October in a Nutshell

Pphhheew, now that October is in the rear view mirror, I can maybe put my feet up for more than 30 seconds and get a few things done around the place. I love October but it seemed to have slipped away before I could enjoy the time.

I’ve been absent from much of Facebook and this blog because I’ve been a bit wrapped up in outside activities that don’t really relate to the Sanctuary, but take my time away from it.

So, lets see if I can do a month in review just to give you a taste of the chaos that has been my life. Some will be TMI (most of it really) and probably not appropriate for this blog but…it’s my blog and I’ll do what I like. Tehehe

October rolled in with planning for fundraisers and praying for decent weather. October 2^nd, a very good friend hosted a Halloween Fundraiser Party and we raised $500, which is all going towards our Winter Hay Fund.

The following weekend was our annual playday (didn’t have it last year because I was on maternity leave and couldn’t get my brain in gear). After paying for arena rent, we made $400. We also received additional donations so all proceeds are going to the Winter Hay Fund. We are sitting near $1200 towards our $3500 winter hay bill. I’ve been picking up last year’s hay for now until we can get a load of hay delivered. My hope is that buying last year’s hay will help cut costs until the cold really sets in and we’ll need this year’s hay. But we are still struggling with getting any hay delivered.

The second weekend in October also saw me helping my sister pack and move to her apartment. It’s been a long time coming and everyone is happy to see her out of the house she’s been in. It’s the house she and her now ex-husband built a few years back and there’s nothing but bad memories in that house. Moving has been a five year process to get out of the house thanks to mortgage companies and other such oddities. But that’s all TMI. But it did mean that you can accumulate a lot of stuff in five years. So I spent lots of time packing and hustling to get what I could, done.

The third weekend in October was my birthday. I asked for one hour to myself so that I could prime the little garden house. I’d taken a day off earlier in the week to scrape the little building. But I only scraped three of the four sides. I left the side no one ever sees, knowing that I might not get enough time. I did discover that the top of the wind mill fell directly between the little garden house and the hay barn. When we moved in, we had a working windmill but that promptly stopped with the first wind. When the tornado blew through a few years ago, it took the top off. I never really bothered looking for it. And I discovered that it had fallen almost directly down and avoided both buildings. It’s a four foot span between the hay barn and the garden house so someone up above was watching over us. The top of that windmill could have easily come through the roof of either building, destroying it, costing us a ton to repair the building.

So on that Saturday, I was able to squeeze in two hours of priming and Mike scrubbed off the dirt on the blankets and lightly waterproofed the blankets. I wanted to use a brush and really coat them but he suggested a sprayer, which didn’t really give them a decent waterproofing, so we’ll see. We are looking at putting a second “coat” on but I’m betting it won’t really do the job like I want. But for now, it’ll have to do. Beggers can’t be choosers. I was able to spend two hours priming the little garden house but didn’t get everything done. My fear was that I wouldn’t’ get it painted and it’s the first building you see when driving up the driveway. We also made a quick trip up to Madison to pickup a load of hay. Our little flat bed can hold three big round bales. We need to buy a bigger trailer but for now, the little flatbed will have to suffice.

That following Sunday I was back at my sister’s packing and moving as much stuff as I could in the little bit of time I had. I was in go mode the entire time.

The fourth weekend, I finally got to do something fun for me! I’m the chair of the Minnehaha County Saddle Club and I had YET to be on a trail ride all summer so I went on the final ride of the year. I had planned, communicated, and posted all the information for each of our rides but hadn’t gotten to ride all year. I took Chaos because Maverick wouldn’t let me catch him. I spent over an hour pulling cockleburs from his tail. I chopped part of his mane and forelock. We are overrun with cockleburs.  I can’t remember what I did that Sunday, but I think I was able to finally get the little garden house finished, well primed anyway. I had to dig to find enough primer. Three sides and it took up 1.5 gallons of primer. That was some super dry wood. I had scraped it but you could hardly tell. I’m glad it’s primed and it makes me happy to see it, even if it’s primed and not painted. We are finally getting somewhere. I am the sole maintainer of outbuildings and it stresses me out. I hate being the only one to take care of everything. But that’s for a different grumbling post.

This past weekend I spent the entire weekend packing and moving my sister. She is officially OUT of that house and the final remnants of her terrible ex-husband are gone. She is free of the past and now moving forward, as we all can do. The past six years have been trying at best when it comes to that part of our family. I’ve tried to leave it out of this blog but it is a part of my life and my family is first and foremost. But now that she is in her OWN place, we can move forward and take a breath of fresh air.

I do need to do a bit of planning for a couple of fundraiser ideas but I’ve been so exhausted. Because in between all the building maintenance, packing, and moving, the paying job has decided to throw a wrench into everything. There’s been a lot of pressure since mid-June and I’ve been forced to prove myself time and time again and it’s rather exhausting. The past two weeks have been even more trying than normal. High priorities with little turn around time and then my sole work computer crashed….big and bad. As in, I lost everything. So the 20+ hours I’d spent on the high-priority that had to be done in 36 hours was GONE. And then I was left with no computer for three days. It’s been a struggle. So I’ve been a bit MIA from being online.

Not to mention there’s still the house fiasco I’ve been living in. That’ll teach me to try and remodel a room in the house. Ok, it’s two rooms but it’s been made abundantly clear that I am on my own for getting any remodel stuff done. But from the paying job stressing me out, making me spend extra time doing unimportant work, to caring for 16 horses and trying to fix buildings, and keep up with everyone, and taking care of two kids and all their holiday stuff, there’s very little time, if any to actually work on the house. So living in chaos hasn’t’ really helped the stress level. I know, I’m riding my pity train at the moment. I’ll be better in a day or two when I’m away from some of the stressors. I need to figure out how to remove more stressors. I’ve been doing that lately and it seems to be helping.

I’ve also been turning a blind eye to what’s been happening out west. I did start thinking about it the other day and it makes me angry and helpless. So I’m not really sure what to do. My hands are tied as it is. We are so small and I’m the only one doing everything with the Sanctuary. I want to do more, I want to do something that will make a difference (unlike my paying job but it pays the bills), I want to make people as passionate about the same causes as I am but I don’t know how. I want to work with others but no one wants to play nice with me. Share and share alike but no one seems to want to do it so we are all fighting the same fight but getting no where. I don’t know. I’m frustrated, so I’ll leave those comments for a different post…I’m sure it’ll come soon because I need to get a few things off my chest, not that it’ll make a difference but…I seem to do better with venting.

So, that’s been my life in a nutshell for the past month. Lets hope November is a bit calmer.