hqueen's collection of Far From the Usual stuff.

Thanks, FEM!
I had a meeting with MR from the new barn yesterday to discuss some of the options in a little bit more detail. I realized in thinking through the layout that it was going to be much more challenging to manage than I think she realized. There is a fairly flat pasture that is attached to a barn yard which has a shed in it. Then there is a second pasture that's a very STEEP hill, down and up the other side, and then there is a 3rd pasture all the way in the back on top of the far hill. She's got space, but the terrain means that the 2nd pasture in the middle she won't be able to use full time. Really, it will only be able to be a summer pasture and she probably shouldn't use it if it's raining a lot, either. I explained to her when we met yesterday that there was no way she was going to be able to maintain 2 herds in the 2 pastures just because of the terrain alone. In winter that 2nd pasture would get eaten down, and then would turn to mud, and then when the rains came again it would all wash down the hill, and the grass would never grow again. So she understands that she's only going to be able to have 1 herd of horses, and that whatever that looks like - either a mixed her of mares and geldings or just a herd of geldings, is what it will be. She realized that she was going to need to decide certain things and then stick to them and not be too accomodating of people, or attempting to accomodate them because it just wasn't going to work. I also told her that the only way I could bring Storm was if she either took the wall down in the last stall to make it bigger, or if she just agreed that he would be field boarded and always have access to the shed. She understood that, and was fine working with that. So as of right now, we'll just leave that funky stall in the back and let him live in the shed. I'll still have to pay for hay, which kind of stinks, and the board is higher than what I'm paying now, but the work load will be lower, even if I have to stop by more days/times. As of right now it'll just be him and 2 mini's, so that will be pretty dang easy. I told her that if she ended up filling the barn up with full care boarders, and we needed to do more work and/or muck stalls, that we could have another conversation about knocking some more off of my board to compensate for the additional work. I really don't mind doing work when I feel like I'm being compensated for it. That's been the issue with the co-op I end up feeling like I'm doing more work when another horse comes in instead of less work, and that's now how it should be when you add someone to the group.
SO I guess that's going to work itself out as well.
Not much else to report. Hopefully things will settle down soon enough, I'm ready for some relaxation!
 
I'm thinking by the end of the month, FEM. I'm not really happy about a few things about it, namely that it's going to cost me $50 more per month than I'm already paying. That's a HUGE stretch for my budget. I do have a couple more phone numbers to call today that came from my accountant, so we'll see if that pans anything out. I have been toying with the idea of just moving to get out from under TM so I don't have to stress about that any more, but continuing to look for a better situation. The pros are that it will get him closer to home, and out of a stall. The cons are it will mean visiting 2x day EVERY day, at least until there is someone else willing to share a day or two. So the up side is that I'll be able to care for him the way I want to. The down side is that I won't have any days off. I'm also not totally confident that the woman that is running this barn has a real grasp on the challenges that the property presents, and how to really run it right so that it doesn't turn into a mess. SO I don't really know what's going on. I need to call the other contacts that my accountant gave me and see if that turns up anything positive.

The weekend wasn't really all that productive. The BF spent it helping his brother on Saturday and then his dad yesterday, so he wasn't really home. I didn't do much, though I did get the financial tracking caught up for February, which was nice. I got some work done in my business, and mostly puttered around. I finally dug up the Osprey that I had buried to collect the bones (I'm weird), and that was interesting. They are beautiful, and very interesting. Other than that, I didn't do much at all.
The weather was really beautiful Sunday and Monday, but now it's gray again with rain coming in tonight. Hopefully it won't be too much. I need to make a grocery run tonight, I think it will be a bigger shop, which I'm not excited about, but it is what it is. It needs to be done...
While I'm not panicking by any stretch, I am a bit aware of the whole corona virus thing, so I have been trying to think through having enough food on hand for a while. We actually have more than I think we have, I just forget about it. I've got 3 chickens in the freezer that I could cook, so I need to make sure that I'm prepared to handle that if I need to. It would do us good to cook them anyway, because then I can make stock. I just haven't slowed down long enough to cook the chickens, and I'm a little intimidated to do it anyway. I need to just get over that and do it. Of course, that also requires thawing said chickens, and that's actually what I'm most worried about, that I won't have time to cook them when they're done thawing (or that I'll expect them to be done thawing and they won't be done in time when I'm ready to cook them). My brain sure does make a mess of things sometimes!
Not much else to discuss, I suppose. Just trying to keep on keeping on.
 
