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

[FarmerJamie]

Deb, how it your week going so far?

 

[Denim Deb]

Don't have time to post right now, I'll update (hopefully) tomorrow. But, yesterday was real fun. (NOT!)

 

[FarmerJamie]

Don't have time to post right now, I'll update (hopefully) tomorrow. But, yesterday was real fun. (NOT!)

in advance. I'll be looking for it.

 

[Denim Deb]

Last week, I decided to make a nice big pot of vegetable beef soup. Even my vegetarian daughter will eat it, and it's much cheaper (and better for her) than the crap she normally eats. I decided I was going to bake a loaf of homemade bread to go w/it.

So, I get out the bread machine, and start putting the ingredients in the pan. I go to put the flour in, only to realize that I have almost no flour. My daughter made pancakes, and used up almost all my flour. I did have a new bag, but it wasn't the same kind. Instead of the all purpose flour, this was the King Arther's white wheat. I had been wanting to try it, just hadn't gotten around to it. So, I decided to mix the 2 flours and see what happened.

Once I had all the ingredients in the pan, I stuck it in the bread machine, and turned it on. The machine didn't sound right, so I looked inside. It wasn't mixing. I opened it up, and made sure I had the mixing blade in there. (I have been known to forget to put it in at times.) The blade was in. So, I unplugged the machine, and took the pan out. And, I found that the part of the machine that's supposed to make it spin had come apart. I tried to put it back together, and it seemed to work. But, it didn't stay together for long. I tried several times to get it to work. Finally I gave up, and turned everything out. I then proceeded to finish mixing and kneading by hand. I could only hope and pray that it would work. The directions for the bread machine call for the water to be at room temp, the directions for making bread by hand calls for warm water. It did rise, but not as much as it should have. Hubby looked at my machine, but doesn't think it can be fixed. But, I had just picked one up out of the trash earlier in the day. Don't know if it works or not, we'll see.

Hubby worked on my truck, not this past Saturday, but the Saturday b4. It was making a horrible sound, and I was afraid to drive it. He took it for a drive, said it needed the bearing replaced, so he did. Friday when I left for work and the farm, it started making noise again. So, when I went out on Saturday, I left my truck at home. He looked at it, found what he thought was the problem, and fixed that. Sunday morning, it wasn't making any noise, so I thought it was fine. Yesterday, it started making the noise again, so I don't know what to thing. It's still to cold to ride my bike in the morning, otherwise it wouldn't matter as much.

Sunday morning was not fun in the least. Between the snow and the mud, RU has had problems getting hay out for her horses. She's gotten the tractor stuck more than once, and has finally taken to just dumping the RBs over the fence. Only problem w/that has been w/the horses trying to get all the way around the RB, they've knocked fencing down a couple of times. She needs to fix the fencing anyway, just hasn't been able to do so because of the weather. Plus, she's going to be having a hip replacement on the 22. There's days she can just barely walk. Late Saturday, early Sunday, the horses knocked down a section of fence again. So, she was out there rounding up horses in the dark. Basically, she just stuck them where ever she could, then got the fencing back up, then went to bed.

I got out there Sunday morning to feed. I found 3 horses that don't belong in my field in the front field, a gelding, a mare and her baby. And the gate was shut. I got the gelding out, and the mare. But, the baby wouldn't follow. I tried chasing her out, but that didn't work. I put the lead around her neck, and tried leading her to the gate. She went for a bit, then pulled away. She kept going to the same corner where she couldn't get out and calling for her mom. I was finally able to get her out, and shut that gate behind me. Now I had the 3 in my back field. But, there was also 3 extra horses in that field. And for some reason, half of "my" horses were locked in the riding arena. (I'll say more about that in a minute) While I wasn't too happy about that, it did make my life a bit easier. I opened the gate between the 2 fields, and was able to drive all 6 extra horses (including a Belgian and a spotted draft) out. But, her DILs quarter pony got in the field, and wouldn't be driven out. I was finally able to catch him, and kick lead him out. I then proceeded to let my horses out, open the closed gate, and feed them. Once they were fed, I got the tractor out, and put a RB out of RU's horses. It wasn't easy. Like I said, there's mud. I kept getting stuck w/the tractor, but was finally able to get it out. Needless to say, I was late for Sunday School that morning. I called the minister up, and let him know since I normally play the piano for Sunday School.

