Thank god I don't have to shoe horses for a living

I'd be hard pressed to feed myself and certainly couldn't support 4 horses and do fun stuff. I removed Shades RF shoe this morning. Rasped and rasped and rasped before I had the clinches off to where I thought the shoe should pull w/o too much difficulty. Then it still took me multiple goes with the pullers. I think part of the problem is I'm not supporting Shades hoof/leg very good. I didn't even try to use my legs to hold it while I rasped.

I was drenched with sweat and had taken at least half an hour by the time the shoe was off but at least I did get it off cleanly with no nails left in the hoof and didn't seem to break out the holes any extra. Gave a few quick passes with the rasp to smooth off the edges of both front feet --the one where she had lost the shoe at HJ was pretty nice to start with. Hopefully the easyboot epics will work pretty well. There are some big name AERC riders who put thousands of miles on their horses using boots instead of shoes. Hopefully I can manage a hundred, maybe 120 miles of trail riding and then 1 50 mile competition ride with boots on the front feet, but I am also hoping I find another good farrier next year and can do things the easy (for me) way.

Green horse ride today

Sadie was a greenie today. Got to one spot and did not want to go forward. Sticky feet, a bit of trying to turn around but mostly sticky feet. But we got past the sticky ground spot w/o me losing my temper and she was back to being a fun ride.

WHEE

Sadie did a 180 spook or rider testing move today when I was riding her, I took her on around in a 360 and thought "I'll just have her do some extra so she doesn't think this is such a good idea" LOL, she was getting wound up and spinning faster and I lost a stirrup and we stopped. Maybe she'd like to try a little reining when she has mastered elementary school.

The good thing is Sadie is more likely to just go sideways when she is moving faster than a walk. I had to get a saddle with some swells for riding Shade because she does a bouncy stop that pitches me forward, especially if I was leaning a bit to start and then she does a 180 and I go right over the disappearing shoulder. The swells help with catching me before I'm pitched so far forward

Back from Happy Jack Ride

I had to scan in this ride pic from Karl creations. Shade loffs the wide open spaces with endurance riding but she still enjoys showing off for the camera.

Well next year I should have a good excuse for not riding two 50's on 2 day rides -- I'll hopefully be doing LD's on Sadie. She will be eligible for 50's (over 60 months) but if she doesn't get racy early I'll probably not do any 50's until the year she turns 6. Then if Shade is still able to go 50 miles I'll have to do more personal conditioning and be more mentally tough. I do find that if I'm thinking I definitely want to ride a 2nd day or all 3 days going in I am more mentally tough. This is the 2nd ride this year where I went in thinking "I'll ride again on sunday if saturday goes well" saturday turns out to be a long day of riding and I go "meh, I'm done".

On the pollyanna side Shade lost a shoe on saturday, that is a bad thing; but I didn't have to weigh "should I ride her a full 50 miles with one shoe and one hoofboot and hope that works out fine" since I was tired and didn't really want to ride again on sunday and then try to cram in getting ready for the trail riding trip along with working a full week.

Happy Jack Ride

Exit 323 off I-80. (I tend to want to think its different)

Vedauwoo campground/recreation area whatever. Follow the signs for Vedauwoo and should be OK.

LOL, the old FB directions were wrong. Its Blair Willis, but I followed the Happy Jack ride signs and found it easily. I turned the "wrong" way on Happy Jack rode coming home on sunday and didn't even realize for 10 miles or so. So I took it all the way to Cheyenne and it is A) closer which I kind of thought but B) also less curvy and hilly when I had figured the directions were specific from I-80 because it was an easier way with a trailer. Nope, just that the RM lives in Laramie, guess he figured folks could look at a map if they figured it might be shorter to come a different way.

Geez, good thing I was hoarding

Well I consider it stockpiling. But anyway usually only need the 12 hr original sudafed overnight (and generic works for me) and then I maybe take 1 of the unrestricted sudafed pe 4-6 hr tabs during the day, but I usually try to buy the maximum allowed 3 boxes of the 12 hour every month so that if I get hammered by allergies or a sinus infection like I had at the start of the year I wont run out if I can only get to a drugstore 2x in a month.

