Some days are better than others....

I wish I could say that this blog is one of those better days, but do the better days really make as good a story?

I was not eager to go into the office on Wednesday, but had the opportunity to meet an out-of-town co-worker visiting just for the day so I decided to go in. I mentioned to Melanie that morning that she needed to make sure her barn chores were completed before school because her memom would not be here to do them for her while she was at school. (Memom is out in Colorado this week)

So I am all dressed up in a nice pair of cream colored slacks and dress boots. I put on a dress coat and headed out to my car. I noticed that the chicken coop was closed and although it was foggy and moist outside, it wasn't really raining and it was supposed to be unseasonably warm, so I thought I should open the coop and let out the chickens. I walked over to the barn yard and was immediately greeted by a vast wasteland of sopping wet mud. It has been raining pretty much for a week here and we were completely flooded last Friday. I had told Melanie that she should not work with the horses out there because the ground was vey soft. She did not listen and jumped her horse in the barnyard to the point that there was basically no sod left at all. I carefully tried to find some places to step without getting my shoes and pants dirty. I made it over to the coop door without too much trouble and opened the door. I wish this was the end of my story.

As I was finding my way out of the barn area, I noticed that Sarge's stall door was partially open, so I peeked in to say hi. That was when I saw his water bucket was completely empty. Of course, the water spigot is....you guessed it....over at the entrance to the coop. So now I have to make my way back to the coop with the bucket and somehow get the bucket filled up and carried back to the barn without getting dirty. Did I mention the bucket is about 15 gallons?

I made my way back to coop and started to fill the bucket. I noticed that I had a few small mud splatters on the bottoms of my slacks and was a little angy. I filled the bucket about a third full and lugged it back to the barn. I brushed the dirt from my nice coat and decided I should check the other horses' water, too. I went to the second stall and when I opened the door, I grabbed for the bucket which was situated between a large dirty horse and the door. She was so anxious to get out that as I was trying to pull the bucket from the stall she pushed her way out the door.

So, now I have a dirty, thirsty horse who is not intersted in trying to go BACK into the stall. I made the executive decision to put the horses out in the pasture for the day. I guess in hindsight it may have been an easier task to shove her back into the stall. I took Shadow by the halter and started to walk her towards the pasture. As I approach the north side of the coop, I notice the ground is not only muddy, but that it still has puddles of water all over it. Now, I have to maneuver myself and a 1000 pound beast through this minefield without getting my shoes or pants dirty. I somehow managed to get to the gate only to discover that the top hinge was off and the gate was stuck in the deep mud. So, with horse in one hand and barely keeping my footing in the deep mud (remember, I have on cream colored pants and dress boots) I struggle to pull the broken gate through the mud. After pulling it open about 2 feet, the horse pushed her way into the pasture. I decided at this point that it might be a good idea to go change into my muck boots. I figured I was already late for work at this point, so what would it matter.

So I carefully step back through the mud and head back to the house. My boots were completely swamped with mud and I was completely angry to the point that I actually considered driving up to the school and pulling Melanie out of class to work her over a little bit! I pulled off the muddy boots and shoved on my muck boots jamming my pants down inside.

I walk back over to the barn to take the other two horses out to the pasture. Each time having to maneuver the broken gate through the mud while getting the horse in without having any escape or fall down. Once all were safely in, I had to find a way to keep the gate secured with the broken hinge. To fix it properly would be a two man job, and I was an island unto myself at this point. So I went in search of some chain that I could use. Back through the mud I stole one from another gate. The smaller piece of chain just barely fit around the post and with no extra links to spare I managed to get it latched together. Proud of my accomplishment I started to walk back to the house when I realized that the horses did not have water. So now I have to completely fill a 15 gallon bucket up with water and drag it though 10-inch deep mud, reopen the gate, and get it inside the pasture. Once again, I thought of going to the school...

After getting the water in the pasture, I noticed the horses were trying so hard to get whatever little green was left in the ground, I thought I should check the feed stall. Of course, to my astonishment, there was no hay in there. I figured that Melanie did not leave herself enough time to bring down hay for them, so she gave them some grain and left for school. Now, I have the task to go up into the barn and pull down a bale of hay to take out to the pasture. I walked up the barn and saw that there was some flakes of hay (a segment of hay is called a flake and we normally feed them two flakes). So I picked up a flake or two and carried the loose hay (in my black wool coat) down to the pasture. I repeated this process three times because we generally throw it in different areas so they don't fight over it. Out of breath, with sweat pouring down my face, hair dishelved I returned to the porch to get my muddy boots. I took them to the outside faucet and sprayed them down to get the clumps of mud off. Once cleaned, I returned to the porch and swapped out my boots. I went to the car and brushed off the hay from my coat and looked for my Tide pen to clean the mud off my pant cuffs which were wrinkled and dirty from the 30 minute ordeal. I could not find it, so back into the house for a wet papertowel as a lousy second choice. I cleaned off the best I could, tried to reorganize my hair and started on my way to work.

You would think this would be the end of this tragic tale of mud and woe, and yet you would be wrong. All the way to work I kept smelling cat urine. To my utter shame, the barn cats peed on the muck boots out on the porch and when I pulled them on, it transferred to my hands. It took about 10 handwashings, Purell, and lots of hand cream to get through the day.

The only bright spot in my day is that our main computer application and database crashed at lunchtime and I had to go home early. What a shame.....

( on a sad note, one of our chickens died last week. She was found in a nesting box and we have no idea how she died, but we are now back to 26 chicks in the sticks)