Thursday, October 6, 2016

Glamour Jobs

Jason and I have been doing some true glamour jobs around the farm lately. Today's was particularly glamorous as it consisted of cleaning out a run-in shed so we could spread new gravel in it. Since it hasn't rained in about a month, and we're currently about 17 inches below normal rainfall for the year, it would be an understatement to say there is a lot of dust. A LOT of dust. Everywhere. 

Armed with shovels and the front end loader of one of the tractors Jason and I created an epic dust cloud as we cleaned out the shed. As I was inhaling dust while shoveling poop and dirt I did have the thought, "so this is why I went to college?"  

Jason and I were disgusting by the time we were finished. When I shook my hair dust came off me. I told Jason I was doing my best imitation of a horse shaking after a roll in the dust. Despite being so dirty all I wanted to do was get away from myself, I still wouldn't trade my life for a return to corporate America. Been there, done that - I'll take the dust. 

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despite choking on dust the entire time Jason and I did a thorough job; Cocomo and Gus admiring our work

Jason moved right into spreading the gravel when we were done

Donneur was very curious about what we were doing in his shed

Hesse, Remmy and Baner

Grand and Rip

Toledo and Wilson

Revy and Baby 

Walon and Rubrico being wild 




Murphy and Sam

Roho and Ripley

Rocky and Gus 

Blu and B-Rad

Lighty and Happy

Maisie and Lily having a grooming session with Renatta grazing nearby; Dolly and Cuffie are in the background

7 comments:

EvenSong said...

Have you ever thought about putting mats in the sheds?

Lori Skoog said...

We are still in a drought, but have had enough rain to produce nice green grass. Your run-ins are so nice and deep.

Melissa-ParadigmFarms said...

We have a lengthy list of reasons why we don't use mats in sheds. That is a definite NO.

EvenSong said...

I'm curious, Melissa. Mats make my life so much easier--but I have stalls open to paddocks, not just run-ins. Is it because they're slippery when wet? I do bed mine with pellets, which wouldn't work for you guys...

andrea harrison said...

That would be a great blog post!!

Melissa-ParadigmFarms said...

We use mats in stalls. We have them over the compacted gravel in our stalls with a deep bed of shavings on top of the mats. Using them in stalls is nothing like using them in a run-in shed. Our (7) sheds are 50 feet long and 16 feet deep. The horses can and do gallop into them, take running starts out of them, come to sliding stops in them, and have play sessions in them, none of which happen in a stall. That means there is no safe, effective way to keep mats from sliding, shifting and curling. That's just a few of the reasons why mats are unsafe and impractical in our sheds for our uses.

EvenSong said...

Gotcha! Makes total sense. Thanks for the explanation.