December Blahs

Blergh I am mired deeply in the December blahs, despite the fact that I actually am fitting in some dressage schools in prep for resuming regular lessons (BARN OPEN HOUSE IS TODAY WHEEEEEEE and they're moving in horses this weekend, so hopefully I can get back to lessons the weekend after!). Work stuff is sort of manic / up in the air (some interesting but definitely not concrete opportunities might be happening and I also got accepted into my state's very prestigious leadership academy/awarded a stipend for professional development), so that's taking up a lot of bandwidth, as is prepping for the holidays (aka helping DH distill the moonshine we give away for Christmas lol). At any rate. Ruby and I are getting back in a groove. Cinna is currently fat as a tick and living unblanketed trying to burn some calories until I have time to add her back into my riding rotation 🙈 it's the time of year where weekend rides can happen in daylight but weekday rides start around sunset and end in the full dark, and I am counting down days until the solstice. Sigh. At least I have lights!

Ruby is a dust monster 

New phone camera is 👌👌👌

DH got a tire machine and installing it in the garage kicked the treadmill out, so we squished it in the laundry room with a TV and #sweatflix is gonna be a thing this winter, I've already used it more this week than in the last month haha. Trying to get that ankle weight back off! Still down probably 15 lbs over where I was this time last year but I want to get back to the 25 lbs down so my beautiful teal boots zip up easily 🙃

Also splurged on some new camera equipment with the long term goal of hopefully having it help offset my show expenses - it's like they say, without kids, your 30s are like your 20s but with money 🤪 (and back pain 🤣)

Anyway. I hope the holidays are treating you well and I'm trying to get my new phone to play nice with Google/blogger again so I can comment on blogs! 

Trail Adventures: Moon Loop

The weather over Thanksgiving weekend wasn't quite as lovely as Black Friday - rain was in the forecast for Saturday, and Sunday looked like it was going to be a total wash. There was some chatter in our trail group about timing, but most of the group ended up with commitments on Saturday morning, which looked like the better time frame to ride. Thankfully we don't mind small groups, so I headed out out to pick up one of the other ladies Saturday morning and we had a great time!

We went to the Moon Loop, a trail in Mark Twain National Forest. I hadn't been there before, but luckily the other rider had and was able to neatly navigate us to a (thankfully empty) parking lot and we set off. I would not want to attempt the parking lot if there was anyone else in it (I ended up needing to pull in, pull out onto the road, then sort of back into a slot), but we lucked out that it was empty. We got tacked quickly (bless her for tossing my saddle up, since that was still a bit of a struggle with my incisions), and headed off into the woods!

My experience with another Mark Twain trail (Dry Fork) was that it tended to be rocky and not well marked, but I was pleasantly surprised that the Moon Loop was the complete opposite! Minus some rocky creek areas (to be expected in our geological climate lol), it had lovely footing and the trail was easy to follow! We did around 7 miles, swapping the horses back and forth to lead, and running into one friendly cyclist who stepped off the trail to let us pass (then ran into us in the parking lot on the way out and wanted to talk our ears off lol).

Since it was just the two of us, we were efficient about both pick-up and drop-off, and I had her back home and then got back home myself with plenty of time to accomplish other things - the perfect day! I can't believe I hadn't heard of/been to that trail before, what a hidden gem! Although again, parking is probably an absolute nightmare if it's not empty (similar to Shooting Star). Would be much easier if I borrowed my mom's smaller rig!

These hooligans felt it necessary to supervise me unloading the trailer lol. 

Trail Adventures: Black Friday

As expected, last week was super quiet between my surgery Monday and the holiday, but I was feeling up to venturing out a bit by Friday, hallelujah! Most of my trail friends were working so DH and I just hauled to the Katy for a quick 5.5 miles in the sunshine - it was also the inaugural voyage of the trailer with all the cabinetry and appliances installed, and in tickled that nothing moved an inch and it hauled great!

Blogger has eaten the majority of my photos like four times so I give up, they're generally pretty boring between the ears shots lol. 

Sporting an awesome new hackamore from Stacie!

Horse Trailer Conversion: Sink Edition

Sorry not sorry to be coming to the end of these posts! I think the last step (pun fully intended) will be to build a little step cabinet to tuck the camping toilet in, but for now, with the sink pretty functional it's ready to go! 