Well, yesterday didn't go as planned...
If yall have been hanging around long enough you know that the BF has had phobia of going to the dentist. I'm SO super proud of him right now! He started feeling some tooth pain over the weekend, and it hadn't subsided, so he asked me to call and see when he could get in. They were able to see him yesterday morning, and the dentist couldn't isolate where the issue was, and while they discussed that it could be sinus pressure, she decided it was better to send him to the specialist just in case. I'm very glad that it was my day off, and I was able to adjust my schedule. I bumped breakfast back with a friend of mine so I could be with him at the first appointment, and then he sent me to breakfast and said that he'd be fine going to see the endodontist. I'm SUPER proud of him for that! He went up there, and they checked him out, and decided that he did need a root canal, and were kind enough to squeeze him in that day. I finished brunch and headed up there to be with him through that. He was a real trooper, and did super well through that appointment. The doctor was funny and very sweet. I really appreciated that they were able to fit him in so that he didn't have to be in pain any more. He won't get his crown until the 9th, but at least he's mostly out of pain for now.
I left there and went and caught up with another friend, and helped her get curtains hung in the doorway of her new message suite that she's opening, then we went to lunch. I feel very blessed that my friends take good care of me, because they both paid for my meals yesterday!
Breakfast was actually with GH, and it was SO good to catch up with her. I don't get to see her much since they are always out of town. I told her that I really needed to move Storm, and she was asking if he could come to their place. She's so super sweet about things like that and wants to help. SH had said that he couldn't come there before, citing some rule or something, but I told GH that nobody actually checks those things and that the only way you ever have a problem is if you don't take care of the property and someone complains. So I'm sure she'll go home and talk to SH about it, and if she can convince him then I'm sure she will. He's a stickler for rules, though, so we'll see. I would REALLY love it if Storm were there though because it would make my life SO much easier. Even if they cut my pay some to compensate for it, I'm ok with that because it would free up SO much more of my time. I'd gain almost 8 hours of my life back that I lose having to take care of chores in the barn currently. I would only have to go to 1 place in order to take care of their horses and my own, and it would be so much nicer to not have to run around to so many places. I'm not going to hold my breath knowing SH, but it would be really really really super nice if that works out.
I did get some calls back from the folks that my accountant referred me to. They're slightly unusual situations, but I have a feeling that they all have quite a bit of money. The gentleman that I called doesn't run a boarding barn, but he's got a farm that he keeps polo ponies on. I could tell he's got quite a bit of cash. He was currently in Colorado skiing when I called. The other lady was very sweet, but a little bit hard to understand due to her accent. She has a farm that's not too far away, but it was difficult to understand exactly what she had to offer. She told me that I could come for a visit on Sunday, so I'll have to call and arrange that, just to check it out. It's a little out of the way, but not terribly so, and likely no worse than where I'm boarding already. So at least there's a few more options. I haven't said anything to the other woman yet about not going there, but I'll see how things pan out. GH's would be the best thing, but I don't know that it will work out.
Not much else happening. I'm thoroughly enjoying not having any extra barns to go to this week. I can dress in normal people clothes and go straight home when I'm done in the afternoon. It's lovely! It's also saving me in gas! GH and SH will leave again on Monday, so I'll be back at it again, which isn't bad, either. The break is really nice, though.
I need to get caught up around the house, hopefully I can do that on Friday. I don't have any other plans other than regular barn chores and yoga. I do have a call that I have to take care of for my business, but other than that I'm at home, so hopefully I can get caught up on a few things. My desk is a mess, and I'm still in the middle of the artwork for my parents. I really need to finish that, but I've kind of stalled out. That's what happens when I'm not as happy with a piece as I'd like to be. I bought a few more pens, so hopefully I can get back to it again.
 
