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Post by vsolubo on Jul 1, 2018 23:11:51 GMT -5
I just realized we never made a June thread! We just kept on going in May's thread. I also have a friend who was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He hadn't been feeling well, they found it very early & thought it wouldn't be difficult to treat, but he had a bad reaction to both the chemo & the radiation. It severely effected his heart & he has been in the hospital twice with heart problems. Right now it isn't looking good.
Hallmark is running back to back Christmas shows this week. Most of these shows I never heard of before, but I haven't really watched Hallmark until recently.
We've had some bad luck at the stable I board at. One boarder has a upper 20's gelding & he has started bleeding in his urine. He spent some time at 1 of the big teaching vet hospitals, but they couldn't find out why he is bleeding. At least they ruled out cancer, but they just couldn't find the source of his bleed. They have him on red cell to help combat anemia.
Then another boarder has a 3 year old mule; last winter he choked so bad they almost lost him. He spent almost a month at a big name vet clinic & when he came back he spent a couple of months up in a dry lot, she finally got the ok to put him back out in pasture...& now he has a really bad infection & is back at the vets. They are running tests to see what kind of infection he has so they can treat it better.
And 2 horses foundered, 1 so bad they had to put him down. The lady that owned the old horse let him out in the grass paddock, but he has foundered in the past & the green grass was just too rich for him. The other is an old gelding that has never foundered before, isn't an easy keeper & they aren't sure why he foundered. He is a pasture horse & gets very little grain.
So far both of mine have been doing well. The lady that leased Marie wants to start riding again so I told her if she wanted to ride around the barn she could ride Marie. I took all of Marie's tack out & put it in the tack room so she could use it.
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Post by horsespoiler on Jul 4, 2018 20:34:09 GMT -5
Checking around for RP panels I did find a TSC about 60 miles from here but since it is in CA they would be charging sales tax. No thanks. The price was $85 for a 12' panel. Lowe's now carries Tartar panels. They are a light weight economy panel and are also $85 for a 12' panel. We receive a 10% veteran discount at Lowe's and I can't find any mention of an exclusion for them so I'll need to double check. Coastal has panels for $99 or $109 for a 12' panel, depending on color. I would rather have chain hook up but Coastal is the only one that offers those and they are the most expensive. They also offer a 10% veteran discount. Decisions decisions. We had someone come out and look at Sage to see if she would be suitable for them. The woman does the mustang makeovers and she brought a student that was interested in her. DH did not like the lady, he felt she was too rough and worst of all, she wasn't interested at all in petting Winnie. Sage wasn't being particularly helpful, didn't want the halter on, so she got to run in the pen for a bit. Then the student took her walking around the pen, picking up feet, forward, back, turning. She disliked backing and the instructor showed him how to back her and DH didn't like the way she jerked on the lead rope. Nothing she did was harmful or cruel, just not the more gentle way he does things. I was concerned that she has not been ridden in almost 8 years and although he is taking lessons this would be his first horse. While she isn't really dangerous she can be quite stubborn and that could cause problems. They stayed about a half hour and by the end Sage was behaving much better. She just hasn't been worked with in a while. She would make that guy earn everything he got out of her. They texted DH on Sunday to say they didn't want to take her, which was fine as DH decided he didn't want her to go to them. He told Sage she didn't ever have to leave, we would just keep her. They weren't concerned at all about her cresty neck and other mustangs I've seen here have the same thing. She has never been lame and I think she must have seen other mustangs in the same condition. DH also said I could look for another horse and he might ride Whitey some as Winnie seems to be slowing down. Ha, I watched her run in at the thought of a treat. She just doesn't exert herself if there is no need. This way if she is left home she won't be alone and neither will Sage. She would get a bit upset when we would go without her. Now she will have company and so will whichever other horse stays home. One of the girls that works at our cafe is now doing house and animal sitting as well. She has experience with all kinds of animals as her family are ranchers. We will make use of her for our vacations that last more than a few days. She is one of the few kids that want to work. She just graduated from high school and her mom works at the cafe too and they live just outside of town in the other direction.I had everyone's feet trimmed yesterday and other than being a little hard to catch Sage did just fine. I think she was afraid someone would start jerking on her head again.
