Truthful Tuesday

 

So as I was obsessively sweeping my barn aisle one day this weekend, I had a realization. I don't think my desire to keep the barn looking dust, dirt, and cobweb free comes from a need for perfection. I truly think it's due to my actually being such a lazy person inside. 

I realize this is counterintuitive. But, see, I know that if I don't keep up with it, it will be SO MUCH more work when I do get around to it. And that feeling leaves me overwhelmed and not l knowing where to start. (Which is everything you need to know about the state of my own home...) 

And THAT is today's confession: I'm actually really lazy and my house is a mess.

Truthful Tuesday

 

Oof, guys. This rain! I really hope this is mother nature getting excessive precipitation out of her system before winter. Because if winter follows this pattern I might just lose my mind. I barely got to ride last week. Tuesday and Friday were the only weekdays I got everyone ridden. The weekend was better thank goodness! A friend of mine with a rain gauge posted that our town received 10" of rain over the last four storms (which were all within the last week or so). That's a LOT of rain. The positives are that the grass is green (in August!) and the pool is staying full all on its own. So there are pluses. 

I know this doesn't sound like a confession. But here it is: I was feeling very discouraged by the lack of riding. This summer has been challenging in the mental department for me, and after the winter... It's been a little hard. But I'm trying me best to turn my mindset around. I know I'm incredibly lucky. I know that I have really special horses. And I also know that they don't care if they are super fit and going to shows or not. They only care that I feed them regularly and keep them healthy. So I'm going to keep remembering this and just enjoying our time together. 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Today's confession is that I still haven't brought out my jump fill. I put it all away for the winter in an attempt to extend the life of it all. And I just haven't had the free time to drag it all back out. Since we're almost to August at this point, I'm not sure it's worth doing this year. Maybe I'll just wait for next spring. 

What do you guys think? Should I drag it all out? We have probably three more good months of riding, maybe four if November stays mild... 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Oh man guys. My confession today is that barely any riding has been getting done around here lately. We had two smoke days last week (Wed and Thurs) and then Saturday we got rained out. Now today, storms again, this time with lightning. I thought we'd get rides in first, but I checked the weather just now and there's a 100% chance of storms between 1 and 5. I may be able to get one horse done. Fingers crossed. 

It's not really the end of the world to have days off from riding, but after such a long winter of not riding, I hate to miss it when the weather doesn't hurt my face. Can't change the weather though! So we shall do what we can when we can.

How's it been your way? Are you getting your usual rides in?

Truthful Tuesday

 

So... I was cleaning up outside the other morning. I had a pitchfork in one hand and a bucket in the other and this buzzy bug kept flying at my face. So I went to wave it away and clocked myself in the face with the pitchfork handle. 

And that's today's confession! I'm the clumsiest. Should not be left unsupervised. Clearly! Haha! Anyone else like me?

Truthful Tuesday

 

Okay, this is an icky one. So one of the mornings last week or the week before (who can remember) when I walked under the chain that runs across the barn door opening to start my day out there, I walked into a spider web without realizing it at first. I spent the rest of the morning still feeling like there was web on me, even though I had removed what I thought was all of it. I went about my morning, occasionally trying to pick imaginary (or was it?) web off the back of my neck. 

And then it was time to get ready to ride. As I was taking out my ponytail to do my hair for helmet, guess what I discovered. GUESS!

If you said a spider in my hair, you would be correct. Thankfully it was a small one, and not the absolutely enormous potential tarantula I saw in the hay barn yesterday. So that's my confession this week. I spent many hours doing chores the other day with a spider in my hair the entire time. 

Truthful Tuesday: You'll never believe this one

 

All I can say, is that I must have been a really, REALLY terrible person in my last life. Like truly deplorable. 

When we last left off I was full of hope for my new worker who was doing a really great job while I worked alongside him. He worked a full five day work week. His days off were Friday and Saturday. I was planning to work with him the full day Sunday, then move on to letting him start without me. I couldn't wait until I got to sleep past 5:30... And then... 

Sunday morning he called out. Something about a swollen knee. Texts me later in the day that he's torn his meniscus and is unable to do the job. Wishes me luck finding a replacement. Why yes, in case you're wondering, I DID have a full menty b over this development. There were tears. More than once throughout the day. I'm currently on day 11 of 13 hour barn days. Well sort of. Yesterday was Monday and I don't ride Mondays. So it was only a half day. But otherwise. 13 hour days. Plus trying to do my THQ job. I'm very tired. 

