Mucking stalls

[altivo]

Put Tess out in the pasture at 3 pm, then realized I should have done it at 2. It gets dark here before 5 pm now, at least if there are clouds as there were this afternoon. I was pondering as I cleaned out stalls before putting all three horses in for the night. There's almost no way to own or be in contact with horses without dealing with poop. If you love the horse, you quickly get used to it, and learn that it isn't as unesthetic or horrible as you've been taught to believe it is. If your horse is healthy, there's not much odor to it, and generally none by the time it's a day old or dried out, whichever comes first. It's the best lawn and garden fertilizer you could possibly ask for, and the horse gives it to you for nothing. All you have to do is pick it up. ;p

At the beginning of last week, we finally got the hydrants in our barns replaced. They've been out of commission since last February, when both of them froze up and broke, forcing us to place an emergency call for the well service company to come and install a shutoff in that line, since there was none and both barn floors were oozing water that was then freezing to ice. The emergency shutoff cost $600 to install. The hydrant replacement was $848, less than I'd feared. The good news is that apart from a $500 deductible, our homeowner insurance picked up the tab. Knock me down with a feather, I wouldn't even have thought to ask them, but Gary did, and they said yes. The check arrived just 24 hours after he mailed them copies of the two bills.

We've been using a hose from the house to the barn all summer, to refill water buckets and do anything else that required water. It was inconvenient. I'd always get to the barn before realizing that I forgot to turn the valve on at the house. Sometimes I'd walk back to the house only to find that the valve was already on because it hadn't been shut off after the previous use. Fortunately, the hoses have good shut off valves on the outlet end. We took to keeping spare buckets of water filled and waiting in both barns so that there was some available without dragging the heavy hoses around. Today I twice caught myself thinking I had to refill those spare buckets, but I don't. There's running water right there in the barn again. The new frostless hydrants are Woodford valves, much better quality than the cheap ones that had been there. They have a much higher flow rate too, and a little adjusting wheel to limit that. One was wide open at the adjuster and I managed to spray myself with splashback when I turned it on. I'm glad it wasn't below freezing yet, though the temperature is hovering in the 30s now.

Now that we've had a hard frost, Asher isn't coughing any more. He's been off the medication for almost two weeks, and we have stopped soaking his hay, since we will have to stop anyway in freezing weather. That means another routine change for me, one that I almost forgot. I can hang all the hay nets up the night before, so they are ready in the morning and I'm saved about ten minutes off my morning routine when I'm here alone, as I usually am on Friday morning.

And just think, no more filling buckets in the bathtub, and carrying them dripping out of the house to put onto a sled and hault them over the snow to the barns. We got used to that routine, but I don't think either of us is going to miss it a bit.

Nanowrimo is on schedule. I'm pleased with the latest chapter, though I imagine some will find it a bit maudlin...

New chapter is here.

13444 / 50,000 (26.8%)

Comments

[captpackrat.livejournal.com]

That sounds familiar. We had to shut off water to the barn last winter while trying to track down a leak that was causing the well pump to cycle every few minutes. The well guy suspects there's a leaky pipe underground somewhere.

The barnyard was full of burdock this year (no animals, fortunately) and I wanted to spray the place down with weed killer. But to do that would require hooking 4 or 5 big hoses together from the house. Unfortunately, by the time we finally got around to buying enough hose, the weather turned cold. The ideal time to spray for weeds is in the early fall, when the plants are moving nutrients from the leaves into the roots, that way they suck the poison down into the roots and kill them. It's too late now.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Roundup will kill them at any time that the leaves are still green. Another time that they are very susceptible is in the spring, when they are just sprouting new leaves. You can destroy burdock easily then by burning, I believe.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

Eeee, puzzles! Excuse me for half an hour -- I need to overanalyse that couplet. :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*snicker*

Fennec needs to overanalyze it. You've already read enough to know what Argos was trying to say. More about that in the next, where we back up in time and see Argos writing it.

[hellmutt.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think I know - spotted one obvious thing, anyway - but that has never yet stopped me constructing elaborate theories on top of little stacks of "There must be more layers in here!" It simply means I'm interested and engaged, really.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Glad to know I've got your attention, anyway. Other than yourself and goldenstallion, the only repeated comments I've had have been on the FurRag forum.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Hooray about the pipes, the insurance and Asher :)

[altivo.livejournal.com]

But not about poop?

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Well I'm afraid I can't really hooray the poop not unless I need fertilize the garden.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Good to get that kinda basic stuff done before
it gets too cold.

As for horse poop.

Eh. *shrugs, since he deals in human poop at work*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Did you give up on the NaNo? I see you had started a word count but you haven't added to it in a while. There's still time, but you'd have to really push.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

I did give it up. I simply couldn't get on the
site! I tried and tried and tried and then came
back six hours later and still nada.

>.<

So once I got on I set it back to naught if
only so it didn't /look/ like I'd started
something and have everyone waiting for my
next installment with baited breath. XD

Not that I stopped here, just decided to
avoid the frustration of the site.

You go though!

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh. You know, you don't have to go back to the NaNo site at all except to report your results at the end. ;p No one tries to actually read stuff from there. I usually upload one excerpt and leave it at that. If you want to display what you're writing on the web, it's best to use some other place, like FurRag or even Google Docs.

The NaNo site always gets impossible the first few days of November. It's all right now. If they wouldn't use so much Flash stuff it would be better all the time, but they just don't get it.

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Alright, but you go!

^_^

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am. Just don't stand on my tail. ;p

[saythename.livejournal.com]

Sorry. *steps back and falls into the
trough*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*falls on the floor laughing, waving paffers in the air*

[saythename.livejournal.com]

*shakes the water off, gasping and sits up*

Laugh it up horse boy!

@.@

XD