Well 4 or 5 times in the last 2 or 3 months Target has not had any when I've swung by their pharmacy counter. Getting sudafed at a great price with just short wait for pharmacy staff has been a big reason why I buy my groceries there although the tv dinner food I buy to heat and eat at work is usually pretty decent priced.

Now we are in a temporary office building for 8 months and I don't have the fridge space I had before so I can't buy a 1.5 weeks supply of frozen dinners and just put in the work fridge, and they rarely have 12 sudafed (brand name or store brand) available so I guess I'll start swinging by Walgreens instead. They did have their 12 hr sudafed store brand the one time I stopped last month. I guess I'll find out if that was a lucky day to stop or if they are managing to keep it in stock.

I looked on the net for sudafed shortage and Johnson and Johnson (I think) was shut down from making sudafed for a while because some inspection showed improper cleaning of some machine. Plus they had to recall a bunch for being mis-labeled. I would sort of think with the tightened availability so the meth heads can't steal it the generic outfits would have been able to fill in just fine but its been a rough summer for allergies locally and apparently in a fairly broad regional area --still I wonder if this is part of early Obamacare or the Obaconomy. Dang if they can't keep it in stock they could raise the price and make more, but with the amount of red tape to even hire new staff, let alone expand a plant I guess no producer figured it was worth it. SIGH, I hate government red tape.

grumpy today

ON the Pollyanna side I used to have this kind of mood monthly until I had the hysterectomy and now its maybe 2 or 3 times in a year and now usually (today no exception) I can see stresses that helped trigger the mood . My theory is the fibroids disrupted the hormones. Since they didn't take the ovaries that makes more sense then out of whack hormones caused the fibroids.

The new offices: The movers had everything placed as D had diagrammed with me. She is so incredibly organized and such a sweet person. I wish I had never learned that she worked for Soros (well for one of his foundations) for all I know it was one that he funded just for image improvement and not one of the groups dedicated to dragging the country to marxism (WTH does Soros gain by that happening anyway?) Perhaps he feels the U.S. should have entered WWII stopped the NAZIs earlier. Who knows but he sure works to push marxism on us and one would think someone who was able to make that kind of money would understand how marxism destroys most wealth in a nation. Maybe he wants to ensure he is in a tiny group of super rich. Would be sweet schadenfreude if the Jihadis got him since the commies think they'll win by enabling Jihadis in hopes of weakening the west (capitalist, democratic republics) LOL what a tangent.

I don't make NYs resolutions but I really should resolve to attack the goatsheads before they are full of burrs next year if I keep renting from the folks. The pickup and tractor tires were full of burrs so lots of new seeds were planted in the yard in spite of my good efforts at letting very few of the ones that sprouted in the yard live long enough to set burrs and I got almost all of those bagged up before the burrs were ripe enough to fall off. I have to live with churning up a bit of extra sand and disk the young goatsheads that I will not have time to hand pull next year on a regular schedule.

OHTO instead of thinking of what I should do land management wise on the parents property I really should look into changing my living arrangements. Its been so easy to just coast along but mom is driving me nuts and I should use that as good thing -- one that frees me from feeling obligated to live with them. If I analyzed things very carefully its probably not all that much yearly $$ that they net after the extra hay for my horses and extra tank heaters running in the winter etc. well not sure, cuz I try not to run the heaters all the time or otherwise waste energy and if it was just mom and dad they would probably just plug in heaters for however many stock tanks they were using and leave it to the heater thermostats to turn them off when they have the water however warm. But still mom probably doesn't think she is getting that great of a deal although she'd never get someone else in as a renter. I sure wouldn't pay to put up with the various crap if I didn't think I'm helping the family finances doing it.

