No not yet...

Finally I get a day when I can actually mow without worrying about it raining on me. I get the deck belt on, and off I go. It doesn’t feel quite right but it’s mowing, then the belt came off. I go back to the barn put the belt back on tightening it as tight as I can, and go back out. Then I see smoke. This is not a good sign so I take the mower back to the garage where I have more tools. I take the blade off, and put it back on numerous times, but no matter what I try I can’t get the pulley to stop wobbling. I give up frustrated, take the mower back to the barn, and go back to the house. I know I have to take off the top bolt, but there’s just no getting it off. Next day I try again spending hours on the thing using what I can find. I can’t find our pipe to give me more leverage then I end up starting to strip the bolt with the one socket that does fit. I give up in frustration yet again. Rudy suggested using the pipe wrench, which turned out to be the best idea yet. Next day I get out the pipe wrench, using a crescent wrench for more leverage. Finally the bolt breaks, and I get it off. I take everything apart, and take it to Randy’s to see if anything is usable. The top bolt is stripped, the pulley is stripped, and there is this thing on the bottom that is detached. I have no idea what it was having never seen the whole assembly before. Randy confirms that it all has to be replaced. There is a top bearing that is totally missing, and the thing I couldn’t identify is what’s left of the bottom bearing. Then he asks about the housing. He shows me one, and tells me what to look for, mainly cracks if the housing is good otherwise. I go back home, and proceed to take the housing off. It’s totally blown apart on the bottom. It’s made out of aluminum so it will blow apart instead of ruining the mower. Makes sense to me. I call Randy, and he orders me the entire assembly. Unfortunately it will take three or four days to come in, and it’s Thursday. The soonest it can come in is the first part of the following week. By now the sunflowers, weeds, and grasses are in some places taller than the dogs, and they’re not small. On top of that things are starting to seed. It looks pretty, but… 

It continues to rain almost every day, sometimes a lot sometimes not so much, sometimes in the late afternoon, and sometimes at night. Now the sunflowers are starting to bloom. By the time I can mow they may be taller than the bloody mower. I can’t ride in the arena because it’s a mess of weeds with a little grass trying to come back. The flies are thick even though the inside of the barn is almost fly free. Can’t I have even a little bit of a break? Ok so the sunflowers seem to have choked out the tumbleweeds I have been battling the last few years, but I would like a bit more of a break, like something going right for a change. I did get the garage cleaned, and organized again. Rudy left it a bit of a mess the last time he was doing things, and with the dogs shedding, and the wind blowing all kinds of debris in it’s a disaster. I also got all my wood (even the little stuff) cut, and stacked. Now it’s time to go get more. There’s some good wood over at the state land, and another stash across the way where a creek begins. There’s wood everywhere around here, it’s just a matter of going out, getting it, and cutting it. Hopefully by the time winter comes, I’ll have a good enough stash so I don’t have to cut much in the freezing cold again. I also got the weed eater out, and cut the grass around the house. That was a chore, but at least the house looks better. It would have only taken me an hour or so if I had my mower, and a lot less back strain, but oh well such is life. We have the big weed eater fixed enough (temporarily) so when April comes on Sat. she can cut around the horse panels down at the barn. By then I should have my mower up, and running, and the barn, and arenas will look like they're supposed to. God I miss my mower. Now if I only had a tractor!

The days are beautiful, and the hills look like an emerald green island. The horses are doing well on half, and half. LBM is still skinny even though he is getting more than anyone else (except Jeri of course). He’ll start filling out as soon as he gets a break from this new growing spurt. I can’t even use the round pen so no one is getting worked. It’s ok, I’ll take the rain any day. We get so little as it is I don’t begrudge the couple of months of wet. By Sept. things will dry up, and I’ll be riding to my hearts content. I can finish Star, and get Stormy started. I’ll work with Ser-Haat, and maybe even Jazzy. As much as we hate to I think we are going to give up on the idea of continuing to breed. Like so many small breeders, I think we are going to have to divest ourselves of all but a few horses. We have the knowledge, and the stock to be successful, but not the wherewithal. In order to be known you have to show, and showing is expensive. That’s what we get for living out in the middle of nowhere. I’m trying to wrangle my way to a TB farm, just so I can be around babies again. The worst part is the more I hear about the breeders the more I have no desire to meet them. Their trainer has over sixty horses to get ready for next year, and there are over eighty babies on the ground. Most of those horses will go to auction, and God only knows what will happen to them. I don’t understand that kind of breeding. They are breeding as many horses as they can in hopes of getting one winning horse. Still I don’t know them or their breeding program so I can’t really judge. There may be some method in what seems to be irresponsible breeding. Then people wonder why there is a glut of horses on the market. I don’t know, racing is a whole different world of which I know nothing about (except bad). We breed carefully, minimizing weaknesses, and hopefully bringing out the strengths of dam, and sire in the resulting foal. Everyone wants a winner whether it’s at the track or in the show ring. Even with the best of records, and winning bloodlines you just never know until a horse matures exactly how well you did in selecting the correct dam, and sire. Then you have no idea if the resulting foal will be a good breeder or just a good horse, especially when you’re just starting out. Sandy has been breeding for over fifty years, and her bloodlines consistently produce a quality horse. We started too late in life, and at the wrong time. Part of me will probably never give up the idea of starting over, and trying again, but right now we’re having trouble just keeping our heads above water.

 

Today is a beautiful day, a good day to go out looking for wood. Oops, I forgot to put the last battery (chainsaw battery) on the charger. That means I’ll only have two batteries to cut with. Somehow I have to find the money to get a larger chainsaw with a lithium battery. Doing it the way I’m doing it takes forever. Maybe I’ll do some grooming first, and then go out looking for wood. Father is going to be gone most of the day today (they’re have an activity day at the senior center) so I might even do some housework, ugh! I need something to lift my spirits, not bring them down so I’ll more than likely only do housework as a last resort. Hey I have a barn to clean, and a clean barn is much more important than a clean house. We’ll see, horses first, wood next, then house, and who knows maybe even me!