hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

Finally got an answer - EPM. Apparently his symptoms aren't classic, or are no where near what a "normal" horse would present with, he's basically symptom free in the field, and walking around he looks 99% normal. It's just in his stall that he does the head pressing into the wall thing and looks so terrible. So he starts meds this week, and hopefully he'll improve. She and I will reasses whether or not to continue doing the treatment I was doing after next week.

Well, this weekend was sort of productive.

And we went and did a wine tasting and didn't actually buy any wine. Whoa, what is that!?

Saturday we got up really early and headed to do a farm tour on a historic thoroughbred farm near here. I was impressed the tour was an hour and a half, and thankfully the humidity was low and the temps stayed reasonable. They showed us the original barn, which has a 1/4 mile track in it that is enclosed, so you could train all through the winter. The stalls were not too small, but they were really dark, with black walls (cleanable), and almost no windows, and the horses couldn't see each other. They did have half doors, so at least they could see out, but still, it was not all that pleasant. They don't use that barn anymore, it's only maintained for historical purposes. The new track that they have is an amazing surface. It drains so well that it doesn't matter how much it rains, you can still run on it. And you can even run on it in the rain. And of course, since the farm is owned by the owner of Under Armor it has lycra in the track, which is from shredded t-shirts. It was pretty, though not nearly as picturesque as I expected. I was a little disappointed that we didn't get to go up to the house that over looks the farm, that would have been where the best photo ops would have been.

We attempted to go get breakfast after that, but the place I wanted to go was way too busy, so we just grabbed Panera (cheaper anyway), and then headed to the winery. I used to get free tastings for up to 4 people because I was a member of their case club. Apparently now they've changed the system and they have a real "wine club" and so I can't get free tastings. I was a little bummed we had to pay for them, but it was nice to be back there, I really enjoy the wine. We made a quick stop so I could return the boots that I bought since they didn't end up fitting (I'm SO bummed!), and then wandered our way home through some beautiful country roads so that we could show the BF's brother's girlfriend around a bit more.

We managed to make it home in time to make a dump run, which was a good thing. We actually had a lot less trash than I realized, but it was STINKY, so I was glad to get it out of there since we won't be able to do a run this weekend. We tossed out some of the old terribly warped pool cues that were in the house, too, which was a good thing. I'm still in a clearing out and getting rid of mood, and it makes me feel so much better to have things GONE.

My parents are coming into town Wednesday, and I'm in hyper cleaning mode. Sunday I managed to get the basement vacuumed (took forever cause it was GROSS dirty!), and ran about 3 loads of laundry very carefully through our washer and dryer. I got the beds made for my parents (we only have full size beds, and they sleep on a king, so they insist on sleeping in separate beds when they visit), and vacuumed the office since that room has the folding bed. I was very grateful that the BF was able to get the rest of the upstairs vacuumed while I was out doing my farm chores for the evening.

Today and tomorrow will be long days. I'm in the office both days, and I need to go back to my friend's place in the evening tonight, so I'll run home, make dinner and hopefully get some things cleaned, and then run back to her house to take care of the cats and horses. Tomorrow I have to go do chores at my barn to make up for being away next week for a few days, and so I'll just go straight there after the office, which means I'll get nothing done tomorrow evening. Hopefully the BF can get some things taken care of instead. Wednesday I will be moving at the speed of light, I have to run to my friend's place in the morning, then hustle home and get started with cleaning the last few things. I need to take care of the chinchilla cage, vacuum that part of the basement, mop the kitchen, run the vacuum through the rest of the house real fast (mom is allergic to animals, so I try to make sure I vacuum really good before she gets here), clean the bathrooms, and shower before they arrive some time in the middle of the afternoon.
While they're here I'm going to put them to work, if it's too hot outside to do some weeding, which I desperately need to catch up on, then I'll set them to work organizing and figuring out what kind of old records are sitting down there so we can work on getting rid of those. I doubt they're valuable, but if I don't look then who knows what I might be missing out on.

We're planning on going to the beach, but I don't know when we'll leave. I'm toying with staying through at least part of the day on Saturday to try to get some mulching done in one of the garden beds with their help. The down side is that it's going to be HOT. Like 97 hot. I'm NOT happy about that. And neither is our power bill. So it goes. We'll see how much I can manage to get done in the mean time.
 
