Denim Deb Hay, hay, hay. Thank the Lord!

[Denim Deb]

While not as warm as yesterday, today was still a beautiful day. And, I altered my Sunday morning routine. I've been going out to the farm, feeding the horses, then running home to get a shower, eat and get ready for church. A couple of weeks ago I had an idea. Why not get my shower, eat and get almost all dressed for church (I wear jeans normally), then put on my farm jeans and my barn boots, take my good jeans and shoes w/me, go and feed the horses, then get changed and go to church straight from the farm. Normally, it takes me about an hour from the time I leave home to feed and get back home. So, I tried it this morning. I actually made it to Sunday School early! I think Pastor was almost ready to faint.

After church, I headed home. If it had been colder, I would have headed out to the farm to give Storm his 2nd feeding, then I would have gone home. But, since it was warm enough to ride the bike, I figured I'd do that. I got home, got changed, grabbed a bite to eat, then relaxed for a bit in my nice, comfy chair w/my feet on a stool in front of the wood stove. Then, I went out and fed Stormy.

My hubby told me I should start the mower up every day, so I did. It started right up! I let it run for several minutes. Then, since there were a couple of piles of poop in the parking area, I put my manure fork in the cart, and drove the mower over to the piles. I picked up the piles, and tossed them in the cart, then drove the mower back to where it was and parked it. As long as the mower keeps starting for me, and we don't get a ton more rain, I should be able to clean the pasture a lot easier now!

I checked my hoses. They had thawed out. I had a post that needed to go in the ground near the hydrant. My neighbor had given it to me. (He was going to toss it.) It has the thing on it that holds a coiled up hose. So, I put the post in the ground and coiled up the hoses. Much better! If anyone uses a hose, they had BETTER drain it and recoil it.

I got home and found an SUV parked at the end of the street. (Last house on a dead end street, there's woods next to us.) I had no idea who it belonged to, but figured I'd keep an eye on it. Went and fed the goats and the bunnies and got my chain saw. That's when I heard the voices. The SUV belongs to the man that owns the property. He and a friend of his were checking it out. He wants to clean it up along the property line, as well as let his friend do some hunting there. They were trying to figure out the property lines. So, I showed them the best I could. It's been years since I've really been back there. He may sell it. Someone wants to put a horse rescue on it! If they do, I wonder if I could make some money working w/some of the horses. (Just no stall cleaning!) Once they left, I did just a little bit of wood.

Now, I'm downstairs in front of the fire again. I cooked some more chestnuts on top of the wood stove and am relaxing. (No evening church service tonight-too many sick people.) I read some more of the book, and am really enjoying being able to do this. I love to sit here and read in front of the fire. I've seriously thought about finding an electric "fire" that I could put in the stove in the summer, so I'd get the look w/out the heat.

 

[Wannabefree]

Sounds like a good day Deb! That'd be SOOO cool if you had a horse rescue next door you could work at a bit!

 

[Denim Deb]

Yep, especially if I could set my own hours. That way, it wouldn't interfere w/my own horses. And, I'd save a ton in commuting costs!

I know I mentioned on the one thread about doing some clinics w/Pony Boy. He's pretty much gone out of business now, but if he hadn't, he wanted me to become what he called a regional adviser. If they had someone in the area that needed someone to help them w/their horse(s), they would have been given my name and number. I know my former boss didn't respect my knowledge, but I've been around a ton of people that are shocked when they realize I didn't grow up w/horses. If I may toot my own horn, I'm pretty good at understanding body language, and communicating w/horses on their terms. I'm planning on investing on some books by others that talk about horse language so I can become even better at it. IMO, that's where many of your big name trainers fail, they give you a program to follow, but don't really explain the reasoning behind it, and why the horse responds the way it does.

 

[hqueen13]

Interesting, Deb, Pony Boy is out of business, huh? That is no good!
From your description you would LOVE our riding instructor. You want to talk about explaining things.... WOW, she has an amazing handle on being able to articulate exactly why she does things the way she does, why the horses react the way they do, and what you need to do to correct it. I have not met any other horse person that has been able to explain things the way she does. I can tell you for sure that if I had not found her I don't know where I'd be today. Storm is a big horse, and the leader, and I suspect that without her I'd be very afraid to ride, and probably would have gotten hurt.
You might not be that far away in SJ, you'll have to come down and visit some time!

 

[Denim Deb]

I'd love to! Right now, I can hardly wait to have my operation. Both Misty and Licky are giving me attitude, and need a refresher course in manners. But, until I get my leg fixed, I'm not sure I'm up to doing it. But, once I've healed up, they'd better watch out!

And, I hear ya on a horse that's a leader, no matter what the size! I've worked w/several that don't want to listen-until they realize that I'm speaking horse, and they're not getting away w/anything. I've also worked w/a few horses that I've not known their history, and could tell in just a short period of time that someone had tried to do some NH w/them, but didn't have a clue was to what they were doing. The horses would be constantly trying to join up, and would get all pouty when you wouldn't let them.

I know Pony isn't doing any more clinics. He was in a motorcycle accident a couple of years ago, and is using that as the excuse. But, he was still doing clinics afterward. I think he just got tired of all the traveling, etc. I know his wife is now doing homemade pastas and organics. I sometimes wonder if I'll ever see them on here.

 

[BarredBuff]

That would be neat DD!

 

[rathbone]

Just dropping in to say hello.

 

[Denim Deb]

back, rathbone.

I'm definitely heading in the right direction, and hope I can continue! I really feel like I got quite a bit accomplished today.

1. My tree is down. The ornaments are all put away, and the tree is back in its box in the basement.

2. I was able to get a lot of poop picked up! I got the mower running, but since I had to jump it to do so, I decided to leave it running while I worked. It was great! I worked for about an hour, and got so much more picked up this way. And, once the cart was full, I drove it out of the field, into RU's largest field and dumped it. I didn't have time to quite fill it up again, but will tomorrow. (It's about 2/3 full right now.) I parked in a different spot so it will be easier to get to if I need to jump it again.

3. Almost all of my dishes are done. Hopefully, no one will get a ton of them dirty again.

4. I picked up a load of wood. Most of it was the correct size, just needed to be split. But, it's really hard wood to split. I got most of it done, but can't use it right now. It's green. Someone at church asked me if I could use some wood. When I said yes, they asked, how soon can you pick it up? So, I went and got one load of it today. There's at least 1 more load. I kind of hate to put it in my wood shed, but have no place out in the open where I could leave it. I also got enough dry wood cut up and in the house for overnight.

5. I brought in a small table I use for camping. I put it in the basement by my comfy chair. It's a good size for my lap top, and/or for if I want to eat down here.

By the time I was done all this, it was around 7:00. So, I washed a potato, wrapped it in foil, and threw it in the wood stove. Then, I cooked a steak and some green beans. Now, I'm sitting in front of my fire, playing on my lap top and eating dinner. It doesn't get much better than this.

 

[MorelCabin]

Sounds like a busy day...but a very relaxing one too. I miss our woodstove, hopefully by next winter we will have changed out the propane one that came with this house to a wood one, the heat is just so much nicer!

 

[Denim Deb]

I'm trying to spend more time relaxing. I have already told my hubby NOT to ask me to go any place on Saturday. He's good at doing that. And, I end up not getting anything done around the house and/or yard. This is my last weekend B4 my operation, so I'll be busy. The only thing I am doing other than church is going w/my brother to a dinner. Neither of my nieces want to go and he doesn't really want to go by himself, so he called me up and asked me to go w/him. I couldn't turn him down. I know it's been really rough for him since his wife died.