We had a big BBQ in the park yesterday for DH's birthday. We had about 16 people and we had steaks and hamburgers, along with potato and macaroni salads and a green salad. At our church we have an elderly man named Harold who is 90 DH made sure to invite him and even went to pick him up. He is on oxygen and still walks the 2 blocks to church each Sunday.He has been a widower for over 40 years. His wife and daughter were killed in a car accident just outside of town and he raised his son on his own. The family still live there but I don't think they do much for him. He was so tickled that he was invited and got a really good meal. Today we had our 4th of July parade and Fire dept BBQ. Tri tip and chicken with potato salad, broccoli salad, fruit salad, drink, and a popsicle for $10. They partner with the cafe and the guys do the cooking and the cafe does the salads. They raise money for the fire dept and for other things in town. They had a bounce house in the park along with a fishing game for the kids. We also had a dunk tank, live band, bingo, and craft booths. Not too bad for a town of 400. The kids with the decorated bicycles won first prize.Anyone can enter the parade and we had a local logger with his draft team hauling an old road grader. He uses the horses to log areas that don't allow motor vehicles off the roads or sensitive areas that need lower impact selective logging. He has cleared hazard trees at local campgrounds and along some hiking trails too. The machines they normally use are just too big for some areas.
I hope everyone has a happy 4th and all the people and animals stay safe. I really wish they would ban fireworks except for professional shows as we already have enough fires going in the west and people tend to be stupid with them. A workshop for conducting climate change and environmental protests called in a fire by their camp the other day, saying they had tried to put it out but were unsuccessful due to winds. They were evacuated by the sheriff and a couple of hours later when they went to interview them about what happened they said they couldn't talk about it on advice from their lawyer. Hmm, what made them lawyer up so fast? Maybe they remembered what happened to the 15 year old boy that lit the Columbia Gorge on fire last year. He has been ordered to pay restitution in the 10's of millions and hundreds of hours of community service and probation. He will never live long enough to pay it unless he wins the Lotto. They know there was no lightning to start this fire and it is burning in reproduction timber lands right now. The state is on a fire and smoking ban along with an equipment ban during certain hours so however it started they were involved somehow.
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Post by horsespoiler on Jul 18, 2018 0:17:00 GMT -5
Well the fires are burning quite well. We had a huge one down on the CA border that kept closing I5 and destroyed quite a few homes in CA. Luckily they were able to keep it from coming too far into OR and the winds kept the smoke to the south of us. But no sooner than they got that one under control did we have thunderstorms roll through with 70-100 strikes on Sunday. About 50 starts have been reported so far and it can take quite a while for some of the sleepers to really ignite. We have one just a few miles away but they are handling it very well. Lots of helicopter and bomber drops and a dozer line they are cutting around it. They had to cut a road to it for access as no roads went that far. Today there was a big fire that broke out behind our county fairgrounds. There is a paved bike and walking path that runs along a creek there that is loaded with homeless and transient people camping. This is the 3rd fire along this greenway in 2 weeks and this one blew up big time. It headed toward a housing development, the airport, and a commercial area. They had to evacuate a large area including a veterinary hospital and Costco. The National Weather Service even evacuated from their office at the airport. The smoke is here again and I sure hope the wind shifts and it clears up soon because it’ll take a while to get the fires out.
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Post by vsolubo on Jul 20, 2018 13:08:44 GMT -5
Wow! Hope the fires don't get close to you! Hoping rain without any lightening for your area!
We haven't had hardly any rain around here & it is really dry. Pastures are burned up & they are actually already haying all the livestock around here, betting hay gets pretty expensive around here this year.
