Weekend Memories

Since I couldn't get back to the west side of Washington state this past weekend, I thought I would show you all what I did the previous weekend, my long three-day weekend! Since hay prices keep going up and up everywhere you look while the quality of said hay is getting worse and worse, my parents and I (with help from Grandma!) loaded and stacked over 250 bales of excellent quality local hay on the side of the shop this past July. It was A LOT of work made even more difficult by the record high temps. that particular week. This was our first year/attempt at stacking and storing what we hoped would be enough hay to last through spring. Since this winter has been more unseasonably cold and snowy than years' past, we have gone through the majority of the hay already. Really, that's not too bad considering we weighed each meal out (both Star and Mercy gain weight on air, so this was a necessary step) summer through fall then pretty much switched to free choice. On Saturday, my dad decided that we needed to move the remainder of the hay into the barn. Now, remember that our barn has an incredibly small feed/tack room. I didn't think we could get it all in their, but oh well, we have the tack in the house to prevent it from mildew/molding, so we should be able to fit most of it in, right?

I think we did a pretty darn good job! We have the eighty-some-odd bales stacked seven high- it's going to be soooo much fun pulling those down! NOT! We did loose quite a few bales, though, probably about a months worth total. One tarp was weighted down too heavily and ended up holding in moisture. I think we burned five bales total and gave about 25 bales to a friend who was willing to sort through the OK ones to feed to their cow. Btw, as you can see in the photo above, that laundry basket is what we use to weigh the hay on the scale, attached to the blue bailing twine hanging from the door beam. Also semi-visible is our trash can, LMF "grain" can, and white board, so we never forget a farrier visit and to track any sick pony's medical needs.

The next freakin' freezing morning gave us an awesome steam show, once it 'tried' to warm up:

Once we got going for the day, my mom and I decided to go for another trail ride. We hadn't been on the trails we call the 'track,' which was once an old working train trussel, in quite a while, so that's where we headed. Before we got Mercy, we would take Star there and let her run as fast as she could until she stopped. What a thrill that is! Unfortunately, Mercy doesn't 'go fast' yet, so we kept it at a walk the whole time. Someday soon I hope to trailer Star out by herself and hit the Cedar River/Pipeline trail system so we can fly again, but until then, we get to enjoy the scenery!

Those logs wayyyyy up ahead were growling, snarling, horse-eating monsters don't you know?!

The ride was pretty uneventful, so much so that I honestly can't remember anything crazy that happened. And don't get me wrong! I thoroughly enjoy less trail drama, but when you live by/on a trail system that is highly populated by bikes and hikes, most with unleashed, untrained dogs that have never seen a horse in their lives, there is bound to be a few incidents. When we got back, we turned the horses out and fed them a snack while we picked their paddocks. Mercy was just looking too cute:

I love the peaceful and content look in her eyes, it's so satisfying. And, on a fogless day, you would be able to make out Lake Sawyer behind her and through the trees, oh well! The next time I post should be the next installment in my 'getting mercy' series, but it might have to wait until the weekend. (btw~ YES! January is almost over! :D )