Make My Horse Life Easier Tip #3

 Trough divers.  Horses that so love to splash and play in water that they will put their front legs into their water trough and paw, splashing water up all over themselves (and the ground).

This doesn't sound too terrible, does it?  I mean, especially in summer, it can be refreshing to splash water onto themself.

Except. . .

• by putting their feet into the trough, they are dirtying the water in it
• the risk of serious injury exists anytime they stick their legs into somewhere legs weren't intended to go
• splashing the water all over makes the trough need to be refilled sooner
• if the water level in the trough is low enough, they can tip the trough over and then there's no water to drink 
• the chance of cracking the trough, causing a (nearly impossible to fix) leak is greatly increased

The Poetess loves to trough dive.  I'm not sure if this habit is something she's had for a while, or was discovered when she came to Michigan and had a water trough rather than an automatic waterer/horse drinker in her turnout.  

Last year, I yelled at her anytime I caught her with her legs in the trough.  Heck, even hearing the distinctive sound of water splashing in the pasture while I was in the barn cleaning stalls would cause me to shout "Poetess!!  Quit! Get out of the trough!".  And she would, until I wasn't around/she didn't think I was around and then she'd start up again.  A couple of times I came home from running errands late on a hot afternoon to find the trough tipped on it's side, totally empty.  Not good.

Over the winter, I did a little research.  There's no way I was going to install automatic waterers in my pastures, so I needed to find a safe, economical, effective way to keep Poetess from playing in the water trough when the weather warmed up again.  If you google the subject, there's tons of different suggestions.

What I chose to try, and so far is a rousing success, is actually a very simple thing.  I put my water trough up on blocks.  We have lots of unused cinder blocks around this little place here, so DH grabbed four off the stack of blocks, and we made a platform to set the water trough on in the pasture Poetess and the LBM were currently turned out in.  Easy peasy.  And free.

But would it work?  Was a simple raising of the tank by the height of a cinder block on it's side (8") enough to keep Poetess from being able to put her feet in the trough?  And, more importantly, would the horses be willing to drink out of a raised trough?

Yes.

Yes.  

And, yes!

It works!  She tried a few times, found it uncomfortable to get her feet up above the rim of the trough, and has kept her feet out of the trough.  She has no qualms about drinking out of the trough at that height.  And, the one I most worried about being turned off by the increased height, the several hands shorter LBM, also has no issues with drinking from the raised trough.

Faces only, no feet!

A Gardening Weekend

 Saturday, I spent several hours in the garden.  The weather nice, low 60's and not very windy, and the sun actually came out!  It was the most sun we'd seen all week (which probably explains how I totally forgot to put on sunscreen and ended up with a sunburnt face).

After days and days of rain, I wanted to take advantage of the dry weather to get my tomato and pepper seedlings planted.  They'd been living outside for two weeks, so were adequately hardened off.  I did worry that the wet soil of the garden might not be ideal yet for transplanting into, but on the other hand, the small containers the seedlings were in were also saturated with rain, so I figured that it was probably a six of one half dozen of the other situation.  Hopefully the ground would drain better than the containers were, and the plants wouldn't shock too badly with transplanting.

At the end of the day, I had 50 tomato plants and 45 peppers in nice neat rows in the garden.  Fingers crossed that they grow and thrive this year.  The last two years were a bust garden-wise, so I'm really hoping that this year makes up for the two bad years.  DH is dreaming of lots and lots of homemade salsa, both fresh and canned.

Salsa of course also requires onions and garlic, both of which are also growing in my garden.  The garlic--five varieties--was planted last fall, all from cloves that I had grown in 2024.  In fact, one variety I've been growing since 2010? ish, from some garlic that I had bought from an online homesteading friend.

Great looking garlic for this year.

The onions are starts that I buy every year from Dixondale Farms.  I've lost count of how many years I've been buying my onion starts from them; they are a great company with a reliable product and awesome service.

200+ baby onion plants.

On Sunday, I was back in the garden again, with lots of sunscreen this time, planting cucumbers and dill (between the cucumber hills).  Interplanting the dill and cukes is something new I'm trying for this year.  No pictures of that because, well, it just looks like mounds of dirt every 4 feet with the mounds staggered every other row so I can still plant rows 3-foot on center apart from each other.  Trying to keep all that 'empty' space in the cucumber section from growing up in weeds until the cucumbers get to the vining stage is always such a pain (and nigh on impossible) that I always cheat the spacing a bit.

I did, however, take some pictures of some of my iris that are currently blooming.  I don't know the names of either variety; they were both given to me free by people I know/someone my Mom knows.

This variety I've had since 2004, when a family from church bought a new house that had iris all around the foundation of the detached garage.  They didn't want the plants, so gave me all I cared to dig up.

