Lupin Farm ~ Updated photos of the goat pen in progress

[patandchickens]

Freemontion, that won't work because we don't stall the horses and the goat stuff is not really... well useable lol. I'd only be able to use the chicken bedding, and then I'd have to buy more shavings for them!

It's also not cold enough right now! We had snow yesterday and its been a little warm, at least the peatmoss sticks to the ice.

Actually, goat cleanings would probably work pretty well... lots of little dark dots to melt into the snow/ice Honest, it is OK to put poo in the paddock, I am sure it is already pooey to begin with

And it works best when it is right about the weather we're having now. It *will* freeze to the ground in time -- the ground is still frozen, thus it is freezing-temperature -- and it's easier to work with and will melt in more quickly than if it were way cold.

Go for it, you will find it useful.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[lupinfarm]

Freemontion, that won't work because we don't stall the horses and the goat stuff is not really... well useable lol. I'd only be able to use the chicken bedding, and then I'd have to buy more shavings for them!

It's also not cold enough right now! We had snow yesterday and its been a little warm, at least the peatmoss sticks to the ice.

Actually, goat cleanings would probably work pretty well... lots of little dark dots to melt into the snow/ice Honest, it is OK to put poo in the paddock, I am sure it is already pooey to begin with

And it works best when it is right about the weather we're having now. It *will* freeze to the ground in time -- the ground is still frozen, thus it is freezing-temperature -- and it's easier to work with and will melt in more quickly than if it were way cold.

Go for it, you will find it useful.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

Most of the goat leavings though are hay, my goats like to eat a little bit of the hay and throw the rest on the ground. Its pretty much pissy/poopy alfalfa hay. IDK, I don't really want her eating the alfalfa hay and she'll nose it around for a bit lol. She thought peat moss might be edible until she realized it was actually dirt.

 

[lupinfarm]

Yeah, buting a sore horse on turnout is usually not a good plan, unless they absolutely *need* a touch of bute to reduce inflammation. Oh well, now you will remember next time , and it sounds like no real harm has been done.

It sounds like your footing is somewhat icy in front of the fenceline. You can do what Free says if you have bedding, but if you don't (your horses just live outside, yes?) another thing that works at least as well is to rake up as much manure as you can possibly liberate from elsewhere in the paddock and spread it thinly in front of the fence. Not right in front of the fence, but like six feet out or so, to give extra stopping distance. You may need to use a shovel to chop some of the frozen manure piles apart to rake them up. At first when you spread them they'll just be lying loosely on the ice but after a day or two of this nearly-0-C weather we're having they will weld themselves to the ice and provide pretty decent traction.

In fact if you have any Known Icy Spots, IMHO it is worth doing this periodically through the winter as a preventative, whenever there's a warm spell that makes it easy to acquire still-soft manure.

The manure spread on the ice will also slowly start to melt holes and roughness into the ice as the sun shines on it, which provides extra traction.

Good luck, have fun, hope she's feeling better soon,

Pat

Thanks Pat, I'll probably end up getting some poop from the pony because of her back leg problems she kicks it all around making it easy to pick up Luna spreads her poop herself LOL. I'm going to have to hack Mylie's up sooner or later, but I'll have to give her a reason to go down to the roundbale or else she'll be scared out of her pants of the shovel. She's really the biggest wimp alive.

 

[lupinfarm]

Well Mylie has been good all day, and actually she seems like she is hurting muscle-wise less, but she is stiff from the fence mishap yesterday. She'll be fine though, and she spent some of the day lying down snoozing in the snow (and sun!).

My co-op was closed today, but I'll be buying 1 bag of peat moss tomorrow for the super icey area, and moving poop around starting tomorrow to some of the less icey areas, eventually covering... like Pat suggested... 6 ft from the fence and nice big strip.

We went into Gaylord Hardware Flooring today because we've decided upon recommendation of a flooring restoration company (local) to install new hardwood because our hardwood is in poor shape, it is though..its true lol. We're laying tongue and groove plywood over the very poor victorian thin plank flooring and have to even out the change in house a bit with the plywood (our house is really 2 old houses joined, we have a bump where the floor goes up about an inch half way down the hallway, but with plywood and some sanding it'll be more like just a slope). We've chosen a 4", solid hardwood, Maple with a Toffee finish. GORGEOUS. It looks like old plank flooring, and it'll have the Dog finish on it despite the fact that the dogs aren't allowed upstairs. The cat likes to scoot along the hallway though, hence the super hard finish LOL.

I'm so so so excited to get our new flooring, it'll look lovely up here and since we've laid much harder to lay flooring before (laminate! eeks!) we'll be doing the installment ourselves. Our flooring company offers a seminar on how to install your own hardwood, and they show you how to do everything. Great company to deal with so far and their showroom is awesome. We wanted hickory, but ended up doing maple because the flooring in my parents room on the groundfloor is maple and we want to tie that room into the rest of the house (it's a 20 year old extension) and because our kitchen cabinets are actually going to be solid, clear varnished hickory and we thought it might be too much hickory if we did the floors in it.

