Flooding and Fireworks

The river and lake near us are higher than they have been in 100 years. Many houses are flooded. The water is finally going down now but, we sure have a lot of mosquitos now!

This is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the 4th of July and the fireworks. I go to as many displays as I can. On the 5th we are going to Freedomfest, on Saturday we are going to Rythm and Booms and on the 9th we head out to Lifest.

More rain

Hmmmmm, have I mentioned rain lately? It's raining again. The ground is so saturated here that houses are falling into the rivers and lakes, one lake has disappeared as it washed away a road and flowed into the river. Here in our little corner of the world, our lake is getting higher and higher. It's as high as I've ever seen it since we've lived here, which is only 8 years but, it's pretty wet. Our yard has not been dry since last fall and has had standing water continuously, except for a couple of days, since the snow melted. The basement has water in it for the first time and the roof is leaking. My parents would love to have some of this water. They have been very dry and hot. The farmers aren't going to be able to bale the hay again this year if we don't get a break from the rain.

Thoughts

I recently visited my sister-in-law who lives about 1 1/2 hrs away. It's just at that range where it's hard to get out and visit each other so we don't see each other much. Sharon is the sister I never had. When I'm down, she always has a Scripture verse for me and an encouraging word. It was a very relaxing time and we got to talking about family and how we often don't stay in touch like we'd like. I commented that the older I get, the more I realize that life is all about the relationships we have. Our relationship with God has to be first and needs to be continually growing and then it's the people in our lives that are important, well, and for me, my pets are important too. :-) At the end of our lives, when we are in a nursing home, it won't be the car that comes to see us, or our house that comes to see us but, the people that we've taken time to build a bond with. It's the people that will call to brighten our day or send a card or come and visit. I try to stay in touch one way or another with my family and friends even though it is usually not as much as I'd like. If I don't call, I try to send an email just to stay in touch. Today was Memorial Day and my son and daughter came over, my husband's parents and my sister-in-law. We had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful and it was a wonderful day. There were more happy memories created to think back on over the years.

Got my jewelry!

I got one of the rings I ordered from the free jewelry site and it is really pretty! I am really happy with it especially for the price. You would never guess I only paid $5.99 for it. One thing I will say, though, is that the rings run big. I normally wear a size 7 and this one is a 7 but is much too big for my ring finger. I have to wear it on my index or middle finger. Keep that in mind when ordering. Also, they can be resized but there is an anti tarnish coating on them and something else, (they tell you on the website) so you have to make sure if you take it to be sized that the jeweler knows how to bring it back to it's original shine.

The weather is beautiful today, sunny and 60s. Perfect weather as far as I'm concerned.

It's been a while, again, since my last post. March was pretty much snow, snow and more snow, April was rain, rain and more rain with a little snow mixed in and May has been pretty nice. We lost our canoe with all the rain. It was tied up at the lake but the lake came up so high that it was floating for a while, was full of water and then it was gone.

Latest addition in the work from home arena is MoreEgold. This program builds your pay to click downline and has very detailed instructions for getting referrals. It's a very well put together program.

Do you like jewelry? Here's a site that offers free sterling silvery jewelry with real gemstones! All you pay is the $5.99 shipping and handling. This is a great site for getting quality jewelry for almost nothing, great for gifts!
Warning, though, it can be addictive!


Free Sterling Silver with real Gemstones, no catch, no gimmicks, no obligation

Well, it's been a while since I've posted here. Not a lot new since the last one. More snow, more cold, more winter. I wonder if I've stepped into Narnia without realizing it. Always winter but never Christmas. hmmmmm....... On the plus side, I did see a robin the other day. That should mean something and I did notice that it wasn't pitch black when I drove to AWANA last night. That's positive as well. There is a lot of sickness around here. I have a very nasty cold trying to get hold of me. I don't feel great but not as bad as I could. I am taking the New Silver Solution from Nutronix and that helps a LOT with lessening the severity of the sickness and shortening it's duration. I don't always escape unscathed although sometimes I can.

