Christmas day started out not too bad just a little breezy.
A low was dropping down so as the day progressed so did the wind. As expected I
came in around noon, and spent the rest of the day indoors cooking. Ok that’s
not so bad. We had a nice Christmas dinner, and I even managed to cook a, shall
we call it a fruit pie. I had a can of apple pie filling only it wasn’t quite
enough fruit so I went to the freezer, and added whatever frozen fruit I could
find. Hey, Rudy had two pieces so it must have been good even if a little
different. By evening Albuquerque was getting snow, and even though it was a
little late we had a white Christmas, ok a lot late. We woke up to more snow
than we had all of last year, like 6 – 8” of the white stuff, and completely
frozen pipes. I keep gallons of water in the utility room just for such
occasions, and a good thing too. I have learned a few things through the years
like if the temps go below 20 we have no water, and it will take at least three
days of warm temps before we have water. The nights have been down into the
teens, and the days in the 30’s or 40’s. Sunday we got water long enough to get
showers, and three loads of laundry done. I was getting really scarce on the
bare necessities if you know what I mean. I have at least two weeks of clothing
for just that reason. The water cut out on the last load, my jeans of course.
Now we really need the snow, but man is it a pain in the you
know whatsie. Cleaning the stalls is not in the cards, breaking ice every
morning, and hauling water is. Doctoring Sierra has become a real pain too. He
is tired of being doctored, and with every day it is getting harder, and
harder. He is doing everything in his power to avoid my touching his booboo.
The fact that we don’t have water doesn’t help either. I have to heat the water
in the microwave, which means it’s not quite as warm as it should be. Too bad
so sad, I manage to get the job done in spite of Sierra’s insistence to the
otherwise. What happened to my sweet boy? I’m also trying to desensitize him to
being touched wherever I want instead of wherever he wants. Now when he was a
baby I did all the baby things including picking up his feet, and touching him
all over his body. Now he’s all grown up (or so he thinks), and he gets to
decide where he gets touched. I don’t think so. I can pick up his front feet,
and even clean them, but get near his back end, and it’s a different story. I
think he’s going to be in that stall a very long time. That boy has a definite
stubborn streak in him. I will win of course, but I have an idea it’s going to
be a long time coming.
The cold is wearing me out as well. I need to clean the
inside stalls, but even feeding is exhausting. I have managed to get chicken
wire on part of the pasture fencing. I have about half of what I need done.
It’s the only way I can seem to keep most of the hay I’m feeding to the pasture
horses actually in the pasture once the winds start. When the winds howl (and I
mean howl), the hay flies out through the fencing faster than the horses can
eat it. With the chicken wire most of it stays in. Grass is the worst, alfalfa
not so much because it is heavier. I now have some oat hay (thanks to a friend)
as well, which the pasture horses seem to like better than grass. I may switch
to oat for them instead of grass. It’s only $10 a bale which comes to about $5
less than what I’m paying for grass without the extra I’m paying for gas to go
all the way over to the Downs. I had stopped buying the oat hay because they
would eat the heads, and leave the rest. Now all of a sudden the pasture horses
like the oat better than grass. Go figure, you never know why horses do what
they do. The horses in the barn stalls still don’t like the oat, but that’s ok,
at least I’m saving some money on the pasture horses.
My stalls are a total mess again. Now that the snow has all
melted (for the moment) I have nothing but muck. That will change real soon
since we are supposed to get snow again. We got water late this afternoon long
enough for Rudy to get a shower, and wash dishes. It’s supposed to get down to
17 tonight, and only up to 28 tomorrow. Whoopie-ding-dang. I turned off the
water at the pump house (can’t afford to loose my transfer pump again), and it
will probably be another week or so of no water. I have to try to get the
inside stalls cleaned too. Everything will freeze again, so I can forget trying
to clean the paddock areas. I’m so glad I was able to keep the stalls up as
much as I did or it would be an even bigger mess.
I love winter with lots of snow, and crisp cold air. I
love snow clouds creating phenomenal sunsets, and beautiful ever-changing
skies. I love the smell of wood burning in the cold mornings, and late
afternoons, but it is a mess when you have horses. You can’t clean the stalls
properly. There are puddles of frozen urine, and piles of frozen poop. The
horses are a mess too especially once things start to melt. Sadie is an ugly
patchwork of white, and muck. Why is it they never show that part of life in
the movies. Everything is always so pretty, and clean. Hollywood, it’s fantasy
all right. Heaven forbid if they show life as it really is, fun, and sad, hard,
and sweet, messy, and beautiful all at once. Movies are fun, but life is so
much more. Give me life every time with all it’s ups, and downs, good times,
and not so good times. I love it all.
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