In a Nutshell

It's been a little while since I last posted. The days are getting shorter, the paying job is adding more work, school started, and now fall is in the air. I mentioned before that I'm panicked about this winter. Nothing has changed, although I did take one stressor off myself. We'll revisit that idea in another six months.


I need to really refocus my attention on the Sanctuary and I'm struggling. We are still in the  middle of two remodels on the house so my attention has been there. Some days I wonder why I get myself into these predicaments. What I would give to just have someone else do all the maintenance and I could focus on the fun stuff like horses and kids, rather than fencing, painting, and mending everything that breaks. I have now been told that if anything gets done on the house, it has to be me that does it. One more stressor.


Not too long ago we re-fenced the drylot. We'd put up cattle panels before after the original panels were pushed over by the horses. We had to redo that fencing because the horses were climbing the fence and getting out. We went with sturdier fences and fence posts but I'd noticed that they were still climbing the fence. I guess I should have sucked it up and paid for the no-climb fencing instead. Even with a board over the top, it wasn't stopping them from climbing. Who knew horses could climb. So this past weekend, I begged Dad to come down and help put up some electric fencing. It's not perfect but it'll do. I may very well extend the electric to the pasture where the mares are at. I have still not figured out where Bo and Junior escaped. But if I extend the electric all the way around, I KNOW Mayhem won't push on the fence (she is a fence pusher). I won't be able to do any fencing this weekend but maybe a little bit at a time during the week I can get a few things set up.


Junior and Lace are still in Madison and they look great. They both have put on the weight. Junior will always be on the slim side but he's looking good.


I am trying to get a fundraiser going for next month but I'm coming up against a road block. I have all these damn ideas and yet  no follow through and when I do, I run up against road blocks. I need to do fundraising to help offset costs for this year's hay. I got schnookered on the price of hay last year and finally wrote the check. My cash flow is depleted and with winter coming, we need lots of hay and grain to keep everyone up to the proper weight.


The place is looking shabby right now. I am going to have to start taking time off the paying job to do some scraping and painting. I don't really want to do that because the paying job is putting pressure on me so I can't get behind. But I fear that winter will be upon us sooner than expected. There was fog today but I'm not counting that because it wasn't pea soup kind of fog. But I dont' see how we'll not get out of a bad winter this year. It's just my intuition but my intuition has been pretty spot on lately. Lets hope I'm wrong.


I need to spend some time getting organized too. I've let the place become a disaster. But I blame that on being pregnant and then spending this past year trying to simply survive with a baby. So now, I'm trying to get back into the swing of things but before I can do that, I need to get organized and find everything that I've misplaced over the past two years and take a tally of what I'm missing and what needs fixing. They hay shed roof needs to be repaired now too. A small section blew off in some wind and other parts of the roof tin need to be re-secured so that when the wind blows 70mph, it wont' blow off. I do have stalls in the hay shed so I'd rather not lose those stalls because the roof isnt' any good. But it'll be up to me to get the roof fixed. I just wish it wouldn't get dark so fast. Daylight savings time won't help me either.


So I'm desperately needing help. I need volunteers to help with some of my projects (both big and small). I need funds for hay and grain. I need help with getting fundraisers going. I need moral support. Anyone willing?