hay for everyone. Water troughs clean and full. Hoses rolled up and put away. De icer's in and ready to go. Fire wood in the house. Laundry and dishes done. Food in the pantry. Let's see, flashlights, weight in the pickup, boots, blankets. Alcohol for the gas lines. Might have to explain that. We have an oil/gas well and our gas comes from the well. At a certain temp. the gas lines freeze and wallah no heat, hot water, stove. But if you put this alcohol in the lines it keeps it from freezing. Good thing my husband is the expert on all that stuff. Lets see, what else. Well, I think we're ready.

It has been nice weather for 2 days now, and I got to work Trucker, thank goodness. Think it will be baby steps right now, but it is progress from the funk I have been in. Getting more motivated. I am sure my family has given up on me. Haven't called to check in on anyone lately. I am sure Robert and JR are doing fine. They have their own weather problems with rain. Justin and Sara and the kids have backup near by. Chris, Clint and Casey have food, etc. They will all just have to understand that I have been busy and trying to get my mind wrapped around the horses and then wham, gotta get ready for taxes also. This weekend will be a good time to do that if we get all that snow and ice. Won't be able to do much else. I will try to call everyone too!

For now, need to go feed and check everything again, cause I have to work for the next 3 days also. Always when the weather is bad!

Funny Story

Monday evening Marlin went to see his mom at the Assisted Living. He goes quite frequently, at least 5 days a week. Mom has a little bit of dementia and can be forgetful. After he had been there a little while, mom tells him, "Oh, the pharmacy called and you medicine is ready." Marlin asks what medicine mom, she says I don't know. Well what Pharmacy. I don't know. Well who did you talk to? I don't remember.

He came home and told me his story and we thought, well we'll figure it out eventually. She could have had a dream, she does that sometimes and can't distinguish it from real.

On Tuesday, I ran back down to the feed store to check to see if the new deicers were in. Oh yes, we called you mom yesterday and left a message for you.... Mystery solved........

Entertainment???

OK, Monday was going to be a busy day from the get go. Had to get feed, the farrier was coming, needed to move things around....

Got up early, got the feeding done and moved a few things into the new temporary feed/tack room. Put up a shelf. Had to go get feed. Feed store doesn't open until 9:00AM and the farrier was coming at ten! Had to somehow pull this off.

Off to the feed store. The new de icer's weren't in yet, they'll call me. OK. So back to home base with the feed. On the way home, Mr. Burton, the farrier calls and wants to know if its OK to come at 11:00 instead. Suurreee, thats great....... Gives me a little more time.

As I pull off the highway and down the short road to our road, I look over and there is a midget horse with tail straight up, running around the west pen and look there's a dark grey --- and Spot --and Charm. Oh great. They have taken the fence apart again. Wish I had pictures of this. The one group in this pen are now in that pen and the ones from that pen are now in this pen. Get the picture? I thought, "what am I gonna do, and the farrier is coming!" Fine, you guys are gonna stay like this all day. If I try to get them all back to where they are supposed to be, they'll be so fired up when the farrier gets here we might not get anything done. Just let them calm down where they are. So I put the panels back together. By the way, they can undo the panels somehow and have several times. Usually when it is most inconvenient!

Got the fence fixed, the feed unloaded and now on to the farrier. This actually worked out pretty good. Good idea guys. We used the round pen to trim everyone. Racheal was good, Sweety has a mind of her own. Narley just said no, Spot was an angel. Little Eddie, (the midget horse I spoke of, he's a weanling), watched all with interest. Charm his mom hid in the corner of the pen.

On to the next group. One at a time I led them through, first Gracie, she did great. Then Red, then Chester wouldn't let me catch him, then Sam who was especially good, then Solitair. Still Chester wouldn't let me catch him. His mom will be real dissapointed in him I think. Then Tez. Finally, went to get Chester's red halter instead of the old green one. Quess what, he walked right up and put his nose in the halter. He just didn't like that other one, what a pain.

Then on to Trucker, he's not a problem at all. And then to Rascle. This farrier is new to her and she didn't particularly like the process. Anyway, got it done.

Still have to switch everyone back, which is the fun part. You see they have done this before and my husband always snickers cause he just knows that it will take forever to get it done. So I walk out to the gate in between the pens and here comes all the young ones. Open the gate and they all go home, and oh look, come here Gracie and Red, Soli come on. Here come the older ones, Group 2 through the gate. You would think that they did this every day! They like their own feed buckets I think and it's getting close to time.

Anyway, it was a very entertaining day. Pictures would have made the story better, but didn't have the camera with me. Probably would have thrown it at them in the beginning anyway!

