Vet Appointment

We had a vet appointment yesterday morning. Jim had been losing weight and I noticed he was dropping everything he was eating (grass wise). So we loaded him (along with Rain and Dude) to the vet yesterday morning. I'd wanted to take Zeke too but the trailer only had spots for three. In the past Rain had wavy teeth so I wanted to double check to make sure they weren't bad. Zeke is fat but it's been awhile since he's had his teeth floated. I'd love to take everyone in and do floats on everyone (or at least checks). But it's not in the cards. I also wanted to take Dude in to make sure his teeth weren't too sharp. Of course, Dude being Dude, he fought the vet because it wasn't his idea. After sedation the vet went ahead and floated him too as his bottom teeth were sharp. The vet took a long time working on Jim to make sure his sharp edges were smooth. He pulled a tooth as well so hopefully with all the dental work done, we can start packing the pounds onto him. I'm not ready to let him go. I haven't prepared myself. It's been almost 11 years with him. All of the horses at the Sanctuary (not including Diavlo) have now been with us for years. The ones that remain are the ones we'd said yes to before we'd focused on seniors (or had originally been personal horses where we'd bought them but realized that they had physical limitations but didn't want to send them down the road to have someone else deal with them). I'm hoping we can keep Jim going for a few more years. He's definitely been enjoying retirement. He's somewhere between 30-32 (I always go on the high side for age). I know we don't have too much more time with him but I'll do my best to keep him happy for as long as his quality of life is good.

Checking In

We'e been MIA from social media. August gets to be such a busy month that we've decided to hang up most social media and events in August. It's pretty much the only way to save my mind from total overload. We have two birthdays in August (and because they are my kids, they have high expectations for their birthday), an annual trip to the Black Hills (which I've been doing for 35+ years and I will NOT break that tradition until our kids have school activities that requires us to), camping (to celebrate a birthday which was supposed to be at the Prairie Village Threshing Jamboree that got cancelled this year but normally we are there), and prepparing for school (toss in trying to plan school in a pandemic) and now my mind is blown. There doesn't leave any room for anything extra even though I'd desperately love to get something going. I have so many ideas and yet there's limited time. The days are now getting shorter and I'm still so far behind. Now that my brain is half way in gear (rather than paused due to baby brain or sleep deprevation due to babies), I'm trying to tackle the bigger projects that have been on my list. Maybe I'm being overzealous in thinking we can get them all done before the first snow. I guess some of what needs to be done even after the ground freezes and there's snow on the ground (might make for softer landing when I fall off a roof). I expect we will be MIA for the rest of the month. There's too much that needs to get done. Hopefully when September rolls around, I can report on all the progress we've made. Hopefully I can post some pictures on FB.

Feeling Like Fall

The last couple of days it's felt like fall. The monarchs are gathering, the geese are flying, and there's a nip in the air. The weatherman is saying we'll go back to super hot weather in a day or two. In fact this weekend we are supposed to be in the 90s again. It's a hard shift to go from upper 80s to low 70s to 90s but that's South Dakota in the summer time.


The nip in the air though has me scurrying around like crazy trying to get things done. We never know what winter will bring us or when winter will arrive but this year has been so crazy that I need to be ready for anything.


I'm going to have to start pushing others to make phone calls and to get a few things done around here. I have a few projects I want done and I don't have the connections to get them lined up or done so that means pushing others. I'm not good at pushing others.


Right now, there's a lot of fixing and repairing things that have deteriorated over the past eight years. Everything sort of went on hold when we started having kids so now that we are done having kids and they are getting a little older (enough where I don't have to hang on to them at all hours of the day and night), I'm trying to get a few projects done that have needed to get done all along (but I didn't have the energy or money to do them. Well, I still don't have the money but that's a different story).


While it's not specifically Sanctuary related, I am painting our house. I would have much preferred hiring someone but that wasn't in the cards. I guess no one wants to paint an old farm house so it's up to me. Luckily we have a small house so hopefully I can do it. I started last fall and got one side done but now I'm left with getting the other sides done. As with the barn, I started on our house this year with the bottom because I KNEW I could get that part done while watching kids. The second story is a different beast. Weekends are meant to be with kids and doing adventures with them so juggling fun activities with getting stuff done is a bit tricky. I'm sure to be in a panic soon. At least this year I'm working from home so the tight grip on my chest with all the worry of getting everything done isn't there (yet).


We don't have any more cleanup days scheduled and actually August is off limits for doing pretty much anything other than kids stuff what with birthdays and school starting (it's even worse in a pandemic). But I'm going to keep plugging along. This past weekend I added a temporary ally way to the bottom pasture and opened the bottom up for the horses to graze as the other parts of the pasture were done. It's a new method and the horses haven't quite figured it out (or don't like it). Hopefully the bottom pasture will hold for another month and then in September, I can open the entire pasture up and they can graze what's left over. I'd hoped to implement what I'd learned during my pasture management class but could only do a little and even then I STILL did a few things wrong. Time and energy are my worst enemy at this point (well, and lack of funds but that's a given). I need and want to go out with a clippers and cut down the thistles that I didn't get a chance to spray, along with the burdock in the other pasture so that I have a fighting chance of not dealing with cockleburs this fall. We'll see if I get a chance to get any of that done.


I also had helpers last week when it was hot to wash a few blankets. Of course the novelty wore off quickly (more so because I had an almost 5 and almost 2 year old helping me and they have no staying power). But I at least got three blankets done and two waterproofed. But I still have more to go. The weatherman is talking hot temps again so I'll be dragging out more blankets to get them washed and waterproofed. I still need to get them repaired but I can do that at night too (if I still have any energy.) I can't remember how hard the horses were on the blankets. Sadly, the blankets sort of ended up wherever they were taken off (inside buildings) so I never really remembered what kind of condition they were in. It's not the method I like or want to use with the blankets but its' the reality I live in right now.


We are going to take a pause in posting much on social media (more so than lately). So if you happen to not see us, it's that we are super busy doing kids stuff, prepping for school, and getting stuff done around the place and by the time I can sit down, I'm too exhausted to post pictures or to even think.


Fingers crossed that this cold snap is a friendly reminder but that winter holds off and gives me a couple of months to get things done before the first snow flakes start flying.