LOL, FEM, I exhaust me most of the time!
I could have kept sleeping this morning. I'm so tired from all the extra work. I don't mind it when HR goes out of town because it's a pretty fat check, especially when they're gone for a week as they are currently. However, it's a LOT more work than almost all my other farm jobs (except the chickens... that's a LOT of work!), and I can't be there too early in the evening or the ponies will have made a royal mess of their stalls by morning and then it takes me longer to clean them. So that means going back out at the end of the day after I've been at home.
We have managed to get most of the house cleaned up, there's only a few more things to do, and a fairly manageable list for tomorrow, especially if the BF gets a good amount of work done while I'm out doing chores tonight. I have to go to the barn to make up for not being there on Sunday while we're away. I'm not thrilled about having to be there so many extra days (at this point I was there Thursday, then Saturday, Sunday, bring in on Monday morning, tonight, and then again on Thursday, and also bring in on Friday morning since I have to make up for next Monday morning, too...)
I did talk to JO about the stall that's open at her barn, come to find out the owners brought on a gal to "manage" the barn in exchange for a free stall (and maybe some pay, I'm not sure). Apparently they had talked to her a month or so ago, and decided to bring her on. JO said the board will be going up BUT they will only have to feed a few times a month, which is pretty cool. She said there will still be 1 stall left open, so she's going to let me know as soon as they announce what the board is going up to. If it's still reasonable, I may take it. With it being closer to home, and fewer hours to work even if it is as much or a hair more than I'm paying now it will reduce my stress level, gas consumption, and give me more energy to devote to my business, which would be welcome at this point. I may also talk to this new manager and negotiate to work a few extra days or something in an attempt to lower my board a little bit if it's too high. We'll see how it goes. JO said they should know something by the beginning of August which is when this new gal starts. I just hope they don't raise the price of board up to the standard for full care in the area, because they would be WAY more than I'm willing to pay right now, and frankly if I were already boarding at the barn I would be pissed about that. We'll see what happens anyway.
Not much else to report. Just trying to get things cleaned up and taken care of. I'll have about an hour when I get home today to take care of a few things before I have to head to the barn. I'm going to try to get the last few things dusted (the BF got most of it done yesterday, but forgot the night stands in the bedroom, and didn't get to the basement), and then I might try to get the bathrooms cleaned as well, or at least the toilets and sinks, and I'll do the tub tomorrow after I soak for a bit (I'm gonna need it I think...). That will only leave vacuuming the house real quick, taking care of the chinchilla cage and running a load of laundry tomorrow, which is really doable. I have some biz stuff to take care of, but I should have everything managed really well by the time they arrive. They'd just better not arrive too early is all I have to say!
 
My parents arrived yesterday evening later than they originally expected, but that shouldn't surprise me by now. They always find trouble to get into along the way! This time it was a lavender farm or something like that. Good for them for being retired... but I would have liked to have had them there earlier, but oh well. I actually got everything done that I wanted to get done, and it was finished by the time I THOUGHT they were getting here. They did manage to roll in just before a huge rain storm that dumped 1 3/8" in about 45 minutes. We got the car unloaded just before it hit, so that was good. But then we waited until after it blew over before we left so that I could run down to the HR's farm and then we grabbed dinner. I didn't want to eat out, but we had planned to cook burgers, and that wasn't going to work so well since it was storming. So it goes.
I'm in the office for a long day, then I have to go do barn chores and then stop at HR's for the final visit. I think I'm going to leave a little earlier than I would for the barn, and stop to take care of the cats first. The kittens have made a mess of the crates, so I'm going to clean that up a bit, and let them have some play time in the daughter's room. I haven't let them out in 2 days and I'm sure they're ready to run around a little. They've been so much calmer since the 3rd one has been at the vet's office because he ate part of the towel in his crate (long story..... you probably don't want to know....). At least if I get the cats done before the barn then all I'll have to do is stop back by and put the ponies in their stall really quickly, so it won't take me but a minute or two. Hopefully it won't be storming, there's more rain in the forecast again.
After tonight I won't have to be back in a barn until Wednesday evening when Cowboy and Coyote's owners leave. That's a bit of a relief!
The storm last night was pretty bad, especially down where HR is (which is where we used to live). This morning driving down to the office after I left her place the corn fields were FLATTENED. I don't think I've ever seen it that bad. There were lots of limbs down and debris along the roads. It wasn't that bad at our house, other than the fact that the rain dumped fast.
Not much else to report. I have no idea when we're leaving to head down to the beach, but the break will be nice. I'm hoping we can get a few things done around the house before we leave, too. The gardens desperately need to be weeded, and I need to get the nasty invasive vine out of the azaleas. I think the BF wants to try to finish up the siding on the shed, too, which is almost done now that he has the soffit in place. He also has to install the little window, and build the doors and then we'll be ready to move everything and tear down the old one! I'm SO excited about that!
 
