Things are Looking Up

Why are things looking up?

1.  Bombay made it through half the week without pulling out his stitches.
2.  The vet was able to find a can of AluSpray and a jar of Xterra in his pharmacy for me.   He said AluSpray is getting harder and harder to find.  Why is it every great invention goes away?
3.  I was able to drop off the horse trailer to get all the repairs I've been meaning to have done on it for the past 10 years.
4.  While there I looked into trading my luxury horse trailer in for a basic stock trailer and met the funniest salesperson on earth.
5.  I got to spend a whole afternoon shopping for birthday gifts with my son, and he quickly and efficiently found everything he needed.
6.  Two more volunteers stepped forward to help me with the estate sale at my mother's house.  Well, they aren't exactly volunteers.  I'm paying them $10 an hour for their time, but at least I know I won't be overwhelmed.
7.  I finally got an offer on the sale of my mother's house and another potential offer within hours of that first offer.  It had been on the market for 6 weeks before anyone even looked at it.
8.  I finally found time to do a thorough photo shoot for the animal shelter and had a good time doing it.  The volunteers are finally starting to relax around me and respect my decisions.

I have to tell you the story about the funny trailer salesman.  He was what my son called "an old farm boy".  He was probably in his 30's, very casual, helpful and friendly, but every other word that popped out of his mouth was a cuss word.  Cuss words in themselves are not funny -- it was the way in which he delivered them.  It was like he really, honestly didn't know any other words to use in their place, and he wasn't even aware that he was using offensive language.

You know how some of us say "stuff" or "thingamabob" when we can't think of the correct word?  This guy says s%*! and cr@%.  So, I pointed at the stock trailer I was interested in and I asked, "Would that be the equivalent of a 3-horse trailer?"

He said, "S%*#, it's however many @#^$*^%mn horses you can $^%#ing cram in there."

Then I asked him how to remove the center divider on my horse trailer.  He said, "First you have to get this cr@% off by unscrewing it here.  Then remove these pins, get a hammer and bang the s%^ out of these two f*#^%ers.  But you need three people to do the job, because one does the banging, one holds this end and one holds that end."

"Well, that explains why I could never get it off," I said.

The stock trailer I was looking at was really cool because it had this wall that swung open and closed that contained a removable 3-tier saddle rack and bridle hooks to make room for less tack and more cattle or horses if needed.  It would also be easier than what I've got for hauling hay as well as horses.  The only downside is that there's no key lock, so I'd have to rig up a couple of cable locks to protect my tack and it's 2 inches shorter than the trailer I have now.  Right now Bombay's ears touch the ceiling of the trailer I have.

Anyway, I'm not in the financial position to trade trailers now, but at least I can find out how much they would be willing to pay for the trade and how much the stock trailer costs, and I can plan for the future.  Once my mother's house sells, a lot of my problems will be solved.  I won't have to pay the electric, gas, water, sewer, trash pickup, gardener, tax, and insurance bills on the house any more and will be cut a check for the sale of it to be reimbursed for all I've put into settling her estate and funeral costs.

The trailer guy called me at home and gave me the option of paying for an hour and a half of his time to take the broken window to the glass repair place, wait for it to be fixed and bring it back, or for me to drive the hour drive to the trailer place, pick up the window, drive another half hour to the glass repair place and wait for it to be fixed on my own time, and then return the window to the trailer place for the guy to reinstall.  Ummmmm.  Considering how far away I live from the trailer place, it would make more sense for him to do it, because it's just a matter of me either paying for gas or labor, and since I was busy signing a contract for a sale of a home today, I really didn't have the spare time to drive that distance to save a few bucks.  It was nice of him to offer, though.

Oh, I also reported the goat owners and boarders for neglecting to properly care for the rejected baby goat, and the animal control officer explained that there's nothing much she can do other than a welfare check.  If she feels the baby goat is on death's doorstep, she can take it away from them, but the baby goat actually looks good since our other neighbor intervened and has been bottle feeding it.  I was told that the goat owners can't be held for anything even though they abandoned the goats and did not provide payments for food and board for them.  Because my neighbors accepted the job of boarding the goats, they are responsible for their welfare.

Do you hear that, folks?  It's perfectly legal for someone to leave their animals with you and never come back.  It makes you think twice about doing people pet sitting favors, doesn't it?  I explained that the neighbors are not properly caring for the goats and that another neighbor stepped in to do that.  Sadly, we'd have to let the goats starve and go without water in order for animal control to confiscate them and find better homes for them.  The neighbors do give the goats hay and water, but they don't check on them enough to catch things like tipped over water buckets and the goats pushing the hay under the fence so that my horses end up eating the majority of it.

I find it so ironic that I have specifically asked them not to feed my horses due to problems with colic, and still they manage to indirectly feed my horses by throwing hay for the goats up against my paddock fence.  I wish these people would just go away, because no matter what they do, it somehow always affects me and my horses. 

My other neighbor pointed out to me that these people next door always seem to choose my side of the property to park their vehicles, pen the goats, pile their trash, etc., which makes no sense since they actually have a solid fence on the other side of their property that would block the neighborhood view of all their junk.  I told her that they always have to do everything on my side of the property because they are obsessed with me.  It gives them more excuses to move in close so they can spy and eavesdrop on me.

