New Barn Cat

Wait a minute......why is that thing back out again?

Carrie brought home a new barn cat! The coyotes seemed to have faded back and the mice needed to be brought to heel, so the timing is fine.

This is actually old news. Carrie brought home the cat when she trailered Annie and Oakie. Sonya's friend Pepper met Carrie with the kitty. Carrie threw the cat in the back of the truck and that was that.

"I don't know if she farted or pooped, but it started to smell terrible part way home!" Carrie said.

Poop. It was definitely poop.

Kitty initially went into run and hide mode.

We weren't sure if kitty was a guy or a girl at first. "I didn't look for fuzzy balls."

Kitty didn't stay in hide mode forever and we confirmed it's a she. She's incredibly friendly and under a year old. Pepper claims she's a great mouser. Carrie's taken to calling her "Happy."

Happy wants to hop up on the lap of anyone who goes into the tack room. She'll make biscuits and purr up a storm.

It's Shane's job to clean the litter out, but we've only remembered to make him do it once or twice. It takes nearly half an hour for him to do a 2 minute job, because he gets distracted playing with Happy.

It'd all be happy, but Carrie uttered words that filled my stomach with dread: "She might be pregnant."

Cats can breed before they're a year old. Happy does have a round stomach......I really hope she's not pregnant. We could ask a vet, but the cheaper option is 'wait and see.'

Carrie and Shane have both commented Happy would make a fantastic house cat.

I do NOT want a third house cat (much less a litter of them). Bucket barely manages to keep her mania in line as is.

I do want a cat that will kill mice.

Especially mice in the barn.

So far, Happy has been on tack-room detail. Carrie's a little nervous about letting her out since Lester disappeared, but we'll have to let her roam at some point.

Black Friday Barn Busting

The pole barn has come a long way from this.

It was nearly finished on Wednesday. The crew came back today for the last bits. Carrie and I had our own part in the project to get ready for our first major hay delivery.

We cut weed sheet and laid it down where the hay would go.

Carrie backed the trailer up when we were done and we unloaded pallets.

We were ready for hay by midday.

Which is when the hay arrived.

Have you ever ordered over $1,000 in hay? Now I can say I have.

Looked like fun to throw the bales off the top.

Nibs looked on in fascination.

You could tell exactly what she was thinking.

It all fit easily into the barn. There was enough help I didn't have to pitch in.

The pole barn guys finished later on in the day. Some of their quips cracked me up.

"You, know," one started, "I want to be a carpenter when I grow up."

"When I grow up!? That's what I want to be for Halloween!"

One more big project down.

We pulled in the gator and truck. The Subaru and trailer ended up as bookends.

We weren't idle as they worked. Carrie and I cleaned out the garage enough that we could park a car in it! I have to manually raise and close the door after I pull out, but I won't miss scraping frost when the weather turns colder again.

We did a lot with the horses, too. Carrie even gave me a riding lesson on Maddy!

Maddy looked like she wanted the day off!

I can still do it....somewhat. I'd like to know more so that I can help keep the horses in shape as necessary.

Carrie said I'm hard for her to teach. I felt like I took the riding seriously and was focused on what I was doing. I'm aware of how much effort it takes to train your body to do multiple things at once due to wrestling. However, that didn't stop me from some verbal joking around! I will have to tone that down some if I want future lessons. Carrie said Heidi thought I was serious when I said, "I just want to go fast!" (I didn't even realize Heidi could hear me).

Shane helped out with morning poop scooping. He got a bunch of praise and then went back inside to play Super Nintendo. I made him go out later for a property walk with Loki.

They ran up and down the fenceline to chase cars together (Spoiler alert: Loki's much faster!).

We were enjoying the weather and getting energy out when the hay arrived.

There was a tractor coming from the other way that stopped to let the hay delivery turn wide into our driveway. That's not everyday Scottsville, but it can happen!

Loki and I were outside when a UPS truck pulled up later. I pick Loki up whenever a car drives on property just in case he gets the idea into his head to go after it. I put him back down after the truck stopped.

The driver almost tripped on him. Oops.