I did meet with a girl today who is interested in the job at least for the summer. I was hoping to find a long term employee, but at this point I'll take what I can get. She's going to do a trial work day with me on Monday. I know her mom from the most recent boarding barn I wintered at. They have a farm at home like me, but no indoor, so we're similar people in that respect. She has high standards for care as well, so that's promising! The daughter has worked as a barn manager before so she knows the most important horse stuff already. I'm no longer getting my hopes up because I'm not sure I can handle being disappointed again so quickly.

This really broke me. I mean I've recovered. Mostly. But there was a moment that I felt really defeated. I did everything in my power to set this whole ordeal up for success. And it still imploded. After such a hard winter and now being on my own with no help... I was really struggling. Thinking maybe this is all too much for me. And that still might be true. But I'll keep trying. It's all you can do right? I mean, I KNOW lots of women have barns at home and full time jobs, and maybe even a family. And they can do it all. Maybe I'm not as strong or capable as them. I dunno. It's just a lot. And I'm so tired. Fingers crossed things work out with my next potential helper. 

Truthful Tuesday: Change is hard edition

 

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. 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Today's confession is that I am taking the rest of the week off from blogging. We don't have much to report on for tomorrow and I have some changes going on over here that have me pretty distracted. I'll give a full report next week! Have a great week everyone!

Truthful Tuesday

 

So I've been trying to be better about going to the grocery store myself rather than choosing delivery because it's cheaper to do it myself. I don't have to leave me a tip! But things have just been so busy here, I ordered my groceries this week. I chose the latest two hour window I could, and hoped it would come at the later end of the window. Of course it didn't though. It arrived right at the start. I was still riding, and didn't want to go in the house and get Rita all excited only to leave her again. So I put the perishables in a drink cooler I have in the barn with a couple ice boots. Which I thought was pretty responsible! Totally did the trick of keeping things nice and cold. Except I didn't realize that I missed a whole package of smoked salmon that was hiding under the lettuce. $13 right in the trash because I'm definitely not eating fish that's been sitting out for two hours in the summer. 

It was especially disappointing though because I had also ordered a rotisserie chicken which was the base for all the meals I had planned for the next several days and they were out of those. So I got a whole load of groceries (mostly vegetables) and absolutely no protein. Sigh. Guess I'll have to make that trip to the store after all. I did have tuna fish though, so tonight I made tuna macaroni which was a pretty solid meal for a last minute change. 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Okay so this one's funny. Sunday morning I was up around 5:15 to have my coffee before doing chores. I sent Rita out to do her business and I went to make coffee when I heard her barking. Rita hardly ever barks so I ran out to see what was wrong. 

Well. I see something at the deer fence on the edge of the yard. It's white and roundish, but I don't have my contacts in so I can't quite tell what it is. Maybe someone's very large chicken wandered over here? I'm not sure. Could it be some strange wild animal? Maybe. I call Rita back in and she comes like a good girl. Then I head out with my phone to zoom in and take a photo. 

Guys. It was just a balloon. And I'm obviously more blind than I realized! Hahaha!

Truthful Tuesday

 

I was on my own in the barn Friday through Monday, and I was VERY productive out there. We had two rain days so instead of riding, I did lots and lots of cleaning. I'm trying to get things back to where they should be so it will be easy to keep up with. (Of course today, my worker was back and used his gas powered blower to dirty everything back up... but that's a complaint for another day.) Monday I was able to ride, but I made sure to leave the place looking perfect. It was a long day.

Monday's Stats
Yes, 35,736 steps. 

I was so pooped by the time I got ready for bed I put my jammies on backwards. And THAT my friends is today's confession. I did turn them around before actually going to bed though. Fear not!

Truthful Tuesday

 

Lolz... Okay so this one needs a little stage setting. Last week, I washed my hands in the barn bathroom shortly after arriving in there that day. But the sink wasn't draining. Ruh-roh. So I flushed the toilet next to it to see how big this issue might be. The toilet had no troubles. Okay, good. So I figured I must reach into that little drain hole and see what the problem was. Turns out there was a tissue or tp in there. I pulled it out and all was well. Easy fix. 

Just to be sure that doesn't happen again, I sent a text to my worker and just said "please make sure you don't leave tissues or toilet paper in the sink, it clogs the drain." He wrote back very adamant that it wasn't him. But no one else has been here so it was either him, or a member of his family that he likes to bring along to work. But whatever, I'm not worked up about it, just don't want it to happen again. 