Plus why should I fund mom's hypochondria anyway. I could make an argument that I'm just being an enabler. I need to decide whether to pursue a rental room/share that allows commuting to my job or trying to find a spouse and being willing to quit the job and just do whatever I can find where they live. Or do A with no long term lease and pursue B as well. AACK I'm skeering myself just typing about it. LOL

I think I am done

If some people are so damn happy to be moaning and groaning every damn day that they won't even read an article I print out that oh hey I just stumbled across something that suggests statins cause muscle pain, let alone actually call their dr and try skipping them for a couple weeks (hello higher cholesterol for a few weeks isn't a big deal) then I am just back to not giving a shit when they say they feel extra bad. Not willing to do anything beyond take pills or shots to help yourself then I don't give a shit how bad off you are. That goes double for the damn welfare yobs that think the world owes them a nice life. Effing youbs wouldn't have so much time to loot and riot if they had to be responsible for feeding and housing themselves.

I also need to scale back from boards again. I so want to feel connected to people who grok loving horses as much as I do but when I feel like I've opened my soft underbelly any time I put something I'm sensitive about out there its just not happening.

Long day trail riding

We only went about 11 miles but it was 1.5 hours driving each way, took our sweet time getting ready, walked pretty much the whole way, took a fairly long lunch break and chilled at the trailhead for a good while when we got back. Well I wanted dad out there on RazzMo before he expected to go 20 some miles a day 5 or 6 days with maybe 1 rest day, but I do prefer riding more endurance conditioning style with plenty of trotting and loping to break things up. Shade seemed quite puzzled that we weren't kicking up the speed on the way home. Well we did, because Lady was in front and L let her do some gaiting and Shade picked up a nice power walk when I wouldn't let her trot to catch up. Razz also picked up a power walk to to keep up plus dad let him jog or lope some to catch up.

We don't know if mom is going to make it or not. I guess my best case scenario is she feels up to trying it and rides 1 or 2 days and then moves the vehicle instead of riding 3-4 days. Worst case scenario A is she rides one day and then is too sick to even move vehicle and puts us in a position of almost having to move a vehicle every night. WCS B is she doesn't go at all and lays a guilt trip on us for going that she feels too sick to stay home alone. We will go regardless but it will put a damper on things if she tries that. I would fire back that N and I would have regrets the rest of our lives if we didn't go and then dad had a heart attack this winter and couldn't do the trip next year, plus we could repeat the trip next year if she gets better and she'd have the benefit of us having worked out the kinks and she can get someone to come in and help her if she needs to. See what happens in a couple of weeks.

hurry up caffeine

So sleepy this morning. A bit of the "ride dread" I sometimes get in there maybe, don't know why, taking a slow trail ride with dad and L should not make me nervous unless I was going to take Sadie. In a way I should take her but I haven't fitted boots to her and she is a bit tender footed, haven't worked on loading her in the big trailer and dad and L are not tuned in horse people who would sense if she was getting overwhelmed and help me out. I think I forgot sudaded last night. Need to run take some and add some generic claritin stuff as there is also a stuffy head component.

So tired today

I think I will start packing up the final stuff fairly early and if I get out of here early yay me. My word there are a lot of people that sat on computer shipping boxes but then did not choose to use them to pack up for the office move or something. I have been taking a fair amount of unclaimed stuff home too. It is sad the amount of stuff that people waited until the last day to toss into freecycle bins. They really upped the chances of the stuff just ending up in landfill by waiting until the 11th hour to decide they didn't care to pack it and have it moved across the street.

Oh well. Pack up my little items, then a last bit of cpu checking, before I pack it into a box. That might end up taking a while, trying to sort out how it fits in the styrofoam bits. 3 days of working from home. I'll probably only get in 12 hours of work time. I don't have a lot of PTO hours either but I just don't care. I can afford to take unpaid leave, they should be able to adjust my insurance contribution accordingly that pay period.

