reality check

In the midst of doing our dreaded weekly multi store grocery shopping, Brad called. He was home early from work. That was odd. Found out his back locked up. He couldn't bend at all, and had no clue why/what caused it. Oh boy!! It's been years, but last time this happened to him he was completely out of commission. I opted out of non-essential shopping and made the long 45 minute drive home. I found him on the couch, where he pretty much stayed for 3-4 looong days. Other then Urgent Care & bathroom breaks. Extremely unusual for my hard working guy.

I made what felt like 100 rushed trips carrying groceries in, put perishables away and promptly went to bring horses in by myself. I was on forward march. It was later then usual, dark and cold out. Neither of our boys like being brought in last. I usually bring one in and Brad grabs the other two. I don't care for squeezing two horses and myself through a human sized door maze in the Winter. I either bring them in one at a time, or open the sliding door (brrrr!) in the order of whomever is waiting at the gate. 

After our boys bucking craze simmered, I brought in Koda. Then Harmony, which made Nemo mad! I took his girl without him, and his human was MIA!! More antics. I stood patiently at the gate and talked to Nemo, until he decided to be the horse I needed him to be. Calm. The rest of the time Brad was flat on his back, turn-in/out went smooth. Horses seem to figure things out pretty quickly. They were good as gold for me and came in one by one, without throwing tantrums. It's almost like they knew... What a difference it makes to take one person out of the routine! I know you are all thinking three horses, big deal. Well, it is for me!!

Winter mornings chores go something like this: grain, haul 1-2 bales down to the pasture (the feeder can arrive any day now...), turn-out, pick stalls, wheel barrel to bobcat, dump and attempt to not miss bucket (ha!) unplug & start frozen bobcat, do houdini moves getting in/out while dressed in layers, hoping I don't face-plant while balancing on icy metal edges, yelling at asking grand dogs to stop eating every frozen horse turd on earth, temporarily warm up in saloon, put dogs in stall/saloon (cuz dogs & bobcats don't mix) while hauling to pile. I am sooo thankful for the bobcat from Brad's work, we get to use it seasonally. Then I try to not get stuck on the ice and snow, do more houdini moves, haul more hay over to fill hay bags, oops forgot knife (another trip), haul step stool to each stall (cuz I'm too damn short & it's the only way I can hang heavy hay bags with my injured shoulder) attempt to not get hay all over me (always), refresh waterers, sprinkle PDZ (LOVE that stuff, thanks Arline!!) haul bags of shavings when needed, oops forgot knife again (trip #999) fluff stalls, somewhere along the way I let the dogs out so I can say "get out" 100 more times, get two brooms and one shovel, sweep aisle around two dogs, put everything away and head into house to drop for breakfast 'er early lunch, and thaw my toes.

Did I mention we had two snow storms during this time? Well, we did. Add shoveling two large porches, and front of garage to the above. It made for long days. I also attempted to plow with the bobcat for the first time ever. It went okay, but I was very thankful when our son came out to help us. Love that kid! He did the majority of plowing our very long driveway & paths!!

Nobody plans on caring for a homestead alone, at least not this girl!!! Talk about a reality check...I think I said "no more horses" every single day Brad was down & out. 

I truly love my life and wouldn't trade it for the world, however no one is more thrilled then me to say Brad is back at it. His back is not 100%, but getting better every day. Whew!!!

winter pastures

case of the missing pan

Four horses, finds us needing three pans and one pan-in-tire.  This past week we've had to go pan hunting, and improvise. The pan-in-tire is easy to find. One or two of the pans are never far, but one pan in particular goes MIA on a daily basis. We've lost it for days at a time. Nemo, our neatest eater, has graciously agreed to eat out of a bucket - perhaps out of guilt? Our daughter claims he is the culprit, and has seen him play fling-a-pan.

After days of looking hubby finally found the MIA pan down by the woods, um no graining going on down there! We pick the pans up most days as soon as they are done munching, but some mornings it's feed and run. When evening chores roll around, it's dark all over again and lately it seems we just can't find that one pan. 

