Finally, some pictures!

 

Apologies, but I haven’t had a lot of time to wander around taking pictures since being home.  Between running errands, trying to clean up the place, and getting horses groomed (probably for the first time all winter) and fed, I just haven’t had the time or energy to walk around with the camera.  However, today when Glenn and I got home from town, I found a scene that simply had to be captured.

 

An all male slumber party happening in the stud paddock.

The mud and filth on everyone just made me want to throw my brushes into the burn barrel and give up on the whole grooming thing.

 

But seriously, how cute are these two (dirt and all)?

 

The fact that Kincaid let me get so close for pictures while he was lying down was impressive enough.  He’s still skittish about certain things, and usually hops up if someone is within 50 feet of his snoozing spot.  Then to further impress me with his lackadaisical attitude, he did this.

 

The sun, it’s warm.  My belly, it’s full.  The hay, it’s comfy.  And I am simply too tired to care that you are that close.  I will smile for the camera, though.

 

I thought it was rude that all the larger horses laid down for a nap and left the littlest ones of the bunch to stand guard.

 

Or stuff his face, in Dagwood’s case.

Good night boys, have a fun sleeping in the hay.  Better you than me!

Honey, we’re home!

 

After Gilbert packed his crap and left without telling anyone (*sigh*), we had to come home for a couple of days to initiate the new guy.  However, once we were home to the disastrously filthy house (again), a few of the horses looking worse than when I rescued them (again), and a warrant for my arrest (thank you for writing that bad check on the farm account, Lee) we finally had a stroke of good luck.  Yes, really!  A friend of ours called us one night to tell us about a local driving job.  The job pays great (more than Glenn was making on the road) and he’d be home every night!  Woohoo!  More importantly, they are so desperate for drivers that they may even stoop to hiring me, even though I only have a few months experience.  Suckers!

Kidding.  I’m a good driver (said in my best Rain Main voice).

So, we’re home.  Home for good, I might add.  No matter what, I just can’t leave this farm again.  Thanks to the losers that we hired, we’ve lost two dogs, have a house that needs major cleaning and repairs, a truck that is drivable but still won’t pass inspection, horses that were once pocket ponies are now skittish, and a couple of the horses have been starved.  When we came home on the 7th, Don Juan was in the main herd instead of in the stud pen, so we’re also looking at Lutalyse shots for all the mares in a couple of months (you have to wait at least 45 days after exposure before giving them the shot).

I thought I couldn’t afford to NOT go out on the road, but it turns out that I couldn’t afford to leave the farm in the hands of lazy incompetent idiots, either!  The horses are already gaining weight and should be back to normal in a few weeks.  Poor Sketches is the worst, so I hug her several times a day while she’s eating and apologize for leaving her.  She seems to understand when I cry into her mane and stands quietly for the extra attention.  Quill and Sky were skittish when I returned, but have already reverted to the pocket ponies that I remember.  Maggie and Matilda still haven’t forgiven me and want nothing to do with me unless I have food in my hand.  Jethro ran away every time he saw me, but today he and I took a nap in the hay together, with his muzzle resting on my shoulder.

Oh, and let’s not forget the 10k worth of tools that are now missing out of the garage.  If you happen to see a tool for sale at a pawn shop with the initials G.W. etched in to the handle, please let us know.  I hope Gilbert got more than the price of his plane ticket home out of those tools.  They were certainly worth a lot more.

Then there’s Timmy, who somehow got frostbite on his penis, of all places.  Doc came out and explained to Gilbert what he needed to do to take care of the horse and said that if he didn’t start right away, Timmy might lose his wanker.  I talked to Gilbert on the phone that day and he said “don’t worry, he’s just like my horse, I’ll take care of him”.  Then he packed his shit and left the next day without taking care of Timmy’s wanker once.  We got Timmy into a foster home within a day or two, with someone that would take the time to take care of him properly.  It’s still up in the air, but he’s finally looking a little better now that the penicillin shots are over.  I’m hoping we don’t have to put the old man down, but I certainly don’t want him to suffer any more than he already has!

And I keep looking for Thor and Xena to come running home from the back pasture.  I look for them while driving down the back roads.  I listen every night for Xena’s whimper at the door, wanting to come in.   Sometimes Heidi sits, gazing into the distance, as still as a statue, and whimpers.  I think she’s waiting for them to come home, too.

