What’s Up

I've written a novel of a post on so many things lately, then left them all sitting in my drafts folder. This TL;DR version of it all feels like something I’ll actually hit publish on.

- I’ve been enjoying some annual leave time! I got a ton of work done on the new kitchen in between spending many hours of my day giving pony scratches. Time well spent! 

This still looks depressingly in progress this week but I promise the hard parts are done.

Next project is to turn this storage loft into my new office hideaway. The centre ceiling is only 5'8" but I am 5'2" so why not. Husband is 6'4" so he's denied access :D

If you were wondering why I wouldn't just utilize a normal space, it's because this is the view out the window and seeing the horses while I work overrides the negatives.

Ponies getting spa days, it felt pretty luxurious to walk out of the house at any time of the day and 'waste' an hour or two with the horses.

- The above (you might argue excessive) enjoyment of AL has confirmed a need for some change. I’ve got most of the time between now and New Years off, then in 2025 I'm going to keep my actual work hours scaled back at part time and take on some more side jobs when I’d like extra money and tire of scratching ponies. This feels like a nice compromise between being a responsible person with a reliable income and medical and dental plan and all those other adulty things, but adding some more variety and interest. Hard to make that call when on paper there is literally nothing wrong with my job to justify changing - I am just bored. But the time feels right to start opening some new doors.

- Ponies being ponies. Tradey got cuts/scrapes just under his eye (likely playfighting with Buck), one of which ripped his lower eyelid and swelled up pretty bad. That gave me a heart attack for a few days there...but it's healing well and it even looks like it might only leave a tiny scar. Both of the boys had/have (we are awaiting results after a further autumn deworming) ascarids AGAIN. Do I want to put that on the internet? Not really. But if it helps someone else, then yes. I'm not sure if I ever mentioned they arrived with some drug resistant friends (not unusual these days nor anyone's fault) and it's been a bit of a thing to keep on top of.  Advice: get your vet involved, send in manure samples on whatever schedule they recommend and treat with what they tell you to. Some horses are naturally more prone to less than ideal parasite loads than others, and there seem to be a lot of resistant worms out there so your go to protocols might not be working as well as you might hope anymore. 

- The property with the field the horses use in summer is coming up for sale. We love having it, so considered purchasing (G was actually the one really pushing for it, so for a while there I thought I'd be telling you about our new house!), but ultimately we made the call to let it go.  I get the whole 'real estate as an investment' aspect but I couldn't wrap my head around being so financially committed here. I’ll be sad to say goodbye, but maybe we’ll acquire more horsey neighbours? 

I'm very sad. But, fingers crossed, I have been offered other neighborhood options in the past, so hopefully something else will come up to borrow or lease. I think the big lesson learned was that at the end of the day we're happy with the status quo.

I got more sand for the ring a couple of weeks ago and it's starting to look really perfect. So we have to stay here, at least until the yearling cobs are old enough to ride :D

-The weather. I can't not mention it because we continue to get the brunt of storm after storm. Currently we're awaiting a 'bomb cyclone' arriving tomorrow, which (fingers crossed) should actually be less dramatic than the storm last week. The general state of things means the ponies get minimal turnout that's not on a gravel or sand surface - there is water everywhere. We also have been losing power regularly so I'm getting good at doing pony chores in the dark. I'm grateful we have the place set up in a way that suits us so well. Besides the weather being depressing it's not impacting the horses too much at all - the gravel paddocks with enough room for them to run were a really good investment. The last place I boarded it would be a different story right now. 

Running errands before things get worse and we risk falling trees and power outages - another lovely day on the west coast

Terrible picture but he looks pretty cozy

It was a dark and stormy night  4:45pm ;) Battery powered floodlights for the win

Current grass status: green but is a swamp

She's so dedicated to being a bog pony I caved and give her this little area on the worst days. Her normal grazing area has huge trees that regularly lose giant branches that make me nervous when the wind picks up. The boys are quite content to stay in their paddock, but Sophie stands at the gate looking longingly out, even in the worst of weather.

Whew, that was still almost a novel. But I think we’re all caught up?