For Me, It's Saddle Time

Most people have one thing that makes them relax and rejuvenates them from the daily stresses of life.  For some, it's a place.  For some it's an activity.  For me, it's saddle time. 

Horses are a lot of work to take care of every day, whether you ride or not.  With the demands of a full time job and the chores that come with our homesteader lifestyle, finding time to just have fun can be a challenge.  Most of the big chores have to be done on the weekend and somehow the To Do List always ends with more things than can be accomplished in one weekend.  So you learn to prioritize.  You learn to pick ONE THING that has to happen on any given weekend.  When it's done, you do as many of the other things on the list as time allows.  Having things still left on the list at the end of the weekend just means next weekend's list is already started. 

Yeoldfurt works on Sundays, so that's generally my day for housework.  Domestic drudgery like laundry and scrubbing floors.  Those things that are hardly ever noticed ...unless they're not done.  But I try to accomplish at least one non-housework project every Sunday too.  Today it was riding.  I had not been on my horse since the grandsons were here in July.  It was too hot most of July and August and I have been out of town for two weekends in September already.  But the mornings lately have been downright pleasant and the evenings are starting to get bearable.  So I was up before the sun this morning and was saddled up as soon as it was light outside. 

I was only in the saddle for an hour, only rode in the round pen and the front paddock, but it sure felt good.  When we were done, I let my mare 'mow' the grass in the chicken yard for an hour before I turned her out with the others.  There are four fruit trees that we keep watered in the chicken yard so it's the place we have any grass right now.  My mare enjoyed it. 

That hour I spent in the saddle must have done me good because I've accomplished everything I normally accomplish on Sundays and then some.  The sheets are changed on the bed, the laundry is washed, dried, folded and put away, the bathrooms have been scrubbed and the rugs are washed and hanging outside to dry.  I also made a batch of liquid laundry soap (four months worth) and raked the leaves in one of the four flower beds.  The horse blankets we cleaned up last week are folded and bagged up to be stored until cold weather comes.  Yeoldfurt's dinner is in the oven (slow roasted pork ribs) and I have five pints of homemade split pea soup processing on the stove.  Yeoldfurt won't eat it, but I was cleaning out cupboards and found a pound of dried split peas I needed to use up.  In pint jars, it's just enough for me for supper on a cold winter day with enough left over to take to work for lunch the next day.

So even though I took an hour to just play with my horse this morning, I got a lot accomplished today.  Yup, for me, it's saddle time!

Worth Every Stitch

Keebler was a big hit with the granddaughter
so I guess maybe my first sewing project in 30 years came out okay! 

As you can see, they are already best of buds!

I was gone for four days and three nights and Yeoldfurt did an outstanding job of taking care of himself and the homestead.   He did a fine job today of spoiling me rotten too.  This was his regular day off and my last day of vacation and we took full advantage of the opportunity to spend time together. 

We went into the Big City to pick up a few things he needed for his shop and he treated me to both lunch and dinner.  Lunch was a sit down meal, but dinner tonight is a box of spicy fried chicken and dirty rice from Pop-eyes.  If you have never had Pop-eyes chicken, you will just have to trust me ...it's good!   

While we were in town, we got an estimate on painting my little car and were pleasantly surprised at the quote.  Looks like it's only going to cost a little over half what I thought it would, so my overtime money
will take care of painting the car and buy us that deep freeze we've been wanting. 
Ahh, life is good!

Home Stretch

Well, I'm embarrassed to admit this but I miscalculated the balance of my remaining allotment of overtime hours.  I'm embarrassed because math is not something I usually get tangled up in, especially if the numbers I'm crunching are remotely related to finances.  Since I'm getting time-and-a-half for the overtime hours, those numbers are definitely related to my finances! 

The only bright spot is that the mistake I made was in my favor.  I thought I would finish this week with a balance of 13 hours of overtime left to work and since 12-1/2 is the maximum number they will allow me to work in one week, I thought it would take me another two weeks to finish.  But, now that I found my mistake, I realize I have less than 10 hours remaining.  That means I can easily finish up next week!  I can't tell you what a weight that lifts off my shoulders, just to feel like the end is in sight. I realized my mistake about 9pm Thursday night and confirmed it with the timesheets when I got to work on Friday.  Ahhh ...it made my day! 

I don't think I'll end up with quite enough in overtime money to paint my little car but it's still a respectable little pile of extra cash we didn't have before.  I will be careful, and hopefully wise, in deciding what to spend it on.  I could keep saving a few more months and paint the car next spring ...or I could buy one or two of the things off of our wish list.  I don't know what I'll do with it yet but I have at least a month to think about because the overtime is paid separately on the first of the month after it's worked.  The remaining 9-1/2 hours to be worked are in August, so I won't have the last of my overtime pay until the first of September.  Hopefully the extra time to think about it will ensure I make a wise decision.

Though the money will take a while to roll in, the immediate benefit and the one I think I'm most looking forward to is having my afternoons back.  On a normal (no overtime, minimal errands) day, I get home about 4:30 in the afternoon.  Yeoldfurt leaves for work almost three hours later than I do so he doesn't get home until 6:30 or 7:00.  He always sets the thermostat up to 80 degrees when he leaves for work.  Since I get home a couple of hours before he does, I have time to cool the house off for him.  It also gives me time to take care of a few domestic chores and time to plan and start supper.  He normally doesn't want to eat until an hour or so after he's home, but I like to have it ready so he can eat when he wants.  He usually calls me when he leaves work to let me know he'll be home in 30-40 minutes.  I wait until about 15 minutes before he's due and put a frappacino (his favorite beverage) on ice for him in the fridge.  We spend a few minutes catching up with each other and then he goes to his computer for some unwind time before supper. 

That life may sound totally boring to some, but we both miss it.  The past two months, we've been more like but ships that pass in the night.  Communication is minimal and sometimes strained, not by mood but by too many hours apart, too many outside demands, both of us frustrated by feeling stretched too thin.  I want to go back to having everything ready for him when he gets home and having enough of a handle on the house and the chores that I'm not embarrassed if someone drops by.  In a perfect world, we'd both be at home full-time, just doing what we enjoy and enjoying each other's company.  But nothing like two months of long extended hours to make your 'normal' schedule feel like a vacation.