And no one died.
Actually... scratch that, but I'll get into that story in a minute. I tried to write this out long format and it's just not something I can handle right now, so let's try something more organized:
Tuesday:
Soon to be owner of our townhome walked through and seem surprised that we were still living there. I worked a half day, and loaded a moving truck the other half. We hired some badass movers who loaded SO much stuff in two hours, and nothing shifted or got damaged during the drive.
Wednesday:
I drove a 26' moving truck across the Twin Cities during rush hour and no one died. The previous owners of our home failed to show up and walk me through the house and explain anything - instead they left a key by my coffee cup on the porch (I was in the house unpacking at the time) and managed to slink their own moving truck out of the driveway. While walking around the property, my friend J and I found one of the barn cats dead in the shelter (a few weeks dead, judging by the decomp) and also a whole lot of mud. We unloaded and returned the moving truck and trailer and our badass movers again helped us get a shit ton of stuff into the house and vaguely on the right floors in record time.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday:
We unpacked, shopped and cleaned. The cat was laid to rest in the garbage can.The house was left in pretty amazingly disgusting condition, including with tons of shit left in the stalls, dirt and Asian Beetle carcasses all over the house and just generally... dirty. We bought a riding lawn mower and hubby promptly (15 minutes into use) drove it over a super deep tire divot we didn't know was there and bent a blade (which we fixed some hours later). I had to work from home part of Friday because I was leaving on a business trip, and the days between slipped away in hard work and dead-to-the-world, dreamless sleep. The dog met the barn cat and it didn't go well (he got his ass kicked) and we had some friends over on Sunday for a grill out in the nice weather. I packed for my business trip by selecting the clothes I could find that were not in boxes.
Monday - Thursday:
I got up at 4 am and went to the airport to fly to Orlando for a conference, where I was also busy from dawn to dusk, but at least my hotel room was clean and I didn't have to worry about ticks (our new house has so many ticks. Or the dog just has talent at finding them. IDK.). Hubby drove to Ames, IA to pick up our tractor half way, and had grad school Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The dog spent a lot of time in the kennel, and the horses were pretty much left at the boarding barn's mercy without being checked. I got home from the airport on Thursday at about midnight.
Friday:
5 am wake up call, and more working from home. I took delivery of the stall front kits around noon. After work, we purchased lumber for the project and I tracked down some hay to buy, because I didn't get around to it the previous weekend as I had planned.
Saturday:
Barn demo and new stall construction began bright and early. Hubby had his dad and my dad there to help. I drove to Wisconsin, bought and stacked hay on the trailer, and drove home without a speedometer or gas level because the truck decided to blow the dash fuse at the BEST POSSIBLE TIME. Stalls got 90% done, and I went to Menards about 70,000 times in the process.
Sunday:
Stalls got finished. I managed to pack up all of my remaining shit at the barn, cut a check and get the girls loaded in a surprisingly short time, but was still running late when I got home around 11 and basically threw them out in their new paddock and ran to the grocery store. Hubby's mom, aunt, sister and brother came over for Mother's Day lunch and got treated to my horses running around like idiots because NEW PLACE. I got the hay into the barn and stacked despite having a death cold that started on Friday and got worse each day.
Monday & Tuesday:
The girls are home. I've been working from home because I think it's inappropriate to come into the office when I'm legit dripping snot and hacking up chunks of lung tissue and also because I'm terrified that the mares are going to do something stupid. They've been slowly settling in, and I'm slowly working out a routine that works for us. Foxie wasn't eating well, until genius me put her in a stall this morning. It's been raining off and on, but so far, besides being a bit bewildered at being outside all the time, the girls seem to be settling in well. Bailey is in #feralredhorse mode and is being very protective of her sister. They're so buddy sour right now it's painful, but it's slowly subsiding, I think, so maybe they will stop being so dumb soon. The barn cat reappeared last night and is being super annoying meowing for food - we didn't think he'd come back after the run in with the dog, but hubby has dubbed him "Carlito" so apparently he gets to stay, after all.
The future:
We need to do a lot of work, yet:
- Reinforce the new stall divider walls
- Level and mat stalls.
- Organize and find a permanent home for everything, including all the new equipment
- Finish scraping out the sacrifice paddock and shelter in in the least grassy paddock
- Probably brush hog and mow the other pastures
- Mow the lawn. Again.
- Find a solution for our heavy clay soil and rain problem: probably french drains, gravel/sand/pea gravel and lots of careful manure management.
- Figure out our phone and internet problem (we've already used all of our "fast" satellite internet bandwidth... and we have like two weeks left of the period.) so I can work from home and we can get cell service.
I'll get ya'all some pictures, I promise! Right now it's raining and I'm surprised to see that my horses actually have the good sense to use their shelter when it's raining hard. They're shockingly smart sometimes, those girls :D
Actually... scratch that, but I'll get into that story in a minute. I tried to write this out long format and it's just not something I can handle right now, so let's try something more organized:
Tuesday:
Soon to be owner of our townhome walked through and seem surprised that we were still living there. I worked a half day, and loaded a moving truck the other half. We hired some badass movers who loaded SO much stuff in two hours, and nothing shifted or got damaged during the drive.