Loki entertained the pole barn builders early on. Who ever heard of a barn dog afraid of barns? I try to take Loki with me when I do barn chores, but he runs away whenever I go inside.

Guess where he runs off to? The front yard. To pace cars.

Speaking of driving, Shane got another lesson in the arena. We dragged the gravel dust and he got to circle around!

I had one foot hovering over the break and one hand on the bottom of the steering wheel....just in case!

Thanksgiving 2019

Thursday.....Thursday was a day off. There was a lot of napping in the house. Loki found a sunbeam on the kitchen floor.

Max found her sunbeam on the kitchen table.

And Bucket.....Bucket discovered she likes to hide in our island for hours on end!

She can open the door and crawl in on her own. She'll hang out there and then make me think I'm going insane when I hear the cabinet growl at Loki as he trots by. She can let herself out, too, so......I guess I'm going to have to be careful putting the toaster away from now on.

Speak of Loki, he stunk. I tried not to do much work outside of the normal chores, but he got a bath!

Loki hasn't been feeling the best lately. He's had diarrhea for several days in a row. We tried to switch his food to help, but there was no change. Carrie put him on a fast today to restart his system.

Shane and I went on a couple of walks around the property with him. It entertained us and him! 

Loki really, really likes to chase cars. It's both funny and terrifying. I can stand along the front stretch of our property and he will try to zip and keep parallel with any car that drives by. They're always faster, so sometimes he gives himself a head start. He'll start trotting along and as the car catches up he pours on the gas!  He sprints his little heart out.

The dangers are obvious. If he were to ever try to go in the road.....

Thankfully, it's unlikely. Loki is afraid of the road and the cars. 

When he was younger, I tried to check the mail with him on the leash. He was terrified. He stood next to me tugging and shivering as I waited for a car to go by before stepping up to the road. Then he dug in his heels, slipped the collar, and ran away when the coast was clear! I had to pull him shivering out of the ditch and haven't checked the mail with him since! He has been on the leash as the school bus pulls up and he's shied away from it, too. 

So far, the fence line has been a solid boundary. If Loki looks like he's going to duck under the wood fence for any reason I scold him and he turns back.

The cars give him a great workout as he zips back and forth. When we turn the corner, Loki gets to chase Shane onto the horse jumps.

I normally have the leash on Loki whether I hold it or not. It slows him down slightly and gives me a way to catch him in a hurry.

There are downsides to letting him run dragging the leash behind, though...

Loki was tucked our by midday.

He curled up and slept beside me on the floor while we watched some Dragon Prince on Netflix.

It was largely a do-nothing day with some food. I didn't want it to be unmemorable, so Shane got his first driving lesson!

He'll get more in the future. Consider it a perk of farm-living. 

I'll eventually be able to send him out on errands in the gator, so there's something in it for me, as well!

Full Time Farmer For a Day

Our herd has grown from our 0 to 2 to 6 since opening our doors. I've learned a lot in 2 months since the first time I helped with the chores. I nearly gave Carrie a panic attack the first time I did the chores without her (intended as a pleasant surprise). I started to do them on my own while she was hurt, but now it's a joint effort. She does the thinking and I play support.

We've worked together enough that we've come up with a system.

Carrie has things written down and has labelled cups and jars for measuring each ingredient out.

As I said, she's the brains of the outfit. She has the experience to see the bigger picture and chart a course. My part isn't rocket science. It takes effort and a willingness to get dirty.

Carrie withheld food from Oakie today and used it to lure her onto the trailer. Oakie's owner hired Carrie to drive Oakie home when their Plan A fell through.

Oakie's not a fan of traveling. She was a sweatball last trip and Carrie drives her trailer grandma-slow and rock-steady when she has horses in tow. I heard Oakie rambling around a little as they went underway.

That left me to tend the farm.

Things were an uneasy status quo. Annie's low-girl on the totem pole. She wants to join the other girls, but they're both bossing her around. Nibs is still being aggressive (which I wish was a surprise), but Maddy?