We're also painting and trimming out the hallway upstairs next month, can't wait!

On top of all that, Luna is getting trimmed in a couple weeks (wickedly overdue, by like 3 months... she hasn't grown really at all since the start of winter though) and after that I have a corrective trimmer who will be working on getting her feet down to normal angles. I'm so excited, hopefully this will relieve some pressure on her hocks and allow her to move more freely at the walk and of course, as the vet said, it'll make her want to be lead! She isn't really leadable unless you throw some food infront of her for extra incentive because its awkward for her to keep pace with a person as her feet just don't allow her to. I love the guy who is doing it too, he's been to our place a few times and his wife and him are barefoot corrective trimmers which is what the vet suggested for her, and they're really great patient people so I might switch Mylie from her current farrier to them because Dan (the husband) is way more available than her current farrier who is gone for the summer west of Toronto and busy for the most part in the winter (Pat you might have heard of him, Brad Heffernan... he's fantastic with her, great trimmer, and he's the man who trained Mylie last winter for her old owners).

Aside from that, my G driving test is March 1st up in Bancroft so hopefully I pass, and we've got March 6th the hardwood laying seminar, plus on February 23rd we're attending a Masterfeeds Horse Feeding Seminar at a local tack shop.

Does anyone know if you can get Seminole Calm and Cool in Ontario? I've been suggested it for Mylie and I'm SUPER interested in buying it because its meant for horses that are a bit on the highstrung end.

 

[lupinfarm]

Get this, we're out of money okay... well we were going to get gas in Marmora and thats when we found out we had no money lol but we were on the way home and there was a ride check outside of Marmora and a cop pulls us over to say that our stickers are out of date and we're getting fine $110!!! We can't even drive to pay the stupid ticket or get the stickers without incurring more tickets! Even worse? My dad owns the truck so it has to be him who does the sticker renewal, not us. And the problem with that? He lives in Toronto during the week and we'd have to pick him up to get the stickers, which means the chance of getting MORE fines.

OMG

We don't have a second car either, and the Taxi will be WAY too much plus the problem of no money. The worst part? We have to pay the ticket before 15 days is up, and I have a driving test on the 12th of March so the ticket has to be paid.

I thought dad had put the stickers on the plates, I thought he'd done it months ago (his Birthday is December!!). And to top it all off he goes when I asked what we're supposed to do about the ticket, "well thats your fault"

*@#$(*$(#*$(*#($*#( WHAT?!?!?!?! HOW IS THAT MY FAULT?!?!

I don't know what I'm going to do about my driving test, I only have until April 30th to take it or they take my license away, and the horses need hay and I can't even drive the truck because we'll get more tickets.

 

[FarmerDenise]

OMG!! That sucks!!!

Does he even have the stickers? Can you get them from him?

I hate it, when you get into a situation like that and no one gets it, that you have NO money!!!

They'll tell you they'll give a discount if you pay cash in full up front. And I go: I have NO money!
They tell you they'll let you make payments. With what? I ask, I have NO money!

They tell you to drive to Timbuktu, they'll take care of it. "I got no gas and guess what I have NO money to buy any!!!"

Idiots!!!!

Frustrating

 

[lupinfarm]

The problem is not *really* the money, we could find it if we have to and we have a 25 litre tank of gas to use but the problem is, no matter what we do, we're going to end up with more tickets because we'd have to drive to Belleville (note, on all the major regional highways because there is NO other way to get there) to meet my dad at the station to get the stickers, or drive to Toronto to meet him there to get the stickers, once again on all the regional highways. The cop said HE wont stop us again, but other cops WILL stop us. So that $110 is going to keep adding up in tickets. I have a road test on March 12th for my drivers license, and I can't drive it without the tickets being paid (OR STICKERS!). We can't even legally drive down our road. Now I've noticed Mylie is almost out of hay, once again, no money but we could find it if its super dire but the problem still remains that we have to drive on a major regional highway to get to the hay guy.

We also have to drive no matter which way we go to either Madoc or Marmora MTO offices on a major regional highway. HOW are you supposed to fix this if you live in the country?! And then there is the pure and simple fact that my dad is 54 years old and KNOWS you have to buy the stickers, he's done it for almost his whole life and he's saying this is MY fault? I don't get how I could have done anything. I assumed he'd bought the stickers, the things are tiny and you don't usually look at them. They're custom plates too, which I'm sure got us noticed real quick.

 

[ksalvagno]

At least you weren't speeding or something. Definitely puts you in a bind. You need a cop friend and get a courtesy card from him. Then you could just flash that card.

Hopefully the situation gets straightened out very quickly for you. Your dad should be home on the weekend, right?

 

[lupinfarm]

My dad is making a special trip home today, he wasn't going to come home until the first week of March but now he has to come home. He just got the stickers and we're going to slink our way to Belleville and hope we dont get another ticket.

 

[SKR8PN]

Down here I would just go ahead and drive on the expired tickets, and if I got stopped again, show the nice officer the first ticket, explain your situation to him and hope for the best. Most all of our LEO's would be pretty understanding.