Later that day, I go back to the farm to give Stormy his 2nd feeding. We've been leaving the gate between the 2 fields shut until after I give Storm his 2nd feeding. On Saturday, I found it opened. KN had fed in the morning. I called and asked if she had left it shut. She wasn't sure. Sunday morning, I KNOW I left it shut. It was opened. Plus, RU said she didn't lock my horses in the riding arena. We had had a problem last year w/someone messing w/the horses. But after the mini died, it had stopped. Now, it looks like it's starting up again. If this continues, I'm thinking I'm going to have to leave my truck at the house so no one knows I'm there. Then, I'll spend the night in my tack shed. That way, I can catch whoever is doing this. If it's kids, I'd be talking to their parents. (And I have an idea as to who it is.) And if it's someone older that I don't know, I'd be calling the state police.

 

[BarredBuff]

x

 

[FarmerJamie]

any updates on the situation?

 

[savingdogs]

Gosh, that sounds like a lot of work! I would be so upset to find my animals moved about. I hope you can work this out without too much hassel.

 

[Henrietta23]

Yikes, that would freak me out!

 

[Farmfresh]

When my sis was running a commercial stable she had a horse stolen! And it turned out to be the best thing that could ever happen.

One of the boarders was a teen girl who was really good on a horse. She bought a WITCH of a mare .. a beautiful blood bay Appendix Quarter Horse mare. This horse started out literally attacking folks with tooth and hoof. She would kick at anything that moved when she was eating so they had her pastured in a short lot at the front of the property alone. The girl had just started making some good headway in training the witch, she was doing well with her ground manners and you could easily lead her, but she was still VERY spooky.

On the night of the theft evidently someone decided to steal a horse and go joy riding. They decided to take the beautiful bay. They got her haltered and used two lead ropes to make reins then evidently tried to ride her down the road.

They never found the carcass of the thief, but I will wager they got a little more of a ride than they bargained for! The mare was found in great shape, lead rope tangled around a light post guy wire about 2 miles (!!) from the stable at the hospital just down the road. Who knows perhaps she made a delivery there?

Anyway the horses were never bothered again.

 

[Denim Deb]

OK, update. RU is now having problems w/the tractor-it won't start! She had the neighbor come and put out RBs. Since his tractor is much stronger than hers, he was able to put RBs where she couldn't. So her horses are back the way they should be. There are still places that she needs to fix the fencing. She's away right now, can't really say I blame her. She's having a hip replacement on the 22, and doesn't know how long her recovery is going to be. But, when she gets back, we're going to do as much work on the fencing as we can.

While the fencing around my front field is good, it's not all the same. There's places where it's cattle panels, places where it's woven wires, and places where it's rail and board. And, it's right next to the road. I want to be able to bring my goats out at times since there's a lot of pig weed in the field. The horses won't eat it, the goats will. (I'll be doing a lot of work this year to get rid of it.) So, once she's back, we're going to work on getting that fencing all uniformed. That will then give her fencing that she can use in other spots. Once the fencing is all done, the herd will be split. That means that what you can see from the road will look nice, too. And while that may not seem important to us, we've had people call AC for strange reasons. Last time was because one of the horses was moving the RB feeder. They'll do that to get that last little bit of hay in there. I've seen them do it. And, AC has never found a problem w/the farm. So, this week and until she gets back, I'm doing a ton of work in my field. I am finally getting out all the piles of manure they left over the winter. Once done, I'll keep the piles picked up. That should also help w/the weeds, plus since I use this in my garden, it will mean less weeds there too! I'll be turning the pile every month, as well as starting a new pile every month.

My DH is getting ready to work a lot of overtime. Once he's done that, I'm hoping he'll come out to the farm and finish the projects he's started. If they're all done, between caring for just 4 horses, and having that stuff done, my life will become less complicated.