Monday was a quiet day at the ranch. I was here alone, did the chores and worked on one of our shed/shelters that is wanting to fall down. I got a pretty good start ripping out the rotten parts of the trusses and replacing them with solid 2×6 pieces. Diego seems to have a wonderful limp so we will keep our eye on him for the next few days. Late in the afternoon, Lori came out to work with Q and then Jake came out later and worked with a few of the ponies.
Tuesday, when I got up Karen and Leah were here working on one of the sheds, doing their best to goat-proof it. Karen had the majority of the chores done when I got out there, I fed the calves, fed the baby chicks and ducks and got mash done. After that, I had to leave for the city to take my little Sophie to the Doctor. I didn’t get more than 20 minutes from home and got a message that PJ was sitting on Fin and wouldn’t get off. Good lord! The ended up getting him off with some food and put Fin in the little pen to recover from his trauma. Looks like we need to get PJ fixed, after all, apparently he doesn’t discriminate. Also while I was gone the pigs got out and into the garage and were tearing through all the feed bags when Jake got here. He got them all back in and between him and Sean, hopefully, they have the pig pen secured.
Wednesday was a busy day at the ranch. I got up and did chores, all the hoses were frozen this morning (and so it begins). I went to pick up feed and had to leave my truck running, I think it needs a new starter. After chores I did some more work on the shed, I almost have the whole rotten side of it rebuilt and am hoping to finish up tomorrow. Jake came by after school to do some training, he worked with Q and Charity. We also had a lovely family come visit us with a truckload of pumpkins. I showed them around and let them pet and hang out with the animals. I then fed pumpkins to the petting zoo, pig pen and horse pasture. I think the pigs enjoyed them the most. In the evening we got a delivery of round bales and put them all out in the pastures, hopefully, the snow stays away for a while longer.
Thursday Tamara and Tracey came out to do chores. A gentleman came out to see the horses he had surrendered a few months back, we had a good chat. I got a lot of work done on the computer. I managed to check in on all the horses that are fostered and adopted, edited some better pictures of some of the adoptable horses and updated their writeups. I got the October newsletter out and set up a new system to manage the newsletters going forward. I set up an appointment with the vet for PJ to get gelded and a couple of lameness checks. I did some reference checks for some people who are interested in adopting some horses and got the fish tank cleaned out and the fish inside for the winter. My truck went in for repair before I lose my mind with the intermittent starting problem, Jake came by late in the afternoon to give Alex and Q a ride and do some lessons with Lori.
Friday I did chores and then discovered why I never wanted to be a roofer! I got all the plywood up on the shelter I’m rebuilding, what a lot of hard work! My butt hurts, my back hurts and my legs hurt! Muscles I didn’t even know I had are aching lol but I am getting it done. I took a break at lunch when my hubs picked me up to go pick up my truck! YAY!!! It was only $150 for repair so that’s awesome. Then back to work on the shed. That’s about all that got done today. I did put the hose in the pump house to thaw out but will have to work on putting in the trough heaters tomorrow.
Saturday I was up early as we had a volunteer orientation day. Heather, Jessica and her son (who I am totally going to mess up his name if I even try) came over. We started with a tour and then I proceeded to show them how to do chores. After orientation, I went and got all the trough heaters out and ran chords to them all. I can no longer deny that winter is here. I also gathered up all the hoses and some of the items that were still in the yard, there is never a shortage of work around here. We then had a load of pumpkins dropped off for the animals, they absolutely love them. I was supposed to go get 50 bales of hay today but had to postpone for another day.
Sunday was a busy day at the ranch, got chores done and tried to figure out water problems, every year we have to strategically figure out trough heaters. Robyn came around noon to get some hooves trimmed up. Jake and I left shortly around one to do a dump run and to go to Brunkild to pick up Nyx as her foster has had a bit of a setback. She is back with us for now, we are crossing our fingers and hoping she is able to adopt her in a few months. While we were in the area we stopped to see Atlas, Dove and Hope. They are being so well-cared for, which is great to see. Over the weekend we got updates on many of the horses that are adopted and fostered out. We love updates! I will be sharing them over the next week or two.
