Today's confession is that I'm having a little trouble with time management, but in the process, I just spent another $100 to try and help. I'll explain.
First, having horses in two separate locations is a bit tricky for me. Fortunately, they're super close to each other, so that is definitely helpful. When we bought Eros, he was to share with my stepmom, which he still is. But they have been in Florida all winter, so all of his care is on me. And I suppose I SHOULD take advantage of him being at the boarding barn, and let them do some of the work, but we all remember what happened the last time...
Anyway, I'm getting stuff done, but I'm tired. Tuesday through Friday my days are as follows:
7:00am up and at em (unless I pretend I'm going to work out, then I get up earlier, but that's almost never)
8:30 should be at my desk, usually still driving there
12:45 drive 25 minutes back home to feed everyone lunch
1:45 back at work (lol, I never make it that fast)
5:00 head home (ideally, but usually it's 5:15-5:30)
6:00 (hopefully earlier) feed the boys at home
6:30 go ride Eros
8:30 home to groom the old men, and now to steam Jamp's hay for the next day
10:00 pm in the house, eat dinner, snuggle the pugs.
11:30 bed time. Ideally. Usually it's more like midnight.
So this is working ok for me. I get almost seven hours of sleep most nights, which is actually pretty good! But you can see that there's not a lot of room in there for extra stuff. I'm worried about what happens once the weather is nice and the old men need more attention at home. We're hopeful that Jamp will go back to work this summer, and I think Rio may also. (Light work for both that is, no more jumping for them.) Plus I'm hoping to have a new horse too. Hopefully stepmom will be around more though, that will help for sure.
But I have not addressed the $100 confession yet have I? Ok, let's talk about the hay steamer real quick.
I got this guy up and running over the weekend to help Jampy with his allergies. It seems to work great, so I'm really happy with it. Once I've used it for awhile, I'll try and remember to write up a real post about it. The downside is, it takes awhile. About 15 minutes to warm up and then it needs to steam for 80-90 minutes. It came with a timer, so technically I can just set it and forget it. However, having lived through a barn fire once as a teen, I am not particularly comfortable with that option. Which means I need to be in the barn for that time while it steams. Usually ok, since I'm in the barn at night grooming the boys after I ride Eros. But in all honesty, some nights our grooming sessions are abbreviated and I can get in the house earlier. Wouldn't happen if I had to stare at the hay steamer though.
So I thought... maybe a camera that I could watch from in the house? But most need wifi to operate and my wifi doesn't reach to the barn. And THEN I had a brilliant (hopefully) plan. You know what doesn't require wifi, and you can watch AND hear with? A baby monitor! I found one with a range of a 1000 feet that says it should work even if you're outside the house (or barn in this case). I got it from Amazon, and it should be here today. My plan then, is to get the hay steaming after I ride Eros, and watch it on the monitor while I eat dinner. Then I can go out for night check and unplug it when it's done. We'll see how that all plays out... Wish me luck.
So I have a half finished post sitting in my drafts about how to get a camera working in your barn (which also involves how to get wifi to your barn if your barn is on the same electric as your house) so let me know if you end up wanting to go that route. Your schedule seems quite similar to mine, lol. Sometimes my nights just don't involved grooming of chestnut boys sadly. Especially right now when they involve butt cleaning on one and leg wrapping on the other. Just not enough time in my day, especially while I'm working 60-65 hours a week right now.
ReplyDeleteOne of these days I need to wire up the whole place with cameras. I just haven't wrapped my head around it yet. My brother is an IT wiz, so I'll probably just hire him!
DeleteHonestly, the boys at home don't get full on groomies every single night. Rio gets wrapped every night, and they both get their feet picked. But some nights that might be it. Often I'll do it right in their stalls to save time on clean up too. But I do try and get them out and loved on as much as I can.
Please share for my sake! MY barn runs on my house hydro and I would love wifi out there lol
DeleteYou could get an outlet timer. That would ensure the thing is shut off. Could you also just ask your morning barn helper to do the steaming?
ReplyDeleteI could have him do it, but I want there to be hay ready for breakfast when he gets there. It's one of those things I just feel better doing myself ya know?
DeleteI hope the baby monitor works for you - it is kinda scary leaving electrical stuff hooked up in the barn.
ReplyDeleteYou have quite the packed schedule!
Is the steamer on a GFI outlet? Wouldn't it just trip if something went wrong with the unit? (said the person who knows nothing about electrical stuff). lol
DeletePS - I started a blog - would appreciate if you could check it out! www.bbquarterhorses.ca
It is on a GFI so yeah probably. I just worry. Especially where hay is involved.
DeleteOh thanks for linking! I've been trying to figure out which blog was yours!
Thanks for the comment! :-)
DeleteIf it truly has a 1000 foot range and works through walls I'm gonna need a link! I want to extend my wifi to the barn and get cameras but I don't want to spend a ton of money on it because I'm hoping once the house is built the wifi will reach that far 😂
ReplyDeleteme too i want the link if it works as well :) good luck with steamer! and no judgement here. I got up at 2 am the other week when Remus was still here cause i forgot to unplug the heated bucket. Remus and Tate were like what the hell mom what are you doing out here. I dont even leave those plugged in over nite.
DeleteOk, so it works through walls, but only a few... Lol. My bedroom is actually pretty close to the barn with only two walls between the monitor and the camera. It worked great there. But it did not work in the living room where there are four walls between the units. (An entire building in between actually.)
DeleteHere's a link to it if you want to check it out:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07K12YHFT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
I am seconding the outlet timer - my stepdad has their whole house on timers so it always looks like they are home!
ReplyDeleteMy dad uses them too! But his houses are ridiculously high tech. Not sure what I would need to do to get that set up. I'll have to check it out!
DeletePower to you lady! That is quite the hectic schedule, I don't think I'd be able to keep up!
ReplyDeleteThe things we do for our kids!
DeleteMy timeline is similar too! Just addingchores at home and riding at home lol where did you get the steamer? I need one for Penny but lost where to start.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to add in riding at home this summer too!
DeleteThe steamer I got from a company in England, Equisteam. Here's the link:
https://www.equisteam.com/
All shipped it was still around $600 USD. But the cheapest hay gain steamer was over $900. I think it would be very easy to make one, but I personally just trust the pros more. I'd rather spend a little more and know it's right.