house post

House Post: Master Bedroom, Final

Amanda11 Comments

Whew. Previously in the master bedroom, removing the damn wallpaper took forever.

It took us nearly 3 months, but I am happy to say that the master bedroom is done.

Once we got the wallpaper down, removing the wallpaper paste was agonizingly slow. It was two steps forward and 1.99999 steps back. Over and over, as we tried different things. Finally? Sanding it. Not my first choice, given the age of the house and who-knew-what underneath the wallpaper, but we used respirators, cleaned religiously, and pushed forward.

Then we did a coat of Kilz oil-based primer to make absolutely sure, then tested out our chosen color: Sherwin Williams Sea Salt.

Then we painted, a whole lot. Two coats, during which I learned a LOT about painting. I have painted before but never this much. It was definitely not a professional paint job, but we learned a lot and we had fun and I love the color, end of story.
puppy helped!
Once the paint job was done, the carpet came up. We knew that in at least one corner of the room the hardwood floor was in impeccable shape. The carpet itself was vile – filthy, ancient, and the pad underneath crunched when you walked, it was so worn out and dry.
In fact, the entire carpet pad basically disintegrated into a 1″ deep pile of yellow dust. I filled two shopvacs with it. Ugh.
I should mention at this point that Hannah was an extraordinary help during the last of the painting and the pulling up of the carpet. We then cut the carpet up into pieces using a utility knife and shoved it out the window, and gathered up what pieces of the pad were still intact into garbage bags. It was hot, dusty, gross work, but…
The floors were in perfect shape!
Next step: taking up the carpet tacks and staples. The staples were easy! I got a little staple puller thing and whoosh they were all out in 15 minutes. (I mean, I kept finding more as I kept cleaning, but they were quick and easy to take care of.)
The carpet tacks? They were not easy. I had polled my family as to the best way to do it, and my father thought I could just pry them up and pull, since they weren’t usually nailed too deep.
Famous last words.
I ended up having to pry out every.single.nail. all the way around. Goooood grief. It took about 5 hours of really hard work, during which I smashed my fingers more than once because I was working in such close quarters to avoid damaging either the floor or the trim.
But, the good news? The floor was in perfect shape except for one 6″ square where something had spilled who knows how long ago, soaking through the rug. No sanding and re-finishing necessary!
Next step: taking the blue tape off. You know how HGTV makes this look like a breeze, like your last cathartic step? Yeah. Fuck those guys. It took almost two hours of painstaking work, making sure I didn’t leave any tape behind under built-up paint. Maybe we could’ve been more careful in painting to get less on the tape, but…life is short.
some puppy was not amused that I used her as a tape receptacle
Then there was floor mopping, of which there are no pictures. I ended up using a slightly damp mop and squirting Old English onto it, to do a combination gentle clean/revitalization. I left it for a few hours to dry/soak in. Then I skated around the floor with my feet on shop towels to clean up the last of the oil.
Finally, I had my floor. And wow. Just gorgeous.

SERIOUSLY, who covers that up?!

Final decorating steps: new outlet covers all around, satin nickel Art Deco inspired metal covers that were expensive at $5 each but I just loved.

And the final touch: new curtains that I had bought a few weeks prior, just simple sheers with an embroidered vine design.

For reference, just so you can see how far we went, here’s the original room.

And here’s the same view now.

Then we moved our furniture in.

And huzzah!

The last remaining thing to be done is to haul the radiator away to get sandblasted and then re-painted. Right now, it is pink, and filthy, and chipping badly. I intend to repaint it a metallic silver color, roughly what it would have been originally, which will match any color scheme we decide on in the future. The radiator has been disconnected, and I have the place lined up to sandblast it, we just have to find the time and the energy to haul the thing out.

So, so, SO glad this is done, though, and it gives me hope for other future rooms!

trailering

So Long, Farewell

Amanda6 Comments

This morning, I delivered my trailer to its new home.

one last adventure.

I have really mixed feelings, but overall: it was the right decision at the right time.

I finally got through to the fiance last night by comparing it to selling his favorite hockey stick. He looked completely horrified: “I’d feel naked!” Yep.

