WW: Neverending Farm Projects

I cannot even express the level of irritation I have with new blogger inserting all of my photos BACKWARDS but I also don't have time to sit here and fuck with it, so here is a chronologically backwards post of the latest farm project. 

Cruce, enjoying his new yard. New yard? Why yes!

New view pulling up the driveway. Peep that nice cedar privacy panel between the house and storm shelter. Cedar porch, cedar fence, cedar garage doors. It makes me happy. 

Love it. 

My contribution to this project was limited to staining the backside (since DH took Monday off work to do it and I had meetings all day, and then I wanted to enjoy the lovely weather and ride!)

Staining the front side. 

Mid-construction. 

Over the weekend, we also put up a new chain link fence for the rest of the back yard. 

It was replacing a truly sketchy "temp fence" situation we slapped up in October 2019 so we could move into the house, and then just.... never got around to updating. 

To be fair, the original goal was to put it in last spring but we got sidetracked with the garage construction and then oh yeah, global fucking pandemic. 

The chickens coming to see what's going on. 

Stretching it was the worse part, but the neighbor brought his ATV with a winch over and after that it went super quick!

We'd never put up chain link before, but it wasn't too bad actually. 

I did not help dig the holes. 

But I did yank out all the old t-posts from the temp fence. Last week involved about 80% more t-post pulling by hand than I expected, lol. At least the ground was soft so it wasn't that hard!

DH using the fake snow I bought to make a Christmas wreath last year to mark post holes, lol. Nothing ever goes to waste around here.... 

The temp fence was impossible to weedeat so the grass was grown horribly through it, which made it both unsightly and hard to yank out when we were ready. 

You can see the temp fence on the inside. It was a combination of cattle panel (to keep the big dogs in) with interior tightly woven wire (to keep the little dogs in). 

Since I wasn't much help digging the holes, I went down and gave the flagpole planter a refresh. DH brought me home those clearance tulips last week (apparently not realizing that one on the right looked on death's door). Hopefully the bulbs bounce back even if the flowers are dead for this year lol. 

Barn kitties supervising chores. 

More random octopus things from my anonymous friend. You're killing me. Reveal yourself plz. Lol. 

At any rate, the weather has actually been slightly cooperative lately so plenty of riding going on! I really planned to haul out last weekend but then DH woke up Saturday and was like "FENCE" so alas, I did not. Maybe this weekend :)

WW: Getting By

 

All out of order again. FUCKING NEW BLOGGER UGH. 

Cici has been in and out of the vet's office for the last week. She went in last Monday for bloodwork to check her thyroid (photo at the bottom of the post I guess) and also to check out a limp she developed over the weekend before the appointment. 

She's still a little ouchy even with drugs on board so trying to balance cage rest (which she despises) and letting her out but limiting her activity. The thyroid meds are working (a little TOO well, we had to back her dose down) and her head tilt is barely noticeable anymore. However she still has some neuro symptoms, including a weird ear twitch. The working hypothesis right now after a very long visit last Saturday with lots of tests (and where the vet finally said "this isn't a dog, this is a cat, I'm sorry" haha) is that the facial muscle that was paralyzed (from the thyroid issues) is waking back up, and probably uncomfortable -- think pins and needles in your foot when it falls asleep. She's on gabapentin, and that seems to be helping A LOT, but obviously it's not a long-term solution. I'm supposed to start weaning her down off the max dose today, we'll see how it goes :-/

Shitty spring storms yesterday brought beautiful rainbows, so I can't even be mad. 

I love our little piece of dirt. 

Dogs still have it "ruff", obviously. 

The gabapentin makes her tired a lot, so she's a lot more amenable to sleeping in her crate right behind my chair. Bonus is I get to hear her little sleep barks and growls and ITS TOOOOOO CUTE. 

DH and I spent Monday night ripping out goat fence (yassssss) and refencing some of the horse areas, including shrinking down the size of our front dry lot (which was originally fenced as a grass pasture and way too big to be a sacrifice area). Cinna was NOT AMUSED. I'm amused at how downhill she's standing lol. 

There's something so eminently satisfying about pulling t-posts out by hand lol (which I can only do when the ground is super soft, like it is now, but I still enjoy it). 

Ruby couldn't figure out why we weren't riding. Sorry Rubes, sometimes farm maintenance comes first. 

Of the SIX trees I planted last spring, this appears to be the only one that lived. Sigh. Will try again this year I guess. 

We had a really nice sunny day Monday and Hayden took full advantage of the sunbathing opportunity. 

It's hummingbird time! I officially have too many bird feeders lol. 

Did sneak in some good riding over the weekend though!

Peep that freshly dragged arena. HEART EYES. 