I didn't think a horse could be more submissive than Maddy, but I watched her assert herself. That leaves Annie as a horse in between.

Despite Nibs' temperament toward her, Annie seems really attached. She keeps running back and coming up alongside Nibs.

The drama flared up a few times over the course of the day (Annie skidded out and hit the fence again), but things were calm most of the time. I was able to tighten the line and fix it in seconds.

I got a picture of all three ladies eating together drama-free midday.

Meanwhile, the boys are comfortable enough to lie down and nap together. 

Shane and I left to go to the library for an hour or so midday. It was his standard "I don't want to go," followed by the "Now I don't want to leave!" I bumped into someone behind the library desk I'd last seen a decade ago in today's edition of "It's a small world."

With things calm midday, I was able to catch up on a lot of writing and uploading. Carrie called a few times for addresses. She had me call a flooring company that has more pallets than they know what to do with. They sell them for a buck a piece! 

The next round of horse drama became barn work after Carrie got back. She dropped Oakie off without issue, picked up some pallets, and picked up some tools. She went into the field and Nibs ran over to say hi. 

Nibs is incredibly fond of people. Especially Carrie since she "Mama" and bottle raised her. Nibs can get jealous when other horses monopolize Carrie's time, so guess what happened when Annie came over and wanted to crowd up next to Carrie and Nibs?

Nib's kicked. She missed Annie, but nailed her stall door perfectly.  

I got a good look at the nails the builders used, because they were knocked clean out of the frame!

We couldn't risk exposed nails, so we went straight into damage control. We stalled Annie and Maddy and closed their curtains. They had fresh hay and water to keep them occupied. Then Nibs was easy to keep at bay as we removed the door.

Nibs got to wander around and ponder her newfound freedom while we worked.

We laid the door down and pulled off the boards that had separated. Then we looked at each other and said, "Screw it."

I mean that literally.

The nails slid right off, so we decided to over-engineer the door with a bunch of wood screws. We didn't have enough the right size, so Carrie scooted off the to hardware store and left me to remove the nails. 

I'm no contractor. I took a couple shop classes in middle school and Pop made sure I learned a thing or two as a kid. Basic repairs weren't too much to ask for. 

Speaking of teaching kids, though....

I went inside the house and made Shane come out to help. He got to assist hammering the nails back through, so they could be clawed out.

Carrie came back and Shane got reassigned while Carrie and I shifted the hinges. Some of the old screws were loose and needed to be re-set.

We upgraded the latch to a bolt when we hung the door. It's been on the to do list (along with 1,000 other things) and this was the perfect time!

Nibs was stalled next and then Carrie had a new project in mind. Shane got to run back inside and play Super Nintendo (We are on break!).

Carrie had me tie strips of rope onto the top of each section of polywire to make it more visible for Annie. She followed behind with a can of glow-in-the-dark spray paint. Each strip and each post got a quick coat.

"How many do you want to do? All of them?" I asked.

"All of them," Carrie said.

There were a lot of them.

If the glow-in-the-dark works well it should look really cool at night.

Carrie found one pole that was improperly grounded as she painted and checked connections. The fence tester sang and lit up a few more notches when we checked!

And that's with some jury-rigging.  I spotted where Annie snapped the line.

We learned we needed to swap out another door latch when Maddy pushed her way out to join us! She wanted scratches and shadowed Carrie everywhere she went. I let Loki out and he enjoyed romping around with the girls.

Shane came back out with me and I got a cute picture of him and Annie.

Looks idyllic doesn't it? A quick look at the original shows I cropped out some of the stinky bits!

I scooped them up after. We were a little behind from the week and Oakie's stall needed a good cleaning. I filled multiple buckets of poop over the course of the day.

The ladies were turned back out and got to enjoy the field before we brought them in for dinner and evening chores. 

Being a farmer can be a fun change of pace.....but it's also a good reminder of why I got my teaching license! 

When I was growing up, Nana would say, "Degrees let you work in the air-conditioning." I enjoyed being outside. I enjoyed problem solving to fix the door and I especially enjoyed being out of school, but I'm not quitting my day job anytime soon.