Wednesday:
I drove a 26' moving truck across the Twin Cities during rush hour and no one died. The previous owners of our home failed to show up and walk me through the house and explain anything - instead they left a key by my coffee cup on the porch (I was in the house unpacking at the time) and managed to slink their own moving truck out of the driveway. While walking around the property, my friend J and I found one of the barn cats dead in the shelter (a few weeks dead, judging by the decomp) and also a whole lot of mud. We unloaded and returned the moving truck and trailer and our badass movers again helped us get a shit ton of stuff into the house and vaguely on the right floors in record time.
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday:
We unpacked, shopped and cleaned. The cat was laid to rest in the garbage can.The house was left in pretty amazingly disgusting condition, including with tons of shit left in the stalls, dirt and Asian Beetle carcasses all over the house and just generally... dirty. We bought a riding lawn mower and hubby promptly (15 minutes into use) drove it over a super deep tire divot we didn't know was there and bent a blade (which we fixed some hours later). I had to work from home part of Friday because I was leaving on a business trip, and the days between slipped away in hard work and dead-to-the-world, dreamless sleep. The dog met the barn cat and it didn't go well (he got his ass kicked) and we had some friends over on Sunday for a grill out in the nice weather. I packed for my business trip by selecting the clothes I could find that were not in boxes.
Monday - Thursday:
I got up at 4 am and went to the airport to fly to Orlando for a conference, where I was also busy from dawn to dusk, but at least my hotel room was clean and I didn't have to worry about ticks (our new house has so many ticks. Or the dog just has talent at finding them. IDK.). Hubby drove to Ames, IA to pick up our tractor half way, and had grad school Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The dog spent a lot of time in the kennel, and the horses were pretty much left at the boarding barn's mercy without being checked. I got home from the airport on Thursday at about midnight.
Friday:
5 am wake up call, and more working from home. I took delivery of the stall front kits around noon. After work, we purchased lumber for the project and I tracked down some hay to buy, because I didn't get around to it the previous weekend as I had planned.
Saturday:
Barn demo and new stall construction began bright and early. Hubby had his dad and my dad there to help. I drove to Wisconsin, bought and stacked hay on the trailer, and drove home without a speedometer or gas level because the truck decided to blow the dash fuse at the BEST POSSIBLE TIME. Stalls got 90% done, and I went to Menards about 70,000 times in the process.
Sunday:
Stalls got finished. I managed to pack up all of my remaining shit at the barn, cut a check and get the girls loaded in a surprisingly short time, but was still running late when I got home around 11 and basically threw them out in their new paddock and ran to the grocery store. Hubby's mom, aunt, sister and brother came over for Mother's Day lunch and got treated to my horses running around like idiots because NEW PLACE. I got the hay into the barn and stacked despite having a death cold that started on Friday and got worse each day.
Monday & Tuesday:
The girls are home. I've been working from home because I think it's inappropriate to come into the office when I'm legit dripping snot and hacking up chunks of lung tissue and also because I'm terrified that the mares are going to do something stupid. They've been slowly settling in, and I'm slowly working out a routine that works for us. Foxie wasn't eating well, until genius me put her in a stall this morning. It's been raining off and on, but so far, besides being a bit bewildered at being outside all the time, the girls seem to be settling in well. Bailey is in #feralredhorse mode and is being very protective of her sister. They're so buddy sour right now it's painful, but it's slowly subsiding, I think, so maybe they will stop being so dumb soon. The barn cat reappeared last night and is being super annoying meowing for food - we didn't think he'd come back after the run in with the dog, but hubby has dubbed him "Carlito" so apparently he gets to stay, after all.
The future:
We need to do a lot of work, yet:
- Reinforce the new stall divider walls
- Level and mat stalls.
- Organize and find a permanent home for everything, including all the new equipment
- Finish scraping out the sacrifice paddock and shelter in in the least grassy paddock
- Probably brush hog and mow the other pastures
- Mow the lawn. Again.
- Find a solution for our heavy clay soil and rain problem: probably french drains, gravel/sand/pea gravel and lots of careful manure management.
- Figure out our phone and internet problem (we've already used all of our "fast" satellite internet bandwidth... and we have like two weeks left of the period.) so I can work from home and we can get cell service.
I'll get ya'all some pictures, I promise! Right now it's raining and I'm surprised to see that my horses actually have the good sense to use their shelter when it's raining hard. They're shockingly smart sometimes, those girls :D
What a mad house! Hopefully things settle down soon!
ReplyDeletewow busy busy! good luck!
ReplyDeleteHoly cow! Can't wait to see pictures, and I hope that you start to feel better!
ReplyDeleteWhoa! What a week! Hopefully things quiet down into a regular routine soon :)
ReplyDelete