A couple of weeks ago we were supposed to get lots of snow. They were predicting rain, freezing rain and snow. We got the freezing rain, lots of freezing rain. We started out of the driveway to go feed horses and got as far as the gate. We had to chip away about 1 1/2" of ice to get the gate open to get out of the driveway. We were soaking wet by the time we got to the barn. The barn door was frozen shut so I got the ice scraper out of the car and had Erica down at the bottom chipping away at the ice. The leanto was full of water. There was barely enough room for one horse to stand all the way back by the wall. The building they use outside was dry. We finally got into the barn and there was standing water in the aisle. We swept that out twice but it kept coming back. Everywhere there was water was going to freeze as temperatures dropped. We got everybody fed and while they were eating, Erica and I went out to the pasture and dug a trench to drain off some of the water. That was no easy task as there was water way past the rubber part of our boots and the snow was still a foot deep. Ahhhh, winter in Wisconsin. You gotta love it. :-P

We found out very recently that my husband may not have a job next year. The company is sending some of it's work offshore *sigh* and so he may not have a job. Another incentive to develop a home based business. My main business is still The Berry Tree and Nutronix. I got into them for the business but have found that the products are helping me so much that I couldn't quit if I wanted to. The Cellfood helps my asthma a lot. I am on the strongest and best stuff my Dr. has and was still having trouble breathing. What was I going to do in 10 years? The Cellfood and the 02 Berry Water have helped me breath much better. It doesn't hurt that I can eventually make money just by staying with the company.

Other business ventures are MLP and My Launch Pad In addition to those, there are Velocity Clicks, Raining Bux, Clixsense,Adbux, WordLinx, 2Bux, Bux3, Advercash. Of course, the best money in the PTC programs is with referrals. Most of them have referrals for sale so you can earn $100 or more in each program monthly. They are also a good source of advertising. I am also doing ASD which is an old program that has been revitalized. It is also a good source of advertising.
The days of working all your life at one job and then retiring are gone. Now you have to be ready to move every couple of years and as you get older, nobody wants to hire you. Also, you have to start all over in the payscale every time you get laid off.

Into the Freezer!

The other day the weather was very mild. Erica decided to take Kasha out for a ride. She said that she did pretty good. She was a little spooky but, she doesn’t get out a lot and she has uveitis so that isn’t a big surprise. Today started out in the 30s and then we got snow. We didn’t get a lot of snow here. Most of the snow was north of us. Once the snow stopped, the temperature started dropping. I visited a friend from church today who had surgery a few days ago. When I went in to her house it was in the 30s and when I came back out a couple of hours later it was about 19. The doors on my car were almost frozen shut and the windows are frozen. I picked Erica up so we could go to the barn to feed and one of the straps on Midnight’s light blanket was frozen so I had to warm it with my hand and the snap on the gate was frozen. We put their warm blankets on because it is supposed to get very cold tonight with strong winds. Kasha and Chester are inside for the night. I managed to slam my arm against the wagon running after Chester tonight. It’s starting to hurt and will probably bruise.

We are supposed to be very cold, around 10 below zero for the next couple of nights. Highs Sat and Sun are only supposed to be around zero or 2 above. Monday is supposed to be better. At least the bitter cold is not predicted to last long. I can’t even imagine 100 below. This is plenty cold enough for me!

To update my newest additions to my earn from home portfolio, Bux.to is looking good. I got my referrals very quickly and all but
2 seem to be active and clicking. I am earning at a pretty decent rate with it. I am still pretty happy with Daily Clicks. I would like to see some referral packages for sale. Bux3 has a lot of ads every day so is looking pretty good also. 2Bux is still in prelaunch and I have bought a small referral package which has been delivered. There won’t be any ads until Feb. 1.

I joined another program but I’m still getting it set up so will write about it later. We had chili for dinner tonight, good thing to have on a cold night, and there is a fire in the fireplace. I’m looking forward to the warmup on Monday. We have a soup and appetizer night going on at church this weekend. I think the soups will be very popular. It’s supposed to be subzero temps Saturday.

More goodbyes and more ways to earn from home..

My husband’s uncle died this past Sunday morning. My daughter commented that there has been a lot of death lately and I agreed. We have lost 2 family members, a friend and 3 of our critters all within the past 6 months. Last summer a teenage girl died at Lifest. I told my daughter that’s why it’s so important to be ready. We never know when our time is up. I’m sure the last thing that young girl thought about, when she woke up that morning, was that she would be in eternity by evening. I’ll see my husband’s Opa and uncle, and our friend again one day because they all had received Jesus as their Savior. Life here is so short and it doesn’t matter what things we have collected when we die. The only thing that will matter is what we have done that is of eternal value, the people we have invested in, the people we have told about Jesus.