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Post by horsespoiler on Jul 28, 2018 1:44:13 GMT -5
Well the Klamathon Fire down on the border is out and the fire by the fairgrounds is out, which is a really good thing since the Country Crossings 4 day music festival is now going on but we are still plagued by more fires. Most are not too close to us but we are still having bad smoke and poor air quality. It ranges from unhealthy for sensitive groups to very unhealthy. So far we haven’t had hazardous air quality but of course it’s still possible. There is a fire 120 miles south of the OR/CA border along I5 near Redding that has destroyed over 500 structures. So far only 2 fatalities have been reported, both firefighters, but they have not been able to search the burned areas yet and there are people missing. An elderly lady and 2 children, 4 and 5 years old, are currently unaccounted for and their family is looking for them. They were in an area that was evacuated and they called someone to come help them but the person was unable to get to them before the roads were closed. Neighbors were unable to get to the house and could not verify if they had gotten out. They are not listed at any evacuation center but they could be safe somewhere and have not checked in with the Red Cross. Very scary pictures coming out of this fire and many seasoned firefighters have said they have never seen anything like it. Last night they abandoned all structure protection and firefighting efforts in order to help people evacuate as the fire was too intense and moving too fast for anything to have any effect on it. It swept into west Redding last night and they were evacuating the NICU at a local hospital and one of the local TV stations had to turn things over to a sister station in another town so they could evacuate their studio. Resources are stretched thin and more fires keep breaking out. The smoke and winds the fires create hamper the air attack efforts and keep a lot of the aircraft away. This is another year where the West is just burning away. It’s one thing when the fires are caused by lightning, as the ones closest to us are, but many of these are human caused. The fire at Redding is said to have been caused by a vehicle malfunction and one in Southern California was caused by someone throwing lit road flares out a car window.
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Post by ghostrider on Jul 28, 2018 21:06:04 GMT -5
Gosh I didn't realize I hadn't checked in here in almost a month. So much going on at your barn V. Hope things work out with all the animals. Is this the woman who was leasing Marie then decided not to?
HS, have you started looking yet? hope you get your panels up soon and get to ride. I found that buying three of the 1200 lumins spot lights (solar) lights up the rp so you can ride at night. AND it's lit up when I have to feed at dark.
I have had no time to do more than work and sleep. They keep scheduling me till 10 then back at 7am! then I'm beat for two days trying to catch up on the sleep I missed. By the time I get home it's almost 11, feed and eye drop and it's a bit after 11 then by the time the muscle relaxer hits it's at least 12 and I have to get up by 5. UGH
Vacation from the 5th through the 15th though so I can make it. LOL
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Post by ghostrider on Jul 28, 2018 21:07:10 GMT -5
It's DRY here too hay is going up up up. I'm praying for lots of rain this next 4 days.
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Post by horsespoiler on Jul 28, 2018 23:25:07 GMT -5
GR, the temps are at least high 90’s almost every day, which would be ok in the early morning but we still can’t ride. Our air quality has been bouncing between “unhealthy for sensitive groups “ and “very unhealthy “. At least we haven’t hit hazardous. Exercising them in the smoke can cause all kinds of problems. If it makes them feel as bad as I do when I have to do something physical outside I sure don’t want to do that to them. We brought them out on the driveway and hosed everyone down. Sage is so funny when you turn the hose on her, she starts turning and moving but she isn’t really trying to get away from it. She likes to dance in the water and also keeps sticking her nose into the spray. If the water hits her butt in just the right spot she squats like she is curtsying. What is up with that? Is that a mare thing? The others do it too but not as much as her. Some bee type bug stung my hand the other day and my ring finger was itchy and now it is swollen and I can’t get my rings off. As soon as I can get them off and can size my finger I’m ordering matching silicone bands for us. My engagement ring is nowhere near round anymore and has been slightly difficult to get off for a while. I am hoping that I don’t have to have them cut off.
