Make My Horse Life Easier Tip #6 A Sports Sled

 A few years ago, DH bought me (at my repeatedly dropped hints) a sports sled for Christmas.  The long, wide, flat bottomed type with sidewalls on it that is loved by ice fishers and hunters for carrying gear, game, and what-have-you over ice, snow or also bare ground.

I wanted one for helping with homesteading chores.  At the time, that meant toting the chicken waterer from the coop to the basement at night to thaw, and then back from the basement to the coop the next morning so the chickens would have water to drink all day.  Much easier to sled it than try to carry it by hand over icy ground, through knee deep snowdrifts and whatever else the winter weather threw at me.

But I was also looking ahead to the future, when I would finally have horses at home.  Because one of those big heavy duty sleds is perfect for taking a bale of hay from the barn, out to the pastures for horse lunch time.

That is what I'm loving it for currently: carrying hay into the pastures so I don't have to tote flakes by hand and deal with wind, gate latches, and questionable footing while trying not to drop my stack of hay flakes or get chaff in my eyes.  Just toss the appropriate amount of hay into the sled, sled it through the pasture gates, and disperse the applicable number of flakes into each pasture.  So easy.

It also comes in handy for toting water buckets to and from the pastures daily when the weather is too cold to maintain liquid water in the troughs, and is what I used last winter to take frozen water buckets from the barn to the basement for thawing.  Thankfully I now have a heated tack room to stow those icy buckets in as needed.

As an added bonus, if DH and I get a wild hair and want to do some high speed sledding, either of us can fit comfortably in the sled while the other pulls it around with the 4-wheeler.  Although it doesn't take corners well at high speed.  Ask me how I know. 😂

A Bowl Cozy For Me

 Several years ago (2018, apparently, post here), I made microwavable potholders, or bowl cozies as they are more commonly called these days, for all my kids and their spouses/significant others.  At the time, I intended to someday make one for myself as well, but wasn't in a huge hurry.

Fast forward more than seven years.  Sometimes that's how it feels, like seven years rushed by in the blink of an eye.  I finally sat down and made that bowl cozy for me.  

While looking through my fabric stash for other things in December, including fabric to make a reading pillow for Sixlet with, I ran across a piece of fabric with horses on it.  Which reminded me that a) I still hadn't made myself a bowl cozy, and b) I still wanted one and here was the perfect fabric for it.

A little over a week ago, I decided I needed to sew up my long-awaited bowl cozy. I'd like to say I sat down and whipped one out right then. They are really quick to make, less than an hour start to finish if you know how to sew a little and how to read directions.

 But I didn't.  I actually spent about 10 minutes each day over about 5 days working on it here and there when I felt I had a minute free to do so.  

One day was picking the second fabric, that I used for the inside, as well as hunting down my piece of Wrap N Zap that had been stored since 2018.  Another day was ironing the fabrics, then cutting the four pieces--one of each fabric and two of Wrap N Zap-- needed.  A third day was marking the sewing lines and pinning the Wrap N Zap to the fabrics.  Half of the actual sewing got done on a fourth day, and on a fifth day I finished the sewing.

Ta-Da!  

I now have a bowl cozy to call my own.  Now I can quit burning my fingertips when trying to carefully remove a hot glass dish of leftovers from the microwave onto a hot pad so I can carry it to the table and eat my lunch,

Horses on the outside

Complimenting gray fabric,

 with brownish and cranberry colored vine-y motif, on the inside.

A bowl cozy for me. Life is good!

A Couple of Fave Christmas Gifts

 This is just a quick post to talk about two of my favorite Christmas gifts I received.  I didn't get a whole lot of gifts, and while I do appreciate candy (especially chocolate covered cherries and Ghirardelli caramel chocolate squares), these two presents touched my heart the most.  Not to mention they will be useful for a long time.

Gift #1, from DD2, is a refillable soap dispenser for the sink in my tack room.  I had told her in November that now that I had an operable sink in the barn, I was in need of a plastic (ie, won't shatter into a million sharp shards if it hits the concrete floor) soap dispenser so I could wash my hands with soap when needed.  

This one, I believe, she purchased off of Etsy, and the saying on it is perfect given all the 'icky' things you touch when working in a barn.

You know what you touched.