Really glad your BF got his dental issue taken care of and that he was able to do so without much angst and/or pain. Hope you're able to find the best spot for Storm. I know you'll be glad when all that is worked out!
 
Thanks, yall!
Yes he's slowly figuring out that it's a LOT easier to do it NOW and take care of it than it is to wait! I'm so relieved!!

OMG Yall. Friday I went to the grocery store and BJ's. That was AWFUL.
BJ's was OUT of EVERYTHING. No bread, pasta, sauce, butter, sour cream, or frozen veggies... I was only able to find 2 of the five things on my list. I decided it wasn't worth it to stand in line and wait for that when I didn't absolutely HAVE to have those things anyway.
Left there and headed to Wegmans (which is like the best of the best grocery stores in our area). The parking lot was pretty full, but the store didn't seem too bad on the inside. That is until I started shopping. Same things... AND the fresh vegetables were pretty much gone, too. Thankfully most of my list there was mostly supplemental to help cook meals like spices and things. I did stock up on a few more meats to make sure I could toss those in the freezer. I'm just banking on the fact that they'll be stocked back up this week because I need veggies! There's about 1/4 of a bag of frozen veggies left in the freezer and that's IT! And then I tried to check out.... this store is HUGE, yall, it has 20 registers. And normally there's 5-10 open. Almost ALL 20 were open.... and they had routed a single line around the side of the store, more than half way to the back when I got in it. There were 3 people managing the lines, sending people to specific registers as soon as each register cleared someone. It was impressive to say the least. I thanked every person that I walked past. It isn't even that bad at thanksgiving. I finally got out of there and headed home. We did decide to do one more quick run to grab grass seed and a couple parts for the pressure washer that evening as well.
The fun part was we stayed home the whole weekend!
Saturday morning we got up and did a dump run, which was long overdue. That was nice to get taken care of. We got home and the BF got the pressure washer running (yay mostly free gifts!), and so we pressure washed the rugs. He started brush hogging again while I finished that. Then I did some work in the garden beds. I cleaned out last year's growth from the Irises, and weeded all the other beds. If only weeding were this easy year round. The BF helped the neighbor with a few things, and then we finally got the grass seed spread, or at least part of it. It was due to rain a bit over night so that is always helpful for the seed.
Sunday we got a slow start, and finally got out to start detailing the cars at about 11. We vacuumed, wiped down, and windexed all 3 vehicles. That took several hours (they were DIRTY. :sick). The BF FINALLY started washing and waxing my truck late in the afternoon. I came in and folded the 3 loads of laundry that had been sitting for over a week, and then started dinner and made pan fried pork chops (best way to eat them, really). I now need to add bread crumbs to the list for the grocery store. :rolleyes:
Got up this morning ready to head to the office, and found that my truck battery was dead. The battery pack was dead also (of course). And the jumper cables wouldn't reach to the pickup truck across the driveway which was parked in by the brush hog mower deck so I couldn't move the pickup truck. I gave up at that point. Texted TM and asked her to swap my morning chores to tomorrow (I knew she wasn't going to have an early morning since her kid is now home from school due to the closures), and then texted the office and let them know I'd be working from home. I wanted to stay home and I guess the universe delivered. So I'm on my couch with my cat working today, which is so way better than being in the office! Thankfully Cowboy and Coyote's owners are home a little longer, so I won't need to go over there until Wednesday evening, unless their travel changes again (sort of hoping that it does...), so today I don't have to worry about it. I'm planning on attempting to go to the store again tomorrow afternoon, but I might do that this afternoon, I guess I'll wait and see. I don't want to go at all, but at this point I need to attempt to stock up on some things so I might as well.
So, fun times.... glad that I am as prepared as I am... which is no where near as prepared as I'd like to be! (there's a freeze dryer in my future somewhere, I swear!!!)
 
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