DH rang in the first day of spring with his favorite type of horsepower, lol. Finally an upgrade over that shitty riding lawnmower he got for free 5+ years ago and has been limping along on a hope and a prayer every since haha. 

Weather was pretty garbage last week and we had one day cold enough for what I hope is the last fire of the season! The noodles approved. 

I have a truly shocking number of finches that come to my four finch socks lol. 

Someone sent me this anonymous octopus and he stares at me from my desk daily. 

Like two days after reading Jen's post about Vitalyze Alimend and musing that I didn't think I needed any but it was nice to know about, Ruby FREAKED for no reason when my farrier was out and almost broke the crossties, for the second visit in a row. Her lifestyle should make her a low risk for ulcers (food available 24/7, she only gets a small amount of ration balancer, minimal stress), I can't pinpoint any other changes her routine that would make her so spastic in the crossties, so when I got a FB ad for Gut-X (same active ingredients as VA) being on super sale, I picked up a gallon just to see if that could be the issue. She doesn't seem substantially different to me since starting the loading dose, but she's typically pretty chill (except randomly when she isn't, ha), so I guess we'll see if I notice anything different at her next trim appointment. Worse case scenario, I set $100 on fire. I've done that for dumber reasons, so I'm not worried about it. 

Oh look, the photo that was supposed to be first and wasn't. Sigh. Cici at our first of several vet visits this month. 

Pretty boring around here lately, but I'm trying to stay in the habit of writing SOMETHING, so you get these dumb WW (but not really) posts haha. 

WW: A Bright Spot in a Dreary Week

 

One down, one to go!

Trigger Hoof Update

Trigger's hoof is continuing to heal at an absolutely glacial pace, haha. Logically I know how long it takes for hoof to grow out, but mentally I am still struggling with how slow it is, ugh. I was going back and forth all week about calling the vet to come look at it again, but I had a farrier appointment scheduled for yesterday so I figured I'd pick my farrier's brain about it a bit and then bring in the vets if necessary after. My biggest question was WHEN CAN I TURN THIS MF-ER OUT AGAIN WITH NO HOOF WRAP, because trying to keep a wrap dry in Missouri in March is... not possible. Particularly as we headed into five straight days of rain where they were calling for between 4-6" total for our area. 

At least it's making the grass green? Which was a reminder to order new breakaway halters for the girls so I can get their muzzles set up for the year. 

Random hoof photos from the last six weeks, because new Blogger won't insert them in the order I select anyway (HATE) and they all look sort of the same so it's not like I can organize them just by looking, lol. 

The bat cave

The durasole makes it all look so... purple... haha. 

THIS GIVES ME ANXIETY UGH

I did ask my farrier if he'd ever used Keratex hoof putty, since that was an option suggested to me by a friend as a way to seal up the hole and keep mud out of it that was way less labor intensive than the constant duct tape boots. He didn't seem impressed with the idea, but offered an alternative option if I wanted more worry-free turnout (although let's be real, I'm ALWAYS going to worry. It's what I do. Neurotic is my middle name). 

Me, internally: wait wait WHAT ARE YOU DOING JESUS CHRIST
My farrier, knowing me well enough to know when I'm freaking out: Do you trust me?
Me: I DON'T KNOW PROBABLY 
😂

He resected a portion of the exterior hoof wall (that was already cracked, crumbly, and generally just really shitty)

He was very careful to leave all the live sole alone while clearly showing me that the original injury had grown out and all the garbage-y looking bits were just dead pieces. 

Kind of a neat angle. That dark section is the only sort of crevice left, but gravity will keep stuff from collecting in there, and every night when Trigger comes in I'll dunk his foot in a bucket of chlorahex water and then use compressed air to blow any debris out of there. 

Voila. A horse that can be turned out again with no boot. 

Of course, while I was waiting for the farrier to show up, I had already made a duct tape boot, so I went ahead and threw it on him (because let's be real, I can't undo all my neurotic tendencies overnight lol), but instead of my normal 5-layer concoction, I just did the duct tape, a little vet wrap, and a little more duct tape protection at the toe. Baby steps. Once I cut that one off I'll try really hard to let him go out naked #progress

Trigger didn't show a single sign of discomfort during the trim, and then all the poking and prodding we did at his feet afterwards, and he cantered off sound as a dollar when I turned him out, so I think we can all agree that I need to calm down... haha. It was also interesting to note that of all the horses, that hoof had the single most growth of any of the feet. I should have taken a comparison photo of the trimmed off piece! So. Fingers crossed that we are in the last stage of this saga and that Trigger might even be able to resume the occasional trail ride this summer once that section grows back in :)