Blog Bog Down

When bloggy buddies suddenly quit blogging, we all wonder what is going on...usually it is because they just get too busy to take the time and the ones that decide to drop their blogs kindly offer an explanation. No, I am not dropping Farm Tails, but I owe all of you virtual friends an explanation about my 'six week sabbatical'.

Besides having company for about 10 days in August and being an attentive hostess (I hope!) we finished the arena, (thank heavens) finished the road, finished the garden and I made a Shutterfly book! These are just a couple of my favorite pages.

The arena is a Godsend. Blue does well and I can tell he likes it. He has been such a good boy under saddle. Jessie likes it too. When her small friends visit, she walks around on the good footing instead of marking up the front lawn.

The scrapbook is about my vacation with Mom and my sis when we traveled up to Vermont. I am getting to know Photoshop Elements a little bit better so creating cool pages was a thrill and I totally immersed myself in the evenings. I love the creative process of scrapbook page design. If you have followed my blog during the summer then you know what the title of the book is...and I misspelled biddy on that post...sorry! So, that makes two Christmas gifts that are done and out of the way. Am thinking of doing another book for the good husband which will be a very long and tedious process. His life experiences are phenomenal and he has accomplished so much (sorry to brag but it is true!) that I fear I won't be able to do it justice, but we'll see.

By the way, my Jessie seems OK, but that edema is huge and it is still not going away. She rolled in the field this evening allowing me to see her stomach...it remains so swollen. Her udder area has shrunk a bit but not to normal and some parts are still firm I find strange. I do appreciate your comments and prayers so thank you all so much! She is a such a good horse and as everyone knows...I love her very, very much!

Wow, What a Week!

Catch up time! Long summer days keep me busy, but here is a quick review...

When we got home from vacation last week, there was note from the 'pet' sitter that Rocky had not eaten in two days. Lovely...and why was there no call alerting us after the first day and asking for advice? If a human child had not eaten for that long, don't you think the parent would be notified? (I remain thoroughly disgusted to this day over this lack of care for my kitty especially since I was promised that this expensive care would be excellent. I believe I had successfully hired a house sitter and not a pet sitter). Off we went to the vet the next morning. He was constipated, given sedation, and cleaned out so to speak. He was kept over night which was fine. The bad news is that his BUN and creatine levels are high which means kidney issues which is bad news for felines and could mean a shortened life. Well, of course there are going to be kidney issues in a small animal when it hasn't eaten or consumed water due to sheer pain...so he is now on a special Purina canned food (thru the vet only) that I mix with warm water, a kidney med, and Miralax. The good news is that his bowels are great and the Miralax is far better than the prescribed Cisapride that another vet recommended a while back. The bad news is that it cost a whopping $500. So, to look on the bright side I am choosing to think about this entire situation as a positive one unless the kidney's do not recover. Rocky is much improved and his bowels have never been more regular and normal for three years. (Rock has had this problem before and the 'pet' sitter was forewarned and told not take any chances and get him to the vet). Rock seems happy and continues to attack Tiger thus remaining the big domineering Mountain Lion! I found railroad ties! That is not an exciting thing to most folks, but I have been looking and begging for a year now! So, the contractor that refused to put on my layer of limestone dust agreed to haul 50 ties. It took three hours to get them, bring them back and unload them. He wasn't going to charge me since he knew he 'owed' me, but I don't use people. I paid him very well and hopefully he will learn something from that...he loaned me an excellent tool...it is a claw like thing that grabs heavy objects. I chained it to the bucket and it worked like a charm! Hmmm, maybe he will let me keep it?

The following day we hired a man to help arrange the ties. It threatened rain, so the day was not stifling hot and there was a slight breeze. I thought this would be completed in a couple of hours max, but no....it took several hours to say the least. I will say this, the man cannot see straight and my ties looked like a snake when one side was complete. But, not to complain...the strong 'Grampie' genes came through as it was I that had to do most of the rearranging of 90 pound ties that were tightly aligned despite my ignored suggestions not to push them tight as we could rearrange when they were all placed...I was completely exhausted. After a shower, I had to lie down! My arms and back were very sore the next day, but I chalk that up to good exercise. I looked like I came out of a coal mine and when I washed my hair, the water was brown! Yuck!!!!

The next step is to find the right sand...coarse, angular, and washed twice...and that will be no treat either as one cannot have any vehicles on the packed limestone. The sand will have to be dumped on the sides and manually spread out until half way then the tractor can do the rest as the newly laid sand will prevent marks on the base.