It's gone again. The ground is white, the pan is black, the pasture isn't huge - where could it possibly be hiding? We walk the pasture, and end up pan-less. Now, at a distance those black pans are easily mistaken for piles of poop, but really how far can one pan go?

dropping like flies

Sunday was such a beautiful early fall day! I am not sure if it was more enjoyable hanging out with our horses while working in the woods, or riding Koda & Nemo for the first time in a week?? Okay, no contest there - riding was alot more fun. So much that I didn't get any pictures of the ride. I was too busy soaking it all up. 

They started taking the corn down. I wasn't sure how the boys would handle the changed view, especially the 150 ft long giant white plastic bag of corn at the beginning of our ride. We rode just a few feet away, with nothing more than a watchful eye. They did awesome, even the notorious stream of water/mud didn't get a reaction today.

Before we got to go on that glorious ride, we did more work in the wooded pasture area. Last weeks high winds led to another family “clean up the woods” day, and the realization that it will be a never ending project. The trees continue to take a beating, and are dropping like flies. 

Brad and the boy who doesn't like horses, trying to get cracked tree number two unstuck,
with the help of a friend - Mr. Bob Cat.

I know it’s a little twisted, but I love our “clean up the woods” days!  Spending time outside with family (equine & human) doing something physical, while making a visible difference - what’s not to love??!

Koda was the first one to want to help Brad.

Nemo soon joined him.

It wasn't long before they all joined in.
(Harmony, Koda and Nemo L-R)

There was some horsin' around going on

and some lovin' going on
(Koda & Harmony L_R)

Koda thinks the jokes on us - tomorrow there will be more branches to pickup!

swamp logging

It was hot. It was buggy. It had standing water. It felt like a swamp.
























A large tree was down right smack in the middle of the woods. Amazing how small the tree looks in the photo, it wasn't small at all.






























Another tree was hung up, high above.





























But that didn't last long....timmmmber! I was surprised the horses didn't care, it was loud.





































Checked on the horses, before getting back to work. Harmony had only been home for a couple hours. They were eating hay, the great pacifier.































We hauled lots of muddy piles of branches.





























Cut and hauled piles of logs.



















The boy who doesn't like horses was a huge help.






































However Koda wasn't much help. Harmony agrees.

another opportunity

We've been enjoying a solid week plus of riding in dryer weather, even during the recent heat, until a big storm rolled through the area dumping buckets of water. The good news is it cooled things off. The bad news is the small wooded pasture area doesn't drain correctly, the northwest corner floods, leaving us with standing water.

We have only begun to remedy the situation. You may recall Brad and the boy who doesn't like horses recently started removing tree stumps leftover from the power line destruction. We have hopes of turning the open area into grass pasture. Believe it or not, it's already an improvement. We really don't ride much in that area anyways, for obvious reasons. Only one way to look at it in it's current condition, it's another opportunity to work with Koda and his muddy water crossing!

mission accomplished

We do own ladders, but what fun would that be?























Koda didn't think there was anything fun about a Brad in a tree. He was more interested in poking around in the dirt.






















Until the tree climb didn't work and Brad climbed the fence instead to try removing the annoying branch, that got Koda's attention. He was right there trying to help, as usual.





















He found out why we didn't want him so close; cracking/falling branches are scary.

Nemo watched from a safe distance, until the mission was accomplished. No more branch-in-the-face when riding in the arena!

hay, hay, hay

It was a great afternoon to toss hay bales! According to my hubby I am sick in the head because I actually enjoy it. To me its an outside workout, time with my family, doing something for our horses - whats not to like?

Unfortunately, the pasture we rent got tore up bad when they put in the giant power line poles along the highway. We have no say over when things get returned to "normal"...we cleaned up and reseeded the pasture once, since we don't own it - we'll just buy supplement hay. I dream of owning our own horse place...someday, until then it's a good thing I like tossing bales!