spring, baby time, feeding ponehs and parasites.

The last few weeks of pregnancy are the hardest. I am so ready to have this baby.

I'm officially at 38 weeks and we are on baby time, makes it hard to plan things.
Tax lady: how is Monday the 19th for you?
Me: should be okay, unless I am in labor, because then I would be busy
Tax Lady : oooookay would Tuesday be better?
Me: maybe? But if I don't show it's because of the Baby, cause I am going to be tooooo busy to remember to call you.

It was pretty easy to be well behaved when the weather was crap, like yeah I really want to slog around outside in the freezing rain and mud, wahoo!. Well, spring has sprung. It is in the mid 70s with a light breeze, the flowers are coming out and I want to ride so very badly.

My dragon baby is very wiggly, I am still enjoying having him in my belly but at the same time I feel like we are both getting impatient. I'm trying to do all the things now that I won't be able to do later, like take long baths, read books and waste time online.

You can vote here on when baby is born, Joe is convinced it will be the 21st, I really don't know.

Otherwise not much going on that other people would be interested in. I had horrible stomach flu last Friday and a 9 month (!) pregnant, puking woman is the saddest thing ever. Jeep tried to break and I had to take it in to the shop to get Ujoints replaced, glad Joe is much more sensitive to weird car noise then I am, I tend to just turn the music louder which isn't the best plan. We went yesterday to visit friends (they fed me steak, delish!) and skyped with other friends and family :) It was fun to show off my belly to my parents, and really great to see them although I find Skype a little weird.

Critters are good, although maybe more clingy then normal. Sadie is always watching me. Probably because I am always eating.

Another thing that interests probably only me is figuring out this feeding thing. Ponehs have pretty much free choice grass hay, meaning I am their hay slave and bring them more about the time they run out of the previous feeding. Joy looks good (although hairy, muddy and disgusting) Poppy is slightly ribby and Little Horse is skinny again. Picked up more Triple Crown senior, since it is simplest to have all three eating the same grain, TC SR. doesn't make Joy a spooky mess, it is palatable, easily digestible and fairly high calorie. Only issue is it takes Joy a minute to snarfle her smaller amount of food, Poppy takes a normal amount of time and Little Horse is the slowest eater ever. So I separate them and fuss. I have Little up to three pounds of TC SR and oats and this happens daily.

Little Horse: nomnom, what's that? oh it's the dog,  nibble nibble, oh what's over there? hmmmm, nibble nibble
Me: Just eat your damn food!
Little Horse: but you put oil in it and now it has a funny texture
Me: just eat your damn food!
Little Horse: I don't really like it when there is more then one pound of oats per two pound of TC
Me: just eat it!
Little Horse: I think I will stand over here instead, eventually you will let Joy back in and then we can share it.

This is with food she likes, food she doesn't like she paws at and when it doesn't magically turn into something tastier she will dump it all over the ground.

I had fecals done on Joy and Little in preparation for spring dewoming (they got hit last with Equimax in December) Joy had a very low count and Little had an enormous count, more then four times higher then Joy's! I feel awful because I had gotten Little's numbers down and then figured we were good to go with a more normal deworming schedule. I think because she had such an awful parasite problem when she was a foal (I am seriously doubting if her dam was ever dewormed) that her gut doesn't work properly in getting rid of them, I know young horses often have a harder time with parasites but she is different. So the new plan is hitting her with dewormer every other month and looking into treating her for ulcers this summer, I just don't think her tummy works right.

Silly high maintenance beasties. Mine are pretty easy to keep though still, I think my mom is right and horse people just like to fuss.

fencing, baby and me.

Ponehs have been staying in mostly, I got the section of fence repaired and thought all was well until I tried letting them into the second paddock this morning (slightly drier in there, freakin mud!) and Little Horse and Joy were both out within minutes. So Joe gets to help me figure out the fence this weekend, I give up, they can stay in the front paddock and I will search for somewhat less muddy places to put down hay.

 Joy is being a spaz spaz spaz, spooking at invisble monsters and overreacting to e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. She got into grain during her Grand Wander About on Tuesday, I am not sure what it is about grain that turns into a monster but it is like having two different horses, total Jekyll and Hyde, one is high strung, over reactive, unfocused and quite frankly dangerous. The other is smart, notices everything, quick on her feet and fun. One vet I talked to thought she might be prone to ulcers and the grain irritated her stomach, especially since she has a similar reaction on antibiotics but no way of knowing  for sure without scoping her. Easiest right now to just to keep her on a high forage, low starch diet and avoid the crazies.

