Friday Ramblings

I definately need to add some new pictures. This blog gets boring without color! I think Sam is enjoying his blanket even if it is too big. I tried to shorten up the leg straps with duct tape but it still gets caught up in his legs. I need to figure out how to shorten the blanket around the front instead of the back to see if that helps.

I think Sam is done mourning Bob. He seems a lot happier. Although I do think Sam was a bit peeved with me for kicking him out of the barn so early last night. He didn't get enough time to really eat all of his alfalfa sliver. I'm hoping to make up for it tonight since I'm sneaking out of work a little early.

Sam really is a goofball once you get to know him. At first he was pretty standoffish. Any time I went to pet him he'd flinch just a little but he's fine with me now. He is a little uncomfortable with me giving him hugs but he'll just have to deal with it! :-) He really has a spot in my heart.

It's still snowing, just flurries. I thought I heard or read that we are supposed to get a wave of arctic air next week along with about three inches of snow. I guess I should have expected winter to arrive at any time. I don't yet have everything winterized.

I need to switch Maverick over to a smaller water trough. He currently has a 100 gallon trough but with the freezing temps I don't want to mess with that big tank. I don't want to use that big tank because we still have to carry buckets of water out to him and I can't run an extension cord/heater from the hay barn. The hay barn actually pulls from the horse barn and we are pretty well maxed out on how much stuff I can plug in and pull off that circuit. The only other option would be to move the water trough farther away and use the red shed's outlet. Once again we'd have to have a long extension cord and the water trough would be exposed to all the elements. So in the long run it might be a pain to use a smaller water bucket but it's the safer option.

I'll continue to use the big 100 gallon water trough for the mares. The trough is right against the chicken coop which is always so warm. I can also plug the water heater into the chicken coop since it doesn't draw it's electricity from the horse barn. The only disadvantage is having to haul water over. Once we get the "people" gate rigged correctly it'll be easier to haul water to the horses.

Poor Longhorn. Skippy was picking on him this morning at breakfast. Unfortunately Longhorn is a kicker. They got into a scuffle this morning and Longhorn hurt his right rear leg kicking. I think he just stunned it but I could tell he was really upset. Since he doesn't really like the touch of humans, I voted against checking out his leg for fear of getting my head knocked off. He was already standing on his injured leg when I finished with chores. My guess is that the kick hurt and he stunned his leg. I'll have to check on him closer tonight. If I could only figure out how to get him tamed down faster.

Tomorrow is the Sioux Falls Regional Livestock horse sale. I'm worried. I'm betting there's going to be tons of horses run through the loose portion of the sale. The catalog sale only had about 20 horses listed. The sale starts at 11am. I want to make sure I give myself plenty of time to walk through all the horses (and focus mostly on the loose horses). I'm planning on leaving Borderlands around 9am so that will give me an hour of looking before the sale starts. I don't expect the catalog portion of the sale to last very long. I would expect they'll be on to loose horse by 1pm if not earlier. Keep your fingers crossed that there won't be a lot of horses and the killbuyers and brokers wont' show. If anyone is intersted in going with me, just let me know. If you go, pay attention to buyer number 79 and 80. I think those were the two major KBs. I am not allowed to bring any more home. I am tapped out and will be beyond my limit if the person I contacted about a horse responds to me (yet another potential rescue in the works... although I could be over reacting and spending more $$ than I should).

That's it for my Friday ramblings. I'll keep you posted on the horse auction. I have the horses and prices from the October Sale (where I pulled Longhorn). I still need to post that information. I'll also post tomorrow's horses and corresponding prices too. I just need to sit down and find the time.