Merry Christmas To Me

I always do the same thing for myself for Christmas and remember a horse rescue or two in my Christmas giving. I will have more about this in another post. Today I simply bought myself my own Christmas present a few days early. Ho ho ho!!

I gotta say dear old Mother Nature has truly turned her back on me the last few weeks. I don't know if someone peed in her wheaties or if she happens to think someone in middle Tennessee did so or what. As I mentioned in my letter to her a couple of days ago we have had tons of rain the last couple of weeks. The last few days we were in the 60's and even the 70's. The next 48 hours will be cold. Waaaaaaaaay to cold for this part of the south, especially this time of year.
To top it off karma decided to play some kind of sick joke on me this morning and the zipper on my coat broke. Like, it completely broke and is utterly useless. I only have one coat for the farm. So I got to work outside in the cold and wind with an unzipped coat for a few hours this morning. Nice.

After lunch Jason and I made a quick trip over to Tractor Supply Co. to purchase another coat for me. I was already unhappy about my zipper breaking, and I was less happy about getting a new coat from TSC. I have nothing against their apparel, I am just very fussy about coats. The one I've used the last few years was actually a nice ski coat and I loved it. It was warm, windproof, waterproof , it wasn't bulky and it was easy to move around in it and do stuff. TSC carries a lot of Carhartt stuff, which is warm but so stiff and bulky. After trying on every coat in the store I finally picked one out. I don't like it and I plan to head to REI after Christmas (I just can't face the crowds right now) and get another ski coat.

Once I had made my coat selection I began wandering through the store. I had mentioned to Jason that I would really like two things for Christmas. First I would like a cart or wagon to drag the blankets around in. Since most of the horses live out 24/7 it is a real pain to actually get the blankets to the horses. I have the blankets stored in a couple of different locations to have them closer to the horses but I still have to drag them out in the pastures. The other thing I asked for is a leaf blower. Why, oh why, am I STILL sweeping the barn aisle every day when I could have that task done in about a minute with a leaf blower? Every time I bring the leaf blower up Jason simply cannot comprehend why I think it would be useful. It seems like a no-brainer to me but apparently not. Needless to say I am confident that Santa will be dropping neither a leaf blower or a wagon down my chimney.

So I'm wandering through TSC and what to my wondering eyes would appear but a miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer? Well not exactly but I DID see a lovely cart!! It was perfect, nice and long with sides that can be dropped down if you wish and a wire grate bottom so it won't collect water. So I came home with an ugly, yucky coat AND a new cart to drag blankets around with. Merry Christmas to me!!!!!

Me with my new cart and my ugly new coat. Bear likes being pulled around in the cart.

Bear wondering if his new ride is already broken. No Bear, we just needed to tighten all the nuts and bolts.
Jason tightening the wheels

Checking over everything

Putting more air in the tires. Jason was thrilled (not) to have one more piece of "equipment" to "service"