I know some people have boring lives…

I know some people have boring lives but I don’t think I’m one of them. The last time I started to write a post was 10-20-2013, it’s now the middle of February. At that time I was commenting on the fact that Joe had finally finished cleaning Lizzie’s stall. Eventually we got Espree, Star, and Lizzie’s stalls done a couple of times (thankfully before the weather got bad). Star contracted Pigeon Fever otherwise known as Dry Land Distemper or even River Rot. Evidently this year for some reason there  was a huge outbreak of it in our area. She had three breakouts all of which broke open, and closed up again even before I could flush out the abscesses, then Lizzie came down with it. She is almost over with it yes I know that was over three months ago. At one point she could barely walk but it just wouldn’t break open. I soaked her with hot Epson salt compresses twice a day till about a week or more ago, and I am on my fourth jar of Ichthammol. I had to trim the fur on her chest to get the Ichthammol down into her skin before the fur fell out. Finally it burst, and has been oozing ever since. Her fur is already growing back even though she still has a little oozing. At one point I had three sick horses in the worst weather. Jeri caught a terrible cold, which thankfully he got over without needing medication. The worst was

Marina. She stopped eating, and was down most of three days. Then she went lame on her back leg. With Sherry’s help we decided she had contracted hooves, so while I was soaking Lizzie’s chest, I was also soaking Marina’s feet in Epson salts. At first (not knowing what of a dozen things might be wrong) I was giving her 20 cc's of penicillin twice a day. Then when we decided is was contracted hooves she got 10 cc’s of Banamine once a day for over a week, and was very grateful once I stopped. She has very hard hooves to begin with, and with it being so dry it was just too much for her feet. She is now getting hoof treatments every few days to keep them from drying out again. This last little snowstorm has helped soften her feet so I could get most of her overgrown frog cut down. I’m sure that contributed to her problem.

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All this of course is only the tip of the iceberg. Getting water has been an ongoing problem, as our well is now completely dry. Once the cold weather hit the water tank I was using to haul water with kept cracking. It was covered with bondo, which eventually came off so I would have to do it all over again. Finally I got a new used tank (300 gal). The only problem was it was used to transport oil. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get oil out of that large a tank? Taint easy let me tell you. I finally took it to a car wash, filled the bottom with degreaser, and let it sit. Rudy took it back later, and washed it out as best he could. There’s a little crusty stuff on the bottom, but that is never going to come out. Ok now I have a new clean tank so the truck breaks down. After a week of replacing this, and that, taking it down to the mechanic to find out it was something in the carburetor. They of course wore down the battery by taking the key out. I tried charging it, and even used the battery from the Z to get it started to no avail. I replaced the coil, the spark plugs, spark plug wires, and the solenoid. I got a new battery, and it still wouldn’t start. Then Rudy suggested that I look for a short in the wire connecting the solenoid to the starter button he installed. Sure enough I find a burn mark. I cut, and splice the wire, and lo, and behold it starts. Thank you Lord! Between the truck, my tank issues, and busted pipes, we went over a month without running water. Talk about roughing it.

 

December was a month to reckon with. Since 2013 was the worst year of our married life it decided to go out with a bang. There were freezing cold temps, and though we didn’t get a lot of snow ourselves, there was plenty on the mountain in fact we thought we just might work our way out of our three year drought until January came with no moisture at all. Mostly we had freezing temps. I had heat tape, blankets, and plenty of R19 down at the pump house, and I bought some wood to make a box lines with R19 around the bottom of the pump house. I haven’t built it yet, but I did buy the wood. Unfortunately I forgot to turn on the heat lamp. The result was three busted pipes. This happened about the time the truck broke down. I was hoping to fix it myself, but it was beyond me. Between doctoring horses, hauling water, breaking ice, and cutting wood (my wood pile was depleted by now), I had neither the strength nor the energy to attempt it. George (April’s step father) knew of someone who could fix it for me. I felt terrible because a simple job ended up taking most of his Sunday. We finally got it fixed, and the heat lamp has been on every since. The freezing temps also made for heavy ice, like 6 – 8” thick ice. LBM broke the float in his, and Lizzie’s tank so I had to fix that too. You know I used to love winter of course that was when I lived in the city, and in Tucson to boot. Now I can’t wait till spring.

 

A couple of weeks ago I had to clean out our chimney. What a mess that was. I was doing real good until the pipe dropped, and I had soot everywhere. The top portion of the pipe is pellet stove piping which is much narrower so I made a chimney brush out of a long broom handle, and a toilet bowel brush. Hey it worked except for the piping above the roof. My makeshift chimney brush wasn’t quite long enough for the pipe above the roof. I still have to go up on the roof to clean out the rest of it. Now I have no fear of heights, just of ladders. Many years ago I was cleaning my swamp cooler, and one time when I was going down the ladder slipped, and I ended up upside down on a chair that was thankfully under the ladder. If not for that chair I would have cracked my head open on the cement. Getting up on the roof is not going to be fun, but it has to be done. While up there I’m going to clean out the other chimney. Might as well, it hasn’t been cleaned for a number of years. It doesn’t get used that much, and is working just fine right now, but with my luck... One day when April is here (and we have the time), she can help with the ladder. Still I’m not looking forward to it.

 

I have lots of wood now thanks to Sherry. She had some Ponderosas that were dead, and I got two truckloads of wood. Unfortunately they weren’t dead long enough, and still have too much resin in them so I still have to go out get wood, and cut it. Please let Spring come soon.

 

I forgot we also have a new addition to the family. She’s been the bright spot in this otherwise lousy winter. Since April won’t let me have Dominica, I decided I needed to find my own littleler. I went to the Humane Society, and told them I wanted a Chihuahua or Chihuahua mix. They found me Jessie, Jessie James. They had her for 5 days, and managed to get her up to 7 lbs. At that she was skin, and bones. I’ve put 1.8 lbs on her since. They had her down as a Chihuahua/Terrier mix with a docked tail. She’s heavier boned than a purebred, and longer with shorter legs. Actually except for the docked tail she looks like a Chiweenie. She’s very spoiled, and I

have an idea that whoever had her before she got lost really spoiled her. She’s becoming quite the ranch doggie. She goes down to the barn to feed with me, and just about everywhere else. She’s a bit timid around people but I don’t think it was abuse, I think she simply never went anywhere to get exposed to new situations. Down at the barn she’s quite brave, too brave in fact. She goes off with the big dogs into the woods, goes down the road when I’m not looking, and has no fear of the horses. In fact once Marina was feeling better I put her, and Sadie into the arena, and chased them. When my back was turned there Jessie was in the arena running for her life when the horses came back around. I had to yell at her three times to stay out of the arena before she gave in, and stayed out. She’s completely house trained, about three years old, and sleeps under the covers with me at night. I said she was spoiled.

 

Anyway thus ends 2013, and here’s to a fantabulous 2014!