hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[Denim Deb]

They are paid off. Hubby called to find out if he could use them since he's pretty sure we're going to owe on our taxes. That's when he found out they closed them.

 

[FarmerJamie]

I agree hqueen, they can also destroy fantastic credit if abused.

Dork away on the spreadsheets!

 

[hqueen13]

Yesterday was a busy day at work. There are some upcoming projects that we will have which is going to give me extra hours which is a good thing! Of course right now I have so much to do I don't know which end is up...
I came home and got Kahlua feed. She's leaving Saturday and now I finally figured out that she wants her food wet! Argh! She ate all of it Thursday morning and has eaten all of it ever since. I just hope she didn't go off her feed when she moves but won't really be my problem. I was waiting on my hay guy to deliver more bales to me and I decided to quickly clean up the shed while I had time. It took about 30 minutes and 2 wheelbarrow trips to the pile but I got it cleaner up again. It was rather satisfying to have it clean. I'm really looking forward to getting mats out down in there. Then it will be even easier to clean!
Got the hay into the barn and then I heard into the house to start dinner. I decided tacos would be simple enough since we had just enough ingredients for all of it. When the bf let me know he was at the bottom of the hill getting the bobcat I headed outside to open gates and be waiting so we could get the bale out for the very hungry ponies. I felt bad that they hadn't really had much in a few days. A small square bale doesn't last very long with 2 horses and 2 ponies.
We are dinner and went over the tax stuff some more. I will be so happy when this is all over!
I crunched more numbers today and organized or finances for the first two months of the year. We are spending entirely too much money on eating out, in particular the bf is spending wayyyyy too much money buying junk food while he is at work. Like an entire credit card payment kind of too much. I'm not ok with that and we have to figure out a way to make that asap. Admittedly, I am a part of that because I have not been as good about coming as I should be and so there have not been many leftovers for him to take. He is also responsible for more taking the initiative to give me a list of what he wants or go to the store himself to make sure he has things to eat. Between the two of us we need to figure out a solution.
I suppose I should find something to do to keep organized before this weekend and next week suck me away.

 

[Denim Deb]

That's always a challenge. Does he eat sandwiches, or more of an entree type of lunch?

 

[hqueen13]

He and I both don't care much for sandwiches. That doesn't make it easy!
Life is moving so fast I can't even find time to update! I need to catch up soon! Lots to update on!

 

[hqueen13]

