Time

 Look what my creative and talented husband made for me!

Those were rusty old hames that you couldn't tell had brass tops. He wire brushed everything to clean it up- that took days! The horseshoes are unused, a front shoe and a hind shoe, and we had the decal of Beamer made at a local shop. The clock mechanism is battery operated.  The leather straps are original to the hames, cleaned up and reconditioned. I love it!

I managed to get the foaling pen cleaned up, still a bit of ice here and there but it's melting fast. The bonus to living on a sandy based farm is that the water soaks in quickly and we don't get a lot of mud. The puddles go away within a day as the ground thaws. With today being the vernal equinox, I hope this next blast of cold and snow flurries that are predicted won't amount to much. The mares are out pawing every day and ignoring their hay - they snack on the hay in the morning and evening but spend the day out in the field. 

Velvet is huge, but not bagging up yet. As soon as she does I will start bring her in at night to the foaling pen, but foal watch will be when she shows other signs of being close to foaling. Sure hope we get decent weather in April!

Misty the Siamese female barn cat didn't catch when she was bred in November as was evidenced by her being in full raging heat last week and having all the tomcats vying for her favors. They pursued her for a week, then poof they were gone. So we expect a litter mid May. 

Hahaha looks like her head is on backwards, but she's just cleaning off the tomcat spit.

Done and done!

The shelter is done and horse approved. All made from locally sourced material, from the repurposed pipe for the skids to the locally cut lumber and tin from a locally owned hardware store. Ted and his friends worked on it on the weekends as they had time and I sure do appreciate them giving up their free time to help get this done. I did make a video of it's progress but it's over 12 minutes long so not really worth putting on here, but here are photos of its progress.

 The laminated beams installed

 The back header is on, and working on the front headers

Moving it with a skid steer to finish it on site 

 On site at its location in the mare pen

Installing the facing spacers

 Ran out of lumber to finish the roof joists, had to wait another week.....

Roof trusses and facing all done and roof strapping on

 The tin is going on!

Last sheet!

The horses are now moved and little Moondance just had to do laps around his new pen!

6 ft walls

Everyone in place

There is still some finishing work to do- end caps for the pipe, bevel the edges on the walls, trim the last sheet of tin where it ran off a bit on the end,  and remove the pipe that was welded in the center of the floor as a brace for moving the building. But -dang! I have one skookum tough shelter! It measures 13 x 22 ft.

Have some more gravel to put in then the rest of the mats will go down.

I has a happy

Because my husband fixed my Nikon camera!Not sure what he did but he got it working again. Big grin!
Now I can take artsy photos...

and kitty photos....

and muddy horse photos....

(yes that's Shayla, back in town for a week)

And of course.... Beamer photos!

It was warm enough on this second day of winter that I took his blanket off. It has been raining a whole bunch but was only drizzly today. We are supposed to have some snow tomorrow, hope so because I want to do a Christmas photo shoot with the horses.

A blog, a repair, and Preparing for Christmas

Thanks to Facebook, I discovered another horse blog. This one is called Doing the Work and I really like the latest post. Check it out!
Speaking of doing the work...
My horse shelter is lined with plywood on one side as a wind break, the other 3 sides are open. Drifter and Gussie have been.... modifying it, so to speak....so it was time to patch it using puck board which should resist their attempts at interior decorating for the shabby chic look.

Putting a lot of screws in so you can't pull it off!

Well all right then!

I haven't been doing as much riding this year sadly, but hopefully that will change next year. Ted finally got our second truck up and running so I will be able to haul during the week. I discovered a place to ride when I was out searching for a Christmas tree. Lots of old logging roads, some of which are active. 

Are you ready for Christmas? I am mostly. Just a cookie baking day this week for my sister and her staff, that's my sister Mary who is handicapped as a result of German measles and brain fever when she was a little baby. She had a bout of pancreatitis and was hospitalized for a couple of weeks unable to eat, and with some family intervention on her behalf and round the clock support and supervision from her staff, she pulled through. I think doctors are too quick to give up on non communicative people. And I think she taught the doctor something too, so it was good all around. I feel that Prayer and Persistence Paid off! So I am feeling thankful this Christmas- what about you? Do you have something to be extra thankful for this Christmas?

Fencing fun

Yesterday was fencing day. This was the view as I got to the barnyard....

However, once we got started on the fencing project..... 

We had lots of help! Especially from Miss Mesa, she appointed herself as job supervisor.

We are cross fencing the mare's pasture to allow grass to grow and to keep them from eating too much spring grass. Last year I had this cross fenced with hot wire, this year we put in double strand twist (barbless). Today Ted is refurbishing an old gate and we have to put in one more post for a cross brace to finish the project.

Such a helpful filly! Rosalee inspected the bucket of tools too. And then at feeding time, of course they had to goof off and it was great to see them all feeling good and enjoying the day.

Upgrade on the mare shelter

Finally, no more ratty blue tarp on the mare shelter.
The guys got at it yesterday.

Strapped with 1x4s to start with, which involved self-tapping screws, a power plant and boy toys (power tools).
I locked the horses in the foaling pen at morning feeding time so they didn't decide to be helpful.

Once the strapping was done, sheeting with used tin began .....

I always worry when Ted uses a zip cut when he cuts metal as he had a blade blow up on him a few years ago and got major damage to a finger. But all went well this time.

See that extra tin on this end? It was wrapped around the frame and tucked in behind the plywood kick board. All exposed tin edges were wrapped inwards on itself to make a safety edge.

All sheeted in and then the building inspectors had to check it out .

Now they can't flip their feed out onto the dirt on the other side. I have two rubber mats that I put the hay on - it's old conveyor belting.
This project was done just in time, because last night we got snow, with more in the forecast.

This was an inexpensive project, the original car shelter frame was here when we moved in, the tin and plywood are used and salvaged from other projects- I think we paid $1 per sheet for the tin and nothing for the plywood- and the only other purchases were the 1x4s and the screws. Total cost around $70.

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.

Projects and ponying

Well we have been busy here! Ted finished the sliding barn door, next is for me to paint it.

The cats are using the opening on the right as their cat door. The bat house Ted put up above the door a while ago still doesn't have any residents, but I am hopeful that next year they will figure it out.

I finished trimming Beamer, he is lame right now, I am treating him for thrush and I think his arthritis is bothering him. Still have to do Rosalee's back feet but I should get that done today.
I saddled her up on Saturday and gave Mesa a ponying lesson. I started on the ground, dallying Mesa and leading Rosalee.

Once it looked like Rosalee was cool with that I stepped aboard.



Rosalee was quite patient, although she did pin her ears a couple of times when Mesa got right behind her, which I fixed by moving Rosalee's hip over so that Mesa was t'd up instead of behind. Kept the lesson short for the first time.
Then I went for a little ride and played with my mini obstacle course,

 and then we headed over to the barn to check on Ted's progress.

It passed inspection.

I'm liking this mellow version of Rosalee, it is much like she was when I first bought her. 

Day 33

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 🐎 💕