It’s been warm the past few days and has rained almost steadily for two days. Most of the snow has melted but, the lower pasture is all ice now. They are predicting another 2 - 3 inches of snow tonight. I wouldn’t mind the snow so much if it fell everywhere but the roads. Just don’t like driving in it much. On the plus side, it will hide all the manure piles in the pasture. :-) It will also give the horses better footing than the ice.

Erica went riding today. She said Cass was a bit spooky. She doesn’t get out so regularly in the winter so I guess that isn’t a big
surprise. So far we haven’t seen any more critters in the barn. I know there are some there because things are getting knocked over but we haven’t seen them. It could even be mice or rats. I saw a very fast gray furry thing run along the wall the other day. Guess a mouse or a rat.

I’ve decided to add more avenues of income to my work from home portfolio. I am not giving up on my main business but, I am adding more. Varied avenues are good when earning online. If one slows down another may pick up. I just signed up with Bux.to after reading several of the testamonials and some of the forum posts. I have not upgraded yet but did buy a 100 referral package. The best way to earn with the pay to click sites is to buy referrals unless you are good at referring. From what people were saying in the forum, it is a worthwhile investment and does pay you back pretty quickly. Here’s hoping! If these referrals are active and do earn money for me, I will invest in another 100. I also joined Bux3 but have not upgraded or bought referrals yet. I believe they are still pretty new so I want to wait a little while to make sure they are going to be around and then I’ll consider buying referrals there. Also added to my portfolio this week was Daily Clicks. This looks like a good site whether you buy referrals or not. Right now, they don’t have any to sell but they do have a good amount of ads so you can earn a pretty decent amount even without referrals. 2Bux is in prelaunch right now and has a sale on their referral packages. I purchased a small package of 35 referrals. The price will go up on Feb 1st. They also offer a $70 bonus if all your referrals are active! It is free to join and is offering at least 20 ads a day with a $1 payout.

Possum Wars continued

When we went to feed tonight, we didn't hear anything moving
in there and I even kicked the barrel twice! Hmmmmmm, now
I'm beginning to wonder if that thing manged to escape our trap
undected this morning. I don't think it could have. I was watching the bag
almost the whole time and Erica was right in there next to it. Surely one of us
would have seen or heard it escape.
I caught myself almost opening that barrel twice tonight!! Yikes!
So used to just going in and doing the routine which is opening the
barrel to get the cat food out.

We get in the car to go home and Erica goes Ummm so I look at her
and she's pointing at the floor under my legs. O.k., like I haven't been
creeped out enough today. She's pointing at the floor going Ummm. You know
what I'm thinking! The possum got out of the bag and climbed in the car and is
under my legs. I don't know whether to get out of the car or look to see what
I'm running from. I drive a minivan. It is not designed, even though it's a minivan,
for anyone with legs longer than about 2 feet. I always feel scrunched in there.
I have on 2 layers for a coat since I still haven't found a coat. I don't move
real fast. Panic is setting in when I look down and see Kermit, our cat.
We have this one barn kitty that is super sweet and loves to jump in the car.
I didn't even see him get in but there he was under my legs. Erica almost
died laughing at me, rotten child that she is, and I kept saying that's not funny.
So we put the cat out and get home, she has to change and get ready for work.
I drive her to work and it is pea soup out there. Fog is awful! Thankfully, she works about
5 miles from home. All country, though, so the thought of a deer jumping out kept
crossing my mind. It's been warm here. Apparantly, it's been warm enough for
other nasties to come out of hiding. As I'm driving home from dropping her off,
a spider comes out from the top of the windshield and starts dropping down. Great!
I'm driving almost blind and I have to get this stupid spider! Where's the kleenex!!!!!!!! I always keep some in the car just for spider catching. O.k., so what do I watch now? Watch the spider. Watch the road. Hmmmmm, watch the spider. Spider goes back up. Whew! Found the kleenex. I'm ready now, spider!! Spider comes back out. I need to get the spider without running off the road but, making sure it's dead. Stopped the car. Nobody else around, catch the spider, grind the spider (one of the things I'm o.k. with killing) put spider in garbage and go home.

