It turned out to be a not-so-crappy Monday. I think I just went into work with the attitude that I was going to get through the day and no one was going to bother me or piss me off and it worked. Maybe this can be my attitude from here on out. I’ve paid my dues there, I work hard and I am not going to let any of them bring me down any more. Ha! We’ll see how today goes.
The days are getting shorter. I have to wait about 30 minutes after Wally leaves for work for it to be light enough to go outside and do chores without light. I had to use my head lamp to feed the cats this morning. I wish I could have recorded the sound effects that go on when I feed them. Growl, snarl, chomp, chomp, snarl, hiss, chomp, chomp. They are quite like a pride of lions during feeding time.
I didn’t take pictures yesterday and morning pictures are going to be harder to get given that we are loosing light. When I came home from work last night, it was raining (yea!). On Sunday, Wally and I constructed stands for our rabbit cages and got the six rabbits set up in the poultry pasture. On Saturday, I bought three American Chinchilla rabbits. I think I might end up liking the “Chins” better than the Cremes, but we’ll see. We brought Gwen’s former house up and installed it over the cages. The cover to this structure long since tore and blew off so we put a tarp over the top which serves as both shade and some rain shelter. Soon, we’ll take the former hay house and use that as a cover with a tarp over it that offers complete rain shelter. Luckily, the doors to the shelter are still intact so all we’ll need to cover is the sides.
We’ve been going back and forth about what to do about a replacement hay house and we decided to go with a metal carport. Metal carports are quite common here in the south and reasonably inexpensive. A new 12 x 20 ShelterLogic costs almost $500; a 18 x 21 metal carport costs $695 installed. We’ll need to frame and enclose the carport, but we still have a good amount of scrap wood and tin around to do some of that. We’ll get a larger area with a roof that won’t be ruined in a year or two. There’s a good chance we’ll be able to store all of our belongings in this carport eventually being able to recycle the second ShelterLogic into a hen house. We considered putting it down in the pasture for the cows and horse(s); but the animals will rub on the sides and eventually ruin it so they’ll need to make due with the run-in we constructed down there and natural cover (woods). We’ll cover the surviving ShelterLogic building with a tarp to hopefully help nurse the cover through another winter. I got a surprise check in the mail last week. A year or more ago I sold all of my agility equipment to a good friend of mine. She’s been unemployed and I told her not to worry about paying me. She did so last week so that money coupled with the insurance money will enable us to buy the carport. We won’t be able to have the free money to enclose it for a while yet, but if we put the hay in the middle of the building and cover it with tarps, it should stay dry. We are not feeding a lot of hay right now anyway.
More interesting news. Remember Merlin? The horse I bought at a horse auction in December of 2009? I sold him last summer to a local guy and apparently they did well together. Well the guy is moving back to Florida and has been unable to sell Merlin so he’s coming back here for the time being. I hate to say it, but I’m sort of excited about it. While Merlin’s ground manners suck, I haven’t felt safe on a horse since I last rode him. From what I understand, he’s now a lot easier to saddle and bridle, but we’ll see about that. He’s still hard to catch, but we have free-standing stalls set up in the paddock and Merlin loves to eat so if I can get him in the stall and shut the gate (which I know I can with grain), I’ll be able to catch him. I need to ride, my body is telling me that. While it may seem weird, I am wondering if the pain I am feeling in my arms and hands is not because I am over-using my upper body and need to balance things out by using my lower body. I’ve certainly gotten a bit flabby in the butt and thighs and I know riding will take care of that. I don’t know how long Merlin is going to stay here, but for the time he is, I hope I can get back in the saddle and regain my confidence. I hate to say it, but as much as I love Sudi, I’m afraid to ride him. The woman that I mentioned that I met recently who is into Parelli will be making time to come and work with me, hopefully this weekend, so I’m sure she’ll have good ideas about how to work with Merlin’s issues on the ground. Merlin isn’t a bad horse, he’s just been handled roughly.
We’ll see how it goes.
Until later …