Location Location Location: ASSFS Blog Hop

Well - we've been out of commission so long, most of our readers have probably forgotten all about us. I've been struggling for a while with how to make the transition back to posting. A Soft Spot for Stars blog hop seems like a handy way to "get back on the horse" so to speak. Thanks so much to those of you who checked in.

Always hogs the frame

Equestrian life is challenging here on the Outer Banks. Land is hard to come by, we're very remote, and the climate can be harsh, so overall even basic horse-keeping is an expensive endeavor.

• Hay / Feed

The nearest decent hay source is a 7 hour round trip to SE VA. Nice square bales of second cutting orchard grass are $10 - $12 each, usually weighing around 50 lbs. Val consumes 150 bales a year. I can store 100 bales if I cram the two hay barns to the rafters. Best to do this by December to have all the same crop. (to do otherwise invariably leads to frustrating hay strikes when switching to the new flavor) That will usually last until hay is harvested again in the summer.

To find the true cost, I have to figure in fuel and travel time. This adds another $200 to the truckload - usually fifty bales, making the per bale cost more like $16. (multiplied by three or four trips a year)

Luckily, the local Ace Hardware carries Southern States, so feed is just a twenty mile drive. They are great about special ordering, and give rewards on all purchases. TC senior is $25 a bag, beet pulp $20, and my ration balancer $35.

[A slight digression: This fall I had stocked all the winter hay by October and was super psyched about my stockpile. Then there were two hurricanes in one month. The second storm (Matthew) brought the worst flooding in at least a hundred years. My property has never flooded before, and I had three feet of salt water covering the entire farmette. Both of the hay barns and the tack room flooded.

Less than 24 hours after the flood waters receded, the wet hay was almost too hot to touch, and had to be un-stacked to avoid the barns spontaneously combusting, sorted to salvage what I could, and disposed of - about half of the hay. I didn't even document this part because I was in shock and then utterly demoralized. I lost all the animal feed, many tools and machines, the entire garden, and my tack room was an utter disaster area.

Biggest bummer: the bottle of hoof dressing tipped over in the tack room. While floating around it covered everything touched by the water in sticky black oil. (which was everything)

SO very lucky: I had taken all my tack out to clean and it was stored in the one building that didn't get water.

Still unclear on the state of the Brenderup... haven't been able to face that situation yet, beyond obsessively rinsing and spraying anti-corrosive on all parts that got under salt water. *heavy sigh*]

:(

Starting to recede finally. Val was unimpressed...

• Boarding

There is only one barn that boards, and they advertise full board at $450, "scheduled feedings twice daily along with free range of hay and turnout, stall cleaning twice daily, bedding, parking for your trailer on the premises." Turnout is in the riding ring, which doesn't meet my safety standards due to fencing issues and debris. There is no pasture or grazing here.

• Property

Real estate here is expensive. My nearly three acres was initially $250k, which I eventually got for $110k. This was basically raw land. Still saving towards house building...

Last week. It took months of work to get back to this.

• Lessons / Equestrian Scene

The nearest quality dressage instruction is 3.5 hours away in SE VA. When my trainer was still teaching, lessons were $50 for an hour. She generously let me come up for a weekend to get two or three lessons at a time, and I traded barn work occasionally. It was an ideal situation for me. I was lessoning regularly, progressing as a rider. I miss her terribly. Sadly, I haven't had a lesson in years, with none on the horizon unless something can be worked out with remote technology.

Most of the local riders are trail riders - a pretty spectacular proposition with 70 miles of beach to explore. There are thriving dressage and eventing scenes mid-state - a round trip of 10+ hours. The nearest showing (I've flat out given up on this possibility) is also either SE VA or mid state. I'm contemplating Working Equitation at the moment, and with a more well suited horse in the future I'd like to try endurance.

Nearest tack stores are also SE VA, and are expensive. With all the online options this isn't an issue.

I pay $40 for a trim. Not sure what shoes cost as we've been barefoot for about six years. For the last several cycles my farrier has just done a few corrections. I am taking over the trimming responsibilities. I've done this out of necessity because our farrier situation is always tenuous. He travels over 3 hours to get here and generally has to stay overnight to get all the horses without rushing. I don't think he makes much on his trips here.  I arrange the schedule for him and make sure all the horse owners "show up".