We are supposed to get another winter storm from tomorrow night through Sunday noon.
At least we had some of the old stuff melt off before getting a new layer. Another 3 to 6 they are predicting. We are supposed to travel Sunday to my sis in laws house. Guess we'll have to wait and see about that.

The Possum Wars

Another chapter in the continuing war on possums in the barn. This morning, when we came to feed the horses, I noticed that the barrel where we keep our Senior feed and cat food in was not closed. The lid was off. Hmmmm, that is not a good thing. Erica peeked inside the barrel and there were no critters, however, the feed looked funny. The feed room was a mess, things strewn about, the horse treats were open and dumped so something had been in there.

We started going about our business of feeding horses, Erica was going shopping with a friend today and was on the phone with her friend. I got Kasha started on some grain and Erica was scooping some of the "funny looking” grain out of the barrel and into the feed bag we use for garbage. It was looking full so I shook it down and put it back up against the wall. I was standing in the feed room deciding what to do next, when the bag moved! It moved again! I don’t think Erica believed me so she peeked into the bag and looked right into the face of the possum. My mind is racing. I threw something at the bag to scare it away. But, wait! We have it trapped. How do we keep it trapped? I’m not going to kill it and neither is Erica. We have to trap it in a way that it will stay trapped until tomorrow morning when my husband can deal with it. Hmmmm. I picked up a brick (we have lots of loose and stray bricks in the barn) and threw it on the bag, hoping to close the bag on it. First brick bounced off. I threw another brick and it landed right on top of the bag and closed part of the bag. No movement. I threw another brick and got the other half of the bag closed. Now we have to put the bag under or in something. I know! Let’s put the bag in the barrel. We have to dump that grain anyway. No way it can get out of there if we lock the lid on. Well, you know I'm not going to pick up that bag so I managed to convince Erica to pick up the bag and dump it in the barrel while I stand with the lid to plop on there as soon as she lets go. It worked! Now the possum is trapped in the barrel. Well, I’m 99% sure the possum is in there. I’m pretty sure she or I would have seen it run off had it gotten out of the bag.

So, now my husband has a few choices. He can take the barrel outside and let it out and shoot it. He can load the barrel in the truck, drive it several miles away and just let it go, or he can load the barrel in the truck, drive it several miles away, let it out and shoot it so that if he misses, it is not on the property. I might consider dumping it somewhere else myself but can’t think of a good place to dump it.

Heat Wave!

Another day above freezing. We are getting a little thawing and melting. Erica is going to go out on Kasha today. She doesn't want her to feel neglected. The possum was back in the barn again this morning. We seem to see it more in the mornings than in the afternoons. This one will be harder to get. It runs away quicker than the last one.

Snowy went in to get fixed today. Our humane society has a program where you can take your companion cat in for $26 and get them spayed or neutered. Helena, the scrappy little kitten is next!

I was thinking, today, as I was getting ready for the barn, that my least favorite thing about Winter is boots. They are hard to get on and off, clunky and often leak. Mine are pretty good as far as not leaking and they're warm and I'm thankful for warm boots but, they are a pain to get on and off and they're clunky.

Just five more days til Christmas. The years seem to go faster and faster.

Beautiful Day

It was a beautiful day today with a high around 30 and sunny. Erica went out riding on Cass today. Midnight got all upset and whinnied to her and ran around the pasture. Seems he's feeling much better. I think his hip is healed.

The possum is back. We got rid of one and there is another now. It was in Midnight's feed box when we came in the barn this morning.

I signed up for 2 new home businesses to go along with my main program. Virtual Profit Academy and Friend'w Win.

It's hard to believe that Christmas is almost here again already. I love Christmas. A time to celebrate the birth of my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

It's supposed to be nice all week, in the 30's but, rain Saturday and snow Sunday. We are supposed to go to my sister-in-law's house on Sunday for Christmas. I hope it doesn't snow too much!

Winter Storms

Winter may not officially be here yet, but the winter weather is. It's cold and icy. We got hit with a winter storm on Saturday right during music practice at church. So by the time we were finished the roads were pretty bad. Saturday night was also supposed to be our church Christmas party but we postponed it to Sunday after church. After the snow, which lasted a few hours, we got freezing rain and sleet and after that, we got rain. It was prety nasty out. Once all the precipitation finished, the temperatures started dropping and everything froze up. I can walk on top of the snow it's so hard. Makes for a pretty nasty pasture situation. It's pretty slick out for the horses.

