Take a tour

I invite you to the grand tour of my hideout, unfinished but as done as it's going to get until next year.

Future plans include getting power to the barn, more shelves and organizing the rest of the barn.

Sneak peek

Today my husband helped me on some of my hideout projects. And Hideout is exactly what it is to me. It's a place to sit peacefully while I wait for the weanlings to finish their ration and get a head start on one of the hay piles before letting the mares in with them; a place to just sit in front of that nice open barn door and look at the fall colours and the snow that is creeping ever lower down the mountainside.

 A lovely peaceful place with no TV or internet, and I often don't take my phone with me.

Today we got the bin finished and my roadside find of a Stampede banner put up.

I still have several things to do in there, but it is functional now, and racoon proof!

Shayla was back out today and trimmed Pistol's feet. He was pretty good considering that he is a fidgety fellow, and what we found that worked best for him was letting him fiddle with his lead rope. He stood quietly when it was in his mouth.

I wanted her to see how nicely he loads- remember I had been loading him and feeding him in the trailer for about a week? That was around 2 weeks ago and he hadn't been loaded since then.
One small hesitation while he thought about it and in he went.

He was backed out, reloaded, and then unloaded by stepping out forwards to make sure he is comfortable with either way. He was a little rock star!
We can't send him home with her for a while as the majority of horses at the barn where she lives and works are sick right now, so it'll likely be December before he leaves.

The view and a visit

So Crystal was asking if I could see my horses out the window of my hideout in the barn....

A little heart shaped rock that I found, for my heart horse!

Only Beamer from the window, but that's ok with me, as I can see all the rest of them just looking out the barn door.

We are finally getting the rain we needed back in the summer. It was preceded by a big windstorm that played hell in Alberta and Saskatchewan - several huge grass fires, people evacuated and 2 deaths that were fire related (vehicle accidents) and several farms were burned up, including cattle burned to death. So very, very sad.

Shayla came over today to meet her colt, and I'm happy to say she liked him as much as I hoped she would.

In the next photo you can really see how much taller he is than Mesa, even though he is 2 months younger. We measured him and he is going to be at least 15.1, most likely 15.2 as we take the final measure after 5 months of age. Mesa will be 14.2hh.

Barn and Mesa progress

First, Mesa- her second loading went well, took only a few minutes, and then yesterday her third loading went like this:

Quite proud of this filly! I left the door closed until she was finished eating, and then backed her nicely out.
I did try to video Pistol's 2nd and 3rd loadings, but both times my camera battery quit on me. But basically he is still suspicious and flighty and I have to put the butt rope on him. As soon as it's on, he steps in willingly. Yesterday he self-unloaded 3 times, so I kept bringing him back in - with the butt rope each time. At one point, he backed out fast, reared up and flipped himself over- I am pretty sure he is going to need a chiropractor now. He seems to have no ill effects but I will get him checked to make sure. Hopefully today he will behave a little better!

Ted got to work on the barn door yesterday. We had a 5 ft wide door inside the barn separating off the backroom where I store my square bales, and we took it down and installed it at the front of the barn.

Setting the first framing board in place

Framing in the gap so that it can be sheeted in afterwards.

Installing the track.

Semi-finished. Ted will be adding a piece to the bottom, and sheeting in the side opening. I think he plans on doing the traditional X on it, and I will paint it. There will be a cat door on the bottom of the side opening.
And- he installed the window in my Cowgirl Hideout!

Now I can start putting up the boards on the inside wall and get it all organized and comfy 🐎 💕

Busy in a good way

Got a few things going on here. Mesa has foal scours so she has been getting bum washings twice a day and I have been giving her yogurt and peptobismal, she is starting to get over it.

She actually seems to like the pepto and yogurt although she didn't like the feel of the syringe tube at first.

She has big toofers now! All the better for grazing! 

I really enjoy watching her zoom around, although with all the hot weather lately, she spends more time napping than zooming.

I took photos for Shayla working on starting her 2 year old- some of you may remember the buckskin colt Fuse who was here for a few months last fall.

Working him in a local arena, the sun streaming in the entrance made for a cool photo.

He is coming along nicely with his groundwork, this is his second time being saddled.

I have been taking the dogs swimming down at the pond nearly every day; Thea finally learned to swim, and even Merle enjoyed getting wet.

I also got started on my Cowgirl Hideout - got the tar paper up and then decided that I want a window put in so that means I have to stop until Ted can help me with that.

Barn makeover

The barn.... I love having a barn. When we moved here it was full of stuff that had been relegated to the "don't know what else to do with it" pile. We have slowly been getting it cleaned out- I now have all said stuff in one stall, awaiting sorting out by our landlord (my BIL). The barn is set up with tie stalls, so Ted cut the dividers out of the first stall to make room for all my "stuff" (grin).
The plan is to customise it into my cowgirl getaway. It overlooks the mare pens so a great spot to watch foals playing... when  they finally arrive!
Here are some photos of where we are starting from.

The entrance to the barn (faces east) with my tack area and the second beam is where Ted opened up the first tie stall to make more room. The plan is to put tar paper up and build an inside wall so I can install my saddle stand and get proper hooks up for halters and bridles. Here is another view, with the stall loaded with the previous stuff in behind it:

The metal thing on the floor is my saddle rack, the cabinet is a hand made rustic one for holding all the stuff that is currently sitting on top of it.

The 3 cleaned out tie stalls. At the back is a good sized room that I use for small square bales and storing my barrels and seasonal stuff.
I had Beamer in there the other day, it was before I had the aisle cleaned up so he had to consider it for a while before he stepped in.

But it's nice being able to take my horse in there to unsaddle! I'll bring Rosalee in next time I ride. That might be a while between a rainy week and foal watch and trying to get the barn done!

Sunday Stills: Barns in black and white

....with a cat or two! Every good barn needs barn cats.

Wordless Wednesday

Sunday Silence