WASH YOUR HANDS

Gift #2 from Faline, Buck and Sixlet (which means, really from DD1);  a set of loop ear plugs.  Because I  cannot seem to wear normal ear plugs, or ear buds.  They don't fit my ears and are either extremely uncomfortable or just plain fall out and won't stay in my ears if I move in the slightest (including breathing). And DH snores frequently.  So DD1, who had tried a pair of these for herself, bought me a set with different sizes to see if they would work for me.

Mine are the mint color, and when I tried them on, I found, as I suspected, I wear a small.  Which I'm under the impression is typically a size for a child, not an adult.  (And probably why in the past decade and a half I hadn't found ear plugs that fit me). They are comfortable, squishy yet retain their shape when not in my ears, and fit well.  I can sleep in them no problem.

Do they block out DH's snores?  The quieter ones, yes.  The medium ones (he has a wide range of snores at varying rhythms and decibels), they muffle enough I can get back to sleep.  The really loud ones, no, I still have to change rooms and beds.  But not having to change bedrooms in the wee hours the majority of the nights of the week is a huge win and cuts way down on my sleep loss.

Nightgowns and Sweaters

 Remember back in June when I took a trip to Shipshewana with DD2, DD1, K3 and Faline?  When I posted about that, I mentioned that Faline had requested a new flannel nightgown because she had outgrown the one I made her a couple years ago, so while on that trip I had Faline and K3 pick out fabric from Lolly's for new nightgowns.

My intention had been to sew them over the summer, or early fall, and have them ready for the girls to wear when the weather turned cold.  Intention did not equal reality, and I did many other things this summer and fall while the fabric sat, washed and waiting for me to work with it.  I would forget about it for weeks, then see it sitting in the sewing area and feelings of guilt for not doing anything with it would nag at me for a few more weeks.  More things would come up and the cycle would repeat.

Finally, in December, I decided I was going to sew those nightgowns, and they would be Christmas presents.  I figured the granddaughters had forgotten about the fabric (and my good intentions) by now, and would be surprised to unwrap a custom made nightgown in their chosen fabric. Plus, DH and I had absolutely zero Christmas presents made/purchased.  So this would kill two birds with one stone (or, on my mental list, turn two failures into achievements.)

Really, once I blocked out time to make the nightgowns, they didn't take long at all.  Why had I let so many other things delay working on them this summer?  I sorta know, but that's a topic for another post in the future, maybe (as in, maybe I'll share, maybe I won't; still thinking on that as I don't have answers to the issues).

Anyway, here is the nightgown made with Faline's fabric, in a child size 8 (according to her measurements and the sizing on a 20+ year old pattern from when my own kids were little).  She's stocky and tall for her age (5), but not as tall as an 8 year old yet, so I whacked about 2" off the bottom of the nightgown to make it ankle length but left the sleeve length the same.  The sleeves are a tad long for her now but we all know she'll grow a bunch and I'm wanting her to get two winters out of this nightgown,

And this is K3's, made in an adult small from another 20+ year old pattern for unisex nightshirts.

In late November, when I finished knitting my 2025 socks (so named because they were the only pair of socks I knit last year), I decided to cast on a new Sunday Sweater for Faline.  I had made her one for her birthday the year before (can see photo of it in progress in this post), but she'd pretty much grown out of it all ready.  Which meant that by this coming Spring she would be asking me for a new, bigger one, because she loves that her Amma makes her stuff (even if she doesn't yet understand how time consuming those handmades are).  So, why not knit a new one and use it as a Christmas gift?

This time I used a pale pink yarn, (Brava worsted in Blush from KnitPicks).  That sweater knit up pretty quickly in the evenings, and it was off the needles on December 14th.   Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture before wrapping and gifting it. 

Being that our family Christmas with kids and grandkids was scheduled for the 27th, and I was feeling my knitting mojo running high on the 14th, after casting off Faline's sweater I immediately grabbed yarn (Brava sport in Cotton Candy) and cast on a size 6-12 month Viola sweater for Octavia. I figured I could get such a small baby-sized sweater knit in 12 days and would use that as a Christmas gift also.

