Four Country Gals

After carefully evaluating the situation with the shed on the north property line, and discussions with Deena, they realize horses have a future here. Just as soon as Cindy and Bev can get the barn ready, they’ll have two foster horses.

Time to get to work…

They’ve got “heavy metal” to move, tons of tumbleweed to liberate, and at least a foot or more of sand to dig out. That doesn’t count the petrified cow manure that will remain… need a jackhammer to bust that out.

Deena agrees to help with the corral. Her father-in-law has a bunch of railroad ties that he’ll let them have and if they’ll help clean up his place, they can have all the old fencing. They’ll tack that up to help secure the corral.

With Deena (and Chase) on the tractor with the big auger, they dig post holes, set the posts and make a corral.

Thankfully, both Cindy and Bev are pretty handy with hammers and saws. Soon they have both a combined feed and tack area as well as a nice big stall for the horses, as well as a secure corral.

Now, while they’re out there working, another neighbor happens by… Dixie. She lives “over there”, smack in the middle of “mile square”. During the course of the conversation, she mentions she has sheep, as well as horses, and is currently helping out with lambing season at a nearby sheep ranch.

Cindy, in a moment of exuberance, says… “Oh, a lamb, I’d love to have a lamb”.

Well, not a half-hour passes and here comes Dixie with a 3-day-old “bummer”.

Aye-yi-yi… be careful what you wish for, the horse stable isn’t quite finished and now we have a lamb, too. Where we gonna put it? It’s too little to live outside. Besides, it has to be fed every few hours.

“Oh, Maw-w-wm! We’ve got just the thing for you. We’ll feed him, if you’ll love him.

And so, Taco became a “house pet”. Mom even wraps him in a towel, puts him in her bed and sleeps with him for the first week of his life. After that, he learns to sleep in a dog kennel in the hallway.

It takes about a week to get him to sleep clear through the night, taking his bottle in the morning and then a couple times during the day, and finally just before bed time.

Luckily, the dogs get along well with him. Koda is just sure he’s her new personal play toy.

Little do the dogs know what’s coming…

Part of our dream has been to have more than just dogs… we really would like to again have a horse or two.

Cindy was a really good rider, participating in barrel racing all through high school, and Bev helped her Grandfather a lot when he was raising “sulky horses”. For years, they’ve had to set aside the desire to own, train and ride horses.

But, they’ve got some hurdles. They don’t really know any one yet… and they sure don’t have a barn. Oh, and it’s still winter here… and they’ve got no idea when it will be spring.

Never mind, since Bev is in town regularly, she often stops by the local hardware store… Bracken’s. They have a “local ad board” where she finds a request for “horse rescue center volunteers”.

What the heck… they go check it out.

Cindy and Bev head into Enterprise to visit. That’s all, just visit… well, maybe we could volunteer some hours feeding and cleaning.

Turns out, the gal is starting a “Thoroughbred Horse Rescue Center” as her father-in-law and grandfather breed and raise Thoroughbreds for the racing industry. You know, only a very small percentage of horses ever actually make it to the track… so she’s thinking setting up a rescue would be a good idea.

Within days, it’s really winter again, and thoughts of horses are far from their minds. First, what to do with all this snow! It seems like no sooner is it here… then it is gone… and then back again.

From the middle of February, until the end of March, we’ve had at least four distinct snow storms, leaving as much as 8 inches or so each time. Even our birds are tiring of the routine. Poor little things, they’re just so cold.

Finally, with a 10-day dry stretch, they begin thinking again about the horses. Deena’s having a hard time getting volunteers and she’s thinking maybe it would be better to find “foster homes” for the “racing rejects”.

You know… we’ve got this old shed out along the north property line. Wonder if we could do anything with it? Wonder how much work it would take to modify it for a horse or two?

Oh boy, it’s full of tumbleweed. What’s with all this “heavy metal”? They must have kept something pretty big in here… cows maybe? Hey look… we’ve even got a frost-free hydrant. That will make things really easy… we can just hook up a hose and fill water barrels from here. No time to see if it’s operational, the ground’s still pretty frozen.

Hmm, even if we do get this area cleaned out, we don’t have a corral, or anything to make a corral. We’ll need posts, a way to dig the holes for the posts, fencing (including electric), and God only knows what else.

Electric fence? Now, that’s gonna be fun… we don’t have any power! Oh, wait, we’ve got plenty of sun… we’ll get a solar powered fence charger.