Friends of ours experienced a devastating fire a few days ago that consumed their entire home around 2 in the morning. I cannot fathom their pain and to know they are suffering is simply horrible for all of us. Though we are not in each other's 'inner circle', they have been at our farm and we invite each other to parties. I am really fond of their family and they all are good, good people. I do know that several of us rallied around them and their closest pals arranged for us to give what 'green' we could manage to help out. I know our contributions will not bring back their antiques, photos, etc. but I hope they will know that we care so much and are here for them. Hopefully the insurance company will settle quickly. The fire initially began at a neighbor's home. The neighbor was away on vacation and our friends were baby sitting the dog. It was the dog's incessant barking and clawing at the door that awakened them and saved their lives. Bless the animals! Nobody was hurt! I felt privileged to pet the cute poodle mix and told him how wonderful he was and that he is a hero! The sad thing about this entire tragedy was that they had to call the fire department twice. The department located only five minutes away took a good 20 minutes to reach the houses and by then it was too late. That is just not right especially with all of the fees the city folks have to pay for such services or lack of services I should say...

Got back from the ear, nose, throat doc a couple of hours ago....all is well, thank God! I have been experiencing a tightening and sometimes slight pain on the front right side of my neck. The slight enlargement is the carotid 'bulb' and the tiny knot that sometimes hurts when I lift weights or overexert is a 'u' which is a blood vessel. I am so blessed. TYG!!!! What a relief. With so much cancer in our state, one never knows what to think when a bump or a pain is felt anywhere on the body. It is good to check regardless.

This weekend will be busy too as we have a wedding to attend and the good husband mentioned that the beans will be ready to pick....that means canning!!!! BYW, the photos are just a bunch of recent pics from this week, nothing that matches the content...sorry!!

Painful Progress

The arena needed some tweaking before the final layer of sand. All the white areas carried water after the rains so the leveling and rolling wasn't up to par. This was disappointing especially after spending a lot of money but I guess this stuff truly is difficult to work with so the next best thing was to get some limestone dust, haul it in my truck and do it myself. Yesterday was a nice day, so something told me to do it and I did! Uggh, what a job it turned out to be for little ole' me!

It doesn't look like it, but that is 1.80 tons of wet limestone dust minus a bit that I already shoveled out. This was very hard manual labor but there was no other choice. It was useless to hire the big bulldozer again since nobody can really judge how the dust lays to prevent puddling. Plus I saved some money and since I was so sore from the day before (began lifting with a trainer) I was hoping this work would help rid the lactic acid build up in my poor arms.


It was hot and miserable, but little by little. the truck bed emptied.

Finally! When I got to this point I was very happy. Almost done! Still had a lot of work to do, like even out the areas and pack them down....and had to spray the truck out. This stuff hardens fast! The rains were coming, so no rest for the weary.

There were so many 'white' areas to fill! All of those areas puddled after the heavy rains. Most of the work is on the left side.

All finished shoveling the limestone dust out of the truck bed. Now I need to pack it in. This photo doesn't show all the little areas that I worked on and the view is from the opposite end.

The rain pounded down on the farm last night. I was worried since I didn't get to pack all of the areas as I was just too exhausted, but looks like the rain did some of that for me. I did put a call into the excavator for him to come for an hour with the roller. Who knows when that will be, but hopefully soon.

This was a small area that I did not 'fix' so compared to the other areas, I am pleased that no puddling occurred resulting from all of my efforts.

This little 'run off' place definitely needs to be reworked and rolled. I also need to surround the entire area with railroad ties. Put a call in today so we shall see! Eventually this will be completed! Please!!

Riding Arena, Yes!

All my life I have had to relearn this lesson...be more patient. Now that I am older, I just sit back, shake my head and wonder why....why can't something simple go smoothly? Had I been in my twenties, I would be verbally venting. Had I been in my thirties, I would have verbally vented with some venom. Now I pretend there must be a good reason for everything and I tell myself be glad that the process has begun; the project will be finished soon enough and to be thankful that we have the means to even work on such a project.

I am writing about the riding arena. Last May I began the arena thinking it would be finished within a couple of weeks...wrong! The topsoil was removed, the crush and run was added and rolled, then it was allowed to settle, only it wasn't supposed to be for a year! I didn't push it, I was grieving over Dad, I wanted to put a roof over it but finally gave up with the economy being so poor, and the excavator kept me at arms length with excuses (he left a large spot that held water and didn't want to correct it). When I finally was ready last November, the excavator developed breast cancer. He is now cancer free, didn't have to go through radiation and is back to work. So, this May I pushed hard, he promised to come (he was the one that fixed the pond) and then did a no-show which was not nice since we have given him a lot of business. The bottom line was that he didn't want to add the middle layer of limestone dust. His main man hated the process when a horsey friend of mine used them last year and so her arena left them with a sour outlook...fine, just tell me up front! I am a big girl, I won't cry!