I can only handle so much

 

This winter has been the hardest one ever, and I’m not talking about the snow.  Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse after Lee, this week has proved that it can get worse.  MUCH worse.  The new guy on the farm, Gilbert, has proven to be a better choice than Lee, but only because he remains sober.  He’s feeding the horses, which is also a bonus.  With Jamie going out every week to make sure he’s taking care of the horses properly, I think the horses will get through the winter just fine.  Here’s the bad news.  On Monday, we called Gilbert to see how things were going, since he refuses to pick up the phone and call us.  Glenn talked to him for 10 minutes before asking how the dogs were doing and what we heard next had me randomly breaking out in tears for the rest of the week.  And now that I’m typing it, here I go again. *sniff*

We told Gilbert at least a dozen times to not let Heidi, Thor, and Xena outside together.  They have a tendency to take off for the day when they are together and we didn’t want them disappearing or wreaking havoc with the neighbors while we were gone.  Like most things we told him, Gilbert ignored us.  He let Thor and Xena out together on the 18th (six days before we talked to him on Monday) and they had disappeared.  It’s now the 30th and they have still not returned.  Gilbert wasn’t even going to tell us. Jamie has spread the word with the other county shelters and has put an ad in the paper for us.  But at this point, I have given up hope.  Neither of them have ever left for longer than a day.  They have always come back around dark.  It’s winter.  There is a pack of wild dogs roaming the area and then there are the coyotes. 

I simply cannot bear to dwell on what has probably happened.  So I stick to my butterflies and flowers approach and think of them in front of a warm woodstove, being fed and loved by someone new.  So this is my goodbye to them, in the hopes that writing about their disappearance and my loss of faith in their return, that fate will bring them back home just to spite me.

Xena.  Where do I start?  You were the pup I hadn’t planned on and it was uncertain whether or not you’d ever bond with me.  But, oh what a companion you were when we finally did bond!  Loyal to a fault, I was the only human you loved. 

 

The most intelligent of our dogs, you could have learned anything if I had had the time to teach you. I’ll miss the way you were there to say goodbye when I ran to town and you were always waiting at the top of the driveway for me when I returned.

 

I’ll miss the way you and Lucky chased each other around the yard.  I’ll miss the way you used to lie on your back with me in the hammock, your legs in the air and your nose on my neck.

Who’s going to lick the tears from my face now that you’re gone?

 

Thor, I will miss your 100lb body trying to fit in my lap and your grunts of satisfaction when you finally settle on my legs.  I’ll miss the way the cats all loved you and would curl up with you for warmth in the winter.  And the way you chewed on their heads affectionately when you could have easily snapped their necks.

 

I’ll miss the way you’d lay on your back in the sun, legs in the air, jowls hanging down in a goofy upside down grin.  I’ll miss playing fetch with the only dog who ever brought the stick back to me.  I’m going to cry a river when I get home and see this boot still lying in the yard.

 

I’ll miss the safety I felt late at night and alone in the dark - I knew you’d never let anyone get past you. 

 

I hope you’ve found someone new to love and protect.  You deserve it, big guy.

 

I’ll be stepping away from the blog for awhile.  I hope you understand.

Let’s play a game

 

Glenn and I were driving in Amish country today, up in New Yarwk, and came across the following scene:

 

 

Ok, students, give me your attention, please.  Make sure your Number 2 pencils are sharpened and remember to press firmly when writing your answer.

Please tell me what particular item in this photo does not belong.

Washington State

If I had my life to live over, I would live in Washington.   No doubt about it.  I have seen almost all 50 states by now and none have tugged at my soul the way Washington has.  It’s something I really can’t explain, and I’m not even sure I want to try, but it may have had something to do with the wild horse herds we saw while driving through a wildlife refuge.

We didn’t get many good pictures because of the rain and fog that day, but the GBH did get some pretty good shots of the horses.  We passed about 10-12 different herds, ranging in size from four horses to 20.  They have the ideal range land to roam, since there is ample water, evergreens for shelter, and grass year round.  They all looked to be in pretty good shape, but I have to wonder if some are domesticated horses that have been turned loose by their owners.  There was a buckskin in a herd of bays, a chestnut appaloosa with white blanket in a herd of solid chestnuts, and a couple of herds with all different colored horses.

 

Sorry this one is a bit grainy, most of the herds were a LONG distance off and Glenn hasn’t bought me a zoom lens for my camera yet.  What’s he waiting for, anyway?

 

There was also a puzzling piece of architecture overlooking the Hood river that I wanted to stop and explore, but couldn’t.

 

I’m pretty sure I want to live along this beautiful river, but I can’t help but think there are even more spectacular places to live in this incredibly diverse state.

 

Once we finally climbed out of the valleys and gorges, we found the top of the world.  Vast acreage of nothing but snow-covered crop fields.  There were open fields as far as the eye could see, with farm houses dotting the countryside every few miles.  This picture isn’t the best representation of the area, but it’s the only one Glenn got at the time.

 

This is the same river mentioned above, but this was taken above the large dam.  When we win the lottery next year, we’re going to build a house on that far mountaintop, clear, irrigate, and seed pastures, and build a monster of a barn with indoor riding arena.

 

If you’re going to dream, might as well dream big!

Who knew Utah was so beautiful?