More possums in the barn. My husband shot one last weekend. Was hoping that was it but, afraid more would come and more did. There was one in there yesterday eating from the cat's food tray. Guess my husband will have to go possum hunting again this weekend.

We are supposed to get more snow tomorrow. They are predicting another 2 to 4 inches.

My Berry Tree business is going well and I am making money so I'm excited about that! After all the programs I've tried online that haven't made me any money but cost money, this is exciting.

It's cold and new radio station.

It was cold yesterday morning and I did see that the temperature was only about 16 degrees so I should have known better. How long have I lived in this part of the country? *sigh* After 50+ years, you'd think I'd figure it out. Went to the barn this morning in my very thin tennis shoes and a regular pair of socks. My toes were frozen by the time I got home. Glad I didn't have to feed my friend's horses that time. We had to feed hers today, EARLY as Erica is driving her to her PT appointment. I'm ready for the barn today, though. I got my thick warm socks and I wore my rubber boots. I think that will be enough for now. Kasha and Chester were in the barn last night as it was supposed to snow. Cass and Midnight were outside and have access to shelter. When we went to feed this morning, they were both shivering. We were there about 2 hour earlier than normal because Erica was driving our friend to her PT appointment so the sun wasn’t up too far yet. They were both standing behind the barn looking for sun. We haven’t used their blankets yet this year so we were trying to remember which blanket goes with which horse. I bought the girls new blankets last year and we had to get one for Chester because he was shivering last winter. I couldn’t remember if I had bought a new blanket for Midnight or not. I found his old blanket and put that on him, we figured out which blanket belonged to Cass and the last one was for Kasha. Kasha and Chester weren’t shivering but they were inside and out of the wind. The wind was really blowing this morning and is probably why they were shivering. The windchill was about 4 or less when we got there. So, we got everybody blanketed up except Chester, he looked like he was doing o.k without one, and they had started to warm up by the time we left.

We are supposed to get a winter storm Saturday, which is, of course, our church Christmas party and music practice. :-P Supposed to get snow, rain, sleet. I told Erica we'll get sneet or slow. :-) Sounds pretty nasty. Supposed to get a total of 5" between all the various precipitations.

Also, found a neat radio station online. www.slacker.com There is a Christian station on there (couple of them) and you can make up your own station with the artists that you like. Easy to use, too. So, if you like to listen to music while you surf, check it out. There’s also rock, blues, oldies, pretty much anything you could want.

Busy, busy, busy

Busy, busy, busy as usual. Sunday was great. Good message. Pastor is doing a series on the apostles. This Sunday he talked about Peter's names. Jesus changed Simon's name as soon as he met him to Peter. After looking at all the times Peter is referenced, how and by which name, he said Simon is almost always used when Peter is doing someting from his "old self", Peter is the new self and when you see Simon Peter, look out, he's really being a knucklehead. Just like when we yell at our kids. When they hear their full name, they know they are in trouble. I had never made that connection before so it was very interesting.

My son and his girlfriend came over after church for a second Thanksgiving dinner and my friend who lost her husband recently came over too. We had a really good time. Sara, my son's girlfriend, helped me decorate for Christmas.

We have had a possum in the barn. I know they carry EPM and we needed to get rid of it. Kurt, my son, went to the barn with me last Sunday night to help put horses in as it had started raining. We saw the possum and he had his bow with him but his site was off so he missed. Put an arrow right above it's head and it didn't move. He even poked it with the handle of the shovel and it didn't move. I didn't want him to club it to death while I was there. (I'm such a wimp when it comes to stuff like this) so I keep running out of the barn as he's banging around in there and he's getting frustrated with me because I won't hold the light for him. The possum finally ran off. What a comedy of errors.

This past Saturday, I sent my husband to the barn to shoot the possum with his rifle. They saw it but it ran off before he could get it. So Sunday evening I sent him again and Kurt went along to split wood. They found the possum and, let's just say my husband doesn't have as many bullets left and I don't have a possum problem anymore. I didn't want to know any more than that! I can't stand to kill anything bigger than a fly or spider.

