Goals

Looking back on 2018....

 I set the goal to achieve 100 rides this year. Sounds fairly simple, right? But with 2 months of heavy smoke during prime riding time, the summer, and the usual winter weather and spring and fall rains it took a bit of perseverance to git'r'done.

But I did! 

Ride 100 was, as promised, a trail ride with my husband, who doesn't ride much any more. In fact, this was his second ride this year. And I'm pretty sure he volunteered for it because he loves Gussie, he is the one that picked her out of a pen of colts at the auction we bought her at.

I rode Beamer, of course. He was pretty tickled to have a GIRL riding along with him but he was pretty well behaved, talked a couple of times but a growl from me straightened him out. 

Yes, I growl at my horses.....

It was a lovely afternoon! We had rain on top of the little bit of snow, so there were icy patches here and there but riding in the bush it was really good footing. And the snow made for nice soft footing for Beamer. 

We went to the river and back, just my usual ride so I could show Ted where I go. 

On the way back Ted and Gussie led for a while. She had gotten a bit ramped up but he handled her well.

I gotta say I was pretty happy to reach my goal on a ride where I was on my best horse and my husband was riding with me.  Great way to get there!

So- getting back to looking back... my key word for the year was "change". What changes? Well, I now have a hay shed, so no more tarping bales and losing hundreds of dollars worth of hay to mold!

A big change was selling a horse I didn't get along with (Rosalee) and buying Gussie, who is totally my kind of horse! Also, I stepped up and invested in an eventual replacement for Beamer, which was not in the plans but just worked out that way.... pending 5 panel results and what Drifter turns out like. Because, I really wasn't planning on replacing Beamer at all.... but dreams die hard, and helping someone else out made it a worthwhile project.

So- what's up for next year? For me, my key word is "action". How that plays out we shall see, and I will record on this blog as it unfolds. One thing I want to change for sure is my diet- I need to cut out most of the sugar I routinely indulge in! Another area I want to change is my propensity for procrastination , especially as pertains to housework! I am one of those people who would rather clean a horse pen than dust and vacuum my house. And one big change is that I will actually be travelling a bit; my daughter in Ontario is getting  married in July so I"ll be heading there. Perhaps flying ( I hate flying, I'm claustrophobic) or renting a car and driving- which I would prefer as I could then stop to visit friends along the way.

What's up for 2019 for you?

Riding day 100

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.

Today's busy-ness

I finished my painting (except for the upstairs bathroom which can wait) but the guys were giving it on the fencing. Today was all about building the braces for the corners and where the gates are going to be hung.

The ratchets will be handy for tightening after the horses stretch everything out. Tess and Reba agree.

Coffee break, looking out from the barn door.

Now the braces are all done and we can start stringing the wire on Monday. Tomorrow, we rest... sort of. We are going to price out some lumber for building shelters, and maybe sand one patch where Ted had to fix the drywall. And maybe move some of the outdoor stuff! Starting to get excited now that the end is in sight! I hope to be able to get the horses moved out there this week. 

What I did on my holidays

A week already since I posted last! Well I do have an excuse- I have been spending every single day over at our new place, painting every room- and I'm still not done. (I took a week's holidays to get this done.) Kitchen, mud room, 2 bedrooms are done, bathroom is partly done and still have an upstairs bathroom to do. It's a lot of work, the ceiling is 9'6" so it's up and down the ladder. Here are a couple of before and afters:

The kitchen, before 

and after. It will be a mess for a while, flooring going in over the next 2 weeks.

The living room, looking into the mud room: before

and after. It took 2 coats of primer and 2 coats of colour over that dark blue.

That room behind Thea has California Knockdown ( a type of stipple ) on the ceiling and bottom half of the wall; the blue is gone and it is now a neutral sand colour. It will be my studio room and I wanted a neutral colour that wouldn't reflect on any art I work on.

The other bedroom was another colour of bright green, it is now the same colour as the mud room. A type of soft brown called Shhhhh.

I finished the second coat of colour on it today and started on the downstairs bathroom.

Meanwhile, Ted has been super busy too! They rented a post pounder on the weekend and spent 2 days in the rain pounding posts for the horse corrals. 

On the left is the mare's pen, Beamer's pen is on the right and a big ole burn pile at the bottom. All the old busses and other stuff in the trees will be hauled away by a scrap guy, and next year that area will be fenced also for turnout.

He also spent the last 2 days putting in water lines for the horses- a stand pipe for the mare pen and one over by the barn for Beamer's pen. We wanted to put electrical cable in the trench too, but we'd have to upgrade the panel in the well house so it will have to wait until next year. I'll be chopping ice this winter!

He's pretty tired, lots of hard work but so worth it. We still have to string the wire for the horse pens, that'll take a couple more days and we'll have to do it in the rain: there is a big storm system coming in off the Pacific ocean and it's bringing rain for the next 5 days. I want to have it all done by next weekend so I can go get Coyote Belle and bring her to the new place. Then we also have to build shelters..... and get moved....

But it will all be worth it.

Especially with this view to look at.

As promised- the rest of the story.

In my Wordless Wednesday post, we saw Ted riding Rosalee, carrying a flag. (Ted hasn't ridden for a few years!!!!!) That was training day; today, she had a job to do.
Some of you may remember that Ted and I both worked for a local auctioneer; Joe Snopek. Ted was the relief auctioneer and I was the clerk. Well the auctioneer unexpectedly passed away from a heart attack; he was 75 years old. Back in the day, he was a farm boy with a love of horses, so we thought we would do something special for his funeral.
Ted is a member of the North West Mounted Police Commemorative Association- basically  they are a group who dresses in period uniforms and do parades and special events; the NWMP were the forerunners of our current RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) well known for their red serge dress uniforms.