 

I certainly didn’t.  Whenever I thought of Utah in the past, I envisioned flat and barren desert, devoid of anything but sand.  Silly me!  These days, I’m finding beauty wherever I go, whether it’s just a hawk perched on a fence post, the way the sun sets and outlines a particularly twisted tree on a hilltop, a herd of wild horses drinking from a stream, a new born calf suckling in the middle of a vast prairie, a magnificent elk hanging out near a large herd of antelope, a lone wolf pouncing after his dinner in the brush, or an emerald green field of winter rye surrounded by nothing but brown grass for miles. 

And that’s just what I’ve seen over the past two days, ya’ll.  Days like that make being so far from home just a little easier to handle.  But on to Utah, shall we?  These pictures were taken on US 6 and I-70.

 

I think we drove at least 100 miles without seeing a house.  Awesome!

 

 

 

You just knew I had some sunset pictures, didn’t you?  The sunsets out west have me wanting to stop every couple of minutes to get a picture from a different angle.  Too bad I usually don’t have the time to stop and soak up the last rays as they color the world in front of me.

 

 

 

This is probably one of my favorite shots from Utah just because of the way the light makes the mountain look like it’s on fire.  The rest of these pictures are all of the same sunset.

 

 

 

 

!

I hope these pictures make you smile.  The real thing certainly had me grinning like an idiot as I was rolling down the road!

Hello, New Year

 

I’m a few days late on this, but I saw it on another blog and thought it’d be fun to do.  These are my top 10 favorite blog posts from 2010.  It should not surprise most of you that Maverick is featured in more than one.

Stormy and Xena keeping it real while working out

Baby Riley and Tootsie videos

The bittersweet adoption of Maverick

Equine stupidisms

The unexciting Jethro assimilation

Lucille’s beauty tips

More Maverick

Calvin and catcrack

Fraggle shag

Snoozing in the sun

 

I hope everyone had a great New Year!  Our truck broke down (again) in Utah on New Year’s Eve and we’re still here.  At least this little town had fireworks on Friday night and the view from the hotel has a heated swimming pool!

Awe inspiring

 

I drove through some beautiful country yesterday and wanted to share a few photos of northern California and Nevada.  If you ever get the chance to drive I-80 across the western part of the country, do it!  There are so many things that I want to stop and see, but can’t because we’re in the truck.  One of these days we may rent an RV and do some travelling on our own time, but by the time we can afford that, we’ll be so sick of the road that we won’t want to leave the farm for years!

I usually drive during the day, so I got to climb the dreaded Donner’s pass in California.  It wasn’t nearly as bad as I had imagined, but it would have been a lot worse if the roads weren’t clear.  The views were definitely worth the white-knuckled ride, though!

 

 

 

The mountain vistas of Nevada were too spectacular for words.  Once again, I found myself imagining life as it might have been two hundred years ago on the harsh prairies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As inspired as I was by the beauty and vast emptiness around us, my co-pilot was unaffected.

 

Are we there yet?

I hate to do this

 

It’s come to the point where I have to ask for help.  I have never begged for donations before and have taken pride in the fact that we’ve been able to keep these horses fed and vetted on our own, but it’s time to swallow my pride before anything else goes wrong.  Before I come straight out and beg, I think it’s important that I tell you why this has come to pass. 

As you know from a previous post, I recently got my CDL and came out on the road with Glenn to team drive and make the money necessary to get the horses through the winter.  We had hired, and spent five weeks training, Lee to live on the farm and take care of the horses and dogs for us until my return in April.

Without getting into too much detail, Lee wrecked our 4wd truck, which is the only way we have to get hay rolls into the pasture since we don’t have access to a tractor.  He told us he’d get his own insurance because adding him to ours was cost prohibitive, due to his driving record.  He did not get insurance.  We’re looking at almost $1,000 in parts to fix the truck and we will be taking it to the local adult education school for the mechanics class to fix in order to avoid labor costs.  About 10 days after he wrecked the truck he became seriously ill and has been in the hospital for almost two weeks now and has had several operations already.  He would not be physically able to return to work even if we would take him back after what he’s done.

On December 4th, Glenn and I drove all night under a load to make it home Saturday morning to try and straighten things out.  Friends had been feeding for us until we could get home, so no one was starving.  Or so we thought.  When we got home Saturday morning I walked into the house, fell to my knees, and wept.  Lee had not been letting the dogs out so the house was full of “accidents” and the doors and windows were torn up from them trying to escape confinement (this all happened before Lee went into the hospital).  Jelly the cat is still missing and presumed dead.  The other cats, Lucky, Noodle, and Lucifer, were home, but hungry.  Cody and Lucifer were both emaciated.  Our bed was covered in urine.  Our friends had warned me that the house was a wreck, but I had no idea things were that bad!

