I'm back! Sorry for the short hiatus friends, but I was fresh out of bandwidth last week. As you know I've been having some issues with the job my helper of many years has been doing. And when I was spending so much time finishing and or redoing his work that I was struggling to have time to ride all my horses, I knew that I really needed to do something about the situation. Spending eight hours in the barn plus trying to work my hours for Turnout during the week, and 12-13 hour days in the barn on weekends was taking a toll on me. Physically and emotionally. I didn't have time or energy for anything else.
So I made the decision a couple months ago to commit to finding a replacement. And I finally did, which meant that last Friday it was time to let my worker go. I've never had to terminate a worker before. I've had people leave of course over the years I've been here. One lady was struggling with carpal tunnel so she needed to stop cleaning stalls. (I feel that, I've developed it myself over the last year.) I had a few weekend helpers that graduated college and left to start their grown up lives. That sort of thing. I haven't ever had to be the bad guy. So needless to say, all last week I was having a wee nervous breakdown about the whole thing. It actually went fine, and in all honesty, I don't think he really wanted to be doing this job anymore. But I was really stressed last week just knowing I had to do that.
My new worker started on Sunday. He's going to be doing Sunday through Thursday. Which I'm really excited about. My little town has a great Farmer's Market on Sunday mornings in the summer and concerts at the lake across the street from me on Sunday evenings. But I haven't been able to get get to either of those things for the last few years. And now I'll be able to! Plus I think having an easy day Sunday (pretty much just riding that day and evening chores) hopefully I won't be so exhausted on Monday and I can be more productive with my non riding day. (It's honestly shocking how energy levels tank after 45. SHOCKING. Believe people when they tell you this.)
New worker is pretty green around horses, but has had some experience. Thankfully, my three are all generally very easy to handle. Even Al who is such a weirdo, is very respectful on the ground. I've been working with him all this week so he can get the routine down, and I can make sure things are getting done how I like. He's very willing to do things the way I want them done. He's picking things up quickly. Tomorrow is the first day that I'll leave him alone in the barn for a bit while I take a work meeting. I'm going to help him get everyone out, and then probably head back inside for my meeting and pop back out when it's time to bring the horses in. If that goes well, I'll do a little less each day until he's comfortable on his own.
Hopefully he'll enjoy the work and want to stick around awhile. Send good vibes for that outcome if you have them to spare!
So that's my confession. I was having a wee panic attack about this big change in my life. Hopefully I'm over the transition hump and things will settle down soon.
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