This variety is newer to me; someone my Mom knows was dividing hers in 2021 and gave my Mom bags and bags of them.  Mom planted what she had room for at her house and then gave me the rest.

Make My Horse Life Easier Tip #2

 This is another tip in regards to polo wraps.  I discovered, a while ago, that if I hung my used, sweaty/wet from dew, polo wraps on the hayloft ladder, the breeze coming in the front door of the barn would typically dry them by the time I returned for the night feeding.  Cleanish ones (ie, just damp from dew or sweat) could then be rerolled for use in the next training session.  Dirty ones could go in the house to the laundry and not become a yucky, damp, and potentially mildewy mess by the time I had several sets of polos in need of washing. (Especially helpful when the Poetess wasn't getting worked but once or twice a week and it took awhile to get a load of horse laundry built up.)

When DH built me the new hayloft ladder, I was happy to discover that it not only does the same drying task handily, but that it also performs another service: it holds the wraps fairly taut when I reroll them. Having them be taut makes the task so much easier!  

I attribute the difference in tension when rerolling to the fact that the old ladder was propped up and at more of an angle than the new ladder, which is installed pretty much vertically.  Whatever the reason, I'm loving how handy it is for both drying and rerolling the wraps.

So, for those of you who might also use polo wraps on your horses, and who have a ladder in your barn, my tip is to put the ladder to use as a wrap dryer!

Reminder To Self

 This is a really busy season.  I have a tendency to overwork myself in busy seasons; just put my shoulder to the grindstone (or is it my nose?), keep pushing, and don't look up until I collapse.  I'm trying to learn better self-care, because collapse isn't exactly enjoyable, and historically it's times like this that I totally neglect myself (with exception of feeding myself somewhat nutritionally--the diabetes requires it, brushing my hair and teeth daily and showering at least every third day).

Recently, when I was at Hobby Lobby shopping for a specific fabric for grandbaby #8's quilt, and a few teen-bedroom type decor things for K3's 13th birthday present, I bought a little something for myself.  I know that when I'm going all balls (because that's how I've operated for decades during busy seasons--even if those seasons are years long) I tend to get a little less than happy.  And when I'm less than happy, that's when the complete and total overwhelm (and thoughts of trashing it all and running away) kicks in.

So, when I saw this little block, I bought it.  And put it on the windowsill behind the kitchen sink where I'll see it daily, especially when doing the dishes (my most hated chore; I'd rather scrub toilets than put my hands in dishwater).

Because I do.  I do love the life DH and I have built.  Sometimes it's crazy.  Sometimes it's overwhelming.  And the work of building is definitely not totally completed yet.  But it's what we wanted: the land, the horses (well, I wanted horses, DH not so much), the garden, the large (and getting larger!) family.

I just need to remember that when I find myself focusing on all the undone tasks, or the (not so) emergency help my kids call on me for with the grandkids at the last minute.  I love the life we've built.

What's Changed in the Barn October Thru April

 I haven't posted anything in a while about the horse barn project, or about the horses specifically.  That doesn't mean there hasn't been anything going on.  Rather, quite the opposite.

Last fall, I acquired two new boarders, both geldings, both basically retired and owned by the same person.  This is a great arrangement for both my client and myself: she gets someone knowledgeable about older horses giving her horses great care, and I have a client who isn't concerned that there's no 'real' riding arena here (yet. . . it's on the list but not likely this year. . .)

Those two horses, I think I'll refer to as Crockett and Tubbs.  Yeah, Miami Vice, but really the only thing remotely related to that TV show is that one of the geldings is rather chubby (he's an easy keeper and I will need to watch his weight) and mentally I started calling him Tubbs.  Which led to me thinking of Miami Vice and that I could easily name his friend, the other gelding, Crockett, because they are a long time pair.

The LBM is still boarded here, although at the end of December her owner took her out of training for the winter.  Which ended up being a good decision (and one I wholly approved of despite the loss of training revenue) based on the winter we had which was mostly too frigid/snowy/icy to work horses with any sort of regularity.  Plus, it gave me all the decent weather/decent footing days to work the Poetess rather than trying to squeeze her in around a paying customer.  

The LBM started back in training on May first, and seems to have retained a whole lot of what we worked on last year.  So far, so good!

The Poetess? She loved having me all to herself, as it were.  Her training is coming along nicely, and I'm thinking by the end of summer we'll have made an amazing amount of progress.  She catches on pretty quickly, and working her 3-4 days a week has ramped up her learning significantly.

Meanwhile, inside the barn, there's been a whole lot of changes since the beginning of the year.  DH ran wires to the feed room, so now I have a light in there.  That was a great and very appreciated addition, especially on those dark winter mornings.

