Life on an Arabian breeding farm in Capitan, NM.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Another beautiful day, maybe...


 
Yesterday is what I would call windy, 30 – 40 mph winds with gusts up to 60+ mph. Monday, and Tuesday were beautiful, warm (not hot), and a breeze now, and then to keep things cool. Actually Tuesday was perhaps a little breezier, but still nice. It took two days for me to get all that wood cut. I still have a lot of small stuff to cut, but I’ll do that with the miter saw later. A lot of the wood was light, and eaten, and one log was infested with black ants. I don’t mind black ants as they’re not as aggressive as the red ones, but I don’t know how they’ll fare in a different location at a different altitude. Besides we don’t have any big hills around the house, and I’d rather keep it that way. I don’t need ants in the house.
 
I had to re-arrange some things to accommodate the new wood pile especially since I’m going to try to get a whole winter’s worth cut this summer. With all the work I did the last two days, I may only have a months worth of wood cut. I plan to get some pallets from the mercantile to keep the wood off the ground. It will keep the wood dry, and hopefully free from pests. My biggest problem is still getting enough medium sized logs. Seems everything is either big or small. I’ll check over at the state land to see what I can find there. Ranchers clear land, and then dump the cuttings on state land. They’re not supposed to, but there’s tons of wood stacked for who knows how many years all around us. It’s a fire hazard so I don’t think anyone will mind my clearing some of it out, not that anyone ever checks anyway. There’s a goodly stack just the other side of our property I can get wood from. The rest is too far away, and I don’t think our gator can get up the hills to get to them. Anyway that’s the plan, get enough wood this summer so I don’t have to be running around in the freezing cold all winter long looking for wood. Of course I could buy wood (that’s what we did in CA), but I have to stretch money as far as I can, and it seems a sin to buy wood, when with a little work I can have all the wood I want. Besides it’s good exercise, and I get a nice feeling of satisfaction when I see it all neatly piled, knowing I did that all by myself.
 
It’s cold out, but sunny with only a slight breeze (so far). I had to bring in all my plants last night (that I just put out on the porch) as it got down to 30 again this morning.  I know in a couple of months I will be complaining about it being too hot, but just now I’m really tired of all this cold weather. It wouldn’t be so bad if we hadn’t had temps in the 70’s just a couple of days ago I’m sure, but jeeze louise I had to start the fireplace again. I just started my next year’s stash of wood, and already I’m having to use it. Give me a break.
Today is stall cleaning day (maybe). At least that should warm me up. I cleaned out the barn (which was a mess again) this morning when I fed. The girl’s waterers are full of dirt (thank you Spirit Wind) so they all have to be emptied, cleaned, and Sere’s stall has to be cleaned. Since taking her out of the pasture Sadie, and Star are much happier. Already Star is putting on weight, and Sadie is starting to act like her old self. A few years ago we had Sadie, and Sere in the arena, and Sere kicked the living daylights out of Sadie. None of our mares ever really fought like that before, and Sadie hasn’t been the same since. Star’s her baby so there’s no friction there, and Sadie is much happier. At feeding time they have both been running, and jumping, and kicking up their heels just for the sheer joy of it. With Sere in the pasture Sadie is always off by herself, and both her and Star cautiously walk over to be fed, big difference. This causes a problem since both Sadie, and Sere really need to be in pasture. When Sadie is in a stall all she does is stand around. In pasture she at least moves, and kicks up her heels once in a while. That keeps her hooves trimmed nicely, and her muscles toned up. At 24 she needs the exercise, and since I can’t work her anymore (stress colic) the pasture is a good solution.
 
 
Sere needs to be in pasture because of her navicular. In pasture she moves more, and the hoof gets more circulation (at least that’s the theory). In any event she’s not nearly as lame when she’s in pasture. I know some day we’ll have to have the nerve frozen (and teach her how to walk again) because of the pain, but until then I want to keep her as pain free as possible without drugs. She’s not there yet. When she’s in pasture you can hardly tell she has a problem. It’s only when she starts trotting for more than five minutes or so that she starts limping. When she’s in a stall, and we only let her out for some exercise she’s lame most of the time. That’s why I put her in pasture in the first place. Unfortunately we only have one pasture. It will take some time before Sere’s hoof grows out so I won’t have to worry about it for a while.  Who knows what will happen between now, and then, something good I hope (hint, hint).
 
Well it’s about noon now, and it hasn’t really warmed up. The wind has picked up so I guess I’ll wait to get the stalls cleaned. Of course that means that I’ll just have to work on the house instead, yuck. It really needs it. Maybe I can start on my little projects, like the wood gate for the living room, and now I have some planters I want to make. Rudy sent me a picture of a cool planter, that I can make without a lot of trouble, and that gave me an idea of what I can do around the porch to hide the falling down, ugly rock planter box we inherited. See there’s always a way to get out of doing housework. Now if I could only manage to find someone to do it for me I’d really be happy!
 
 

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