Monday, November 24, 2008

The mighty hunter returned yesterday...with no food for his family :( Apparently they didn't even see anything for the entire week, they should have just stayed home as we have fresh tracks in our yard every morning when I go out to do chores! But that wouldn't be any fun would it...besides, I'm pretty sure hunting isn't the only reason they take a week off work!

The past week has been fairly uneventful. My parents took off for Vegas on Wednesday and I was left to babysit thier 2 dogs. Chevy LOVES having them there to play with all day but she sure is exhausted by the evening. She has developed a pretty bad limp on her right front leg and I've been doing my best to keep her indoors as much as I can so she can rest. That silly girl will run and run and run and then when she finally stops she realizes she is sore. I'm hoping she just pulled a muscle and its nothing serious. I will definately be keeping my eye on it though.

And my mom's wonderful dog Kia has decided that its fun to bite the noses of my horses and chase Luna around the corral. She will literally run them down and bare her teeth at them so they take off. To her I'm sure its just a game but the horses get really frightened and poor Luna is now scared of all dogs. Kia knows its wrong too because I scream and yell at her and she just looks at me and wags her tail. Grrrrrrr. It frustrates me just writing about it. Anyone have any ideas how to stop this?

My water hydrant has decided to freeze up and so now I am left hauling water from the house twice a day out to my horses. Its a huge pain but I'm hoping we can figure out a way to unthaw the hydrant. I would love to bring Sami home so I have all 3 of my horses here but until the hydrant is unthawed that definately won't be happening. I can't wait until next year when I have a permanent water bowl!

While I was home alone for the week I decided to tackle the Christmas lights. We have 2 smaller spruce trees at the front of our house that I thought would look great with lights. And since we bought a lot of of lights for our wedding last year, I wasn't worried about now having enough. So, I bundle up and haul out the lights. Carefully string them up around the tree and plug them in.....only to find half of them don't work!!!!! So I rip them down, check them, put the ones that work together and not-so-carefully throw them back on the tree. They all worked for about a day until Kia decided she needed to chew on the bottom ones. So now I definately don't have enough lights to do both trees. I was going to take some photos but it looks pretty bad right now. Once Kia goes home and I get the broken strings fixed, I will post some for everyone to see.

Monday, November 17, 2008

I can't believe its been a week

Overall things have been pretty uneventful over the past week. I still can't believe we have already been at the new place for over a week! I'm slowing getting things unpacked and cleaned up although I swear the boxes multiplied on the drive from the city.

Since Quinn is away hunting for the week its just me, Chevy and the horses taking care of the place. The weather has been wonderful and its given me a chance to get used to the routine before the dreaded winter storms hit. Getting up at 6am to do chores is something I'm still not used to and I'm sure I won't be until summer comes and its actually daylight when I go outside. I don't really have to do a whole lot; carry 2 pails of water, put a scoop of feed in the tub and then shovel a few forks of hay into the feeder. A quick hello and I'm back inside to get ready for work. And as much as I hate dragging my butt out of the nice warm bed in the morning, it does get me going for the day.

Morning chores would be a whole lot better though if I had a yard light. Currently ours is not working and each morning I trudge out there with my little Coleman latern, hoping not to come into contact with any wild beings. This morning I thought I thought for sure I would be having my first tomato juice bath when the smell of skunk hit my nose midway through forking hay. I paused, picked up my little Coleman and tried as best as I could to shine light in every shadow. I couldn't see anything so I called the dog to keep her close and continued on. The smell faded and I'm happy to report that neither Chevy or I are wearing perfume-de-skunk today.

The barn on our property needs some work, to say the least, but its sturdy and will be a wonderful structure once it gets some cosmetic work. This winter we've opened up one side to the horses for thier shelter and then next summer we can hopefully add some stalls and make it into a "real" barn. For now though, its great for a shelter. There was/is about 3 inches of old, dirty straw on the floor and then another 2 inches of "dirt" (old composted manure I'm assuming) I have been trying to clean up. I have decided to leave the "dirt" for the winter for the simple reason that I will need to lay a lot of straw on the concrete to make it a warm place for the horses. The "dirt" is frozen and doesn't smell so it should be all right until spring. When things start to thaw, then I'll block it off and get it cleaned out ASAP. Once we have our stalls built, I will definately be putting rubber mats down!!

We've recieved some snow in the past week and I managed to find some time to get out and take a few photos. I've attached some of the better ones here:






Did I mention that Chevy loves being on the farm!?
For some reason I forgot to take a photo of the house in my walk. But no worries, I plan on putting up my Christmas lights this week and will post pictures of the house then!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The First Post

With all the changes that have been happening and the recent move from the city, I thought it would be appropriate to start a blog. Not only can let everyone know how things are going, but it gives me a chance to document what is going on. I'm still figuring all this out so bare with me!!!!

Although we didn't officially get posession of the new place until the 8th, Nov 7th marked the packign day. Originally we had planned to pack our rubbermaid tubs and hire a moving company to do the rest. However, my dad in his infinite wisedom decided we could ask a neighbor if we could borrow his 43 foot dry van and save ourselves a few dollars. Although that meant doing everything ourselves, at least I wasn't the one who had to worry about hauling the appliances into the van! Poor Quinn and Dyshon!! Several people decided to show up as we were nearing the end of packing (good timing people) and after throwing a few final things into the dry van, we closed the door and headed to Tisdale at midnight.

The next morning we were up and unloading. We had a bit more help this time which was definately appreciated! It didn't take near as long to unload the trailer and soon we had boxes stacked in every corner of the house! Although the stacks are smaller, I haven't managed to get every one of them unpacked just yet. In time....

Even with boxes yet to be unpacked, it was decided that on Sunday we would build fence. For the winter we constructed one strand of electric fence to hold my 3 horses. Not too big of an area, but definately big enough for the winter. Next spring we plan to put up some permanent fence (and hopefully an outdoor riding arena as well).

And so now its Wednesday, exactly one week since I have been on the internet. We still don't have internet at home but I am back to work today (same job, different office) and managed to find some time to check emails and start a blog. Its been crazy....I'm tired and I ache but its good to back to the country!