Next, he framed in the tack room.  Which included making the divider wall between the tack room and Poetess's wall go all the way up instead of just high enough that she wouldn't be able to jump out (as we'd originally built it in our rush to get her home.) 

I wasn't sure how she would respond to that after more than a year of having an unimpeded view to the front half of the barn--and out the front door, but she took it in stride.  That first night, when she came in from turnout, she pricked her ears, sniffed the new boards and I could almost visibly see her shrug and say "huh, guess that was gonna happen sooner or later".  I have, since then, stained the new boards so they match the existing stall wall.

After that wall was finished, DH began framing in the other three walls of the tack room.  And that began the mess of stuff pushed into the center of the room so that he could access the walls with a ladder, and also be able to bring boards into the room for building with.  A mess that daily drives me nuts and has me more and more anxious for the whole tack room project to be finished.

Photo taken before more stuff was added to the center of the room,

making a gigantic mess.

The next wall to be finished was the one between the tack room and the aisle.  Once it had enough boards on the 'exterior' to make DH realize it would be easier to set the door before the whole wall was covered, DH installed the door to the tack room, and then added the remainder of the boards.

In March, when the daytime temperatures were warm enough for three to four days at a stretch, I painted the tack room door.  Because I could.  And because I have a thing for color (that thing being the rationale that anything that doesn't have to be white shouldn't be white).  Using a semi-gloss alkyd paint, I made that door dark green.  (For those wondering, it's Behr paint and the exact color I had mixed for me is called Vine Leaf).  I used two coats of paint and was quite happy with the result.

The door after the first coat of paint, definitely green, but blotchy.

That wasn't the only thing I painted green.  In framing up the tack room (and getting ready to install a ceiling in it), the time had come to move the ladder to the hayloft out into the aisle (it had been in the tack room area for eons) and cut open the 'hay drop' in the loft floor that we'd framed in nearly 20 years ago when the barn was originally built.  

Using the old ladder, which had been given to me in 2005 by a friend who no longer needed it, with the now usable hay drop didn't work ideally.  So, DH offered to build me a new, longer, ladder to my loft.  Of course I said "yes, please!"  I mean, when DH offers to do something remotely horse related, I've learned to jump on that offer before it disappears never to be mentioned again.

With a brand new ladder custom made by DH, I absolutely had to paint it green.  Two coats of the same paint I used on the tack room door, and it was good to go.

DH didn't quite understand why I so vehemently insisted that the ladder needed to be painted before installation--or painted at all--until it was in place.  Then, he had to admit that it was definitely worth waiting the three days it took me to get it painted and cured before bringing it into the barn.  The green ladder by the green door just really looks sharp.

It's the little details like that that can make a big difference.

For the interior of the tack room, we'd had many discussions over the winter of what the sheeting material on the walls would be.  DH was hoping (ease of installation and price-wise) that I would say OSB was good enough.  HA!  He knows me better than that.  So his next suggestion was cheapy paneling sheets.  Also a "I didn't wait 20 years for a tack room to slap just anything on the walls" response from me.  Plywood?  Maybe.  Maybe, I said, depending on the grade of it.

Well, then, on Craigslist he found some tongue-in-groove knotty pine paneling that ended up being, per foot, about the same cost as the (less than ideal in my book) grade of plywood he'd been trying to convince me to go with.  Knotty pine paneling?  Oh Hell Yes!!  Winner!!  

So on Good Friday (because he had the day off work) he drove two hours one way and picked up an entire 'rack' of knotty pine paneling from the guy who'd listed it on Craiglist.  And on Easter Sunday, after church and after barn chores (we'd done family Easter on Saturday, remember), I got to staining that paneling so he could start installing it.

It's really a clear coat sealant with polyurethane, but it does put a very light tint to the wood, as you can see in the above photo of the stained (bottom) vs unstained (top) board

Interior tack room/aisle wall, 

partially paneled.

Now, we don't need an entire rack of knotty pine to do the inside walls of the tack room.  But, a neat thing that DH didn't tell me about until after he'd gotten the paneling boards home, is that the back side of the boards is milled for bead board.  So, my tack room ceiling is going to be finished in white bead board, and I spend the end of April starting painting boards for that with a semi-gloss white alkyd paint.  Two coats per board, and they are exactly the look I want for a ceiling (to reflect light back downward as much as possible).

And that is all the horse and barn related news at this little place here from October 2024 to the end of April 2025.

I Went To A Symphony!

On Friday evening, I went to a symphony.  Other than when DD2 was in choir during college, and they performed on the same night as the college's local symphony orchestra, and once when I was really young and went with my parents to a Christmas concert put on by a small local symphony orchestra, I haven't been a symphony goer.  Not that I don't enjoy the music; just too many other things vying for my time and money.

