hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

[goatgurl]

ok, you just wore me out. good luck keeping it all together.

 

[Denim Deb]

OK, now I'm ready for bed!

 

[hqueen13]

LOL, Me too!!!! I don't now how I managed it all, either, FEM, Its been nuts!
I just worked out the details with my friend that is bringing her horse in to my place for training. Its going to work out to be an extra almost $500.00 per month for us as long as he's here for only about 4 hours worth of work per week. That's HUGE. Straight away that money is going to go into savings. I'm going to put away money so that I can have some ready to buy more hay when we run out of what we have, put aside enough to pay for the renewal of my business insurance, and then start setting it aside for possibly buying a trailer so that we can haul the hay feeders on our OWN. It should only take about 6 or 8 months of him being with me in order to accomplish all of that. I'm THRILLED at the opportunity that the universe has blessed me with - both in therms of the monetary gift, as well as the opportunity to work with a lovely little horse that will give me a chance to learn more and expand my skills again. Thank you universe!
I rushed around like crazy yesterday... drove over 100 miles by the time it was all said and done. Got up, took the dogs out, fed Grace and Storm, drove to my friend TO's place, fed 2 horses and the cat, drove around to the next driveway and fed GH's 2 horses, drove to work. Found out they needed a hearing aid in one of the satellite offices that afternoon, left work a little early to drive out to that office to drop it off, then drove to S's farm to go over the routine while they were out of town with all 350 chickens and the dog, drove home real quick to change, drove all the way back to the office side of town to the restaurant for the dinner party (had a great time), left there, and drove back to TO's house to take care of the cat (the BF was kind enough to stop by and take care of all the horses for me, but the cat requires going into the house, which is alarmed and he doesn't want to mess with the alarm, I don't blame him I hate messing with the alarm!). Finally got home and CRASHED!
The office party was lovely. The boss gave us all $100.00 visa cards, which was a surprise, and blessing. Now I might be able to get those stools I was considering getting... We also exchanged our last gift of our secret santa exchange. The hilarious part was that I had AM's name, and she had mine! She gave me a tervis cup with a horse and my name on it in purple and a candle. I was delighted! She loved the mug I gave her with the dunkin gift card.
Got a text this morning from S that he's not feeling well enough for them to travel, so that takes the chickens off the hook. I'm a bit relieved because having all 3 friends out of town at once is crazy, especially because the chickens have to be cared for at specific times. I'm bummed for him, but hopefully he'll reschedule the trip to a time when I'm not so busy! LOL
I'm in the office today, and then I'm not coming back until Monday!! I'm ready for a break, and ready to be able to breathe and catch up around my house. There's a reason I only work part time! So grateful for the check, but I need a break. The weather should be clear, but cold, until the weekend, so I'm hoping to get some serious work sessions in with Storm. My plan for Othello (the new horse) is to put him by himself for a day or so, which he's used to, to get him used to the property and to me providing his food. Then I'll put Storm in with him so they can bond and Storm can start teaching him to be a real horse. Then once they've settled good, I'll put the two of them into the pasture. I have a second new horse coming in on Friday as well, so that's going to be tricky juggling both, but hopefully she will get settled in quickly so that I can add Storm and Othello in without too much trouble. The weather over the weekend is supposed to be nasty raining, but hopefully it won't be too difficult for Othello to be taken care of. Hopefully I'll also be able to get started right away working with him. I have my instructors first two books on basic handling and ground work, so I'll be following that program to put a proper foundation on him, since no one ever bothered to do that for him. I think he'll come around fast, he's unconfident, and just doesn't know. But he's young enough and smart enough to figure it out quickly.

 

[hqueen13]

Tried to sleep in. It didn't work. At least I didn't get out of bed. Finishing my tea then I have to get my day started.
I need to take the dogs out, then go do chores at my friend's places.
I need to go to BJ's for a couple of things. I was considering stopping at a few other stores, but I don't think I am.
I am going to eat lunch when I come home and then go work storm. I need to get some serious work in before Othello arrives so storm will be nice and relaxed and balanced.
Beyond that the house could use some cleaning. But I don't know that I'll get to it.
I have to run a few more errands later today, and do evening chores, but I guess we'll see how the day goes.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I tried to sleep in too... didn't work. Too many years of being an early riser. Hope your day goes well!

 

[Denim Deb]

Every time I try to sleep in, I end up waking up earlier than normal!

