Friday Ponderings

I may be a worrywart but this weather is fantastic. I didn’t get a chance to ride last night but at least doing chores was super easy. No coveralls, no frozen water buckets, no cranky horses. As long as we get some type of moisture to keep the pastures and the hay ground going, I’ll not worry. Warmer weather makes a huge difference with the horses. They are all less grumpy and in general content to stand around and do nothing.

I’ll admit that it is still a little odd not to run to the barn the minute I get home from work to get Sam started on his grain or have someone banging on the barn door demanding they be let in for their evening meal. Maybe that’s why I think it’s so quiet now in the herd. Although, Bo lets me know in no uncertain terms that I need to get out there and grain him. He’s vocal, probably the most vocal out of the entire herd (except maybe Queen when it comes to her grain).

It almost hurt my feelings going in the house last night after chores. It was dark but still so warm and gorgeous out. Weird to say something like that at 7pm on a January evening. With the warmer weather, I don’t think we are running through as much hay as normal, which is a good thing. I’m trying to figure out if we’ll have any extra hay for this summer (to feed Babe and Thor). I’m still worried about hay and hay prices for this coming year. I’m still pinching pennies to pay for this year’s hay.

We pushed a round bale in the blind pen last night. I typically just throw the grain dishes over the gate but because we had to push a round bale in, I had to coax Thor and Babe to a different spot. They love their routine and were a little disgruntled that I wasn’t feeding them right at the gate. They got over it pretty quick. I left the gate open when I brought in the grain. Queen decided she’d be “sneaky” (if it’s possible for a 34 year old arthritic appaloosa mare to be sneaky) and wandered out of the pen, thinking the grain would be out there instead of in the pen. It took her only a minute to realize she had to come back into the pen to get her grain. I didn’t want to scold her for “sneaking” out. I left the gate open to see what exactly she would do. I try to humor her as much as I possibly can. Any horse that’s 34 years old should be humored and get whatever they want.

This morning when I went to check on the blind pen, Babe was curled up in her normal sleeping spot snoozing away. I love watching her sleep. There’s just something so relaxing about watching a horse sleep. While Babe was snoozing, Queen and Thor were having an indepth discussion. I’m not sure what they were “talking” about but I interrupted them. They both moved away from each other and acted like they hadn’t been “talking” to each other. It was rather funny. Ok, so I’m easily amused. But it really does make my heart happy to see that those two are bonding as strongly as they are. I know Thor had a thing for Queen when I put Thor in with them after Joe’s passing. I didn’t think Thor would be attached to Queen after over a year but I guess you can’t pick your kid’s friends. But I am happy to see that everyone in the blind pen is doing so well. I sleep easier knowing those three are pretty well bonded.

This weekend is a horse auction. I’m not sure if I’ll go or not. No matter what, I’d have to sit on my hands. Anyone want to go with?

We need to focus on major repairs this year. Sometimes I think it’s a blessing to have moved in to an old farm place and other times I think it’s a curse. Last night Mike and I had a lengthy conversation about a gate. The fence post is rotting off and the gate is starting to lean. It would normally be an easy fix except that the fence post is surrounded by concrete. I know I’m not explaining it well, but there’s no way to reset a new fence post with how the concrete and fence line up. We discussed our options on how to improve it (in the dark while Maverick kept pestering Mike…hahahaha). I’m glad to be where we are but I expect we’ll be spending 2012 repairing things that break. Usually we spend about a year making improvements and spend two years fixing things that break. I think we are to year two of fixing things that break. Knock on wood all of the items that have broken haven’t been serious or catastrophic. I think we’ll be spending most of 2012 fencing.