I almost didn't go this time either, but my kids schemed against me and came up with a plan to get me there.  My boys paid for my ticket.  My girls were in charge of transporting me and feeding me dinner before hand.

And so, in the name of a Mother's Day present, I went to the symphony.

DD1 and DD2 came and got me, all dressed up, and took me out to dinner. We'd chosen a nearby Mexican restaurant, and were rather overdressed for the venue, LOL,  But all three of us had a hankering for Mexican, so. . .  

It was a good meal, and I tried birria tacos, which I'd never had before. YUM!  Definitely will eat them again.

Conversation over dinner was good, ranging from trying to plot a 'group' Father's Day present for DH, DS1, DS2, and Honorary Son (would they be amenable to being a foursome for a round of golf if we arranged it?  Not sure. . .) to Faline's goofy picture on her Pre-School Graduation poster to whose house needs what repairs that could be scheduled into a rotating one-weekend-a-month family workday gathering for the summer months.

 

As for the symphony itself, it was wonderful!  I had such a good time.  I made oddball comments based on spur of the moment thoughts in my head in regards to what was going on on stage (like how the guy playing the wood blocks made me think of a defibrillator the way he rubbed them together and then pulled them wide apart to quietly set them down) that my daughters, who have similar senses of humor, totally got a kick out of without being offended by my oddball comment.  The music was terrific, the pianist, who played the entire forty minutes of the concerto by memory without sheet music was amazing.  And the grand piano was absolutely the biggest piano I've seen in my entire life.  (Is there such a thing as a Granddaddy grand piano?  If so, I'm pretty sure it had to be that one.)

It was fascinating to watch the musicians play; their natural body movements during the course of playing their parts, coming in and out of the piece at the prescribed times, made me think of waves lapping on a beach: swelling, breaking, flowing outward to build up and flow in again.

All in all, it was a very special gift, and I'm so grateful to each and every one of my kids (plus my DH who volunteered to make sure horses were taken care of in my absence that night) for giving this experience to me.

Cherry Clafouti

 Recently, I tried my hand at making a cherry clafouti.  I'd never made one, never even tasted one before, but it was something that had been on my radar for a number of years.  A few weeks ago, after learning that I have a tart cherry tree, someone asked me if I'd ever tried making a cherry clafouti with my cherries.

"No," I answered, feeling a bit guilty that I'd never made use of them that way even though I'd heard of it more than a decade ago (best laid plans of mice and men sort of thing).

About two weeks later, I was in the chest freezer retrieving some meat to restock the kitchen fridge's freezer, and I noticed that I had a bag of frozen cherries from the 2023 crop still.  According to the label, it was 3 cups of pitted tart cherries.

Well, that sealed it.  Time to try cherry clafouti.  So I took that bag of cherries upstairs to the kitchen and thawed it overnight.  Meanwhile, I looked up a likely sounding recipe using tart, not sweet, cherries--I actually have a recipe for one using sweet cherries but I've never been confident enough to translate the needed sugar amount to make it tasty with tart cherries.  Then I made a plan for breakfast the following morning.

I confess, I was a bit nervous not knowing how this clafouti would turn out.  Even if it turned out exactly as the recipe described (I was using thawed cherries rather than fresh ones that the recipe called for, and a slightly larger amount), would I even like it?  It's technically an egg dish, and eggs are something I either love or hate, depending on how they're cooked and the resultant texture.

So, how did it come out?  Did I like it?  Will I ever make another clafouti again?

It was delicious!  Definitely a recipe success!  Even though DH complained that it 'wasn't all that good', he ate a quarter of it.  Actually slightly more than a quarter, because, as you can see by the photo above, I cut it kind of off center.  Upon questioning, he said it wasn't great because he likes meat with his breakfast, and it wasn't meat.  Ugh. Hello, macho man, eggs are meat.

Myself, I ate the other quarter! I loved not only the flavor, but the texture was spot on for the acceptable egg dish category.  In fact, the texture reminded me very much of my favorite dish I would get when we would travel to the Upper Peninsula and go out for breakfast at a little local cafe (that unfortunately, isn't there anymore as it closed down a few years ago).  

This recipe is most definitely a keeper.  In fact, I'm thinking that with a reduction of the sugar, it would probably also be excellent made with blackberries.  I will have to remember to try that in August, when the blackberries are in season (out in the woods and in a corner of our field).

I do have to say, it was awesome fresh and warm.  Leftover the next day and reheated, it was still pretty good.  The third day, when I finished off the last piece, it had gotten pretty rubbery.  So, in the future, definitely eat it all right away, LOL.

Since I followed an online recipe pretty much exactly (except my cherries were pitted and thawed), I'm not going to type it out here.  I will just post a link to the original site that I got it from.

Cherry Clafouti