I'm searching for a natural balance dentist at the moment. My former dentist doesn't want to come this far out of her way - she was traveling from MD. With her, Val had his teeth done standing in his run in, un-sedated and at liberty. The nearest dental practices in Va are vet connected, and will probably insist on sedation. I'm leery of trailering that far and having to withhold hay on the return ride because of sedation. If anyone in SE VA or eastern NC reading this has a dentist recommendation please share. :D

The nearest equine vet is also 3.5 hours away in VA. They do not come to the island. I give all the vaccinations (excepting rabies) myself, and the small animal vet kindly pulls a coggins and gives Val a once over at the same time. He actually removed a melanoma from Val's anus (tmi) over the summer, saving me time and money. I assisted for the surgery - it was pretty cool actually. Val is a super cheap drunk - he had half-rations of anesthesia and proceeded to cut major zzzzs while the cross ties barely held his big 'ol head off the ground.  

• Climate

Summers are hot and humid - generally in the mid 80's with 80% - 90% humidity being the norm. This is hard on Val and me. (landscaper) Thank goodness a jump in the ocean is never far away.

Fall and winter can often be very mild and comfortable, with less humidity and mosquitoes. This is the best time for riding, with average temps of 40's to 50's and the occasional nighttime dip into the 30's. A hard winter here would be several weeks of sub-freezing temps. It rarely snows, but is almost always windy, so big wind chills are common. Spring can be beautiful, but it is often stormy and unsettled.

Basically - life on this island swings between insanely beautiful and ruggedly inconvenient. It's not for the faint of heart, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

In the Arena # 125 - We shall overcome...

Our big excitement this week was the first tropical system of the season - Beryl. Say what?! No, not even kidding.

The beginning wasn't too bad - several hours of blustery winds and torrential rain. Eventually the eye / center of circulation passed directly over us. The moment it cleared us the winds went from 0 to gusts of 70. Tide came roaring out of the sound, and up the streets. People were scrambling to move vehicles to higher ground and attend to their boats. As usual the forecast hadn't called for any of the drastic-ness...

All I can say is if my tomato plants had gotten killed I would have kicked that storm's ass! (I parked my truck to block the main winds from the garden, and it worked.) Actually, all I can say is that if this had been August instead of May, I dread even to imagine the destruction we would have suffered. Island life can be dicey.

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Weather and subsequent footing issues kept us out of the arena until this weekend. Yesterday afternoon I dragged the arena, groomed and tacked up for our first ride in a week. Val tried to convince me that the part of the arena beside Captain Outburst's property was a no-fly zone. I persuaded him differently by practicing leg yields into the area in question. I concentrated on my position, namely opening up my hip angle and getting my leg more underneath me, as well as all the usual non stop self reminders and adjustments.

This morning dawned with bright sunshine and cool breezes. After morning chores and the usual preparations, with extra attention to repelling flies, we got to work. Again, I paid attention to my alignment - ears, shoulders, hips, heels, as well as keeping my elbows at my sides and my eyes straight through Val's ears. As I have no one on the ground and no mirrors, I must rely on Val to let me know when I've got things right (or wrong!), which he gladly does.

Also, I put the cones back into the arena. They really help me to focus on keeping the school figures accurate. After picking up contact and achieving a nicely forward walk, we worked on trot transitions. There was a halfhearted canter stride the first ask, and after that I got the trot when I asked. Once again feeling the rhythm of the new gait was the first go at the transition - leg and crop only if necessary. Overall I think we gained some ground. Apparently it's going to take a while to restore confidence - mine and Val's. We'll chip away at it.

Afterwords Val got a scrubby bath plus a relaxing pick of grass. Then he helped me reinstall the stall awning that got trashed in the storm. He oversaw handling of the tarp, inspected the tools and licked my legs while I was on the ladder. It was a perfectly lovely day with my horse.

 

 

 

 

 

If you turn up the volume, you can hear Val happily snatching away at mouthsful of grass right in front of poor, poor Cowboy...

 and groaning with pleasure - there's nothing like a good roll in the sand.

 

In the Arena # 123 - Getting my head around it... At the Farmette # 8 - No rest for the weary...