I've been finding all kinds of trash like electric wiring, pieces of wood scraps, and kids' toys in my horse paddock, along with a lot of rocks and sticks that I know are not popping up out of the ground.  So, the kid they are supposed to be babysitting (human kid -- not goat kid) has been either just throwing stuff over the fence into my yard or throwing stuff at my horses again.  If I had more time to spare, I'd sit out there all day and try to catch him doing it, so that I can videotape it, chew him out, and then take the video over to his babysitter and show her what happens when she doesn't supervise the kid properly.  Then, just for good measure, I can show the video to the boy's father so he can see that his son is being a brat and not being properly supervised by the lady who he chose to care for him.  I suspect they are related, though, because the father spends hours over there socializing with them when he comes to pick up his son.

One thing that was interesting was that when I made my report about the goats, the animal control officer used my neighbors' first names and said she was familiar with them because she's paid them a visit in the past.  So, apparently I'm not the only one calling animal control out to their address.

I'm sure they know I was the one who talked to animal control this time.  Before I reported them, I was standing at the fence talking to my good neighbor while she bottle-fed the baby goat.  She was telling me about the goat situation while the man next door was hovering about, pretending to work on his truck, but really listening in on our conversation.  He then got into his truck, started the engine, and just sat in the driver's seat staring at me the entire time the other neighbor and I were talking.  I got creeped out by all the staring and went back in the house.  Of course, he drove off as soon as I left.  If he were interested in our other neighbor he could have stuck around and stared at her a while longer.

A few minutes later I went out front to the pasture to move the sprinkler, and I found that man sitting in his truck parked next to my pasture, almost as if he knew I'd be coming out there.  He stared at me some more.  As soon as I started to head back into my house, he drove off again.  He spends a lot of time just sitting in his truck pulled over to the side of the road.  I wish I knew what goes on in that man's brain, or even if he has a brain.

Whenever my husband sees this neighbor's truck near us, he sings this secret agent tune - "Dah dah dah dah.  Dah dah dah dah..." to warn me of the guy's presence.  It seems wherever we go, there he is.  If he'd pay more attention to those goats than he does to me, they'd have a fighting chance.

Gabbrielle at Bay... I Mean at Pasture

This is the black alpha mare who always comes to the fence when I call for Gabbrielle.

On this day Gabbrielle tried to come to me, but a Paint horse pinned its ears back at her and pushed her away from me. I don't know why. The Paint wasn't interested in my attention. I think these horses just associate all people with food, so if there is a person around, they must keep the other horses away like they would with food.

I miss being able to just go into my paddock and interact with my horse.

Instead we just acknowledge each other in a sneaky way and hope the others don't notice. 

Despite visiting Gabbrielle often, I haven't seen hide nor hair of her trainer in the past 10 days.  I thought she would have at least called me to fill me in on Gabbrielle's progress.  I looked at the trainer's schedule and saw that she is running a horse day camp from 9:00 AM until 3:00 PM every day this week, so I suspect she's not riding Gabbrielle at all.  That's pretty much what happened with my last horse trainer.  She got busy taking other people's horses to shows and my horse just ended up being boarded for several weeks with no training.  Many horse trainers bite off more than they can chew.  That's why I prefer to find a trainer who will come to my house and be paid per session. 

Anyway, I'm planning on calling the trainer today to set up an appointment so I can watch her train Gabbrielle.  I've only got three days next week in which I'll be in the state, so hopefully she can fit me into her schedule during that time.

On the up side, I've discovered that it's a lot easier to care for two horses, even with one of them injured, than it is to care for three.  Gabbrielle has a very fast metabolism and 75% of the poop in the paddock comes from her, so even if I am only paying for board and not much training, it's worth it to me right now.  It has freed me up to handle other things beside manure.

Barn Tour - Part 3

People thought I was crazy to be taking pictures in basements and dark spaces, but the light was really quite beautiful.  You needed a better quality camera and to hold it very still since the shutter stayed open longer.  I didn't want to drag a monopod or tripod around with me, so I just hoped my hands didn't shake.

XP does not stand for a version of Windows. This is a Pony Express saddle...

I heard several people speculating on who I might be. A lot of people were taking pictures, but I guess I looked like a professional and attracted attention. One woman asked if I was with the newspaper. Even though I said no and told her that I just like to photograph old barns, she gave me the verbal history of her antiques shop and invited me to come back any time. She said, "We'll leave you alone and let you do your work. We don't follow you around."

I noticed that. Several people toured her antiques shop and no one was there hovering about to make sure nothing was stolen. These people just trusted everyone, even though there was a fairly large crowd. There were other barns I visited in which I was herded over to the tour group and not allowed to wander and take pictures. It's kind of hard to take pictures when you are surrounded by people in a tour. At one barn, I tried to sneak off twice and got caught both times and led back to the tour group. I was anxious to move on to a friendlier barn after that.

I really experienced the whole spectrum of trust and distrust. I wasn't interested in stealing anything or rifling through people's personal belongings. I was just looking for charming, unique scenes to photograph. I appreciate people who maintain old barns. One farmer told a story about how he and two other people were hanging from ropes trying to hold down the roof on his barn this winter when the winds got really bad. He said the roof was actually lifting up and pulling them up several feet off the ground. Despite living in this area his whole life, he'd never experienced winds like we've had in recent years.

Barn Tour - Part 2

Which is your favorite?