We had a pair of Joe's cowboy boots, empty and with the auction number 1 on them, tied behind the saddle.

Rosalee and Ted greeted people going into the funeral service- old ladies and children were delighted to pet her- and near the end of the service I had the mare ready for Ted at the door that served for the procession to the hearse. Ted held the flag at horizontal as a salute as the family passed by.

Then he led the beginning of the procession for a couple of blocks as they made their way to the cemetery;

when he halted, he dismounted and again held the flag in ceremonial position as he removed his helmet in tribute.

Through it all, Rosalee was rock solid. I love how willing this mare is, and that my husband felt safe on her, enough to get on and ride for the first time in probably 5 years, and that we were able to pay tribute in style to a friend. Rest in peace, Joe.

Wordless Wednesday- the rest of the story tomorrow.

Trailer progress

Things have slowed right down while I wait for my husband to finish the work he is doing on the horse trailer. The back door had a big bend in the frame and bottom of the door from a horse kicking or whatever so he decided while he is rebuilding it to do it right and get everything done all at once. So he took the sheet metal off,

straightened the frame at the bottom, welded in the new panel,

He also pounded out the divets on the sides of the trailer from kicks, eventually will do body work to make it smooth on the outside before we give it an exterior paint job next year.

On the inside of the back door there is a bit of a ledge from the square tubing where that sheet metal attaches; this had been rusting from horse poo collecting there so he built a custom piece that doesn't allow the pooh to collect.

This next photo is from when we first got the trailer; you can see the wow in the back door that is now fixed. I love having a handy husband- whose motto is "do it right!"

That divider is rebuilt too. Today he did the interior paint  under where the puckboard is going, which is 4 ft. high all around the interior and back door. 

Custom fitting the puckboard.

Tomorrow the back door gets painted and fitted with puckboard, as well as puckboard on the bulkhead that divides the front tack room off.

This trailer is going to be better than new!

Round pen

My honey do list had been put on hold for a while. There was only one item on it- build me a round pen. That's a pretty big to-do item! So this last week, Ted got down to it and built me 12 panels from scratch, using 2 inch steel pipe.  He spent one day planning and building the jig, so that he could just lay the pipe out and weld and get each panel perfect every time.

That is the sample panel on the left. I opted for 3 bar panels, 10 ft. long.
Then he got into production....

He has a wire feed welder which makes the job go faster.

Our friend Dave came over to help and that made things go smoother. He pinched the pipe ends and ground the burrs off the cut steel.

Once all the panels had been welded on one side, Ted laid them over on the sawhorses and did the back welds.

For the bases he welded two pieces of pipe to a flat plate which has drainage holes drilled in.

The piece of steel with the two pipes spot welded on is the jig for building the bases.
Ted had to leave Sunday morning for 2 weeks work on Vancouver Island, so he didn't get the top connectors built. But that isn't going to stop me from using the pen! I tied the panels together with enough orange twine to make them look like they were all wrapped up for Christmas- and I will be using it today. *Insert big grin*

The panels are 5 ft. high. I put Beamer in the pen this morning to eat down some of the grass. I want to get a load of sand in there once the ground is all broke up from use.

I have the Best. Husband. Ever. He even took 3 days out of his own Very Important Project to do this for me.

Gone to the dogs

Before my computer took leave of it's senses, I was really looking forward to doing the Sunday Stills Challenge, "Dogs" . Well I missed out, but here is my dog post anyway.

My Tess dog is finally pregnant; we started this journey 2 years ago February. She had a phantom pregnancy then, and didn't come into heat again until December that year, and it didn't work out to take her to the male, then it took over 11 months for her to come back into heat again. She is finally getting a big belly, and is due right at the beginning of February.

She is at her most pathetic right now.....

and her favourite thing to do is cuddle on the couch with me, upside down, head snuggled on my chest, as I rub her belly. She falls asleep. No pics of that though!
She visits Ted on the deck in the mornings, and he pushes her lips up to make her "smile".

Then there is my Reba, the workaholic.

She's starting to look her age, but she sure doesn't act like it. She is so intense and lives to work, but she is very biddable.

She has amazing natural balance, always moves to 12 o'clock from wherever I am. And she always has something in her mouth when she is working.

Then, last but not least.... even if he is the littlest... is mighty Merle!

This little ball of fluff weighs only 3.2 pounds, but he is the apple of Ted's eye and pretty much thinks he rules the roost around here. Opinionated li'l cuss.

Sunday Stills

This is an interesting challenge; we are to take photos that reflect the music in our life. To me, this can be interpreted in a lot of ways; actual music, or things that make my heart sing, or something that reminds me of a song. Here is something that reminds me of the song that goes "Yeah baby you got it":

and "Wild thing, you make my heart sing".

Then there is this beautiful fall season. Every fall, I start singing the Johnny Cash tune "At my door, the leaves are falling, a cold wild wind does blow...."

The first fallen leaves of fall

But the main source of music in my life is my husband. Every Sunday, I get to hear him sing in the church choir, and he does a great job of singing in the shower. Even sitting at the computer, he'll find Pavarotti on You Tube and select one of the hymns that they do at Mass and sing along. He's always playing cd's in his shop as he works, and he plays the harmonica too. In this photo from my archives, he was playing the harmonica and one of Tess's pups was listening attentively.