And a new month begins..
Oct. 1st, 2011 10:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
midnightsjaneGoodbye, September. Hello, October! You came along a lot faster than I'd expected. And the time keeps on ticking..soon we'll be putting on snow tires and watching the weather forecasts for that first flake of winter. I hope here on the West Coast it waits until at least January. I haven't gotten used to the idea of fall yet! The evidence is there, though. Leaves are changing colour and falling off the trees, and there is a distinct change in the flavour of the wind.
Today we put the rain sheets on the horses still living outside, including my two who are still in the field. We want to leave them out for as long as we can, because a)it's good for them, especially Midnight, who needs to move around and b)it helps reduce the work. The field is still in good shape, and the footing is great. We've been working on fixing the paddocks so they're in better shape for the winter; we're slowly getting rid of the hog fuel(bark chips) and putting in crusher dust. Jack has dug up most of the paddocks and put in a layer of rock and then the crusher dust in a kind of L-shape along the fronts and sides of the paddocks, giving a nice firm area for the horse to walk on when the rest of the paddock is wet and muddy. We haven't filled the whole paddock with the crusher dust because we want there to be a soft area for the horses to roll and to lie down. Also, it's very expensive to do all this and we have to do the work in stages. As it stands now, all the paddocks are in decent shape, even if we don't do anything else.
Sue and I spent some time yesterday and today doing patch jobs at the gates of some of the paddocks; we shovelled and hauled wheelbarrows full of crusher dust (whoa, very heavy stuff!) and made a nice job of all the gateways. The horses tend to stand at the gates a lot, and we have to keep raking and repairing the areas. My back is a bit sore from all the lifting and shovelling, even though I tried to lift with my legs while shovelling (bend ze knees! straighten ze knees! throw the rock into the wheelbarrow! repeat ad infinitum!) heh. Damn good exercise.
Sue told me I need to eat more, that I'm getting too thin. Heck, with all this work, I'm not getting thin, I'm just getting wirey and tough. (I'm 5'3" and weigh 120 lbs.) I did work up quite an appetite today, and came home and ate a huge dinner: chicken and mashed potatoes, squash, and spinach, followed by an apple for dessert.
Speaking of weight, my Midnight needs to lose some. Our farrier came on Thursday to shoe Midnight and Kyra, and to do the first trims for Teddy and Buddy. The wee boys were awesome; Buddy even let Nick hold his front foot up on Nick's knee for filing. For a first foot trim, it was a good experience for them. Nick is wonderful with the babies, he's very patient and never gets mad at them, so important. When I brought Midnight in, Nick took one look at him and said "OMG, he is way overweight. He needs to lose about 300 pounds!" I have to admit I haven't paid a lot of attention to him this summer, since he and Kyra are both out in the field, and I hadn't looked closely at him in a while. But he obviously has been prospering on the grass, because his butt is the size of Kansas! Not good. They will be coming in from the field soon, and he's going on a diet. I need to start exercising him lightly, too. Going to start lunging him, and see what he will tolerate without making him too sore. Kyra is a bit ribby, but in pretty good weight; she's old, about 24, so she's a bit sway backed, but otherwise looks fine. I have to take extra care of her, since she's getting on in years.
It's getting late, so I'm off to bed. Have to work in ICU tomorrow; a rest day! LOL. Or, at least, a day I'm getting paid for the work I do. :P
Today we put the rain sheets on the horses still living outside, including my two who are still in the field. We want to leave them out for as long as we can, because a)it's good for them, especially Midnight, who needs to move around and b)it helps reduce the work. The field is still in good shape, and the footing is great. We've been working on fixing the paddocks so they're in better shape for the winter; we're slowly getting rid of the hog fuel(bark chips) and putting in crusher dust. Jack has dug up most of the paddocks and put in a layer of rock and then the crusher dust in a kind of L-shape along the fronts and sides of the paddocks, giving a nice firm area for the horse to walk on when the rest of the paddock is wet and muddy. We haven't filled the whole paddock with the crusher dust because we want there to be a soft area for the horses to roll and to lie down. Also, it's very expensive to do all this and we have to do the work in stages. As it stands now, all the paddocks are in decent shape, even if we don't do anything else.
Sue and I spent some time yesterday and today doing patch jobs at the gates of some of the paddocks; we shovelled and hauled wheelbarrows full of crusher dust (whoa, very heavy stuff!) and made a nice job of all the gateways. The horses tend to stand at the gates a lot, and we have to keep raking and repairing the areas. My back is a bit sore from all the lifting and shovelling, even though I tried to lift with my legs while shovelling (bend ze knees! straighten ze knees! throw the rock into the wheelbarrow! repeat ad infinitum!) heh. Damn good exercise.
Sue told me I need to eat more, that I'm getting too thin. Heck, with all this work, I'm not getting thin, I'm just getting wirey and tough. (I'm 5'3" and weigh 120 lbs.) I did work up quite an appetite today, and came home and ate a huge dinner: chicken and mashed potatoes, squash, and spinach, followed by an apple for dessert.
Speaking of weight, my Midnight needs to lose some. Our farrier came on Thursday to shoe Midnight and Kyra, and to do the first trims for Teddy and Buddy. The wee boys were awesome; Buddy even let Nick hold his front foot up on Nick's knee for filing. For a first foot trim, it was a good experience for them. Nick is wonderful with the babies, he's very patient and never gets mad at them, so important. When I brought Midnight in, Nick took one look at him and said "OMG, he is way overweight. He needs to lose about 300 pounds!" I have to admit I haven't paid a lot of attention to him this summer, since he and Kyra are both out in the field, and I hadn't looked closely at him in a while. But he obviously has been prospering on the grass, because his butt is the size of Kansas! Not good. They will be coming in from the field soon, and he's going on a diet. I need to start exercising him lightly, too. Going to start lunging him, and see what he will tolerate without making him too sore. Kyra is a bit ribby, but in pretty good weight; she's old, about 24, so she's a bit sway backed, but otherwise looks fine. I have to take extra care of her, since she's getting on in years.
It's getting late, so I'm off to bed. Have to work in ICU tomorrow; a rest day! LOL. Or, at least, a day I'm getting paid for the work I do. :P
