I am buying 54 3x3-8 bales of hay sight unseen.

 I was on the fence on getting hay from my, and formally dad's regular grower this year and was very wishy washy in my emails to him.  I thought I had said in the end that I would take up to 4 stacks if he had that many for sale and he thought I had passed on buying from him this year.     I was so wishy washy because even his last years hay with excellent rain timing had some stalky bales and 2 years ago when it kept raining in June and he had to bale very late the hay was very stalky and I ended up with a messy paddock when the horses used the stalky bits as bedding instead of food.  

So I bought 8 bales of hay yesterday on our Juneteenth holiday from one guy.  His hay was not tarped or anything.   I wasn't sure the horses would like it, they did, but it would have been tough to find time to go get more today and then he has more still to bale but I was thinking that what is not baled yet will be stalky.   I am going to an endurance ride this weekend with B's horse Taj and will do the 10 mile fun ride on Sunday. 

I was thinking I need a semi load of hay and the neighborhood gal who volunteered to do my chores came with her DH this morning and I remembered he hauls livestock and asked if he also hauls hay.  He does, and there is an ad for nice horse hay in Wiggins that is just a small percentage of alfalfa.   So I made the deal to get that hay w/o even looking at it and set up for him to deliver and stack it for me too.  

If the horses don't like it I guess my pasture will get some mulch, maybe with some grass seed and I'll just be buying some extra pellets and beet pulp this year for the harder keepers. 

P.S. it was over 100 today.  But I got the BAT hooked up so I can get an early start tomorrow.   I still need to load Taj's saddle, get hay for him for the short camping bit, etc but I am inching towards being ready.  I *can* do this and I need to get away from this place for bit, maybe I can find somebody to ride with a couple times a month.  

P.P.S.  the potential house mate ghosted me.  I guess that is the term.  I thought we had a handshake agreement that he was moving in on Father's Day weekend and when he was here I did say he could borrow one of my vehicles if his truck was still in probate limbo.   (I had initially told him he needed a personal vehicle).   But he never got back to me.  I texted him Friday or Saturday that weekend and asked him to let me know if he had found a better fit for his needs but he didn't reply to that text.    

My BAT is in the shop

Getting the bumper fixed where the bolts had failed and the metal piece was bending and making a gap.

This local guy will also pull the wheels and repack the bearing and fix some of the fender and running board pieces where they had failed.   

I'm an idiot.  The guy that fixed my pickup trailer plugs did not have the in box connection right.  I must have noticed no brake lights with that plug last fall and just plugged the trailer into the bumper plug.  But I forgot that and the mis-wiring was such that the brakes were engaging when I was backing up.  I didn't think about it being the brakes when I went to take the trailer to the shop and just put in 4WD low and forced it back.   Hope I didn't damage too much.   He caught it right away when I went to back it up at his place.    

Now I can at least haul the horse and camp.   I should find someone to fix the LQ, it has a leaking water hose and the floor boards rotted because I didn't catch the leak. but I can rough it with the plywood over the soft spot and not using the water tank.   

Hopefully the mower will start this morning

 It started right up for me yesterday but the gas tank has a tiny leak, probably a hose connection is not tight.  Since I know gas will leak out I only put enough gas in it for one mowing session and last night it ran out.  It's on a slope and the bit of gas I put in it was not enough for it to fire up and get off of the slope, and then the battery was done cranking.    Could save myself frustration if I fixed the leak but I'm not positive that it's only a hose clamp and my to do list is always a yard long. 

I rode Tanza yesterday because he came up when I was trying to catch fat Sadie.   He was tender on the road, his feet are soft from all the rain we had so I couldn't tell if his hind fetlock was bothering, I think it was a bit.  I hope it will continue to heal and get to a point where I can take him trail riding.  Right now I feel like up and down hilly trails might be a bit much even just riding at a walk.  

I should ride Taj today,  I rode him 8 days ago and he was a good boy but he is getting out of shape.  I should have run to town and bought a wheelbarrow, and dropped off my old cart and some other scrap metal at the recycling place but it didn't happen. 