It has been kind of a baby-centric week, Monday was Tour the Birth Center Day, since Joe had to work (boo) my dear friend Melissa accompanied me. It turned out to be quite funny, we got lost trying to figure out where we were supposed to get in the stupid building, got sent to the 9th floor then got sent back to the 2nd, found the auditorium and giggled in the back through the powerpoint presentation, toured the Midwife Ghetto (honestly, it's totally set apart from the mainstream birth area, I guess so the nasty natural birthers don't upset the general population.) But the Ghetto is nice, lots of tubs to labor in which sounds wonderful as I adore baths. Then we went and ate yummy Thai food, baby likes Thai food, and strangely enough mushrooms.

Yesterday was my appointment with my Midwife, she is super cool. I ask "are you sure the baby is not freakishly large" and she assures me he is normal size, I go "but you'd tell me if he was freakishly large, right?" and she reassures me that she would tell me and says something nice about my measurements being all good. Just the kind of person you want around when you are worrying about everything. I have gotten kind of huge in the belly area, and feel a lot like sleeping all the time, grocery shopping was a lot of work. Also stopped by the fabric store and scored some nice brightly coloured flannel to make baby blanket, diaper wipes and general baby cleaners, they will be awesome and so much better then the wimpy swaddling blankets you can buy. (thanks for the idea Mom!)

I need to go be "productive" since all I have done so far today is eat yummy food, visit with Melissa and feed critters. I guess by "productive" I mean watch TrueBlood and make baby blankets, whatevs, it works.

Poneh hate.

I hate all the ponehs except the red one, the white one came when called so even though she was out I guess I don't hate her.

Try this again, I hate Little Horse.

She may look cute but is pure unadulterated evil.

Little horse realized yesterday that she could get out, so she was in and out all day yesterday, luckily when she gets out she just follows you like a big dog and demands cookies. I isolated where she was getting out (second paddock next to the barn) and closed the gate so all three were in the first paddock. Sometime early this morning Joy and Littlehorse decided escaping was awesome and busted through the gate so they could sneak out by the barn. I went out to check on them this morning and Poppy was all alone running around the field having a spazz. Joy did come to the front gate when I yelled so can't be to pissed at her.

So I went into the barn and cried for a bit, got the fence tester out and determined that the back half of the second paddock is getting no juice so now need to run up town, to get more wire and try replacing a few sections.

I so do not want to deal with this.

snowsnowsnow

It is such a good thing I am preggo in the winter, I think if it were summer (or even a normal winter) I would be very frustrated with things I want to do but shouldn't.

I really miss riding, I don't want to ride because it is uncomfortable and I feel all discombobulated but I miss being able to ride. I am hoping we get an early spring, the plan is to start lunging Joy and building up her topline while I bond with Baby and adjust to new mamaness, then I want to start getting her on trailrides especially the hill work as that is so amazing for increasing fitness and getting her hind end strong. Joy really responds better to training when she is physically fit, I guess all horses do but with her low frustration tolerance it really pays off to have her body strong while we are working on new things, especially dressage.

So right now Joy is at a good weight, Baby Horse is a little ribby (just had a growth spurt) and Poppy is annoying me with her disinterest in eating a lot. If I just had one I could put more hay out but I am going to have to add in an extra midday hard feed, otherwise Joy will get fabulously pudgy and Poppy will waste away while going "maybe I'll eat in a minute", so going to pull Joy out of the paddock and toss her some hay or something while the others get a tasty mix of alfalfa pellets, oats, rice bran and a little beet pulp so it sticks together. I am also giving up on them ever eating the Grostrong Minerals, and will order another vitamin/mineral supplement soon. I am thinking of putting Joy on Glanzen Complete since she did well on it last summer but if I can find flax seed cheap somewhere I might do that with a vitamin/mineral supplement instead as it is more economical.

I realized yesterday we had very little baby clothes in the teensy sizes, so then I went to a second hand shop and got some really cute stuff. It was fun, but took some time since a lot of baby clothes are really horrible, I wonder why parents are so freaked out by someone thinking their kid is the opposite sex, like the baby cares.

Going to spend some time on house stuff, been slacking recently. I will have plenty of time to take a bath tonight since Friday is the day when horrible teenage boys come over and argue loudly while playing poker, hiding in the bath is my usual defense and it works very well.