There have been two rides since my less than elegant dismount last week. The bumps and bruises have healed, but I'd be lying if I said that I didn't feel some trepidation when mounting up again.

I threw on the bareback pad a few days later for the first ride. Val wasn't particularly calm. I reckon I wasn't either - surprise! Nonetheless, it was a decent ride. One little scoot, and then things went smoothly. I focused on sitting deeply, in my horse.

The next evening, after doing some effective ground work, I impulsively led Val over to the mounting block and hopped on, sans tack. I'm lucky Val is relatively comfortable even without a pad. No shark fin withers on my boy, so no wither wedgie. We motored around the arena, relying on legs and seat only. An un-pulled mane comes in handy sometimes. It was a divine ride. I felt close to my horse, physically and mentally.

The plan is to do a real schooling ride this weekend. Tacked up, and revisiting the trot / canter transitions with equanimity, and intention. After processing what happened leading up to my fall, I believe the issue was me being thrown (no pun intended) by sticky transitions, becoming frustrated and most importantly getting off of my seat. When the shenanigans started I was already unbalanced. A good but hard lesson to learn.

The rest of my week centered around the weather and the garden.

There have been the most intense skies happening along with the numerous thunderstorms lately... thankfully, as we were getting a little drought-ish in April. Seems like we may be returning to a more normal pattern of late afternoon and evening thunderstorms relieving the excess moisture and energy built up in the atmosphere. A dicey pattern when ventilating your home depends on crank up vents on the roof...

In the gardens, weeding and picking off pests is a never ending process. One benefit to the early spring and moving my beds around, the tomato / tobacco hornworm caterpillars have struck out. Suckahs! Also, I found a newly hatched hornworm moth, wings not even pumped up yet, which was promptly relocated.

The hose came in handy to jet away aphids attacking my (delicious) sugar snaps. The radishes are harvested. Note to self - next time succession planting would be a good idea. My carrots are coming up nicely. I experimented with transplanting some of the thinnings - supposedly not possible to do. We shall see.

The mighty Kubota spent the weekend again, so I was able to turn all the manure piles. The new bed is going gangbusters. Thank you Val for making some awesome dirt. I swear you can (almost) watch the tomato plants growing. I have been saving those plastic-y feed bags, with the plan of bagging up composted manure for sale next year. I thought I'd turn them inside out, leaving a clear space to put some kind of logo label.

Enjoy some photo spam...

 

 

wee little carrots

no one needs this many radishes

this kind of cloud formation (wall cloud) usually makes water spouts...

isn't he lovely...

At the Barn #51 - Better living through chemistry

For the first time in ten days, the shiny yellow orb made an appearance in the sky this morning - burning eyes and singeing skin. The collective mood lifted.

Our mosquito population however, has reached astronomical levels now that the rain is finally gone. There is no way you can work outdoors for more than five seconds without protection. It's epic - no one can remember it ever being this bad before.

I generally avoid using bug spray, but right now it is a necessity, for humans and horses. They are suffering too. Val volunteers himself for spraying and scratching immediately upon my arrival to the farm, by galloping to the gate and screeching to a halt with some head tossing thrown in for emphasis.  He often gives sweet grooming in return to show his appreciation. Val has really lifted my spirits lately.





Yesterday I almost reached my breaking point upon discovering at dusk that the well pump wasn't pumping (again). Process of elimination led me to a faulty pressure plate, which my Dad and I repaired today, but tolerating the conditions while diagnosing - mosquitos flying into your eyes, up your nose down your throat - put me over the edge. (I capped off my pity party last night with Haagen Daz Creme Brulee. All better.)

Oh look Dad, surprise in the pump house!

There is talk that our road will be back in early October, but no confirmation yet. As of today, they've spanned half the breach... thank you so much road fixing guys!!!

Is tiny road fixing man getting ready to bust a move?!

This weekend we're expecting cool north winds and temps in the 60's. Perfect. Looking forward to leaving the post hurricane blues behind. Yes indeed.