So, I called the gravel company and they recommended a couple of excavators (they never mentioned the old excavators name, hmmmm). My guy is young, has been driving large trucks since he was 16, and along with his brothers has taken over his dad's company. I like him a lot, he showed up and went to work! All was going well, the dust settled immediately. We had a total of three trucks the first day and thought that would be enough. It was a hot and humid day. The limestone was ordered locally but had to be picked up from a town about 18 miles away. (You can't store limestone dust outside or it will get wet and clump up). That took a lot of time and I couldn't get the trucks in the morning so everything began around 1:00 in the afternoon.

The final truck presented some problems. The limestone was a little damp so they had to beat the door and loosen it up. It was funny to watch. They eventually had to get an iron bar and work the limestone by poking in between the door and the truck. Remember, we slowly let it out so it is relatively even which cuts out a lot of work for the excavator and saves me money!

They tried pushing on the door a little with the tractor but that didn't do much good.

It finally came out and the last truck left.
Still having problems with the middle...not sure why, but I know the limestone is difficult to spread since it is so light and they can't 'feel' it while working with it. Need one more load but will have to wait until the next day...it is supposed to rain tonight and that will be good. The rain will begin to compact the grains and it will soon harden. I layered about 2-3 inches which should keep any crush-n-run gravels from surfacing.

Today was delayed again since there was a lot of rain last night. The arena did not puddle anywhere so that is good. I wasn't sure if they could get a 25+ ton truck over my little road that connects the barn to the arena since it is just dirt. My guy bulldozed it down to dry dirt. This limestone dust cannot get soaking wet, so due to us ordering it late, we had to wait again until 1:00. The rain barely held out, the limestone dumped just fine but as soon as they began to work it, a storm popped up...our luck had run out for the day.

It is supposed to rain a lot tomorrow so they won't be here however, Friday should be clear. The arena doesn't look good anymore since there was no time to roll it after the truck drove through it....stupid storms!

After the limestone layer is complete, I have to order some special sand that is angular. Not all gravel companies carry it and I want to be sure I have the right stuff. I have to spread the sand myself with our tractor and TR3 as the heavy tracks of a bulldozer will ruin everything and dull the angular sand. A perimeter fence must be installed prior since I cannot find any railroad ties to keep the sand from blowing away. Still a lot of work to be done, but at least another step is being completed. Patience, Kritter Keeper, patience!

Questions

I have lots of questions as of late...this is nothing new for me as my poor mother can attest...I have always asked questions and it frustrates her to no end. When she tells me news of her old friends in Vermont or about people in the past; I ask questions that she cannot answer and I wonder, why doesn't she think to ask? I tell her, 'I will ask them for you' and she agrees that I have no problems with that! But, these questions are different...so here goes...

When will my arena be completed? Why did the original excavator whom we trusted and have given a whole lot of work in the past five years just brush me off after daily calls last week and after promising me they would come when the ground dried? And... after waiting an entire year? I called another excavator recommended by the gravel company...supposedly they are coming Monday. I am not holding my breath. Their rates are close to the original one so that is a good thing! I waited a long time allowing the crush-n-run base to settle, noticed the huge puddle and called a few times last year but was thinking of building a roof above so nothing was urgent. Now with the recession, we elected not to build at this time, in case you were wondering why it took a year....

Why did 'gray cat' not stay around when he was fed good food and could see my other cats were treated with lots of love and have a good home? Did Daddy Cat tell him to go away?


Why did the losers across the river shoot this poor gooses' mate a couple of weeks ago? I heard a shot one day, then heard a goose squawk loudly for the longest time. Those two were in our field earlier which was just fine. Now the lone goose eats corn if the deer do not chase it away. Poor baby, it watched me feed the deer and saw the deer get close to me so I hope it knows that our farm is safe. He walked a few steps towards me, but I am not pushing it...maybe he will tame up and realize that this is a good home!

Why do borer bees continue to buzz my head and threaten me when they know I am just going in and out of the barn?

Why are my special barn fans on back order AGAIN? I ordered them in March and now I will not receive them until June 13th. I chose this brand since it had the size I wanted which wasn't too big nor too small and the other brands I researched did not have that size. The motor is sealed and it oscillates if I remember correctly. They are expensive. I am not comfortable using box fans anymore as I have heard of fire issues...so I was trying to do the right thing! You would think a manufacturer would get the inventory ready for the season...hello!!!!

Why did a huge branch on my pink rose fall to the ground? Did the dogs have something to do with it or was it too heavy? Maybe I should have cut them back afterall...regardless, they are really beautiful and I hope the buds will bloom.

Where has my huge toad been in the last week? She has lived in the flower bed for two years now. Did the black snake eat her? I saw that skin under a bush and pulled on it and you won't believe this, but I think the snake was still shedding!!! My tug was met with pressure on the other end and not all of the skin came off! When I looked the next day, the torn skin that was under the bush was gone. I didn't want to search too closely as those boxwoods are thick!

Now, does anyone have any answers for me?