Cold!

It's not the coldest it's ever been, but after the lovely 'warm weather' of 34 degrees last week, 15 degrees with a windchill of 8 feels cold. The snow and ice that melted a little and created a slushy mess is now frozen solid, making the driveway an ice skating rink. We got a little snow overnight, and now the wind is drifting it into mounds and hills, masking ice and frozen horse poop and thus making walking in the pasture a hazard.

Normally I wouldn't worry about walking the fence in such weather, I'd just do a cursory glance at it while feeding hay and turning everyone out. Today, though, I had to do something about it, and of course I wasn't dressed for it at all (what a day to have my only pair of flannel lined jeans in the wash!)

I did my usual glance while feeding, and noticed that one of the wood fence posts was leaning. I didn't think a lot about it, until I saw the electric cord that runs along the top of the fenceline was broken and dangling on the ground. Crap.

I walked out and saw the post was actually broken at the base, which is pretty impressive for a pressure treated 4x4 wood post. The fence was the only thing holding it up. So I go back into the barn, get my tools and some extra fence cord, and get to work. I'm glad I got a new barn jacket for Christmas, as I was wearing sweatpants and a sweatshirt (thinking I would just be working in the barn). That jacket is so nice, it covered my rump and the hood protected me from the wind without hampering my vision.

After fixing the fence, I walked the rest of the paddock to check for breaks or grounding. There was a part that got covered with snow when the neighbor thought he'd be nice and scrape the snow off the barnyard. It was nice, but he bent a fencepost in the process. One more thing to fix in the spring.

When I was satisfied that now one would get out or hurt themselves, I finished the barn chores, brought in Gem, Jul, and Sparky to get them out of the wind, and headed back to the house for a well deserved hot shower. I'm still thawing out, but I feel a bit more human and less like an icicle.

Making progress

We've finally gotten to the point where both Willow and Alex will pick up their front feet with no problem. The issue now is keeping them up. Alex is better about it, he stands and doesn't hop around but he does like to try and pull his foot away while Ken is working. He's still iffy about relaxing and letting Ken hold his hind feet, but he did well enough the other day that we got them trimmed. Now he has four lovely trimmed feet!

Willow is another story. Like her son, she picks up her feet like a pro. She just doesn't like to keep them up and will dance and hop around until she's up against a wall. Then she demands a treat and and sniffs Ken - back and forth - until Ken puts her foot down. The good news though is that both fronts are trimmed and balanced and can now grow out properly and the toe crack is healing nicely. We're still working on getting her to pick up her hind feet, but we're getting closer.

We haven't been working much with Never because he's been really anxious about his feet, and tense and anxious in general. I think part of the reason is because he wants to get out and play after being in all night, so maybe I'll start doing some work with him in the evening. I can't wait for the snow and ice to melt so I can get him working in the round pen and work off some of his energy. He still thinks a little like a stallion, no mating urges but he still flirts, but I'm hoping that will fade with time and focused work.

We've hit a lovely heat wave, 30's and 40's with a little rain. I figure most of the snow will be gone by the end of the week. YAY!

I haven't updated my photo business site yet, but the farm site is up and running! Check out the Duchess Hill Farm website here. There are no pics yet and I'm not sure about the color scheme (the green is a little bright for my tastes) but there are lots of links on the links page and the most of the individual horse pages have links to their pedigrees. It should only take a day to get pics up and arranged. Hopefully I can kick myself in the butt and do it this weekend.

Crappy birthday to me

Okay, I'm going to try really hard not to sound whiny and petulant, but if I do can y'all cut me some slack? It truly was a crappy day yesterday.

It started out nice enough. I got up pretty early, fed the horses and let them out, keeping Gem and Sparky in for the day as Gem got himself wounded (long story) and I wanted him out of the bitter cold. Even the trip down was nice: clear and dry roads and very little traffic. I got to Mom's around noon, and that's when the 'fun' began.

Mom had almost nothing wrapped, and she put me to work wrapping while she sorted and micro-managed and wrapped a couple of DVDs. After three hours, I was finally done. I packed the stuff in her car, then headed over to my brother's house for the gathering. No dinner, just grazing all day, sort of an open house. The kids were high on the never ending supply of brightly wrapped presents and noisy obnoxious toys. I got a lot of 'Happy Birthday' greetings, and a couple of presents, and that's about it.

Now, to be fair, there were some other things going on that distracted everyone. My great aunt Doris died that morning, my great aunt Astrid had died a week earlier, and my grandma was distraught. Mom was distracted with funeral arrangements, talking with her cousins, and comforting grandma.So I guess I can cut her a little slack. But come on, not even a cake?

Then the fun really begins. After most of the relatives leave, and it's just me, my brothers, mom, and my sister in law, I let it slip to my younger-younger brother John that Ken was in Michigan with his girlfriend, and that I'm finally going to file for divorce. That gets my older-younger brother Jay and my mom plotting on how I can ditch all my 'dead weight' and move closer to home.

I think their favorite plan was to have me turn the farm over the the bank, find homes for as many of the animals as I can, and move into a run-down house on a farm that Jay's renting. It's on 15 acres and has a barn and shed, so I could have some of the horses there, and maybe board for extra cash. I guess the house looks better on the inside and just needs some cosmetic work (I kinda doubt it's that easy).

After 2 hours of listening to them plot and my sister-in-law exclaim about how disrespectful Ken was to me to have an affair (it baffled her that I cared more about the animals than my marriage, which really died 10 years ago), I made a hasty retreat. I stopped by to drop off the rest of the cookies for dad, then started for home.

The trip back was pretty good, clear sailing until I hit Madison. That's when the snow began to fall. It was the storm I had been trying to avoid by leaving early, but apparently I was destined to drive home at 40 mph on the expressway all the way home. The closer to home I got, the more snow was on the road. I was so not amused.

I finally got home at 11 (I had left at 6:30, so I guess I didn't do too badly). Our neighbor hadn't been able to plow us out before I got home, so he did the best he could by driving around the driveway with his dually. I had to really gun it and keep going, but I didn't get stuck and was able to make it to the shed to park. Jac and the dogs met my outside to help bring in packages. After we got in and settled, Jac surprised me with two little pecan tassies with a candle in each, as I had let it slip that I hadn't gotten a birthday cake. I felt a little better, but I was so wired on stress and caffeine that I went online to check my emails (3 automated birthday greetings, none on any of my forums or networking sites) and then stayed up until 2am watching 'Love, Actually'.

So, that's how I spent my 35th birthday. Not too exciting, and a little disappointing. Anyway, today is a new day, and hopefully I can get my life turned around the way I want and next year I can have a better birthday.