We pumped and pumped but water kept melting and filling the pens back up! Rubber boots almost were not tall enough to keep the water out!
We need to seperate the girl and boy horses as they are becoming a little more friendly in their grooming and interest in eachother! Also two of our female horses for some reason, don't like our calf! They were kicking it and chasing it around the pens. One night as I was trying to keep one particular horse away from the calf, I had to precariously balance one foot on the snow bank and one foot in the poo water pond just to get her out. The poo water was half way up my boot! It was deep! The calf went into the shed and the horse tried to follow it. As I stepped forward to intercept the horse, it turned around to run the other way and it's read end caught my shoulder and down I went! SAT RIGHT IN THE POO POND! I screamed for my daughter who was working in the next pen and she came running! The look of disbelief on her face as she saw me standing soaking wet in the poo pond told her to move quickly and go get my hubby!
She ran all the way down to where he was working and through exhausted panting breaths she explained that I needed help and they both came running! By this time, I had walked out into the drier part of the pen and the two of them came around the corner. I saw a smile start to crack on each of thier faces! " DO NOT EVEN SAY A WORD!" I spoke sternly through my gritted teeth! Both their eyes hit the ground as they walked toward me. "We need to seperate the horses from the cows and I need help" I said as I stood bowlegged, cold and stinky! My boots were full of poo water, my pants and under gaunch were full of poo water and it was all up my back! I could not move!
We got all the horses but one into the next pen. While hubby and daughter try to catch the elusive pony, hubby looks at me and says "Can you grab a pail of oats and maybe that will help us catch the horse" I walk bowlegged toward the barn to do as he asks. As I enter into the barn I hear both of them BUST out in laughter. I grabbed a pail of oats and walked back out into the pen. They watch me walk a few steps and hubby took mercy on me and told our daughter to come get the pail from me.
They get the horse into the other pen and we all stand in silence for a few minutes. I look over at the horses just as one of the males is mounting one of the females!!! Spring is in the air!!!! "OH NO!" I said and pointed in their direction! Hubby takes of running with the pitch fork and seperates them before the party could get started! Our ponies are just a year old and we don't want them making babies yet!
So, with wet poopy pants and socks, we now have to seperate the males from the females and all the horses from the cows. Eye Yie Yie!!!! We are not ready and don't really have anywhere to seperate them to, but we manage to walk both the males into their own seperate pen. We give them all hay and now it's time to go change my pants and shower.
3 days later, I go up to do afternoon chores by myself as hubby is working with the electrician in the yard. It's one of the colder days again and I am wearing my rubber boots and my snow suit! A picture of beauty I tell ya! I finish the chores and then decide to give the pigs in the barn a little more dry straw. I have a bale of straw just outside the pen so the animals can't use it but its close enough that I can grab pitch forkfuls and take it into the barn. Miss ButterCup PraireNugget (Our momma cow) keeps a watchful eye on me and keeps taking a step closer to the gate each time I go into the barn. I decide that she is getting to close to escaping so I put the pitch fork away and step backwards out of the gate and go to latch it closed. SLIIIIIIIIIIIP! The heel of my rubber boot catches some ice and DOWN I GO! Flat on my back! The gate flies open and I am spread eagle on the ground crying my eyes out in pain! The searing hot pain flares up through my butt bone and right up the back of my head and over to my right wrist! I have never cried so hard in my entire life! And I was all alone! I couldn't even reach up to get my phone in my pocket and call for help! I hurt so bad! My back, my neck and my arm.
I open my eyes only to see Miss ButterCup PraireNugget standing right over my face snorting! I feel her hot breath on my neck. I slightly panic thinking if I even move, she will spook and trample my face with her hooves! Did I mention I LOVE RANCHING!!!??? I pull myself together rather quickly to avoid her escaping. I move my arm and she backs up enough for me to barely sit up. She turns and snorts and walks away. I pull myself up with the gate. I realize I can't move my right wrist or hand! My neck has whip lash from my head cracking on the ground and my butt bone is sprained and muscles are spasming up my back. I hobble down towards the house, limping and holding my arm. Hubby sees me and runs towards me. "Whats wrong? What happened?" I couldn't even speak through my tears except to say that I thought I broke my wrist.
He gets me into the house and runs for the frozen bag of peas and carrots after getting me out of my snow suit. I nearly go through the roof in pain as he places the frozen icey impromtu ice pack on my hand and wrist.
This is the second time in a matter of days that I have fallen on the ice. I am so done with winter! SERIOUSLY!
After a day or so of rest, my neck is still stiff but everything else is in working order. Just in time for the nice weather and the snow to start to melt. I am still a little tender but work never stops here on the ranch and the water is rising. Hubby leaves for work and we have to start pumping the water out of the pens. It was my daughters job to be IN the poo pond with the hose to stop it from clogging and I was making sure the pump stayed running. (By the way this is the first time I have ever used a pump and done this type of work before!) I hear the motor in the pump change to a high squeal, telling me that the hose was clogging! My daughter was gone from the pond, checking the hose out in the field and so I had to hop the fence and fix it. In pain still, I hopped the fence and plunged my hands into the freezing poo water to unlog the hose. SLIIIIIIIIP!!!!! OMG!! Did that just happen!!?? My PHONE!! DID MY PHONE JUST FALL IN THE POO WATER!?? I drop the hose, check my pocket....NO PHONE! OMG! My phone is my life line to my hubby while he is away working! and now it's in the poo pond! I frantically scrambled through the poo and straw at the bottom of the poo pond and call out for my daughter. She hops the fence and jumps in and starts looking for the phone too! After a few minutes, I find it and put it in my pocket and snap my pocket shut! I fix the clogged hose and run out of the pen to check the phone.
Now this is where I should have just taken the battery out, opened the phone and put it all in rice to dry out over night! But did I do that??!! Noooooooooooooooooooo! My first reaction was to turn it on and see if it worked still! TAA DAA!! It still worked! Again this is where I sould have turned it off and put it in rice! Did I do that?? Noo I did not! I kept it on and shorted the battery out! So for the last few days I have been using my daughters phone to talk to my hubby!
With all the melting snow, the odd sunburn already and sore muscles from falling down and the wet poopy boots, I love my life! But this morning I could rip my head off and kick it! We woke up to 6 inches of blowing snow!!!! ARRGGHH!!!!!! I need a hot tub or a hot sandy beach right about now so I don't totally lose my mind! God knows how much you can handle but holy cow, me thinks I am going to lose it here shortly!
So we seperated the horses and the cow and calf. This seemed to fix the issue and the calf was left alone.
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