And then, of course, lots of things came up to keep me from having as much knitting time as I had thought I would have.  Which made me stress out and worry that maybe I was going to have to run to the store last minute and buy another gift for Octavia (DH wanted each grandkid to open 3 gifts from us.  3 X 10 grandkids. . .  I think the man is delusional. . . )

I did it! I was able to get Octavia's sweater finished, but just barely. This photo was taken early on the morning of the 27th, when I unpinned it from being blocked and then quickly boxed and wrapped it for our family gift giving later that day.

Phew!

You'd think after stressing about that little sweater--and spending hours knitting on Christmas Day (which was just DH and I) to get most of it finished--that I would be burned out on knitting for a while.

I'm not.  Winter means long hours of being in the house in the dark of the evening.  Hours where DH sits in front of the TV and we don't work on projects together.  I find it impossible to sit for long if I'm not either reading (which is increasingly difficult to concentrate on with the volume DH has the TV at) or doing something--such as knitting--with my hands.  So I have been working on a new sweater, a Little Hipster Cardigan in size 18 months, for Lucky. I am using Brava worsted in Fig.  It will be a present for his first birthday at the end of this month.

Here I Am, in 2026

 Hello Dear Readers.  I hadn't intended to take such a long break in blogging over the holidays, but it was rather more busy (and mentally difficult--I don't do well with lots of group events or schedule changes/demands that I be extremely flexible with my plans) than I had anticipated.  Since I don't blog via my phone, and I really had very limited access to the computer the last week or two of December, I found myself in radio silence until now.

Fear not!  All is well.  Maybe not totally relaxed and joyful into the brand new year (the brain/nervous system is still trying to reset), but here and hopefully blogging again regularly.  There's been lots and lots of family/grandkid time recently, so here's a few gratis pictures of DH pulling Faline, Buck and Sixlet on a sled behind the 4-wheeler to accompany this really non-themed post.

Our weather was cold and snowy in early December, prompting many people (who apparently don't pay attention to weather patterns year after year) to declare "We're definitely going to have a white Christmas this year!"

The weather warmed up the third week, even getting into the fifties for two days.  All the snow melted. As it typically does if we've had accumulated snow early in the month. On the 20th, it looked like this outside:

Those white spots were the remnants of the deepest drifted spots/shaded spots from earlier in the month.  Otherwise, things were bare and even a little green.

Christmas Day was green, not white.  On the 26th, the weather cooled off again, enough to have freezing rain and a fairly thick coating of ice.  So that day was grey.

But then it warmed back up, the grass got greener and we had all day rain the 28th.  Water was running everywhere, including through the new culvert we'd put in under the driveway and ramp area between the house and the barnyard back in 2024.

We ended up with a several acre 'pond' in the field for a couple of days until the winds picked up and helped evaporate off what hadn't yet soaked in.  On the 31st, the cold air returned, along with lots of high wind and blowing snow (and a 7-8 hour power outage). 

On the first, it was again white outside, as you saw in the pictures at the beginning of this post. Not a white Christmas, but a white New Year.  Today we're having off and on light snow showers.  

If you've made it through my whole fairly boring post here, Happy New Year!  Thanks for joining me at this little place here.  I'm hoping to have some meatier and possibly thought-provoking posts soon.

Weekend of Trees

 Last weekend, the theme for DH seemed to be cutting down trees.  On Saturday, he decided it was time (more like he had finally gotten enough more pressing tasks crossed off his to do list) to cut down two standing dead trees in the north fence line.  The removal of those trees had actually been originally slated for last winter, but it wasn't urgent and he never got to them.  

Now, however, it still wasn't urgent, except for the fact that he didn't get a whole lot of wood split and stacked near the boiler for this winter's heating.  Since those trees had been dead going on two years they were nice and cured now and could be put into the wood boiler for heat.  So, he grabbed his chainsaw and the tractor and made short work of cutting down those trees and hauling them up to the vicinity of the wood boiler while I was cleaning stalls.

Some of the larger pieces will need to be split before he can fit them through the door of the wood boiler, but most of the wood just needed to be cut to length, which he did later that day.

The next day after lunch, we headed out despite the cold snowy weather and brutal wind, to a local tree farm owned by a family we know and cut down a small spruce to use for our Christmas tree.  It was kind of a now or never thing, as it was the last day this tree farm was going to be open for the season (same with several other tree farms in a 30 mile radius of this little place here), and we knew we didn't want to get a pre-cut and wrapped-tightly-before-shipping to a box store/commercial tree lot tree.  