Oh, and Seven is a big help too. Extra good snuggler, this one :)

Hope springs eternal... or Nothin' left to do but smile, smile, smile

I guess I'm officially addicted to the internet. It was more of a bummer not to be able to get online than it was to have no power, a/c, refrigeration, tv. I did miss my vacuum almost as much as my darling apple though... I've been optimistically carrying the laptop around for days. In the car... in my bicycle basket when you couldn't drive yet, (frantically) trying every available plug or wifi spot. No luck until today. Weeeee - I'm giddy :)

While the storm was bad, it could have been much much worse. (Stay tuned for my official rant about The Weather Channel - all drama, all the time + pix and video) Val thinks it was pretty bad since he had to endure the experience alone. (I thought I heard Val singing a sad little song when I made it back up to the farm..."♬♪Where have all the cookies gone.... long time pa-assing...♪♬")

His buddy Cowboy evacuated - against better judgment - to a place off island , and much more vulnerable to tide than here. I still haven't gotten through to his people about how they fared.

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As it stands now, we're cut off from the mainland by several (five) new inlets, which will have to be filled in and a new road built over.

In the meantime sole access to the island will be by a two hour ferry ride to the mainland - dependent on weather conditions - landing you in the middle of nowhere, another hour to civilization...

I don't even want to think about the repercussions. Minimum six hours to equine veterinary care and hay. A trip of any consequence will require staying overnight. Moving plans on hold until there's a road to deliver the 10 x 20 building I ordered (hay storage + studio space). Val's feet are atrocious- un-rideable condition - and the farrier canceled his two week overdue appointment last week. I doubt he'll be back until the road is sorted out. I guess I'll be borrowing tools and trimming Val myself. Anyone with advice (smazourek?!) please leave in comments. Bottom line - life is going to be even more (I really want to use curse words here) complicated than it already was.

Looking on the bright side:

My home wasn't flooded
Generators arrived to supply our power yesterday
The Shimmy Shack survived intact other than a minor leak
The truck only suffered a few high speed pine cone scars
I had just purchased feed + raised and tarped my hay supply- so no diet for Val ;)
My refrigerator is sparkling clean - "when in doubt - throw it out"

And finally, to all of our readers... I haven't said enough (ever?) how much it brightens my days to be connected to such a kind, knowledgeable and supportive group of horse(wo)men. Thank you!

At the Barn #50 - A few of my favorite things

Whoa - long time no post. It's been a whirlwind around here.

A synopsis:

❖ Just as the heat wave broke, Val's rh swelled up and got hot again. More icing, wrapping and buteing. He's a really good patient and I am getting the hang of wrapping his legs. It's all in the wrist ;) In the meantime we've done a ton of groundwork which has been really good for us. I can see the results, but I can't wait to get back to a regular riding schedule. Val thinks he's joined the AARE...

❖ The farrier can't make it until next week (over seven weeks) + it's been super hot and dry +  the flies have been ferocious, so Val's feet are horrible - chipping and cracking. I had to get the rasp out myself. Now sporting several new band-aids :)

❖ Dad and I installed the connection from the trailer to the septic tank. We did a very professional job if I do say so myself. Heck - we showed up. That's better than most contractors around here. We're thinking of a sideline business - B&C's Fake-ass Plumbing - "You need to poo, we know what to do!"

❖ My left hand is enormously swollen from a white-faced hornet sting x 3 in the barn Sunday morning. I had been maintaining a live and let live attitude about these guys. Frankly, I didn't even realize they were hornets til that little bugger attacked me, but let's just say he met his maker at the end of my broom last night. Extremely painful. I'm wondering if Val's mysterious swellings were from hornet stings?

 

  
❖ Earthquake. Too bizarre...

❖ Impending hurricane. I spent the day doing preparations, with more of the same on tap for tomorrow. The farmette is in pretty much the best location on the island as far as wind and tide go, so Val should be fine. There will likely be major sound-side flooding around my house. Bye bye garden. Bye bye flower beds. Bye bye nice lawn.  Living in the path of periodically destructive storms does help learn the "don't get too attached to stuff" lesson.

To end on a happy note:

Meet the newest addition to our household. I found him last Friday night, stunned on the edge of the road. I believe he was hit by a car as he had a wound on the top of his head like he had skidded on it. And he acted like he had a concussion. He perked up the next day, and has figured out grown up cat food, litter boxes and friendly humans. Oh, and upon closer inspection, several extra toes on each paw were discovered. We shall call him Seven :)

In the Arena # 85 - Now is the summer of our discontent... At the Farmette # 6 - You say tomato, I say ka-ching!