We went back and forth on countertop materials all week but finally decided on a slab of butcher block. 

It was expensive so we cut a guide our of plywood and then insulation just to make sure we had the measurements right. 

Voila!

I HATE STAINING 

This stain in particular was really shitty to work with. 

We had to run to town to grab something and I fell in love with these hooks 🤩

Getting everything installed so we could also finish trim. 

Room out in the side for my contacts and toiletries and whatnot 

This is an example of what the sink will function like. One (full) water jug will be the clean water, dispensed through the rechargeable faucet. It will drain into an empty jug for the gray water. 

Enjoy a quick video tour! DH is gone most of this week at a work conference, and I'm prepping stuff for my surgery next week, so things will probably be pretty quiet through the end of the year around here - although I'm hoping to resume lessons in December if the weather cooperates! 

Horse Trailer Conversion: WOW!!

Oh my god you guys it's like.... Almost done???? The sink and a step is basically all that's left! But I'm getting ahead of myself. It was a fulllllllll weekend of work in the trailer but DAMN Y'ALL ITS LOOKING GOOD!

Cutting paneling for the gooseneck. The windows went wayyyy easier than we thought because I kept all the old window hardware and we could use it as a stencil - packrat tendencies ftw lol

I wanted a cute teal microwave but they were $70, and someone gave me this for free. It was sort of ugly, so I painted it. I figured it couldn't get any uglier 🤣

Voila! Perfect fit.

Those little between panel trim pieces are THE ACTUAL WORST ugh. Thankfully we didn't have too many!

It was an extra good thing I saved the old window hardware because we ended up using them to trim out the panels and make things look more finished 

This piece of paneling is hidden by the appliances but DH still tried to get it to match up. Close 🤣

I did not make this one line up - oops!

My original gray spray paint was gummed up so I found this from the tack shed reno - it's "hammered" so sort of textured? Dunno, it's better than the color it was before haha

Vent for the a/c

Building the appliance cabinet

I wasn't really seeing his "vision" but as always I just trust the process and it usually works out haha

It was starting to make a little more sense by this point 

There we go

It looked better before we wrestled it in and out of the cabinet 6 times and dinged up the finish 🤣 oh well. Free is free. 

I bought this fabric at least A DECADE ago and used little clips to make makeshift coolers out of it at the barn I used to board at. I repurposed some for this project......

I stained the cabinet Saturday night so it could dry and be installed Sunday. I HATE STAINING. 

A perfect fit! (Should have bought a Powerball ticket lol)

Bolting it into the wall (and floor) so nothing falls during transport 

DH realizing after we got it all bolted in that he forgot to cut a hole for the a/c cord 🤣🤣

Those boards are wrapped in the fleece and slide in and out of little holders to keep all the appliances stable in transport but still easy to access when we're parked! 

More fucking staining 🫠🫠🫠

Man this was a good feeling!!!

Next project was the corner sink 

We had to run to town for supplies and I found this clearance bed set that perfectly matches the colors in that fleece, so I changed my design colors mid project 🤣🤣 (originally I was going to use a bedset someone gave me for free that was a smidge darker blue)

Starting to look finished!

Door trim was stained to match the cabinet

But I opted for white trim in the nose (mostly because I was fucking tired of staining)

Curtain rods installed (curtains on the way!)

This poor bed in a box finally got to unroll. It's the same brand as our spare bedroom bed (that gets rave reviews), but it's like half the depth - mostly because I only have 36" up there and didn't want it to be 1/3 bed! We'll see how that goes. 

Framing out the sink cabinet 

Slapped a piece of paneling on the right side, the left side will have a cedar door, and the top will be cedar (with a vessel sink). Water will be two of those five gallon jugs (one for fresh water, one for grey water) and a rechargeable faucet.

Whew! It was one of those weekends I didn't mind going back to work because it was easier than my weekend 🤣 the remaining supplies are being shipped as we speak so DH might slap the sink together this weekend, we'll see. I also need to figure out the step situation, some small cabinets to hold supplies, and I want to hang some rods on the left side of the appliance cabinet so I can tuck clothes in there like a tiny makeshift closet.... But it's almost road ready!