Busy, Busy

The Barn has been sitting untouched for a while now and then Sunday somehow I lit a fire under my husband and we got something done. It's a good feeling to actually get something accomplished! Especially after this past few weeks of getting nothing done. And Sally and Random showed up just in time to help out us old folks, so we got more done than we thought we would!

I know in the pictures it doesn't look like much but it is a whole lot to me! and this stall is elephant proof thanks to my husband. I tease him about that all the time.

For right now I will store the feed and tack in here so I can clean the trailer out. He has started on the work to get the floor done in the tack/feed room so hopefully this will be a short temporary thing.

And thats how we spent Sunday. The sun even came out for a while! Was really good for the soul.

Something educational or at least useful!?

OK, something new. Cause these blogs have been really boring the past couple of times, I am going to try to do something educational, helpful, fun or just not boring!

First go:

Here in Oklahoma, most hay is wire bound. I know that isn't the way in all states, but that is how they prefer it here. It can cause problems, especially if you forget the wire cutters and it's a really tight bale.

Also when you open a bale, and this happens with any bale, no matter how it's closed, the ends flop over and sometimes you lose a flake or two. My solution to this is to bend the wire at a little more than 90*, (that's degrees).


Then, pull wire gently, so as not to pull it out...

and stick the end back into the bale. Do this to all 4 ends if necessary. It holds the bale together good enough to keep it from falling off the pile. It is not sturdy enough to stand on or move. For that you actually have to twist the ends back together.

This has helped keep hay out of mud, water or just from being wasted on the floor or where ever. Hope this was helpful. Of coarse, you all probably knew this already and I am way behind!

OK, be back with more..........Any suggestions?

It has gotten warmer in the past few days but there is still snow on the ground. Still dealing with frozen water, frozen mud, ice and just plain cold and yucky. The horses still manage to get into things. This is an innocent moment for Spot and Rachael but it usually doesn't last long. This weekend it is supposed to be near 60 degrees! Yea haw! Gonna have to do some riding and cleaning and catching up.



Red is sneaking around looking innocent at the moment but don't let that fool you. He has been playing with the others.

And finally, it is here. The pink princess has arrived!! Rascle's new blanket and neck cover are here and she really likes it I think. Now she officially looks like a Barbie horse. It gets lots of stares from the neighbors when they drive by and my husband says they get a good laugh from it at breakfast in the morning. But AAAHHHHH, ain't she cute. Patience hasn't been able to come see her much this week because of the cold, but the bus should be driving by any time now and she can see it from the bus.

It has been a long week but the weekend should be much nicer. Off this weekend, YEAH! Have more pictures to post and hopefully some of riding too!

ICE

Someone took "White Christmas" way to seriously. We have had that Christmas snow on the ground way to long. It's time for it to go away. It has been the coldest winter on record I believe, at least between Chistmas and January 8. The average temp has been 23.5. It got above freezing yesterday but there is so much ice the troughs were still frozen. The good news is it is supposed to get to 40 degrees today. I hope so, I have alot of catching up to do.

There are still schools out today in Oklahoma because of icey roads. I bet parents are really ready for kids to go back to school. I need to take down the Christmas tree. Thought Chris was going to but no such luck. Need to do laundry but the washing machine was leaking the last time so someone needs to look at that. The dishes are piled high, ussually are by the time I get a day off. Then the outside chores. Need to clean out the troughs thoroughly. Start at ground zero with the ice. And hopefully the creek will thaw some. I have never seen this creek freeze solid like this. It had to be 6 inches thick! Brought back great memories of ice skating when I was a kid though.

Garry was watching us play on the ice. She probably just wanted to know when she was gonna get fed. She's like that you know. Just a Diva, it's all about her, haha.

Fortunately, none of the horses attempted to walk out on this, that I know of. It would of held them but it could be a bad habit and horrible if they went through.

I was hoping this picture would turn out better. The ice was clear all the way to the bubbles and you could see how thick it was. Was neat to look through like that.

As you can see from this blog I am easily entertained and there hasn't been much entertainment going on around here. Not much horsey stuff, just survival. Hopefully with warmer weather that will change!

On a sad note, both swans are gone now. The male swan was killed about a month ago, probably by a coyote and then this week the lonely female swan was attacked by a dog, with the pond frozen she couldn't get away. And then what little ice everyone could break for her, she froze into the pond one night. My husband got her out but she just never recovered from the bite then the cold and the broken heart. Swans are life long partners you know. We will miss them.

Ok, this is crazy!

This has been a bad week, from bad weather to work. Just all the way around. Right now it is bone chilling outside. The low tonight is supposed to be -1. That's just crazy! And it's supposed to be like that for the next 3 nights!! The snow from Christmas is still on the ground and doesn't look like it's going anywhere real soon.