Happy Birthday to meeeeeeeee

February 2nd was my birthday! hurray, I am 25 which is very old :) I am planning on making Joe take me to the botanical gardens and out for yummy food soon, might have to wait until next Saturday since he has been working a lot lately, apparently my birthday was not a holiday for the gainfully employed. I made pizza and amazing vanilla and raspberry cake, we opened presents (presents from my parents came in time, yay) and it was very fun.

Not much new going on here, big thaw and the horses are running around like idiots, my pasture is so fucked. Joe is not happy about it but with this crazy muddy winter I think even one horse would have torn it up. So lots of cleaning up in the spring and will have to put them in the back and reseed the front.

32 weeks!

*edit*  Finally figured out how to get picture the right way, that was bothering me.

sing the declutter song, or should it be a declutter dance?

Totally decided to do a declutter, I feel claustrophobic with the amount of stuff we don't use. Unfortunately I hate getting rid of stuff and always procrastinate on it. Part of the hard thing is I feel like I might need something and need to hold onto it because you can't always afford to buy another one, that's why I have more bits then bridles and a lot of glitter (you never know when you are going to need glitter). Joe and I also have a lot of hobbies and those take up space, in addition to the fact we have NO closets and a small living area it is no wonder the spare room is being taken over by baby stuff. Even though we have kept the baby stuff accumulation to a minimum and really just have what we need, thanks to some very generous friends and family and some lucky score thrift shopping.

So I am not going to be rigid with it and force myself to do "x" amount everyday, but it is something I am going to be working on, in addition to my information gathering expeditions online and in books. I am going to aim for getting rid of 100 things a month, but if I don't reach the goal I am okay with it, got other things going on you know... It's really important to me to have everything ready for Baby so I don't feel pressured to do anything beyond hanging out with Baby and adjusting to being a mommy. I don't want to feel like I have to rush off and figure out what detergent I need to use for washing cloth diapers in.

Horses are mad at me for making the weather cold, I decided to up their beet pulp but am adding in another feed rather then trying to overfill the bucket, amazing how much the pellets expand, with four cups of pellets I can still mix in the rice bran and supplements but if I add more then that the bucket overflows when the pellets are soaked. I wish we would get some proper snow, the ground is frozen very hard and since it was muddy before it froze, makes the paddock very icky to walk around in.

Baby has hiccups and I should go find some lunch.

I have a Popsicle addiction

and I can weed whack like no one else.

And now pictures.

Sadie loves to help feed chicks!

obsessed with her babies.

Still cute!

hmm, branch.

Girls say "hai!"

Dancer is looking nicer

Good weekend

It is hot again! yesterday was a scorcher but we still got tons done, got my corner posts set for the arena and a lot of pasture weed whipped.We had a lot to do since it rained everyday last week! But pasture maintenance got me thinking about boarding I have friend who have had nightmare experiences with boarding, on both ends. Horse people tend to be absolutely great or crazy avoid like the plague. As much as I love having my horses home, There are advantages both ways. Biggest thing is when you have limited time you often have to sacrifice ride time for care time.

I was lucky enough to board with some really awesome people before I got my own place, the first place I had Joy was a boarding and lesson barn, some of my friends had issues getting the barn owner to do extra feedings and such but it worked out fine for us since I was working off my board and spent a lot of there, Joy was happy in the big fields. The next place I took her to was a friend's farm and that worked out awesome, this friend has a really nice, small setup, with a great barn and safe pasture. I was super happy to leave Joy in the hands of such a knowledgeable and capable horse person, I felt totally comfortable with everything even when I was several states away, in West Virginia.

In other news I went trail riding with eventing friends Sunday, It was super fun! I really had a great time and Joy was a good girl despite some minor teleporting.We rode to the river, it was super high from all the rain we have been having and felt so nice after a hot sweaty ride. I love riding with eventers (at least these ones) since they can ride and we can do all the things I love such as gallop up hills, they don't yell at me if my horse spooks and don't randomly tale off without saying anything. Eventing friend brought me a present, Joy boots! so we are basically set for a show if I can scrounge a vest. Very exciting!

I should have done my outside stuff this morning, when it wasn't crazy hot. I swear my brain has fallen out I keep going to do something, forgetting what I am doing in the middle and wandering around. It is supposed to be up to 90 today, blergh.

I should go get Popsicles :)

River pic from last year :)