Buying a tree this year was something that actually took a conscious decision and a bit of discussion between the two of us.  Last year, DH cut a 'wild' one from the family cabin up north near where Mother-in-Law lives.  It was 'free' if you didn't count the cost of gas to drive there and back, which he didn't since he'd been planning to go visit his mom anyway.  The two years before that, we'd cut a spruce each year from a clump of three we'd planted in the early 2000s that needed thinning now that they were 10-ish feet tall.  So, free Christmas tree those two years also.  The thought of paying $70 or more for a tree this year kinda stuck in our throats.

What we both agreed we weren't ready to do, was have a fake tree.  In terms of financials, it made sense to invest in an artificial tree now that we'd use for at least ten years.  It definitely would be cheaper than paying year after year after year for a live one.  In terms of personal aesthetics though, neither of us want an artificial tree.  We agreed we'd rather forego one in the house and just put lights and ornaments on one of the spruces lining the backyard than have a fake tree.

Anyway, we went to the tree farm owned by a family we know (where DS2 had spent a couple of days one summer in high school planting trees with his good friend and soccer teammate).  I told them were looking for a "not tall, not bushy tree that we can fit 20 people into the same room as" for our Christmas tree.  The patriarch of the family pointed us to a couple specific plots where the remaining trees had some deer damage and told us to pick out any one of those and cut it off as high up as we needed in order to make it the height we wanted.

I love that they don't try to upsell us a tree that we will take home and need to cut several feet off plus prune the branches back to make it skinny enough to fit a corner of my living room.  They immediately offered trees that would be overlooked by the person with the "must be magazine perfect" mindset, which was a win for us both.  They made a little cash off a tree that would otherwise be considered undesirable (and therefore unsaleable)  by most, and we got to take home a tree that was only as tall as we needed.

At home, DH popped it into our Christmas tree stand, then we set it on top of a wooden folding table we have, and I decorated it.  Festive, yet still lots of room for presents underneath; plus, unless you count the toybox that normally sits in that corner, no furniture needed to be moved in order to make room for the tree.  Exactly what we'd been looking for in our Christmas tree.

Such a Simple Thing

 But it made me tear up.

You see, at church on Sunday, Two-EEs handed me an envelope.  Being December, I instinctively recognized it as a Christmas card before even opening it.  And, when I did open the envelope, there was a Christmas card inside.

And inside the Christmas card was a family photograph of DS1, Two-EEs, Cowgirl, K3, Toad, Rascal, Tractor and Octavia.  That's when my eyes teared up and I almost cried right there in church.  (Being as I'm historically not a public cryer, I sucked it up, but it wasn't easy.)

You see, I've never gotten a Christmas card from DS1's household before.  And not a family picture either.  Never.  He became a 'household' in 2012 when K3 was born and he added her and K2 to himself, making him now an offshoot family unit to my nuclear household.  Prior to that, he was still included in my Christmas card signatures even though, like DS2 at the time, he was living away and not under my roof.

But that household never gave out Christmas cards.  Never took family photos, let alone gave them to others.  And I didn't see it or know it at the time, but that was because of how chaotic and unpredictable and just plain dysfunctional that household was.  K2 was huge into decorating for Christmas.  Inside, and outside.  The blow up lawn decor and everything.  But even thinking about taking a photo with her, DS1 and their children?  No, didn't happen.  And sending out Christmas cards?  Also didn't happen.  Why, I don't know.  I'll never know.  Was it because of her mental struggles?  Her chronic disorganization and inability to concentrate?  Was it because of her drug use?  Don't know.  I do know if it ever occurred to DS1 to write Christmas cards or take a family photo for remembrance, the thought was soon erased by the crisis of the moment.

Makes me sad to think, now, of how crisis mode was a constant in that home.

And now it's not.  Not a constant, daily, way of life.  Now there's calm predictability and organization. Now there's positive things to count on.  There's sharing in responsibilities.  There's group things, and joyful smiles, and family photos.

It makes me cry.  Sad tears for the years that he and his kids (and K2) didn't have that.  All the hard years.  All the lost time that could have been, should have been, happier.

But it also makes me cry joyful tears.  He, and they, have it now.  May they always have it going forward.