 

[hqueen13]

Well, the bjs run was a flop, I never made it. I wasnt feeling all that great. I did get mashed potatoes made for dinner, and thawed the beef for chili to cook later after I got back.
I worked storm in the afternoon and he was a pistol. He was all worked up, I hope it was just the fact that he hasn't been worked in 3 weeks, but he was acting like he'd never been out of the barn yard. So frustrating.
I headed to run the errands I had to get done, I picked up the farm order and stopped by the creamery for more milk and ground beef. I found they had bacon now for $10/lb, which is pretty good for good quality farm bacon. Ran by my friend's horses to feed, and then headed home again.
The bf got home right after that, he worked a full day and had a rough day on top of that. The bf attempted to help me with the chili until we both discovered that we were missing ingredients. Ugh. It ended up being fish sticks and mashed potatoes for dinner. Not exactly the healthiest. At least the potatoes were home grown and home made.
We decided we weren't going to his cousin's house for NYE, we were both tired, and his cousin was just sick with the 24hr bug on Sunday. It was only Wednesday, she has kids in her house, and I want interested in finding out the hard way that the germs weren't gone. I couldn't believe she was hosting a party that soon after having been sick. I think they were doing a bonfire and it was supposed to be 24, that's a little too cold to sit around a fire, thanks. So we stayed home and ended up in bed at 9. Woke up to the massive amount of fireworks, and feel back asleep again.
I didn't have the greatest day yesterday, I think I'm feeling the effects of PMSing on top of a bad diet, which only makes it worse.
We did manage to get the BJ's run and grocery store accomplished, though not without a little moodiness.
We finally got home andhad to repair a fence section that had been broken for a long time. I decided that we must get a cordless nail gun. If I'm going to manage foxing fences by myself, we must have a nail gun. We found we only had 1 more 16' board, and it wasn't long enough to span the whole section, so we ended up having to patch it back together with the existing broken boards. It'll hold, but it's not pretty.
We finally fixed the chili we tried to have the night before. We had a decent evening, and crashed into bed.
Othello was supposed to arrive today, but his owner LH is sick, so I'm not sure when that's happening. I'll get a little more work time in with storm today, hopefully, and then try to do some cleaning.
My ex was supposed to come up with his GF tomorrow, but they've canceled due to her being sick and the weather on Saturday now mumbling about snow and rain. So most of our plans for the next couple days have fallen apart, which is kinda ok by me. We'll just have to see how things go.

 

[Denim Deb]

Can't blame you for not wanting to get sick. I wouldn't want to either.

 

[hqueen13]

So far, so good.
The weekend was nice, especially since the bf got home really early on Friday.
I spent the weekend a little crabby but thankfully it wasn't too bad. It rained all weekend, so we ran errands and stayed at home mostly. We ended up making 2 trips to the Mill to get supplies for Othello and the barn. Some days are like that.
We ended up at his parents house to easy dinner and watch the game on Saturday night. That was nice, I miss watching football.
Yesterday I was in the office, I was glad since it was crazy windy. I had intended to work Othello when I got home, but when I struggled to walk from the car to the house I scraped that plan. I just didn't have the energy to fight the wind and deal with the horse.
Crashed into bed pretty early after checking on him one more time.
Today I slept as late as I could muster which was nice and needed. There was already about an inch on the ground when I got moving. Took the dogs out and cleaned the car off to go take care of my friend's horses. Drove crazy slow on not clear roads all the way there, finally seeing plows on my way home. Of course at 19 degrees the salt doesn't work quite as well.
Got home and took care of the horses, finally got Grace to eat her medication for her snotty nose. Fed Othello and then worked him in the round pen for the first time. He did really well. He gets concerned, but is really manageable and easy to control. He really is a gem. Finished in the round pen and took him back in the barn and worked on standing to groom and picking up his feet a bit. He still seems overly sensitive in ways that don't seem normal. I need to figure out if this is reasonable, or if he may have an issue that is going on. Brushed his mane a bit and worked on touching his legs without him moving. He is much better on the left than right. Not surprising I guess. It bales me how a horse can be a stallion for the first 5 years of his life and have so little ground manners and experience. Very sad, really.
Finished cleaning up the barn, then took the dogs for a walk. I'm really tired now and I have a lot of stuff I should be doing! I consisted working storm today in the snow, too, but I don't know if I'll have the energy or not. I need to do some more baking and the floor desperately needs to be vacuumed.
Now that I'm done with my lunch break, I need to get moving on something....

 

[frustratedearthmother]

You are constant motion! And, now I'm tired too, lol!