So Sunday, I had hired my barn sitter to do chores for me because I was getting home at 2 am that morning and decided I could treat myself to that. After she had gone, at some point I used the bathroom. I always close the lid and keep it closed. Later in the day, I go back in there to wash my hands and the seat is up. Now I'm starting to think I'm losing my mind. Maybe my worker was right? Maybe some stranger is coming in and using my bathroom? I was really perplexed by this as I had been either in the barn or outside grazing horses all day and hadn't heard anyone. 

Guys. It took me a solid hour to remember that I had pulled a tick off Shiny and lifted the lid to put it in the toilet. It was me the whole time. Hahahaha. I'm old. 

Truthful Tuesday

 

So the other day I was filling up Shiny's hay bucket to soak her hay, much like this:

But I was also scrolling the phone whilst filling. And I was thinking, this is taking a really long time. And when I looked up, I wasn't filling the bucket at all, I was watering the grass behind it... Ha.
So, uh... You know. Pay attention to what you're doing and maybe put the phone down sometimes. 

Anyone else do something silly like that recently?

Truthful Tuesday

 

I think we can all agree that I can have bouts of bad luck. I mean anyone can of course, but the whole if anything can go wrong it will adage is pretty true around here. Well today's confession is that I managed to spread my bad luck to one of my favorite tack stores. Oops!

Here's what happened. May is full of occasions around here. Like, so many. And there are a couple extra this year too. Both of my nieces, my mom, and my stepmom have birthdays in May. Then of course there's Mother's day, and both a bar and bat mitzvah this year. It's a lot! So last week I set about purchasing all the necessary gifts for said occasions. There was a tote bag I wanted to get for my stepmom from The Tack Room, so I went on their site and filled my cart with a schooling shirt, the tote bag, and some treats to make up a nice gift. But it was erroring out when I tried to check out, saying there weren't enough of an item to fulfill my order. So I removed the item, replaced with another and tried to checkout. Same issue. It kept changing which item didn't have enough stock. Clearly a website issue. So I figured I'd try later in the day. They then had a note on the site that it was malfunctioning and to call in orders. But I had time so figured I'd try the next day. The note was gone, so I was hopeful they were back in business. But alas. Same issue. So I reached out via email to see if they could send a Paypal invoice. (I wanted to pay with real money rather than a credit card.) They said the site should be fixed and if I wouldn't mind, give it another try. So I did, but the same thing. Turns out, the problem was only with my items. Guys. I broke their entire site for a whole day! Ooops. Thankfully, they were able to send me that Paypal invoice and hopefully their site is all fixed up now. But man. I felt bad!

Truthful Tuesday

 

Hahahaha, this is a good one. So this weekend was a little extra busy because I had a couple of horses to braid. One Friday and one Saturday. So the Friday customer paid me in cash, which I put in my jeans pocket. I then put the jeans in the laundry without remembering to take out my money. I mean obviously, right?

So I made a mental note to remember to get the money out of my pocket before laundry day. Which I DID remember to do on Saturday night. But you know what I did with the money? I put the money in the pocket of the pants I had on. Can you see where this is going? I then proceeded to be unable to recall what I did with the money. 

Yesterday was laundry day so I was hopeful it would appear in the laundry. And thankfully it did. But sheesh. The senility is clearly setting in!

Truthful Tuesday

 

Well this is awkward.... So, you know how I've mentioned that Al has a threshold for external stimuli? Like he can handle it being windy if it's warm out and the neighbor isn't around, but not if it's also cold and noisy. Well. I realized today that perhaps it's not all him. Because I too am quite dysfunctional with too much negative stimuli.

Let me explain. I have been having a terrible time with carpal tunnel, which is mostly just annoying. But the reason I'm struggling from it is that it's been waking me up at night. And sometimes it's so bad I have trouble getting comfortable enough to go back to sleep. Very annoying. Last night, it woke me up around 2:30 am and I didn't fall back asleep until after 4. So I got maybe 5 hours of very interrupted sleep. Annoying, right? So that was negative stimuli number one.

Negative stimuli number two was that it's freaking freezing again! Not quite literally, but close. It was in the 30's overnight and didn't get to 50 today. Also wind. Gross.

Which leads me to number three. I have told my worker more times than I should have to that he can't use his diesel blower in the barn if the doors will be shut. The fumes are terrible. Like SO BAD. The horses should NOT be left to breath that in. Nor should I. Definitely not good for my asthma. So did he use my electric blower today since the doors were shut? Oh no. No he did not. I was big mad. We're kind of back to the same problems I've complained about in the past, so this was like icing on my grumpy cake. 