Yesterday I was busy in town all day. Erica and I went into town (I let her drive and so have more gray hair now) :-) tried to go to the bank, but Cindy was just going out for lunch. She is a friend from Bible study who works at the bank. We were going to open a high school checking account for Erica. So, I told her we would just go to lunch and come back. So we went to the local Chinese place and then the post office and back to the bank. By the time we got there, she already had a customer so we waited 40 minutes til he was done. Got Erica's account opened, Cindy had ordered something from Pampered Chef from me so I showed her the item from the catalog as it has been redesigned. We stopped by Family Dollar to get a gift for the upcoming church Christmas party, I needed a splitter for the Christmas lights and some ornament hooks. Got my gift, no splitter there so went next door to the hardware store. Got my splitter and, up by the cash register, they had these really cute little LED gooseneck flashlights with a laser pointer for the cats. I picked one up. When we got home, Erica stole my new light and was playing with the cats. Snickers actually had more fun than the cats and chased it all over. He's a choc lab. I took it with me to the barn (more kitties) and the horses were even going after it. Chester tried to eat it, Midnight blew at it and was following it around. Only problem is, I can't keep the light from Erica. I think she is more entertained by it than the critters! I'm having my husband pick one up for her for Christmas, if she can wait that long.

Had to help feed my friend's horses last night, too, because she had surgery on her shoulder. She has some kittens we had to clean their eyes and one isn't going to live. That's hard on Erica and I because we love kitties too.

Worked on Bible study last night for quite a while and all of today. Really need to discipline myself to do it daily like I'm supposed to. :-)

Midnight was limpy last night on his front left again. I was thinking it was probably arthritis. He has trouble with that knee off and on quite a bit. I have him on a good glucosamine supplement and it does help him a lot. It was cold and damp yesterday so wasn't too surprised. Today he looked much better. He was walking pretty good today and has his old Midnight attitude back again. When this whole hip thing started out he seemed a bit down. Quieter. He's getting back to his old self now, coming to the gate for his dinner shaking his head around and putting his ears back. I make him put his ears up (both of them) before I let him out of the gate and into the barn. Attitude is everything, Midnight!

That pretty much brings me up to date. Bible study tonight.

Winter is coming!

We have had an exceptionally warm October this year. We have become quite spoiled as far as weather goes. This week has been cooler and more like a normal fall. Tonight it's supposed to get down into the 20s. My daughter was complaining that it's cold and I reminded her that this is actually very warm for us for this time of year. 50s and 30s are pretty mild.
We had to drain the hose at the barn so it won't freeze tonight and we have to remember to plug in the tank heater so the water tank doesn't freeze and the horses (and kitties) have water to drink. The horses are getting pretty fuzzy so they are getting ready for winter too. It's windy today and cloudy. Yesterday was windy also and Cass was acting pretty squirelly. Erica ran her around the pen playing with her and I think they both had a good time.

I have been just putting the bute on Midnight's grain and then pouring extra molasses on that and mixing it in with the grain, trying to leave it near the top so he'll eat it first and it's been working so far. He seems to be doing pretty good. He's more willing to trot now and seems to be moving pretty well. I'm hoping he heals completely.

Today I'm thankful for coffee and furnaces.

How do you get your horse to take Bute?

The vet thinks that Midnight has possibly fractured the large bone that goes into the hip.  We have no idea how he did that as it's pretty unlikely that anyone kicked him.  He is supposed to be in a smaller area and off the pasture because it is uphill.  Level ground is better and the less movement and less area to run around in the better right now.

Midniht is supposed to be taking 1 gram 2 x a day now.   We have gotten through the 2 grams twice a day for 3 days and now he gets 1 gram twice a day.  We have 10 more days to go.  Sometimes I sneak up on him and just shoot it in his mouth (the paste) and sometimes I try to get him to eat the powder.   I mixed it with some chopped carrot and a  little grain and he did eat that a few times.  Then it seems like he gets wise to what I'm doing and quits eating it.   Now Erica, my daughter, mixes the Bute with just a little molasses and adds that to his grain.  That seems to be working well. 

I have also read that if you feed them a peppermint right before the Bute, they will eat the Bute but, that has not worked for me.  What is working now is mixing the bute (powder) with the molasses and mixing that into his grain.

Got any other suggestions or ideas?  I'd love to hear them.

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The Horse Jailbreak

Erica, my daughter has been sick this week so hasn't been doing chores with me in the morning.  She did go to work last night and was better this morning, still not well, but I told her to get dressed to go to the barn with me this morning so she could help out.  Plus I wanted her to get up and start moving around so she isn't sleeping all day and then she can't sleep at night.  Boy, am I glad I took her along!

