Goodbye, 2008

It does seem as if the past year has flown by, truly.

It has been a year of change and challenges, heartbreak and happiness. I do think this is true of every year, but our perspectives change also and our ability to meet these "speed bumps on the path of life" grow hand in hand with them.

To recap the last day of the year here, I have four horses at the barn. All are in blankets and weathering the -20 degree temperatures with ease. The stock tank heaters are working perfectly, I have plenty of hay on hand, and I am not overly worried about any of them. The Princess has been sequestered in her own little space due to a sore hip, but she's perky and whickering for her meals. (Although at these temps they are fed free choice of course) Today I will be checking under blankets for rubs and wear, but for the most part the blankets fit well and the horses are enjoying their hot mashes. Even at -20 degrees, I got my usual display of bucking and dashing about when I went up for morning feeding :)

I turned into a chicken wrangler last night. The cold has been pretty brutal on my five chickens, although I don't seem to have lost any combs on the roos. With the generous loan of a large wire crate, I now have the five inside my garage. Yep, you read that right. Live chickens in the house, haha! At six when I fed at the barn, it was -5, and the birds seemed okay on their roost (keeping in mind it's fully dark by six pm here) but by 9:30 it had dropped to -13 and I knew I would lose them if I didn't get them in the house. So I rousted out my son, we put on our cold weather gear, found a tote, and made two trips getting them to the house. They were fairly lethargic last night but I was confident that they would be okay. This morning they noisily greeted the lights coming on, and are otherwise quietly enjoying their water and feed. They aren't real happy to be crammed into the crate, but they'll manage I am sure. We have about five more days of this severe cold and then they can go back up where they belong. Oh, and great handy hint, you can really cut down on odor if you put a layer of kitty litter down! (Should you ever be forced to bring a chicken into the house to save it's life, lol)

At the first of this year, I had rescued a young Appaloosa gelding (the story is here on the blog) whose companion was humanely euthanized. The gelding recovered in fine style, and is now the pampered pony of a wonderfully generous horse owner. Pepper has turned out to be.....well, peppery;) Thanks to everyone who assisted with his rescue and recovery (Joey, Jamie, staff at AESAH Clinic, Molly, Gisela, Becky and her husband)

Thanks also to my neighbor Kathy, who has come through twice this year, with emergency loan of her horse trailer-not to mention providing a sounding board for all my dreams and schemes this year-you're awesome!

In February of this year, came two abused and starved horses into my care. They left late this summer, blooming in great health and weight, and I thank Jake for having confidence in my recovery skills. Two very nice young horses who have a committed owner, how cool is that?

In March, I learned about Wingnut (also featured on the blog here) who came back into my life, nearly dead from starvation. She too, left this fall in very healthy weight. It is because of what happened to this horse that I went to court a number of times, hoping for at least a chance to inform the court about her recovery to full health.

The growing season proved to be espcially challenging, with just a couple days above 70 degrees. It was a cool, cloudy growing season, and I had plenty of gardening failures like everyone else here. Some things did surprisingly well, and the bounty of broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage is safely put up for us to enjoy over the winter months. My own personal gardening triumph was a beautiful pumpkin-also harvested. It's all a learning curve for me, but I surely enjoy it. This coming year, I will be expanding my growing space and I am hoping to double or triple the number of flats of veggies.

In May, another mare left my care, to go home with her owner. This poor horse ended up bounced around as the owner has had a terrible series of personal crises this year. Last I heard, the mare is safe with another horse person and still loved and coddled like she should be. The owner struggles, but is determined to keep her girl.....like many of us.

In between the comings and goings at my place, I turned down a total of 7 free horses (so far this winter) before actually purchasing one myself. Reba joined my care in October and so far, I love her to pieces. She has a ton of character (rather like Wingnut, only not so destructive, haha), is firmly on the road to soundness, and I am so very much looking forward to riding her this spring.

Also this spring, an unfortunate misconception cost me a friendship I had truly treasured. Oh well, there is nothing to be done and that's that. Too bad really, as I had expected more maturity from this person. That's okay, it opened doors for other friends and has allowed me to reconnect with people from my past. But I still miss chatting with my buddy :(

The hay business continues, and is full of its own unique challenges. The above mentioned buddy hasn't helped matters on local groups, but I persist. I certainly do not do this hay stuff to make money. I do it for the horses. Screw the egos, the bruised feelings, the rumors-they won't feed horses, now will they? Nope. So the vans continue to come, and people are still grateful to get premium quality hay at a price that is hundreds less than the feed stores. I am still handing out bales to people in distress, scrambling to find certain cuttings/varieties, and upending my own life to meet people when it's convenient for them to pick it up. But that's okay-the horses are my priority above all. Which is why I have done five vans in something like three months, with another due to land here any day.....and there goes another two weekends offloading it, too.

The horse community continues to be a fractured mess of outright lies, towering egos, and general silliness. For example, Flo Pitcher verbally attacking me at a local bar. Or Mark Figelski who is so stupid he won't advertise in the Alaska Horse Journal because the publisher of the magazine brought up a van of hay (once!) and sold the excess, haha Boy talk about shooting yourself in the foot, heehee That's okay, no one knows where they are located anyhow. Since, you know, they don't advertise or anything-except CL of course. This is the same guy that is very busy bad mouthing a nice local lady who sells affordable tack-and how tacky is that?

And oh yes, the local Craigslist. Source of constant amazement and amusement. Hardly anything can be posted there without it being flagged down. I have one ad there, the first in months and months, but nearly every ad for hay (no matter the source!) gets flagged off. In other areas of the country, any ag related tiny operation can post without trouble-but not here in Alaska. I just recently found out that some local hay guys think I am busy flagging off their ads. Um, nope, why would I? Heck I refer people to them, who either can't use, or can't afford the hay I bring in. Anyone with livestock needs hay, we are all in the same boat here, true? The local CL is where Flo Pitcher occasionally takes stabs at me personally, presumably for a "community service" or some such drivel. Sigh, another challenge-weathering the perpetual rumor engine.

Onward into the New Year, I say.

Considering what's happened to our country this past year, we have plenty of "speed bumps" to weather over the coming months. These little spats mean nothing in the course of our lives, and I just refuse to be brought down by it. Have confidence in yourselves, in the economy, in the country as a whole, and things will improve. Honest :)