We did have one last adventure together, the trailer and I: I got mildly lost after failing to follow the very good directions provided – and realized that I had no cell phone service and thus no Google Maps to bail me out. I three-pointed over railroad tracks to turn around, made it under a low bridge by inches, and then got up the right hill to deliver it to the right farm.

best copilot.

I also would like to state for the record that I am really fucking good at hauling that thing. I got it hitched up in less than 2 minutes flat, after my first backup put the ball 2 inches too far to the left.

Second try:

Arya and I stopped for McDonald’s on the way home to celebrate, and now she is napping and I am blogging. I have to clean every inch of my house today, and then I am declaring a hiatus on renovations until after the wedding, so hope to get back to actually blogging about my actual horse soon.
co-piloting is hard work.

adventures with the vet · stupid human tricks · trailering

Puttering Around – Heel Scalping, House Renovating, and Life Changes

Amanda4 Comments

Last night, my trailer sold. I put a relative minimum of effort into advertising, listed it at a really good price, and answered 2-3 emails a day for the last 3 weeks. Last night, a young woman about my age came over, and saw all its virtues and its vices clearly. She was nice and cheerful and has a young Thoroughbred mare that she’s starting to event. It will be her first trailer.

I am really, really sad, because for a long time that was mine, my ticket to the world beyond, a thing that I loved and slaved over and angsted over and took pride in. But: it is going to exactly the right kind of home, and I realize it is ridiculous to be sentimental about “the right home” for a piece of farm machinery, but I am much happier with this than I would be if it had gone to be someone’s utility trailer or left to rust out on the hill.

The money will go into Tristan’s emergency fund and to start a seed fund for a new trailer, someday. I might take some of it and install a gooseneck hitch on my truck, as I have the possibility of borrowing a gooseneck rig should I want to haul out places.

Not much else exciting to report. Tristan scalped his RH sometime last week, and you’d think that a horse would only be so idiotic/athletic/talented to do such a thing once – but you’d be wrong.

He kept opening it again and again. Each time I went out it would be pouring more blood and covered in a thick layer of shavings dust, no matter what I did to cover it up: Corona, Swat, Alushield.

Hannah was up this weekend and I put her to work mercilessly both in my house and at the barn and after a lot of back and forth as we stared at his foot and marveled that he was still knocking it (seriously, HOW?), I suggested Wonder Dust. It’s not my favorite, but a thorough re-read of the label did say that a) it was ok to use on open cuts and b) it would work as a styric, aka a blood-clotter.

We were both deeply ambivalent, having mostly used it as a preventative for proud flesh, but I squirted some on, covered it in AluShield, and crossed fingers.

Aaaaaand…it worked! The next evening I went out and wiped off a clean, non-bloody heel that was showing evidence of healing around the edges. I think we’re in for the long haul, as it is both circular and large, and neither of those things suggests quick healing, but it’s at least on the mend now.

I haven’t yet put him back on the longe to test soundness – I’ve been so busy with everything, I have no time to really ride anyway – but I will probably do that tonight or tomorrow.

We’ve also turned the corner with his white line & thrush problems, and his hooves are firming up and growing cleanly again. We’re having some communication issues with the new farrier, which I’m not thrilled about, so I’ve been using a rasp to back his toes off a bit and help him out so he doesn’t stretch the white line further.

We had a good weekend of dog-tiring and drinking and eating delicious things and working on the house. Huge, huge progress on lots of projects in the last few days, and today is a holiday for me so I’m going to plow ahead on a few more.