Well I shouldn't freeze during the obamalypse

I bought a used kerosene heater off of a craigslist ad today on the way to work. I have barrels of diesel that I won't put in my p/u because I don't trust it for purity (in retrospect it was a dumb idea buying it up cheap.)

So if the marxists keep on and destroy the economy I can keep warm and will just have to find vittles. And if things keep on keeping on I'll be able to set up to have heat in the travel trailer in WY w/o worrying about the ancient propane lines in the travel trailer so if I get the solar lights set up I should be able to do some fall camping to get some fencing done and set it up better as a horse layover base etc.

I need to seriously battle goatsheads this weekend

I cannot stand it. I am going to try to get the spring-tooth out with a pickup and get the goatsheads pulled up but not diced and replanted in the little pasture and along the edge of the bean weeds in the bigger paddock and then go back sack up a bunch of the nasty things to get rid of the burrs (which are also seeds for next year) . The arena and the corral area of the mini's also should be worked up again, else there will be lots of burrs to go to seed for next year.

I don't know if I'll buy anymore weevils next year. I am thinking they don't make enough dent although they do seem to be helping in the mini's alleyway area. I might get some and just commit to being around to put them out where I want them but I'm thinking maybe I would be farther ahead just getting out and spraying the damn goatsheads.

I also want to mount my solar light on my used travel trailer meant to become storage and camping spot in WY; see if dad will see what is up with my awning on my horse trailer and do some general horse riding and fun stuff.

Easy come easy Go

I noticed Grey Moun had an irritated eye when I had the horses trimmed 8 days ago. And apparently all the various fly masks I've bought over the years, and mom too since her horse needed one full time, have gotten ripped up and some were tossed. Of course since I was ordering horse stuff anyway I orders more of the joint supplements that I give and some of the metabolism boost/Mag source remission too. Then I decided I should replace the easy boot Shade lost on saturday so I put in an bid on ebay and also bought one that was decent priced buy it now. If I win the bid I'll have a spare. Then I went to the easyboot web site and picked out larger size boots that will fit CJ Razz or Grey Moun that have a pastern strap so they should be harder to lose. I have not checked out there yet. And getting my car serviced today and going to the chiro tomorrow.

But I am tired and cranky today

I am trying to keep in mind that most of the crankiness is because I am behind on sleep. But the damn goatheads are SO thick, I left to go to my clinic right when the weevils arrived (and other than not getting caught in rush hour traffic that was a waste as the clinician was 2 hours late) Dad set them out for me, but if I had done it myself I would not have put them in spots where I would want to pull or even call uncle and work up the soil and the sand be damned --BUT I had not taken time to write up all that ....

I need a smaller trailer and/or quite a bit of dirt work done on my place in WY. Damn the surveyor who laid out my plot and damn me for not going back up when the realtor emailed me that he had messed up on the boundaries and just not thinking enough about needing places to turn around and build on. I feel like I would chuck it all if I had a chance to marry a rancher who had some halfway decent land. But without searching for a rancher that aint going to happen. Oh well, overall I usually think my life is pretty decent, just tired and cranky today.

We Made it :)

Lost one easy boot about 5 miles from the finish on saturday. I did not see it come off. Noticed it missing after a noisy stumble and thought it had just come off and did not see it when I turned around and back tracked just a short ways and figured it might have gotten flung off to the side. Since it was just an external pad over the shoes and not Shades only hoof protection I just went on. We needed 12.5 hours to finish the 55 mile ride. Long hot day, I had been thinking that it might be pushing luck/ asking A LOT from Shade to try to go out again on Sunday THen after the last vet check Shade was going super strong the last leg which was mostly downhill but I was wiped out from the heat humidity and went "well you feel like you could go again, but I don't think I can handle another long hot day in the sun and be in any shape to take care of you and drive us safely home" So I called it a weekend for AERC riding. Felt SO good to 'sleep in' till 5:30 am instead of having to get up in time for a 5 am ride start and then dink around, having a leisurely cup of coffee etc.