Things are rolling along. Hope that shed gets done soon! Shame that the corn fields were damaged - hope it wasn't too widespread. Farmers have enough trouble...

Have fun at the beach - whenever you get there!
 
Thanks yall!
We had a great trip, though the first several days were HOT HOT HOT. Geez. Finally, Monday night the weather broke and Tuesday was gorgeous. Well, cloudy and it started raining in the afternoon, but so nice to be outside and not roasting. We spent too much money, and had a lot of fun, and came home earlier than planned so that we could keep working on stuff on Wednesday. Dad and the BF worked on the shed some more, and then went to the dump to get a load of mulch. Mom and I followed the shade around the house and got a lot of weeding done. She helped me get the nasty vines out of several of the shrubs and get weed killer painted on them to try to kill them (again). I can't wait to get everything mulched down so that it looks nice. The BF bought more garden edging a while back, and it will be great to get that put in and have everything looking good. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with it after that again.

Other than that, not much to report. Mom and dad don't leave until tomorrow, and then I'll have to get everything picked up real quick since KN comes in Fri night. I'll be exhausted most of the weekend, but hopefully we can take it fairly easy. I'd like to keep working on projects, but we'll see how that goes.

Before we left for the beach (while it was so cussed hot) mom and dad started to help me get the records organized that had been left in the house. We started making a list of them just to try to figure out what we have, in case we have anything that's worth something. We have recorded 120 45's already. We didn't even start the 78's or whatever.... who knows how many of them there are. It's going to be a chunk of change to whoever wants to purchase them from us for sure. I hope that we can get that wrapped up soon so that we can get them OUT of the house. They need to move on. It's past time. There's also a tent that we need to get sold, too, but that will happen as soon as we start moving stuff around in the shed. Hopefully that will be soon, too. We'll see how that goes.

Not much else to report at this point. Just trying to keep things moving along and not exhaust myself in the process!
 
The heat has been horrid - but we got a very unusual cool-ish front a couple days ago. Think today is the last day we'll be semi-comfortable for awhile. That's ok though, I'm just grateful for heat indices less than 120!

Going through all those records sounds tedious! But, I'm doing the same thing with a bunch of mom's old jewelry. Whew...there's a lot.

Have fun with the time you have left with your folks!
 
Thanks FEM!
We did have a good rest of their trip. They went through more records while I wasn't home on Thursday, and we're up to about 120, and that's probably about half of what is there. I'm expecting that we'll have about 300 total. Most of them likely won't be worth much, but there may be a few that are worth a decent amount. My dad is going to email me the spreadsheet that he has put together when they get home and then I'll have to see if I can sit down and get it finished sooner rather than later so I can start researching to see if we can get them SOLD and OUT of the basement! I'd LOVE to have the cash!

We managed not to spend too much this weekend. We did go shopping on Saturday evening. I had a $50 gift card to Kohl's, plus $10 in Kohl's cash. We wandered to see what was inspiring, and decided to get new pillows. I also had a bunch of our selfies that we had never framed, so we found 7 picture frames. We walked out of there with the total coming to $73. So we spent a grand total of $13, and they gave me $10 more in Kohl's cash, so I'll go back next week and see about getting a few more pictures or some pillow covers or something. I need to get the rest of our selfies ordered, plus I have to order the right size of the batch I have, I accidentally ordered 4x6 instead of 5x7.

The weather has been better, still warm, but the humidity is tolerable, which is helping. We got a lot done outside this weekend, too. The BF put the edging in on the new bed under the bedrooms in front of the house. I got most of the front bed under the living room window weeded, and he finished that for me last night. We just need to rake the mulch in and those beds will be DONE. We're going to need to buy more edging to get the bed by the a/c unit in the back edged, dad mulched it before they left. And then we need to weed, mulch and get the edging put in for the forsythia bush by the mailbox. We're a few feet short of having enough for that. I swear it takes more feet of edging to do garden beds than I think it should.

I had a lesson this weekend, and Storm did great. He was rather spicy, I think he was mad that I didn't take him and put him in his stall and give him his breakfast. He's obviously feeling good again. He bucked going both ways on the lunge line when we started, and he even cantered up the hill a couple times as we were working. It was amusing, and I managed to stay mostly seated as he worked through things. My legs were jello when I finished, though!

Not much else to report. Finally got the house picked up from the beach trip, and got all that put away. Only took almost a whole week to do it... LOL This week I think Cowboy and Coyote's owners are actually going to be here, so I might get a break for a bit, which would be good for my gas funds. We'll see how long that break lasts...
 
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