When I went outside to take stock of the horses I did not like what I saw.  The easy keepers all looked fine, but the horses requiring a lot of grain looked terrible!  Seven horses in all had lost weight since my departure just a month before.  The horses had no hay and the neighbor said he’d only seen a few bales out in the field at a time, even though there were plenty of square bales in the barn.  As it turns out, Lee had been feeding the “emergency” square bales before he wrecked the truck, for reasons I can’t fathom.

It doesn’t end there, ya’ll.

That same Saturday, we hired someone else.  I was hesitant because he lived 45 minutes away, but he assured me that he didn’t mind making the trip and would be there every morning.  He also didn’t mind using his 4wd truck to haul round bales and water until we could get our truck fixed.  It was just supposed to be him feeding and his wife would work if he had a big project, like putting up new fence.

It should take a maximum of two hours to feed everyone in the morning.  The first morning he worked, he charged us for 10 hours because he insisted that his wife helped him and they each worked for five hours.  When asked what they did, the list of things he produced could have been done by me in four hours, by myself.  He continued to double and triple charge us all week and let us know a few days ago that he could only continue to feed for a couple more weeks because it was too far to drive.  Now he’s just hauling hay twice a week and water as needed until our truck is fixed. We’ve found someone else to feed for us who will hopefully be more honest and not try to take advantage of the situation.  He can’t live there, but yesterday morning was his first day and he drove a four-wheeler almost 20 miles over the icy roads in 18 degree temperatures just to get there!  Jamie, the ACO for our county, has been our savior this whole time and she met him out there to show him the ropes.  She’s also cleaning our house for us since we couldn’t stay home long enough to clean it up ourselves.  Jamie… what would we do without you???   And another big thanks to Brannon, our farrier, for doing an emergency feeding the day we learned that Lee was in the hospital.  You guys are the best!!

We have hired another person to move in and take care of things, but he can’t start until the 26th.  He and his wife were planning on moving here from Arizona in the Spring, but when Eve’s adopter told him of our plight he immediately started packing.  He’s coming up on the 26th and his wife will move up with their horses in the spring.  After talking with him on the phone I’m comfortable with his knowledge and work ethic, but I’ve obviously been wrong before!  Glenn and I are going to be home for a few days on the 26th to get him moved in and teach him whatever we can in such a short time.  Jamie will be there to help him with any other problems once we’re back out on the road.

So there it is.  The past month’s story, somewhat condensed.  Thanks to good friends feeding for us since Lee left, the seven horses are regaining their weight and everyone has hay in front of them 24/7.  The dogs now have a doggie door and can come and go as they please. 

People keep asking me why I don’t just go back home.  Trust me, I’d love to!!!  But thanks to the unseasonably cold weather:  1) the horses are eating 18 hay rolls a week, 2) we need more trough heaters, extension cords, and pipe insulation to keep the pipe to the spring-fed tank from freezing, 3) we now need to pay two people to do the job of one because the truck isn’t fixed, 4) and we need to fix the truck.  I can’t afford to go home, no matter how much I’d like to.  Did I look for a local job before I left?  Of course!  Trying to find a job in our area that fits my experience was fruitless.  When companies like Tractor Supply, Lowes, and Krogers look at a resume like mine, “over qualified” is usually the response.  After several months of job searching, this is where I have ended up for the winter, for better or for worse. 

So here’s where I beg.  The horses are being fed, no worries there.  But if we can get our truck fixed it would mean paying one less person to feed, and hay and water could be gotten as soon as it’s needed.  I know it’s almost Christmas and money is tight for everyone.  Horse Haven Hollow has 185 fans on Facebook and if everyone donates just $5 that should be enough to buy the parts for the truck and get it fixed. 

Sorry for the long post, but I didn’t want to beg without telling you the circumstances that brought me to this point.  If you can find it in your heart to help us out with a few bucks, you can use paypal and send it to horsehavenholler@frontiernet.net.  If you’d feel better sending something material, trough heaters safe for plastic troughs would be appreciated!

Thanks to everyone who has supported us thus far and thanks in advance to those who can help now!

Daydreaming

 

I love driving through the mid-west, especially when we stumble upon something like this in the middle of nowhere.  It sparks my imagination and provides hours of escapism.

 

Everything is so desolate, so sparse.   Some ranches are so huge that the road stretches between it’s boundaries for dozens of miles, with nothing to see except a windmill and some cattle here and there.  I just want a good horse and a few weeks to ride those ranges, forgetting all the troubles and stress of the life I’ve chosen.

 

As I’m driving through this rugged terrain my mind wanders  I sometimes picture myself as Calamity Jane or Annie Oakley, riding a good horse on the plains, trading with the natives, or hiding out from the law.  Whatever gets me through the 11 hours of driving is ok with me.

Then I see these… running across the plains just because they can.  I didn’t think I could get any more homesick than I already was.

 

 

I was so wrong.