I did not think that today was going to be a good day. First off, the farrier was coming for LF. Normally for both the farrier and the dentist, I make a loaf of chocolate chip banana bread for Christmas. They both like it and look forward to getting it. So since this is the last time the farrier will be out B4 Christmas, I went ahead and made it this morning. I get to the farm and realize that I left it home.

And I didn't have the time to go home and get it.
I get everyone fed, get hay out and get the field picked-or at least most of it. And I had the cart all hooked up to the truck. Normally, I dump it last thing since I can't back the cart in, so I unhook it and put it next to my fence. This way, I'm not parking my truck in the lane. Well the farrier didn't show up until I was ready to go down the lane, so that meant the lane was blocked down by LF's field. Plus, I wasn't sure how her horses would react to the rattling noise I'd make going down there. So I unhooked the cart and will have to dump it tomorrow first thing. Since it's going to rain on Wednesday, I'll be picking the field tomorrow instead.
I was able to get the tarp down, put the grommets in it and get it back up. It was a bit windier than I was hoping for, but I was able to do it. But by the time I got everything done, it was getting late. I still wanted to work w/Stormy some, so I did that, gave him a quick grooming, fed him, bagged feed and took care of the chickens. Then I left.
Once I got home, I put some wood in the stove, grabbed some leftover pizza to take w/me, hooked up the trailer and went to pick up the horses. I had 4 to pick up. Normally, I won't haul 4, but since these were mini horses, I made an exception. I thought it was going to be easy. But what I didn't know was that one was a stud and the other 3 were mares. So that meant I couldn't put them in the way I wanted. I was going to put 2 in the nose, then just tie the other 2 along the left side. Instead, it meant that I had to put the stud by himself, then shut that compartment off, and have the girls in the other section.
The first indication that there was going to be a problem was when I watched the guy lead the stud towards me. I was going to put him in the front. I figured it would be easier to tie the girls in the back. Horses are herd animals, and if you don't take the lead, the horse will. If the horse is the leader, and doesn't want to go in a trailer, it can be very difficult to get them on. I could tell just by how they were walking that the horse was the leader. And he could not get him on. I tried, even worked w/him for several minutes and STILL couldn't get him on. So, we decided to get the girls on. I was hoping that once he saw them get on, he'd be willing to get on to be w/them.
We go to get the girls. I take one, the wife takes one. She heads out first. I honestly don't know if it was her, or the horse, but she couldn't not get it on. I got the one I was leading on w/no problem and go back for the last one. I get her on, no problem. The one is still not getting on. She's pulling back and rearing. So I take the lead. The wife grabs her tail to try and get her to get her butt on if I can get her close enough when she rears. And she basically picked up the back end of her. We get her in, close the divider and tie her to that. There's a side door out of that area, so we leave that way.
Now there's just the stud. And even w/the girls, he wanted no part of the trailer. But now we knew what to do. I grabbed the lead. The owners got on either side of him and when I pulled, they grabbed the tail and lifted. He found himself on the trailer. I tied him to the divider gate, we closed the door and left.
Get to where we were going. They were all quite happy to get off. The wife's mother just bought the place where we went to. I know her, she's from my church. So she has to show me the house. It's getting late, and I still had to do wood, but I figured I could spare a few minutes to see the house. She shows me all over the downstairs. There's a fireplace in the living room. I asked her if she needed wood. (She's old enough to be my mother) If she needed some, I wasn't sure where I would get it from, but I was going to get some for her. Not only did she not need wood-she's having it converted to a gas fireplace, but there's a huge pile of cut, split and seasoned wood that she told me I could have!!!!!!!!!!!!! I filled up my truck and barely made a dent in the pile! When I got home, I topped off the holder in the basement. There's some that's too long for my stove, so it's all piled on a pallet and covered w/a tarp. It will probably fill the wood holder another time. The rest I stacked in the wood shed.
This weekend, I'm planning on having hubby help me get the area I want to put another wood shed cleaned up. The only reason it hasn't been done already is because there's a ton of stuff there. But, once it's cleaned out and we have another shed there, I'll be going back for more until that shed is filled. I still have a ton of wood that I need to cut and split. It should fill the one wood shed up. Then, I'll burn just what I'm getting from this lady for the rest of the year. And, I'll have both woodsheds FULL when I stop burning for the year. That should mean that I don't have to worry about wood next year either!