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Post by ghostrider on Aug 6, 2018 16:06:09 GMT -5
We have silicone bands in the barbell area. I thought it was weird when we got them in. Sell a lot of them though. I am on days off and starting tomorrow VACATION! so was surprised when the hay gal called at 9:30 to tell me they were going to deliver my hay today. I got 12 large RB's. Then had to run to town to get 7 more tarps since I tarp the tops of them. And a new roll of Barbed Wire. Had to fence them out. I was about 8' shy. I am relieved because the hay is really scarce. Roy and his SIL brought the hay up with two trucks, they had to make a few trips since they could only bring 5 at a time. They are not far down the road from me. They raised the price from $35-40 but everyone else is getting over $80 per bale with the drought. He told me they've told everyone else that they're out of hay and may have to go elsewhere for hay for their cows if we don't get enough rain. I fell blessed today, thank you Lord for providing!
It's in the 90's here too yesterday was 98. Supposed to get rain around 4am so we are holding our breath.
One of the kids at church was stung by a weird bug too, I told her dad, Steve to draw a line around it and see if it spreads since the doc wasn't sure what it was and gave him something that "might" work.
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Post by horsespoiler on Aug 7, 2018 23:49:40 GMT -5
I just had 4 tons delivered the other day. $220 a ton and they guarantee their hay. If you find anything wrong with it you just let them know and they make it right. The approach to our barn is a difficult one but after he looked at it he said it wouldn’t be a problem because his trailer was a gooseneck. Well it was a little problem. The driveway curves around what was the end of a pool and drops down about 4ft in the curve. On the other side of the driveway is an enclosed garden area with some raised beds. Trying to get between them made him cut the corner on the inside and put the trailer wheels over the edge of the drop off. We have a little problem with that too but I always thought it was because we didn’t do it right. We had to get my truck and pull the trailer back while he backed up to get it back on the driveway. Then they pulled the garden fence out and knocked the side and end off one of the raised beds so he could swing a little wider to make the turn. There hasn’t been anything planted there for a couple of years as we had a very poor garden the year we did plant one. We plan on removing it anyway and also the goat pen behind it. Then there will be a very wide area to pull down to the barn in. We can’t do anything though until we get our tractor back. There is going to be a huge repair bill on that. After having all the fluids and oils changed and the chassis greased there was a leak near one front wheel. It looked like a blown seal but the mechanic never said a word about it so it didn’t seem like it was a big deal. It was located just above the housing for the final reduction gears on the inside of the wheel. There is a drain plug at the bottom and a fill plug at the top and you use the same hydraulic fluid in it as elsewhere. The side of the cast iron housing where the drain plug is blew out a hole over an inch across and contained the drain plug. The gears inside sheared off teeth too. We found another tractor repair place to fix it this time as I will never go back to the dealership that came out to service it. I still haven’t seen the bill for that but it’ll be around $400 I’m afraid and they didn’t even bring everything they needed to do the job. We had to go get the air filter for it and some antifreeze because he didn’t bring any. A trip out to their shop for us takes at least 2 hours since it’s about an hour away. They couldn’t tell us what parts we needed without the serial number off the tractor but they had the paperwork from the mechanic and evidently he didn’t put it on there. We took the filter with us so they could match it but they couldn’t figure out what bolts I needed that had been missing from the loader mounting, which the mechanic did notice and told us about. We had bought the tractor from that dealership but it had changed hands and they said they didn’t have any of the information about sales from the previous owners. I imagine they really just decided to only keep the files from machines still under warranty and the bigger farm accounts. Someone else I know said they didn’t like the service and they way overcharged for their work. Glad we found another repair shop. Need to go out and check our generator we have stored in the garage. We are going back to triple digits for the temperatures this week with unhealthy air quality because of the fires. If we lose power I’m afraid that a friend of ours that is sick will need it. He is going through chemo for stage IV lung cancer that has spread. They have a small house with just a window air conditioner and the generator will run that easily. Ours is a central heat pump that needs 220v to run so it won’t do much for us. We have a built in generator in the motor home that we can run the AC in there with and even plug in the fridge and freezer. We’ll be fine.
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Post by ghostrider on Aug 10, 2018 20:52:50 GMT -5
Seems anything to do with tractors is major! Anthony and I had to remove Jims big tire after he ran over rebar. Anthony called two tractor dealers to ask which part did we need to remove, the whole rim or the outer one which ALSO had lug nuts we just decided heck with it and took the outer one off.