He and I both don't care much for sandwiches, which makes lunch infinitely more complicated. :-/
Life has been blazing fast over the past several days.
Kahlua left on Saturday morning in the rain uneventfully. She ate all of her feed which made me happy. I haven't heard an update and at this point I've moved past that. The three new horses began arriving right after that in the rain. Max, Beau, and Ri (pronounced rye) settled in to the mud. There was some shuffling and shuffling but things settled out fairly quickly.
I headed over to the old barn in the rain to help with a friend's horse for her lesson since she was out of town. It was hard to figure out what to do to challenge him since we were limited to the barn. KN finally suggested that we put him in long reins and work up and down the barn aisle. I set to work and after the initial hesitation and going backwards quickly discovered that allowing him to go forward more than two steps at a time resulted in him building a head of steam and plowing through everything I had. He took me skiing down the barn asile with me dropped so low that I was practically sitting on the floor trying to get my center of gravity down to make it harder on him. I finally had to throw away one rein and jerk really hard with two hands on the rein I still had to who his head around and break the pattern. KN took over (to my relief) and even she struggled Trying to keep him from plunging ahead and blowing through the pressure on the reins. She finally asked for his bridle which improved his brakes significantly. She worked with him for a while and then handed him back to me to continue while she went and worked with the next set of lessons. It was really valuable for him to work on and it was only after the fact that we realized that he has never worked on the long reins before and we adopted right over the Ready stuff and jumped straight into the hard stuff. Oops.
I headed back into the ex's house and we hung out waiting for the pork to finish the the smoker for dinner. We decided to make a quick run to the local creamery for ground beef and icecream for desert before dinner was ready.
Dinner was delirious and it was great to eat and hang out with KN and NP since it has been so long.
The bad news of the weather was that the temps were dropping to the point that the horses were all going to be in the barn overnight which meant that I was responsible for feeding and turning them out and cleaning all 22 stalls. I was banning on the fact that it wouldn't happen like that. So the bf and I got up way too early and headed out in the rain to start the chores. In the way down to the barn NP texted and offered to start feeding and turning out so we wouldn't have quite as much to do and that was a huge help.
We slogged in and out of the rain with wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow if poop. It poured while we worked. I was grateful for NPs help because it saved us quite a bit of time. We left a few chores for one of the other guys to finish so that I could take a break before my lesson. I checked with KN and we decided it was much better to stay in the heated classroom and work on the equicizer riding simulator instead. I was not really excited to work in the barn with the cold and rain like it was.
We took a much needed lunch break and then got started for my lesson. It was really great to be able to sit on the equicizer and really study riding position and sort out some of the ways that my position is affected by storm. We found that I am triggered into a different posture when he pulls on me and so NP had to pull on the reins to help me work on finding the power in the bones for support rather than using muscles. It was a very introspective lesson and really nice to spend so much time worrying on me without having to worry about the horse.
NP took her turn after I finished and watched her work as well, which was equally as enlightening. I miss working with her.
We got done with our lessons and the bf and I finally headed home. We didn't really accomplish anything for the rest of the evening, there wasn't much of it left anyway.
Monday came in just as fast as the weekend and gratefully gloriously clear blue skies came with it. Things were greener even though the sun hasn't shone in 3 days. I headed out to feed and AJ helped to take care of their horses, since they kept them in overnight. All the horses behaved very well for dealing with a new routine and that made me happy.
We finished cleaning the barn and then I started waiting for the inspector to come look over the barn for the boarding license. She was a half hour late and didn't call which was not nice, but she was much more pleasant than I expected. We found a few things to relate on and i think that helped.
She left me with passing paperwork so we are officially licensed now. I jumped in the truck and headed down to the other barn to grab some tools out of the shed and got in the road. It took me an hour to get to the other side of town and get to the warehouse to pick up the mats that I ordered. For those loaded and found some lunch. Then it was across hill and dale to my friend's house to dig ferns with her. We dug over a dozen ostrich ferns for me to transplant. We had fun hanging out and talking before she moves away in a week. She gave me the official tour of the house they are selling and it is a shame we can't pick it up and move it because it is amazing. So many neat features. Really cool layout and really open in the kitchen. I'm going to have to remember some of the design for the future.
Left there and headed home. Got the ostrich ferns in the ground, which was nuce. While I was out there the landlord came to chat, be didn't recognize my truck parked where I was planting and thought I might have been the gutter guys. He told me he was going to get a quote while they were here fixing the gutter to replace one window that doesn't stay open and also look at removing the old wood stove chimney pipe, and possibly putting in a window instead. Have I said lately how much I love my landlord?
I was finishing planting when AS and AJ arrived to feed and work their horses. I snagged them to help me unload my stall mats which made quick work of it with the three of us. Since the weather was so warm I decided to work storm a bit while they were here and put him in the paddock with the lunge line on and the balance bands attached. He tried to pitch a fit once, he went up on his guns legs and then jumped, levitating completely off the ground. It was impressive and I wish I had a camera. He decided it was too hot for that kind of silliness and so he calmed down and got to work. He did pretty good for the first time back to work in a while. I brought him back into the barn and groomed him for as long as I could stand the dirt and hair flying, which was really not long enough. There was a small ponys with of hair on the floor and I could have kept going. I turned him out and headed in for a shower after getting so dirty between planting and grooming the horse.
Yesterday was a great day as well. AJ arrived at the barn and we fed together, and then she rode with me to the bank before we came back to the farm to get started planning onions. I introduced her to S and he set us up planting and we went to town. He came up at one point and said we were going fat and she laughed and said we were trying to keep up with our mouths! We were having fun working in the warm sun digging in the dirt. We managed to get 2 full rows planted which was about 2/3 if the 1000 onion starts that were in the box. I felt like we got a lot done and was happy to have her company. He offered to allow her to come back more often and she made plans to come back today. I sadly was going to be stuck in an office so I wouldn't be able to help today.
I got a good amount of work done at the office today but ended up with a massive headache in the process which wasn't fun.
DB was here with her kids when I got home and since I hadn't seen her in a while we caught up. It was nice to hang out where it was warm and chat.
The bf is on the way home and is going to find dinner because I just can't handle thinking about that with a headache.

 

[Denim Deb]

Sounds like you've been busy!

 

[hqueen13]

I think that's an understatement, Deb lol
Today is going to be busy again. But what else is new?
I have an appointment with an accountant to talk over the finances and I have to finish the sweater for the bfs cousin because her shower is tomorrow. I need to run some laundry and then I have to go to the airport and pick up JS and start running her around doing body work all afternoon. I have no idea when we are going to get finished this evening. Some of it will depend on traffic.
for a more from my former boarder that she is actually going to bother to get her fans out of my barn. I was going she would forget about them but I guess now. Now she's offering to sell two of them to me, and I'm mildly irritated about the whole situation. Its given me a not so great start to my day, which is annoying me even more. And on to of that I'll be seeing her this evening and I really don't want to. Buy whatever. I must find a way to let this go because it is interfering with me and that is not a good thing.

 

[SSDreamin]

Sounds like you have been crazy busy!
Maybe you would benefit from a marathon meal prep. You pick a day, cook multiple meals (dbl or trpl), put them in meal sized freezer containers and label them. Then, you just have to pull one out to thaw, when you don't feel like cooking. My freezer space is non existent, so I can up soup and meals-in-a-jar for days when I don't want to cook. Do both of you have access to a microwave at work? Maybe you could fill small containers and freeze them - grab one out of the freezer in the morning and take it to work? By far better than fast food!

 

[hqueen13]

Yes, I can do that, I just haven't gotten the hang of it yet lol I need to do more of that kind of thing for sure. Come summer I will probably try to do some runs of meals in a jar so that we will have something.
Last bag from the third ton of pellets just burned out in the outlet stove last night. Its so quiet in here now. Feels strange not to have that noise.
The trend of being crazy stupid busy continues. My body worker was here this past weekend and I do needed the work. I was so glad she came. I was out of sorts for a few days! I feel much better though.
The bf happened to look at the invitation to his cousins baby shower and realized it was Sunday not Saturday and so my plans for really scrambled. I was still able to make it, but I was a little late and I was exhausted.
This week is going crazy fast and I can't figure out what day it is because I have so much to do. I've been on the farm the past few days which has been nice. I've missed being over there a lot.
AJ and I have hung out a few times which has been nice. We have a lot of fun together.
I guess I have to get going. Horses to feed and errands to run before I can get to the farm.