scribing

Adventures in Scribing

Amanda5 Comments
I love to scribe. It’s a complete toss-up as to whether scribing or jump judging is my favorite volunteer activity – though really, I can’t think of one I really dislike. Jump judging on a clear day might have the edge; nothing like hanging out with gorgeous horses and reading poetry all day.
Sunday, I scribed for one of the biggest recognized dressage shows in the state. I did Training through Third Level tests for an S judge from 8:00 am – 4:30 pm. It was a long day.
We saw an awful lot of really nice horses, and a few really nice riders. The judge was hilarious, and had a really keen eye. I was tired and stressed and not as engaged as I usually am, and it took me a long time to get into the rhythm of the day. 
If you’ve scribed a few times, you know that there’s an adjustment period with each new judge: you spend a little while learning when and whether they like to be reminded for scores, what comments they make frequently so you can anticipate them, whether they like to be kept on track at all, etc. I just felt like it took me longer than it should have to start clicking with the judge, but by late morning we were rolling. I was subdued enough through the day that she actually referred to me as “quiet” and “sweet” which…is not usually how people describe me.
My favorite pairs were rarely the typical ones, with the big flashy gaits and the perfect tests. (We didn’t see many, if any, perfect tests.) They were the ones where there was clearly a lot of hard work and love behind the test. There was an older woman who was smiling in a way that told me she was terrified underneath, riding a huge 17hh horse, and I was nervous when I saw them circling the ring – and then they entered and the horse just took care of her. He loved her.
There was a little girl on a Welsh pony whose nose was stuck determinedly parallel to the ground the entire time but who trotted around with such determination that I couldn’t help but crack up. There was a young woman on a Morgan horse who looked like an incredibly complicated and tricky ride but who handled every moment with such tact. There was a young girl with a messy ponytail, skull cap, off-kilter helmet cover, and half-chaps riding a big leggy Thoroughbred who did.not.want. but my God the fierceness of that girl as she firmly and clearly got the job done. There was another young girl who was clearly green and learning but the bare bones of her basic teaching were so good, and so evident, and the horse she was on was educated and precise and just pleasant, and there were moments in the test that were like looking ten years into the future into the blooming of a truly lovely rider.
I had agreed to scribe way back in the early spring, and I was not looking forward to it with everything else that was going on, but I was so, so glad I went.
adventures with the vet

WELL NEVER MIND THEN

Amanda7 Comments

I am climbing back up on my horse and putting in more riding time after too long of a break for my sanity. I’ve had a couple of really nice rides this week, getting some good schooling things accomplished, and so forth.

Last night, I longed and worked a bit on transitions, and after some theatrics Tris gave me a lovely walk-canter transition to the left: just stepped right into it softly. Then I asked him to go right.

And he wouldn’t trot. He would sort of stumble a few steps and then launch into a canter or fall back to the walk. He was discombobulated. When I finally pushed him to actually trot, he was sooooooooo short and propped.

Well, fuck. Cue despondent thoughts about basically everything I have done in my life ever. You know the drill. It’s what we do with horses.

I put him away and spent a furious half an hour texting back and forth with the barn manager. I was concerned about the balance of Tristan’s feet, and we agreed to consult with our old farrier on the new farrier’s trim. So I took lots of photos of Tristan’s feet.

And then my hand brushed his RH – what I thought was a muddy spot – and came away bloody.

Aaaaaand double fuck.

It turned out genius asshole pony had taken off a significant chunk (and I do mean chunk) of his RH heel bulb, on the inside, probably by stepping on it.

I grabbed a paper towel and scrubbed it with water to sort of re-irrigate and get down to flesh. He bled like a stuck pig everywhere, which was fun. I poked and prodded and yep: definitely sensitive. Definitely a nasty little scrape. Not quite call-the-vet worthy. I slathered it with Corona and sort of left it at that. I am a little bit regretting that I did not wrap it, but…it just didn’t seem quite that deep. And I want it to scab over, not stay moist and whatever.

Tonight, I will clean it out again and see if it has started to heal at all, then probably use alushield on it to keep it from getting worse.

In the meantime, this is going to make it much harder to soak the foot with White Lightning – I don’t want to expose raw injured skin to the chemicals in it. I’ll have to either wrap the foot v-e-r-y carefully or figure something else out. Of course the RH was the worst white line problem.

Also meantime, no riding for me for the foreseeable future. Good thing I have plenty to do around the house?

blog hop

VCBH: My Cubicle

Amanda4 Comments


Most of us work for a living (wishing I didn’t have to), some of us in way swankier places than others (right now thinking of all my friends who work at places like Google and Salesforce.. le jealous! all dem snacks!) Anyways I am curious for a pictorial tour of your office or cubicle.

