Dang those mices…

Well I solved part of my water problem. Even with closing off the barn water except when I fed I still had little water. I went down to the pump house turned off the pump for a while, and when I turned it back on it wasn’t working properly. I got water, but the pressure gauge kept going back, and forth like a yo-yo. This morning I cleaned the contacts, but only one was sparking. I should have remembered that it did this once before, but I didn’t. I opened the fuse box and lo, and behold it was chuck full of cotton batting from the insulation roll around the tank. At the bottom were a few little presents left by the maker. Dang those mices. Someone thought it was a perfect place for a nest, and it shorted out one of the fuses. Then I had to remember where the extras fuses were. We put them somewhere I’d remember, yeah right. After combing the garage I decided to look in the laundry room, and found the new ones in a box on the top shelve. Thank you St. Anthony. I put in the new fuses, and the pressure built up the way it’s supposed to. We now have good pressure, and I was able to do two loads of laundry. Whoopee!

Next I took the big step of leaving on the barn water, and for a while I thought all my troubles were over. Too bad so sad, not with my luck. Gradually during the day the water became more, and more silty, so I went back down to the barn after dinner, and turned the barn water back off. I have good pressure, but it looks like I still have a leak somewhere. I had already dug up my old fixes, and the deeper I dug the drier the ground became so I don’t believe that’s the problem. There are lots of lines going to the various water tanks, and the faucet in the barn, and naturally the leak could be anywhere. Eventually pvc joints give way, and I have no way of knowing how old the lines are. To make matters even worse, the floor in the barn is cement. If there is a leak under the flooring I’ll never know. Right now with all the rains I couldn’t find a leak anyway unless water started bubbling up from underground, and I’m not leaving the water on that long. Of course it could be the water table as well. When I fill the water buckets at the barn I still get pulsing water, not a steady stream. I guess I’ll just have to live with it for now, as I have no intention of putting in new waterlines everywhere, and I certainly can’t afford a new well, which is what we really need to do.

There is good news, the grass is finally growing, and things are beginning to look green again. I have to call the pasture girls to come in, and eat since for some strange reason they prefer fresh green grass to yucky oat hay. Eventually they mosey up, and munch on the hay. This actually worked to my advantage when I took the little ones out of pasture. Star came first (she’s always first), and I had no problem putting on her halter, and leading her out while the others brought up the rear. She was such a good girl. I put Aulina in Lizzie’s stall, and opened up Aulina’s paddock to include most of the paddock of Sadie’s stall. Sadie, and Lizzie are in the arena. Star went right in. The stall is next to the stall Star was in as a baby, so there were no issues. Next came Cupid. She just munched hay while I put on her halter, and she led out quietly. She’s never been in a barn stall, and halfway in she stopped eyes wide. She didn’t act up she just wasn’t sure about this big house with a cement floor. I coaxed her forward, and seeing Star in the stall helped. Then I had to coax her in the stall while I kept Star from coming out. Both were very good girls, and I gave them some grass hay along with their supplements.

I love these bloodlines. All our babies are such sweet horses. Now every time Star hears me she sticks her head out the stall door. It doesn’t matter if it’s feeding time, or whether I have goodies or not. She just has to greet you. Seeing her in the stall I can see how much of Sadie is in her. She has the same elegant long neck, the same head, and super refined features. She’s Sadie in miniature. She still has growing to do too. Her head is too big for her body right now, and she has no real body mass. Sadie is slight built also. I’m going to try to work all four kids in the round pen for a little each day, that is after my parents get settled in their new place. There’s so much to do with them I don’t have time to do much with the horses. It really makes you appreciate people who have devoted their lives to caring for the elderly be it their relative or not. Mind you I am treasuring my time with my parents, it’s just exhausting leaving little time for anything else. They won’t be here for that much longer, and I need to take advantage of the time given me. My brother doesn’t seem to appreciate that. Someday he will understand only then it will be too late. He has a new family now so I guess it’s ok, only he is missing so much.

So the long, and the short of it is that I may not post for a few days. I’ll keep Father here until after the surgery, that is if their furniture ever comes. If it does come I’ll take Mother to Roswell, keep Father here, and then take Father to Roswell after his surgery. I’ll try to get some stuff done here, like today I actually managed to clean two stalls, Sadie’s, and the girls. It’s hard enough cleaning a stall with one horse constantly at your back, but two is a real challenge. Star just had to be right on top of me, and then there was Cupid because if Star was so curious there had to be something interesting to see. Kids, always underfoot. I’m getting attached to Star all over again, and if this lady takes her, I’ll start missing her all over again. That’s what these horses do to you.

I almost forgot, along with green grass the rains have brought hummingbirds, lots of humming birds. I’m filling two feeders a day now, and boy do they get upset when one of the feeders goes dry. Big Red has also brought some friends. Instead of one Red, I have at least three or four. Mother, and I sit and watch them, and their antics. The trees are full of hummingbirds, and there are at least four or five at each feeder (I have four of them). My camera isn’t quite up to the task of photographing hummingbirds. Hum, I just had a thought, I could do a video, and maybe pull a still off of the video. I just ordered a new cord so hopefully I will be able to download my videos. I have quite a lot of footage I haven’t downloaded yet. Then too that means I will have to edit the videos, Oh well there’s no rest for the wicked, and the good don’t need it, so I guess I’m going to have a lot of work to do.