 

Midnight, my horse,  is supposed to be somewhat confined because of his hip injury, so I have had him in the pen.  There is no shelter in the pen and the fence between the upper and lower pastures is down in one spot because Cass knocked it down last Spring trying to get up into the pasture.  In order to keep Minight off the hill, which is what we were trying to do, we would have to either fix the fence between pastures or block off the lane and it was supposed to rain last night, today and tonight.  My husband called a friend last night to come help him and they blocked off the lane.  I thought they did a pretty decent job considering they had no daylight to work in, limited materials and limted time.  Well, I guess it was blocked enough that Cass got really upset because she couldn't get into the pasture. 

 

This morning Erica and I drive up to the barn and we don't see horses.  I figured they knocked down the new barricade and got up into the pasture.  That would have been better than what we found, actually.  We get out of the car and the barricade is still in place, the gate to the upper pasture is still intact, but the gate by the barn where we go in and out of the pasture all the time was off it's hinges.  It was still chained on the right side but it was off it's hinges and there was Cass hair on the hinge.  No trace of the horses.  Now, on the plus side, Kasha and Chester were in the barn so there were only 2 loose instead of 4.  On the downside, this means that Midnight is off RUNNING around with an injured hip!  Not good.  So I figured I might as well go ahead and feed Kasha and Erica took a look around the property to see if she could see anyone.  Nope.  They were gone.  Of course, my mind is racing.  How long have they been gone?  What direction did they go?  Should I call the police to have them watching or see if anyone had called them in?  Are they on the road dead somewhere, hit by a car?  We have 2 major highways nearby that are travelled heavily and by semis.  I started getting stuff together to try to catch them in case we find them, halters and lead ropes and a couple of carrots.  Erica said maybe they went to Diana's, which is down the road about 1 1/2 miles or so.  Cass likes going there.  So that was our first stop and as we were driving we were formulating a plan.  If they aren't there we'll start knocking on neighbors doors with horses in case ours went to visit theirs, I would call the police, etc.  We get to Diana's and there they were.  Standing in a hay pile between two of her fences with her horses on either side (in their fences) eating away, just as happy as could be.  Didn't see any blood pouring out, they were standing, figured those were good signs. 

 

As soon as they saw us get out of the car, they took off.  Diana's place is right on a major road where the cars go fast and there are semis going through.  The very last thing we want to do is chase them out onto a road.  So, I told Erica to stop and don't chase.  We have to somehow get them to come to us.  Tried carrots.  HA!  NO WAY!!  They weren't going to fall for the old carrot trick!  So they are RUNNING around the property, in the cornfield next door (o.k. that's safer than the road).  I tried calling to them but not moving toward them.  That didn't work.  They looked at me and laughed, like you've got to be kidding, right?   I told Erica I was going to go get their grain buckets and some grain.  She said Diana had grain buckets and grain so she got them out and we started shaking the buckets with grain.  They laughed at us some more.  We tried putting a bucket on the fence and backing away.  Midnight came up to the fence, got zapped and took off.  (There is a hotwire inside the wood fence).  O.k., well that didn't work.  However, I picked up the bucket and held it and Cass, being the little Miss Piggy that she is, came over and started eating the grain.  I started petting her and Erica sneaked up with a lead rope and got her. 

 

Big sigh of relief here because Midnight had been following Cass around all morning.  We still couldn't get near him and I told her not to try.  We got a halter on Cass and I told Erica to lead her to the roundpen.  Thank God she had a roundpen (it was a recent addition this summer) and Erica walked Cass in and Midnight followed right behind!  Erica shut the gate and we had them enclosed.  Still hadn't caught Midnight to halter him and he wasn't about to let us near him. 

 

So, now we have them in an enclosed area so they are safe.  We chained her gate shut (don't trust Cass anymore) and, after some discussion, decided to go home and go to the bathroom, get ourselves some lunch, we were getting hungry, get their grain buckets and come back and feed them.  My thinking was some time and their food would help to calm them down.  Now we still had to figure out how to get them home because we don't have a trailer.  It's between 1 1/2 and 2 miles home.  Erica isn't feeling that great still.  They were both so excited I wasn't at all sure that leading them home, even toether, would be real safe and no matter how we led them, we would have to walk back to get the car.  I was pretty sure leading them one at a time wasn't a good idea.  I had thought Erica could lead while I drive along and give her a ride back for the second one but I was afraid they would be too worked up and upset about being seperated.  Erica came up with the idea of riding Cass (can't ride Midnight) and ponying Midnight. 

