There are three horses in this picture.
Abby's the one who's hard to see. She was zonked out.
All of the horses love the pastures. They want to stay out there as much as possible....and they're welcome to it!
Though I hope they won't leave too many skid marks from frolicking around.
Big animals leave big ruts when they throw on the brakes.
Everypony staying out to pasture has significantly dropped the barn work load. Instead of changing out bales of hay in both feeders twice a day (and then picking up sticks), I'm doing it once or twice a week. There's less poop to scoop, because it's all off in the fields! We'll eventually need to drag the fields, but that requires gasoline instead of manpower.
It's a nice reprieve, because I've been doing horse chores solo most days. Carrie's been out of it. Her wrist is in a brace for two weeks and she's supposed to get an MRI on her knee whenever insurance approves it. To top it off, she got her flu shot and felt sick for several days thereafter.
I'd say the workload has dropped from around 3 hours a day to 1.5-2 hours. There's more I could do like string up the Christmas lights on the girls' side, clean out behind the shed, but I don't have the energy for it. Any time saved is used for Shane, school, and the house!
While Carrie's ability to do daily chores has waned, she has taken care of some other bits of business. She took both the mower and the gator to get their yearly services.
Carrie's been trimming down her horse gear collection, too. She's driven out to Warrenton a couple of times to sell saddles and has gone through other gear. I know she gave Ellie Sam's old blankets as a Christmas gift, etc, etc.
She's used some of the money earned to buy other things like a new blanket for Maddy.
If the last saddle sells, she'll have earned enough to by an elliptical for the house (She doesn't like to run on the treadmill as much as Shane and Loki do!).
Even though there's not much for him to scoop, I still make Shane come out some mornings. I'll have him stuff hay bags or something simple to force him to get fresh air. I like it when he runs around with Loki.
I try to train him on new tasks every now and then, too. The other day I was showing him how the water heater worked.
I figure the more I can expose him to the better off he'll be in the long run. The better we'll be off, too, in case I ever get hurt or sick and need him to take over more. That's not in the plan, but an ounce of prevention can be worth a pound of cure.
Do I think Shane will want to grow up and have a farm? No.
Nana said something to Shane about getting married one day and he replied something like, "I don't think I want to get married. I might have a wife who makes me do lots of work and take care of lots of animals!"
If you remember the exact quote, Nana, I'll update that last bit!
No comments:
Post a Comment