Update on the suddenly swollen ankle - - - it's back to normal!! Several commentors had suggested a bug bite or sting might be the cause, and I did inspect closely looking for signs of that, or some kind of injury, and didn't find either. But I did find this post from almost exactly a year ago... go figure. Next year I'll probably know better :)

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Still waiting for the weather to break... still having a cool shower + watermelon snack daily... still not much riding going on. We are doing groundwork, especially leading work to and from our grazing field. Val often wants to impatiently charge ahead of me on our way out to the green green grass. This provides plenty of opportunities to practice halts and backing up until we can get our mind on our work. On our way back to the paddock, when we're grass drunk, everything is nice and mellow. We can even walk in the super scary mini woods trail. Yesterday when  a death dealing stranger Pat, Cowboy's grandad, lurked around suspiciously walked past the manure pile pushing a wheelbarrow, the reaction was limited to a four footed stomp - aimed in the opposite direction of the handler. What a good boy :)

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Even without getting to ride, and being hot as hades, Saturday was super productive. While my Dad took charge of installing the tie downs that will keep the Shimmy Shack from shaking too much or even tipping over in the big winds we often get, I weeded and harvested the garden. I also harvested some bamboo to make stakes for my pepper plants on steroids. The bamboo was here - I would never willingly put that kind of invasive plant in. Hopefully I can keep it in check by using it for projects around the farm.

Anyway - I took my harvest over to a fantastic local restaurant whose chef is contracting me to grow specialty produce for them next year. We're going to work out the details this fall, but in the meantime he purchased a beautiful basket of four kinds of heirloom tomatoes, red and yellow cherries and an assortment of hot peppers. And he pays waaayyy better than the farmers market. Yay - and once again - thanks Dad!

In the Arena # 84 - What we did on our summer vacationFrom the farmette #5 - Bumper crop and + channeling Mr. Clean

It has been (almost) unbearably hot and humid for two straight weeks... so I thought I'd give you a taste of our day to day routine. (can't wait for a different routine) Note that it (almost) includes no riding. Oh and I'm posting this today - written yesterday - because it literally took all night to upload / download these measly videos.

Unfortunately we're expected temps to get back up into the 90's with 90% humidity again all week long. Working outdoors is kicking my butt at the moment. Boy do I love swimming pools + the ocean + showers + air conditioning...

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Vacation is officially over. It rained enough to firm up the arena temporarily, and cooled off a bit as well, so tonight last night, we finally rode! A nice bareback ride before dinner. Thank goodness... the longer I go without riding the squirrelier I feel about our first ride back. Happily, it was all good. I did lots of stretches in the saddle, focusing on staying balanced and even. Front to back as in on all three points of my seat, and side to side as in no collapsing my left side / shortening my right leg. Our steering and turns on the forehand reflected the evenness. This seems so much easier to me when I'm riding bareback.

There appears to be a tropical storm on the horizon, which I (almost) welcome. An extended period of rain would resolve my arena footing issues for a while, as well as our drought. Fingers crossed for a near miss that drops three or so days of rain and no wind to speak of...

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Pie in the Sky produce is coming along. I have managed to keep my basil producing by cutting it back six nodes down each time I harvest. Last week I picked a big ol' basket of peppers - which are selling very well at the market.

I also have started eating tomatoes - a nice assortment of heirlooms. ♡BLT's + tomato sandwiches ♡!! I'm not even too sad about the diminished crop caused by rampant blossom end rot. I'd just be having to can them in this miserable heat - how's that for making lemonade!

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Trailer update:

A while back I got a request for "grody" pictures of the trailer pre-cleaning...

Stains + outright filth

Rodent + water damage

Yep - there were definitely rodents... lovely

 I have cleaned out all the crap belongings of the former owner. Vacuumed thoroughly and steam cleaned - carpet and upholstery - twice. Hooked up the water, which entailed a hide and seek for the water lines, which entailed tons of exploratory digging on the hottest day anyone here can remember.

Now that I have water, I can begin the scrubbing. I've preliminarily doused the bathroom with strong cleansers. This weeks agenda includes hooking up the septic lines, bleaching the water tanks and connecting hurricane straps. As I spend more time in the Shimmy Shack, I can see myself living there. I think it's going to be good :)