Pony? What Pony?

Okay.

Hoar Frost Tail on my Beautiful Boy.
That's "Hoar" not "Whore" ; )

Moon's been neglected. It's true.

I haven't ridden in about three weeks now. I was off in Ottawa for a week and while there, caught Norovirus. If you don't know what noro is...google it. Or just accept that it is the WORST three days of your life. It's like the stomach flu meets food poisoning meets hang over meets death.

Which is awesome when you're far from home and no one is around to baby you. Well, except your best who sends someone out to deliver soup and a whole care package. I'm spoiled ; )

After returning home from Ottawa, it took me a good week to recoup. When you don't eat for four days straight (and lucky me also got a bad head cold at the same time), your body takes some time to readjust to eating. My wonderful man took care of me and barbecued me steak the second night I was back. Yes, after *finally* moving on to a diet of soup, he whips up some steak to make me feel better. I love men. : ) And that's not sarcasm. They really are in their own way, adorably male.

Recovering from my disease-ridden self, I got back to work on my spring home construction.

Which proceeded to envelop my time completely.

Everything that *could* go wrong, went wrong.

My appraisal came in way low. Below construction costs. I spent three days arguing with the appraiser and *finally* got it raised *just* high enough that I might be able to build for that price. But *only* thanks to the miracle that is Menards in Fargo, North Dakota. I joke not, you guys have *no* idea how inexpensive your construction materials are. It's insane. That spray foam in a can?? $5 for you guys. For me? $15. God bless America is all I say.

So if the build proceeds, I'll likely be spending as much time down in the States as I am in Canada. And I'm happy about that.

This meant I spent another week bringing my construction costs down by $20,000. Or dropping the build cost by 11%.

My defunct clearing job...MELT SNOW!

Many hard decisions were made about what to remove and what to keep, but at noon yesterday, after calling at least 50 different companies, collecting quotes and data and actually COUNTING the studs I needed in construction, I got my numbers where they needed to be.

Yippee!

And heads up, there is RAMPANT sexism out there. I've never been told so many times that my "husband will do the work". I have no husband, thanks. And yesterday some fellow that would quote pricing for my dad, refused to quote pricing for me.

Ger.

Anyway, I was thrilled. My costs were on target.

I talked quick with the bank to make sure my debt serving ratio was on target, and got another green light. So if my HVAC quote came back on or over my estimate, we'd be good to go.

I danced around excited.

I had also revised my plans after getting them back from the engineer two weeks ago, and hadn't heard from him despite trying to contact him a couple times.

Finally I sent him a "I'm building as soon as the ground thaws so let's get on this!" email. And he sent me back my newest revisions, which mostly were spec'ing out beams and was thrilling!

I was SO close to having my plans stamped and ready for permits!

And then...

My soil analysis came back 99% silt.

You can't build on silt. Suddenly, I needed to know the depth to bedrock, because the house must be constructed on bedrock.

In case you haven't been following the weather up here, we're still below freezing. For at least another week. We also have 4' of snow on the ground. Last Sunday I cleared ALL the snow from the yardsite and driveway (took 6 hours) and then it snowed 10". fml.

Drift at the barn...CLEAR over the arena fence...and I'm 5'9" tall...

It's gonna be probably 3 or 4 weeks until the ground thaws enough for me to dig a whole to bedrock.

And I can't finish my plans until I have that hole dug.

And I can't get a final construction cost until I know how the foundation plan will be constructed.

And I can't go to the bank for a loan until I know the construction costs.

And I can't get permits until I go to the bank.

And I essentially, am at a complete stand still on whether or not I can build, until I get a hole dug, and I can't get a hole dug until spring shows up, and spring is being a real b*tch this year.

Lucky me.

So THAT is my life. Construction consumed it, and then I discovered I'm playing the waiting and the wishing game.

Ger.

In the mean time, Mr. Moon felt cosmetic surgery was in order and promptly removed a good chunk of skin over his right eye. H went out (bless her heart) and put derma gel on it...which froze. Ha.

My Scamp of a Pony

Yesterday, I found he'd been rubbing it on the snow (guess it itched) and the side of his face was soaking wet.

Tool.

At least they're starting to shed.

Then I got an email from coach W asking if I was interested in riding her new boy Josh on Sunday. He's a level 2 dressage horse and I was thrilled! Something to do when I'm so stressed about the things I can't do! And since she has an indoor, I can actually school!

I'm in!

He ground ties!! Perfectly the *whole* time it takes me to walk to the fence, string it back up and walk 1/2 way back. Then he walks away and I trudge back home on foot. Scamp.

Next Tuesday is my 28th birthday as well. I thought a thumbs up from the bank and the engineer would be the perfect birthday present, but that won't be happening. But it's not all bad.

This Saturday I'm heading to a club in town that has a mechanical bull. It's a bucket-list thing for me, and I'm not getting any younger. So I'll try my hand at bull riding on Saturday (weird, it's not even a flirtacious "look at me boys" thing like it is for the non-horse crowd. It's honestly about pretending to be a rodeo bull rider. How sad are horse girls? ; ) ).

Sunday I have dinner with my family which is always a blast. 2nd time the man will meet my folks!

Monday I have a big birthday surprise planned for my man when he gets home from a mid-night launch.

Tuesday is my birthday and the man is coming horseback riding!! Yes, he's been once before (intoxicated to boot) in his life, and I'm THRILLED to take him out! We'll just stick to a nice sedate walk, but I'm so excited. Then we're gonna have a hotdog roast and go out for supper.

Beautiful Sunset rides.

Wednesday is my man G's birthday (weird, I know), so we're headed to his parent's home about 2 hours North-East of the city, his childhood home. I get to meet his cat Dash, and we'll visit and celebrate.

We'll come home Thursday and it's off to his best friend's house for a steak dinner and apparently jam-fest since their both guitarists. Which I've been warned will last to the wee hours of Friday.

Saturday his staff have planned us a birthday bowling party, so we're off again.

Sunday is Easter, and I'll likely be fast asleep or eating chocolate eggs...

Monday, the bestest H has a birthday surprise for me, that she won't give me clues about AND that she won't tell me what to wear until like an hour before I'm supposed to show up at her house! AURGH!

Which makes it the absolute BEST end to a week of birthday celebrations.

And you wonder why I have no time to ride Moon?? : P

I miz ma u <3