Friday, June 7, 2013

Update on Sassy

I went home last night a little worried at what I would find with Sassy.

She seems to be moving ok.  Not great,but not as badly as I expected.  I thought she was short striding on the left front yesterday morning but when I watched her last night she is equal on both fronts.

There is no racing and bucking and farting like there was a year ago (even with the coffin bone issue) so I know that she isn't happy, but she can put weight on them and that is going to have to do for now.  I suppose that I could be Buting her, but I know that prolonged use can cause stomach problems and so I am saving it for when she is really going to need it.  (the long drive to AZ)

She is a tad overweight, I'm guessing about a 6+ so I have cut her food back some. I wonder about laminitis, but I really do not think it is her problem. But just like in dogs, I think that if an animal  is having joint or bone issues, extra weight is going to aggravate it.  I did check for a digital pulse in her yesterday and could not find one, so if I understand how that works correctly, then that is a good thing.  If I am incorrect then someone please, correct me.

In other news, the rest of the herd is doing quite nicely. Trax still loves me, still stalks me, and still greets me at the gate of his pen for treats. (haycubes)  Danny looks fabulous, Killian still enjoy's tormenting him, and spends the rest of his time herding his mare around. Killian needs ridden in the worst way

The flies are starting to hit us now, and the blood sucking gnats are already on the prowl. I used fly predators, but not sure if they survived the last cold snap.  Today I will go by some fly traps and place the strategically away from the barn to draw the flies away away.  I also have been using the odor eliminator (In Danny's pen especially) and it seriously makes a huge difference. Less smell, less flies for sure.

As our move draws closer, the pressure is building and there is so much to get done. Our first load leaves  the middle of next week.  It should be the easy load. Mostly vehicles (3 pickups, one car) the boy and his stuff and what ever else we can cram into nooks and crannies.   For some reason I made the stupid decision of letting my free slave laborer (Simon) stay in AZ with his brother and sister in law until we take the next load down in a month.  What the heck was I thinking?  Who is going to help me load stuff? Who am I going to boss around over the next month?  Who is going to be packing while I am dinking around at horse shows and stuff?   He does have to come home with us when we take the second load down.  I need all hands on deck when we move the animals.

Planning a move this size is a daunting task to say the least.  The fact that it is going to take 3 trips, tells me that we have waaaaaay too much crap!

8 comments:

  1. It's not fun at all, but you'll get it done. Are you doing the whole move in your own vehicles? Have you thought about getting some of those cubes shipped - they're quite reasonable. I used upack for my NV to CA move and was quite happy with them.

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    1. When I moved to Wy I looked into that, and they don't go to WY anywhere. But we do have a Semi Tractor, and we have the option of either using the curtain side full semi trailer, or the flat bed with a 40' shipping container on top. We had originally planned on using the Shipping container, but the piece of equipment we would need to remove it from the trailer will be staying with the trucking company up here, so we opted for the other trailer instead. We are getting big palletized boxes which we can fill full of stuff, use our skid steer with forks to load and unload, and we can drive the skid steer right up into the trailer so we have it handy. The reason we have to make three trips is the total overload we have of vehicles and various trailers that we want to keep.

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  2. I dont envy you the move, but where you are going?? a lil bit! what is this odor eliminator you are using?

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    1. Yeah, it will totally be worth the hassle when it is all said and done.

      Go to https://www.spalding-labs.com/

      They have the fly eliminators, but then they also have what they call Odor Guard. it is a concentrate which I mixed into a 2.5 gallon pump sprayer. When ever I clean the pens I spray it on the urine soaked spots after removing as much goopy mud as I can. Danny always pees inside, and it is gross. The product eliminates ammonia in the urine, which is better for the equine respiratory system and keeps the flies down as well. I only use it inside the actual stalls though. It isn't super expensive but it is a total waste to use it outside. I can really tell the difference the day after I have used it. If I haven't sprayed it, my barn will smell pretty rank in the morning when I first go out. If I spray the day before, the odor is not bad at all.

      I used to try to use shavings to help soak up the urine, but the wind blows in just enough to blow it all into the water troughs and ruins the water. I can't use straw because my little fatties think it is a rare delicacy, and would stuff themselves to the gills.

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  3. Good stuff! You'll be just fine with palletized boxes. (Tired, angry, etc, but fine!)

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  4. Doesn't sound like fun but one thing moving does for us all- Makes us go through all of the crap we have accumulated and get rid of some of it. I am loving the less is more theory, but the house says differently.

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  5. I too have way too much junk! I can not even imagine moving our farm, it would take a month of Sundays just to get it so we even know what we all have! Good luck and make sure you get some horsey time in too :)

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