 

We went home, got our lunch, (pizza) cut it and took it along with us, stopped by the barn and picked up tack and grain buckets and headed on over to Diana's.  We tied Cass and put Midnight's bucket on the fence.  He was really not very interested at first.  We sat in the car and ate our pizza.  Midnight finally went over and started eating his grain.  Cass was looking much more calm and mellow now and still tied.  Midnight stopped eating so we figured we might as well go ahead and tack up Cass.  Erica went out with her brush to brush Cass  (they were both full of stickers and burrs) and I went out with a carrot to see if I could catch Midnight.  Well, he finally came over to the carrot and I managed to throw the rope around his neck.  Erica came over and helped me get his halter on him and we tied him.  She tacked up and rode Cass around the property a little bit to see how she was going to behave and when she was ready, I brought Midnight out to her.  I told her to try the ponying a litlte on the property before we headed out onto the road and I moved the car and got it ready while she was doing that.  Then we headed out.  I drove in front of them with my hazards on and watched in the mirror.  She was doing great.  A car came up behind us and was very considerate.  They were going real slow behind the horses and Erica got the horses over and off the road pretty much so the car could get around.  The road is hard on Midnight's joints so I told her to go to the other side (wrong side) and let him walk in the grass where possible.  We did that most of the way home.  I was half off the road (going wrong direction) with my hazards on and that worked pretty well.  We did have one car coming toward us that went around us slowly.  We started running out of good shoulder and were near home so went back over to our side of the road.  I think we had one more car pass us.  Once we got in the driveway, I went on ahead to get the barn door open.  I got the door open and was waiting for her to come up and was just going to go up and get Midnight when the rope somehow got wrapped around Cass's tail.  She started getting really upset.  I couldn't get Midnight from either side, he kept moving and things were escalting fast.  Erica let go of the rope but it was still wrapped around Cass's tail and she's getting  more and more upset. Erica got off of Cass and held her while I managed to get hold of Midnight's Halter and unhook him from the rope rather than trying to untangle the rope.  I led Midnight into the barn while Erica took charge of Cass and quited her down.  She had to be firm with her.  I got Midnight safely locked in his stall and came back out.  Erica was standing with Cass and she's upset with me saying well, are you going to get the rope off her?!  I said it's off.  It had fallen off on it's own, so I told her just walk out, she's fine. 

 

Put Midnight's grain in his stall and he did start eating again.  Now this is important because his 2 grams of bute are in his grain.  He needs to eat it.  Went back out and helped Erica get Cass back out into the pasture.  We chained the hinge side of the gate so that they can't do that again until my husband can figure out a more permanant fix and get it fixed.  Midnight quit eating again and wanted back out.  He had his head hung over the stall so I snuck up with the bute and shot 2 grams in his mouth.  Now he's had his bute for the morning.  Gave him a peppermint afterward and put him out in the pasture with everybody else. 

 

They are still locked down from the upper pasture and, hopefully, they will be where they belong when I go back to feed tonight.  Taking my husband along tonight so he can see what we did with the gate and see how he wants to fix it.

 

So that was our excitement for the morning and for a good long time as far as I'm concerned.  Horses seem to be no worse for the wear except that Midnight did manage to scrape his face.  Nothing serious, just scraped the hair and a little hide off.  I was amazed at how well he walked home after all the running around he had been doing.  He has a history of coming up lame in the front legs because of arthritis and had recently been pretty gimpy on the one knee.  Guess his new supplement is doing him some good!  That's good to know.  Bute probably helped him feel better which may be good or bad.  If he hadn't felt so good he may not have run off.

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Good Bye to Fritz

It's been a sad year for us. I had to put my little dog Pepper down just a few months ago and our little Pommeranian, Fritz, died this past Monday. He was 16, almost exactly 16 1/2 yr old. He couldn't see so well anymore or hear so well and he was pretty frail. I haven't been able to put weight on him for over a year. I got him for my husband 16 yrs ago for his birthday. We miss him.