Yesterday was quite different too. I know I looked at that schedule several times the week before, I just know I did. But somehow I was on the schedule for a Bonus shift yesterday. I did not know this. I was out in the cold for 3 or 3 1/2 hours feeding and breaking ice and settling the horses. This included dealing with the water trough heaters. The little darlings wouldn't leave them in the troughs and one of them, they stomped on and broke all the hard plastic off. I had to break ice on the creek too, and it was thick enough to ice skate on. A running creek no less! It was a wonderful afternoon.

So I come inside and sit in a daze, trying to thaw out. It was about 6:00 or 6:30. Just sat there sipping on hot coffee. I thought I'll thaw a little and I'll take a shower and put on some warm jammies and relax the rest of the evening. It was right at 7:00 and my phone rings. It's work, "where are you, your supposed to be here!?!" "What, no I'm not!", "yes, your on the schedule".... Anyway, it was a strange conversation. So I grumbled and took a shower and went to work. Hadn't even eaten yet, and my shoulder hurt from breaking ice and I was tired and, and , oh well. So I went to work and it was a busy night. Bless Donna for going to 10 tower. See, they not only insisted that I come to work but wanted to pull me to another floor. After the afternoon I had had I wasn't going to be happy about that at all. Anyway, I did make it through the night barely, and Julie shared here supper with me. She always brings in good food. That did make it better.

We didn't get the snow they were predicting for last night, but we did get the wind and cold. Came home, put on WARM jammies and crashed real hard. When I got up this afternoon, my husband informed me that the little darlings had removed the water heaters again and that he had "beat them all with the cords." He was joking of coarse.... but it was a thought. So this afternoon it was back to breaking more ice. It wasn't real thick in the troughs because they did leave them in most of the day. So feeding did go easier this afternoon, not that 10 or 15 degrees is easy. I am still tired.

Well the boss calls at 5:00 this evening as I am thinking of shower and getting ready for work, cause I am on the schedule that I have for the next 3 nights. We're going to put you on call, there are 5 patients though so there's a real good chance that they will call you in. OK, I'll watch the championship football game and then probably go to work.

Well Texas lost McCoy in the first few plays and Alabama is looking real good at this point. After the half I dozed on the couch, confidant that as soon as I got real comfortable they would call. Sure enough, almost 11:00 and the phone rings, just as Texas is coming back, (maybe). It's Allyson and they need me to come in. I tell her I'll be there in just a little bit, going to take a quick shower... and off I go. My husband chuckles a lot when they do this to me. I think he secretly likes to see me tortured. Just as I am getting out of the shower he brings my phone in and says work is trying to call you, call them back. What, it's only been 10 minutes or less even.

Well they had Liz, an RN in resource pool working on 10 tower and they were getting ready to send her home because they didn't have enough patients so they were going to send her to the unit and I could just stay home. Wweeelllll, I just wanted to get up off the couch that was so warm and cozy and take a cold shower just for the heck of it. Anyway, now I am awake with no place to go.

Oh by the way, Alabama won! I was rooting for them because they were the underdogs and my husband was for Texas. Hey Allyson, you won. Her and her husband were doing the same thing. Girls win tonight!!

Sorry, don't have pictures. Cameras don't do good breaking ice in the tundra.

Creating?

Sally has been talking about when her husband paints her trailer, and what she wants to put on the outside. The ideas really sound neet. Well this evening I kinda worked on one of them. You see Patience's horse, her registered name is Ffire Danser so......

Sally took the fireworks pictures New Years Eve from her house. Not sure if it is the one they set off or a neighbors. Of coarse, don't know if I could paint that on her trailer but might think of something. Next..... on to Wynchester DB. It involves rifles. Aaahhhhh, my brain needed the dust or should I say snow blown off of it. I think cabin fever has set in this weekend. Can't seem to get out of the house, if for lack of will or to much snow to try to go anywhere if I don't have to. I'll post again if I come up with something for Chester!

By the way the horse in this picture is from: awhitehorse.com

Webgraphics Copyright, 2003 Stacey Mayer, AWhiteHorse.com

Hey, got it to work!

Well, ain't that cool. Now I can put videos on here. Neat. Have to make a few this weekend. Well maybe if the mud, frozen mud goes away some. It's a mess around here and very cold. Can't work anything. There goes the umph to that new years resolution! Going to have to make changes, plans, think. OK, plenty of time to think when you can't do much outside. Guess I'll work on the web site and blog some. Go through pictures. Maybe even, dare I say, clean house. Oh, that's a thought, maybe fold some of those clean clothes. HEHE. Be back latter.

Something new....maybe

Just wanted to see if this video thing would work. This is a video of one of the 3 year old geldings, Nitez DB. He is out of SR Narida and by Winseck Whirlwyn.