I work in a museum, doing a wide variety of education/programming/community relations type of things. I am not in a job where I spend all day, every day at my desk. I do a fair amount of travelling around the state, and even just moving between different facilities and different spaces in the facility depending on the needs and events of the day. I actually have two offices, but am much more settled into one than the other, since I typically spend only 1-2 days a week there. (Trying not to give too many details to preserve some semblance of anonymity on the internet, though if you tried you could easily find out!)

Anyway: here’s my office, which is actually its own proper room. While I don’t have a window, my chair sits where I can see out my door and through a window onto a very pretty grassy area.

I am one of those people who really has to settle in to a place to decide how and when to decorate, so the stuff on the walls has grown up over a period of months to years. I add to it every so often.
I work from a laptop, because I am so constantly on the move. It’s not the best, ergonomically speaking. I’m thinking half-seriously about buying myself some monitors and a keyboard and setting up more of a docking station. I tend to keep papers I’m working on immediately to my right, as well as my to-do list for the day. I have a few horsey things scattered about – my mousepad is Tristan’s face – but not too many. I live out of that file cabinet to my left and usually have my feet propped up on a handle at any given time.
The bookshelves to the left have a bunch of different things: binders for larger projects, extras of any of the forms/sheets/postcards/envelopes that I might use, reference books, an emergency kit for collections, spare banners/posters for various annual events, and usually extras of whatever exhibit peripherals we need at the moment
It’s kind of a mess, but yeah. Map of Vermont, that I refer to quite a lot actually since we’re always trying to plan trips or events so they make sense as we move around the state. Dinosaur of a printer that just will not die. (You know you work in nonprofits when…) If you turned left again you’d see the white board that I use to keep track of longer-range projects, as well as a complete run of our museum’s scholarly journal back into the 19th century. Partially there’s nowhere else to keep them and partially they’re a good reference. When I have an intern (maybe about 1/3 of the time) he or she sits at that table, which makes us quite cozy.
The setup was done for me when I moved into the office and I’m still trying to figure out how best to use the space. It’s a slightly awkward size, and my furniture is limited in quantity and variety. I’m always trying to find new ideas but rarely have time to execute them.
I also tend to work at the front desk of the museum on a regular basis, and in the spaces just outside my office – there’s a big calendar I have to update regularly, and I work out of the kitchen for our events, and then of course the main exhibit itself, as well as the research spaces and so on and so forth.
That’s my main event room, where I do most of my programming. In the midst of our busy season a coworker and I will set this up and break it down (we have tables & chairs in storage that you can’t see) multiple times a week.

thrush · white line disease

The Silver Soaker

Amanda2 Comments

It’s Tristan’s new nickname!

So, not a whole lot going on in horse-world right now. I am mind-blowingly stressed in every other area of my life, which is leading to me behaving a lot more like a hermit crab than a well-adjusted adult, which means that I rode on Sunday at the walk around the field…and that’s kind of it.

As frustrated with myself as I’m feeling about Tristan’s bout with White Line Disease right now, I think we’ve got a pretty good handle on how to fight it.

Right now, he’s getting:
– Durasole 2-3x a day at minimum, some days more
– White Lightning 2x a week
– Magic Cushion 2x a week

He’s also getting extra shavings to try and keep his stall dry and soft. He pees like the proverbial racehorse, and with his previous level of shavings there was always a wet spot somewhere. Now once I take his feet out of the soak they have a dry place to hang out and stay clean.

The good news: I am seeing improvement.

The bad news: It’s not instantaneous. Damn it.

Anyway. Onward and Upward.

Uncategorized

No House Post Today

Amanda2 Comments

I did not have time to prepare a house post for today, and am writing this from the show office at the dressage show where I will commence scribing momentarily.

I just thought you should all know that when I entered the office and saw the preparations, I lost all my misgivings about having signed up for a 10 hour scribing day in the midst of the insanity that is my life right now.