I hope you don't lose power in your area. Somewhere I heard that CA has never had a fire this huge?
That's not much hay, will you have trouble getting more? it's raining here, and we have a few more days of rain with 90' weather so there's hope we may get another cutting but it's still going to be hard to find hay. It's just really late in the season now. Because it's in such a big demand they raised their price to $40 per round bale. I felt blessed it wasn't higher.
I've been doing some things around the house for mom, lots of lifting tearing out basement shelving and some painting. Finished the freezer room this eve. We had some mold growing on two walls and it had to be removed a sample sent in and drylock put on the walls. UGH UGH!!! Says it'll keep it from growing again. We put up heavy duty plastic shelving for all the cans of food and kitchen "stuff" stored down here.
A friend from work is having a moving auction at his place tomorrow, planning on going IF I'm up by then.
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Post by horsespoiler on Aug 11, 2018 0:19:15 GMT -5
I think the 4 tons will be enough unless I get another horse and then we’ll need at least another ton. Although we don’t have hay available 24/7 the girls stay fat all winter. I can still get more pretty easily here. Most places get 3 cuttings anymore. We’v never had a problem finding any, just getting it home and into the barn. I wish we had prices like you do. These are 100lb bales and were $11 a bale. They are about twice as heavy as the ones we were getting before. I really like the hay our friends grow but trying to get someone to load and unload it was a nightmare. We ended up paying almost as much for that as we did for the delivery on this and it was all done in just about an hour. We could never get more than one load in a day and then worry about finding someone again. It wasn’t worth it.
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Post by ghostrider on Aug 15, 2018 17:48:16 GMT -5
When I left WY 9yrs ago alfalfa was $190 per ton. Now it's $210. Here the grass runs $3 for a square which is about 70lbs. You can get it a bit cheaper if you go out and load from the field. My RB's are close to 1000lbs and ran $40 ea. I figure I needed 6 ton to do me through May. But I also decided I can't let them ruin it and the ring hasn't done much so I'll either fork it over the fence or buy one of those nets then put the ring over it all.
4 tons would not do mine all that long and they're easy keepers. When I was doing square bales I fed ea horse 1/2 to 3/4 bale per day and there only 35 bales per ton. Of course we didn't have any grass pasture at all, Oregon is probably green two months earlier and 2 months later than WY.
Tomorrow I go back to work and I had not ridden all vacation so I saddled up and rode Rain. He started throwing his head and dancing to run home etc.. so I rode him longer working on serpentines and going around the trees different directions and when he wouldn't listen I let him run into the saplings!and then made him lunge back at the corral till I couldn't stand the sweat and flies any longer. Plus it's getting ready to rain again. I think it rained off and on all night and it's SOOOOOO humid. Yesterday was perfect but I was worn out from not doing anything! LOL
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Post by horsespoiler on Aug 15, 2018 23:47:24 GMT -5
Wow I don’t think I was feeding a full bale a day to all 3 unless it got very cold. They are so very fat. We are smoked in again with several areas reading in the hazardous zone. I wish the DEQ would put a portable meter up here so we knew what it really is. The closest one is down the hill by the river about 20 miles away and in an area where smoke funnels down a drainage from the mountains. There is a fire upwind of this location and it has read very unhealthy most of the time. Down in Medford about 35 miles away it is usually a bit clearer but tonight was reading hazardous. I can see to well for it to be that bad here but some of the weather sites use the one 20 miles from us and it’s been the highest until today. I guess I just have to use the visual test of how well I can see across the pasture. If the winds blow it isn’t good for the firefighters. Too bad it doesn’t just blow back on itself but it doesn’t seem to.
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Post by vsolubo on Aug 17, 2018 22:07:31 GMT -5
Hope everyone is doing ok. We've been working lots of OT at the IRS; something that very seldom happens, plus I'm still working at Price Chopper. I've been so exhausted I can hardly see straight. HS, hope you get rain soon so the fires go out.
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