Let me tell you. I was in a foul mood ALL DAY. I didn't even want to hang out with me. The horses were super spicy too, but thankfully we all kept our poo mostly together. Though I did nearly fall of Shiny trotting... Hahaha! That actually made my laugh. Not sure what startled her, but I was in the bareback pad and she teleported sideways. She's an angel though and caught me. Good pony.

So anyway, the real question is, am I the reason Al is the way he is?? Or has Al's neuroses rubbed off onto me? Hard to say for sure. But generally with horses, it's usually not them that's the problem. I suppose the first step is recognizing it. Step two is figuring out how to fix it. I'll just be over here trying to reset my grumpy meter.

Truthful Tuesday

 

Today's confession is not a new one. It's just freshly apparent to me and I don't have anything better to confess today anyway. Guys. All it takes for me to be a useful member of society is some sunshine and temps about 50. And I get progressively more useful the warmer it gets. We're expecting mid to high 70's today and I am HERE for it! Tee shirt weather! WOOHOO!!!

Anyone else? Or are you one of those weirdos that thrives when it's 30 degrees? No judgement... I just can't relate. 

Truthful Tuesday

 

Today's confession is that I spend a lot of time checking to see if the blankets I want for the horses are on sale. I'm not satisfied with our current wardrobe, and I'm slowly trying to get them replaced with better options. I'm nearly done with turnouts for next year. My current turnouts all fit well, but as this was the first winter home in awhile, I realized they aren't quite the weights and configurations that I want. I had a different set of blankets for the winter barn, but they also aren't exactly what I wanted either. So as tack stores were putting turnouts outs on sale this spring, I got what I think I wanted. I just have one more weight to find and also a set of liners. 

As for stables... I'm having a few issues with what we have. While I LOVE our heavies from Kentucky, they are very heavy literally. I would prefer something that's warm but a little lighter weight to handle. Also, the shavings just stick to them which is so messy. I have to brush them off before removing them or there are shavings just absolutely everywhere. I'll probably still use them for the coldest days since they are so cozy. The 100 grams we have just don't fit that well. They aren't long enough in the drop, so they tend to shift a lot. Poor Al some mornings has his whole right side hanging out! And then I have a lined sheet we use for when it's not quite warm enough for just sheets but 100 grams seem like too much. I love them, but they create SO MUCH static. Poor Eros is now terrified of having his blanket removed because of them. 

Amigo came out with green insulators which is what I'd like to replace what we have currently. They come in several weights. I want the 360 grams for heavies, the 100 grams, and the 50 grams for those in between days. Unfortunately, so far they've only had the heavies on sale, and it was a short window which I missed. So I may have to wait until fall blanket sales to start restocking blankets. Until then though, I'll keep wasting time stalking websites to see if there are any sales... 

Truthful Tuesday

 

So last week was one of those weeks where I had something additional to do outside of the norm every single day. And I was SO looking forward to my Monday this week. I don't ride on Mondays. I have my helper in the morning for chores and turnout/in. All I have to do on Mondays is make Shiny's hay bags, feed all the meals, top off waters, and do night check. Since I have less to do in the barn that day, I usually tend to all the household chores, do my PT exercises, run errands, and clock some work for TurnoutHQ. Now that I'm HAPPILY back in the saddle, my weekend days in the barn are a solid 10-12 hours between riding and chores. Needless to say, I very much look forward to my Mondays. But alas, my worker called out this week. So after a crazy week and two very long weekend days, I had to do the barn Monday. And it was actually a really nice day so I decided to ride. Today, I figured I'd catch up on a few things I couldn't get to yesterday, and then go ride. And now comes my confession for today. 

My morning helper is also the lawn guy. After calling out yesterday, he thought he would stay late today and start spring cleanup outside. But without asking me first. And here's my confession. I was really frustrated by this. I just got really fed up with him just doing what he wants when he wants around here. And I'm not sure if that's entirely fair, but it was very much how I was feeling. Now, I'm not an asshole. I didn't tell him that. But I did tell him he needed to be done for the day when it was after noon and I needed to start riding. I probably would be less bothered if I'd had my Monday. But this was the second one in a row that turned out to not be truly my "day off" and I was just needing some peace and quiet. (Not that I really get that with the neighbor...) Anyway. That's my confession. I had big feelings today.