Working 9 to 5

 9 to 5

Big boss had a meeting about the big reprocessing effort we will do and vetting of an update to a major program.   They didn't invite me, but they needed information from me so my supervisor was asking me questions on slack.   I offered to hop on the meeting but big boss was "not necessary."  Sometimes seems like that punk is scared of me.  I have got to a point where I speak my mind cuz I don't care if he takes offense and fires me.   I'm wired to try to be basically polite so I don't think I'm too out of control, but he's a wimp.   It suckec because I couldn't do something else cuz of having to have the typing only slack conversation and I think I still missed some information because big boss declined to have me just join the stinking meeting. 

Anyway "Big boss doesn't want to overburden you so we are having H do these tasks".   Riiiggghht, pull my other finger.   I have to write up exactly how she should do things in the ticket system cuz she will not figure things out on her own, ever; I could just have done it myself, would have taken just a tiny bit more of my time.   They must want to give H a promotion and need to pad her list of accomplishments is my guess of what is really going on, cuz I AM teaching the new hire how to do processing, I'm good with that,  new hire learns and figures some things out on her own and then writes up notes that checklist Charlie types like H can use.   

I may have a house mate. Knocking wood

He and his uncle are trying to get it lined up for him to get a temporary license plate so he can drive his truck that is in his dad's name while probate grinds out.   I took down my ad,  had another "is this still open" from the landlord? that tried to steer a non-driving tenant to me.   I probably dodged a bullet with the non-driving,  the person that that landlord wanted to leave, or person wanted to leave ?  seems a bit cray cray.  I told her that Uber won't work out here and even offered she could borrow my car for a bit and she ignored what I said,   "oh Uber is everywhere now".  Sure if you can wait much longer for a ride and pay a premium  you *can* get an Uber to bring you here, and maybe get a pick up from here, but its not a workable option for a work commute.  

 I HATE when I tell people something and they refuse to accept what I said; so that was an absolute no go since the gal apparently cannot drive.     And she even was like "if you can take me to Brighton afterwards I can come check out the place" in one text.   Ahhh, so you did find out that Uber would be kind of costly.   Did she think she could move in and then weasel me into driving her to her job?   I AM a bit lonely but my big reason for looking for a housemate is I don't keep up with everything,  no way Jose to the thought of having to taxi someone to/from their job so they wouldn't lose the job.  

Waah, Tanza is sore again

I hope he just overdid things a bit and will be back to where he was.   The pasture is getting fairly eaten down so I'll probably stop letting the horses out to graze soon and maybe that will limit his over doing it.  But I have got to stop tying my emotions to this horses soundess.   I keep telling myself this and thinking I'm making progress, but then he'll have a day or 2 of being noticeably sore and I'm working to fight back tears all day; once my mood goes sour I just spiral with how lonely I am and feeling like no one wants to be around me,  and I don't know how to change that, and on and on. 

I rode Tanza Today and Saturday

He was full of piss and vinegar on Saturday,  trying to take off running, whirling around etc and when I got home and let the horses out to the pasture he was running and bucking like a 4 year old.   And today he was not so eager to go, and had a few ouch steps but just a few, he mostly felt solid.   Knock wood but I think he is sound enough now to be fine for riding on real trails so long as it was just walk and enjoy the scenery riding and not endurance or CTR pacing.    I was going to ride Sadie both mornings but she was doing "you aint catching me" and especially Saturday, Tanza was "I'll go, I'll go"  Today Tanza was not eager, he'd have rather I just let everybody out instead of riding but he didn't try to avoid me.  

I cut dead small trees yesterday and my neck and shoulders are whining about it today.   I should pump the neighborhood to see if anyone has teen boys willing to do heavy yard work.   I have a nibble on my NextDoor ad for a housemate.  It's a gal, so I wouldn't get guy muscles, but I could use organized woman help too.   If it works out maybe she can help me line up someone to install laminate flooring and so on.  So I feel like I'm working out of my blahs from this winter,  it's slow progress but progress.