The fog greeted us again early this morning, along with another wake-up call around 6 thanks to a pesky fly and some neighbourly snoring. Thankfully, I managed to drift back to sleep until 8. Once up, it was time for coffee and a slower start to the day before heading out to say good morning to the new arrivals, the cats, and of course Roo. Hay was tossed to the littles and Roo, and with such a beautiful morning unfolding, my second coffee was enjoyed out on the deck.
S eventually surfaced and joined me outside. After getting changed, I headed down to the round pen for a poop-picking session. Naturally, that led to an attempt at catching one of our new residents. Unfortunately, neither was overly interested in being caught. S and Harley joined the effort, although Harley's contribution mostly consisted of running laps around the outside fence line in a state of complete excitement. Eventually S escorted her back to the house, which proved much more helpful. With a little patience, a handful of oats, and a few scratches, I managed to end on a positive note.
My trip to grab the oats led to the discovery of something far less pleasant—smell of mouse pee in the feed stall. Suddenly the day's priorities shifted. Every bucket, feed tub, and storage container was hauled out onto the grass for a pressure-washing session. S blew them off, but it quickly became clear they needed a more thorough cleaning. Out came the rubber gloves, scrub brush, and cleaning spray. I scrubbed while S rinsed, and together we made a pretty good team.
I even tackled my old Mexican saddle from when I was little, which had been stored at Mom's and unfortunately ended up covered in mouse mess. It was one of those jobs I'd been avoiding because it felt overwhelming, but once we got started it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd imagined. By the end, we'd accomplished far more than I expected.
By 1 o'clock we were ready for a break. Lunch was BLTs made with bacon cooked on the BBQ, accompanied by a well-deserved cold beer. Harley received her Cartrophen and 4Cyte as well to help ease her sore joints.
After lunch, I headed to the garage to help S get the Fireball down. There's a car show this weekend that he wanted to attend, so it was time to free it from its storage spot. Once the furniture underneath was moved, the lift came down, the truck was backed out, and operations shifted back to the barn.
While S pressure washed the truck then vacuumed and buffed the inside, I started hauling dry storage bins, feed tubs, water buckets, and assorted supplies back into place. The barn shovels and forks all came out for cleaning, followed by another round of poop picking in the round pen. Even the poop bucket earned itself a proper wash. Hay nets, farrier tools, and countless other odds and ends were scrubbed clean and left to dry in the 29-degree heat.
While everything dried, I swept the barn and reorganized a few areas that had become cluttered over time. It felt good to see things looking tidy again.
Later in the afternoon, S and I topped up the water in the round pen before rewarding ourselves with cold drinks on the deck. We hadn't been sitting long when a text arrived from the neighbour. His skid steer was stuck in a sink hole and he needed help. Off went S with his tractor, chains and good intentions while I retreated indoors to work on today's blog and enjoy the air conditioning.
The day stayed smoky but incredibly hot and humid.
One exciting update—our refrigerator experiment was a success! The garage fridge is once again producing wonderfully cold drinks. A small victory, but one we're both quite happy about.
I spent the rest of the afternoon putting away all the freshly cleaned equipment before squeezing in a bit of gardening and weeding. S returned home with the tractor just before 6, changed clothes in record time, and jumped into the Fireball to head off to the truck show. With dog bedding loads underway, he planned to grab supper there, so I made myself a salad and enjoyed a quiet evening.
By then it had already been quite the day of cleaning.
I settled in to finish yesterday's pony blog, loading photos and videos, when B texted wondering if I could handle horse feeding duties. She suspected she might be dealing with appendix pain and wasn't feeling up to it. So off I went, mixing tubs and heading out into one of those radiant golden-hour evenings that makes everything glow.
The littles and Roo got their hay, and afterward I spent some time sitting quietly with Harley and the cats, watching the sunset paint the sky.
S rolled back into the yard shortly after 9 with a surprise—an individual pizza he'd picked up at the car show thanks to a two-for-one deal. I enjoyed half of it on the deck with a cold drink while he worked through a pile of texts. Afterward, he slipped into the hot tub while I started reading Elle.
When he came back inside, we tried once again to finish the documentary Heal. Once again, the documentary won. We were both completely tuckered out and called it quits shortly after 11.
Some days are productive in ways you can measure. Others leave you with clean buckets, organized barns, tired muscles, and the satisfaction of knowing a whole lot got accomplished. Today was definitely one of those days.
Often, it takes pressure to get some of those jobs done that have been put off for a time.
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