Pre-Holiday Happenings

Well, the Beahrs have gone. Paige and I have been running the farm ourselves for almost a couple of months now and things are going pretty smoothly. I have moved all of my bedroom furniture into Sharon's old room, we have added some curtains, blinds, and new ceiling tiles, and I have a new full size bed! We now have 16 horses, 3 of which are outside so I now have 13 stalls to do everyday.

We have just hired a few new people. One gal, Traci, is going to be moving in with me and will help with chores and other barn activities. I have no doubt that she will be training horses since she is a trainer. She is bipolar, and when I mentioned that I had never lived with a bipolar person before, I quickly learned that Sharon was actually bipolar!! I had no idea of this, but that was probably so I wouldn't be scared away from the job in the first place. But once Traci told me what to expect, I think we will get along fine.

We have also hired another gal to help me out with stalls. She will do stalls twice a week so I can have a couple of days to do other things such as run errands and do other barn work. Lately, I have been having pretty bad pain in my upper back while I have been doing stalls, and I have been getting irritable since I am still in school and it's harder to get stalls done in the morning. I am the kind of person who can't get out of bed when it is still dark outside. My body doesn't work that way and Paige thinks I am just finding excuses and making up stories to get out of stalls, but I am not. I do like to do stalls since it is the only way of making money and I am being productive during the day, but getting up before dawn has always been pretty hard. I remember when I started out here in the summer, Sharon would always keep the hall light on. My old room was pitch black with no windows, so when that light would shine through, I would think it was daylight, so I couldn't get back to sleep. I finally had to tell her to keep it off, which she did with much difficulty. Otherwise, the stalls have been getting done later in the morning when the horses are outside and that makes it a lot easier on me since I don't have to worry about the horses getting in the way.

Another recent employee is a new farmhand, who will do the mowing in the summer, snow plowing in the winter, and other stuff in between that us women can't easily get done ourselves. He and his family will be moving into the trailer soon, and Paige and I can't wait to have them join our team.

I can't wait for school to be over! This is my last semester and I will be excited when I no longer have to worry about homework or being late for or missing class. I started going to school this year not knowing if the farm would be sold or not; not to mention if I would still have a long term job here. Last week was Thanksgiving break and it was so relaxing not having to worry about school and just focusing on the horses. Now that school is back in session for another week or so, I am more distracted and stressed than ever! Paige has already called me out on cutting some corners, I have had several meltdowns, and, on top of everything else, Paige and Traci are hinting that I may have to switch rooms....AGAIN!!! I wish I were the kind to toughen up and defend myself, but that is not what I normally do. Normally I end up crying and going off to do something to calm myself down. I am sometimes amazed that I haven't started drinking or smoking yet! I really want to keep my room, but I feel that if I fight for it, they will accuse me of being spoiled, since people have been giving me a lot lately much to my actual dismay, or something like that. I can't find the right words to fight back with and what comes out of my mouth doesn't always match what is in my head at the time. That part gets frustrating. So I guess we will have to see how it all turns out.

I am going to try and get some shut eye now. I am going to try and get some stalls done early in the morning so I can get to church on time and not be in a hurry to get back to do stalls. Good night, all!!

Everything Changes

This has been a hectic week. Not only did I have to do my own chores, stalls, classes, and studying, but Sharon, my roommate and Sylvia's sister, had to stop doing her chores and stalls on Thursday to help Sylvia pack for the move to Texas by Wednesday. So all the stalls and chores are on me and the new owner, Paige. The bad news is that on Friday, Paige fell from a horse and had to be taken to the hospital later that day. Luckily nothing is broken or badly damaged and she is fine now. At the time, she had only one stall done compared to my three; so that left me to do around 20+ stalls by myself....a daunting task. I worked from 7:30AM to 8:45PM and got 16 stalls done. She had told me not to worry about some since those horses would be leaving within the next couple of days, and since they are regularly out in the pasture, their stalls aren't that bad at all. I can tell you though, doing 16 stalls in one day is exhausting and I was so sore. I normally do 12 stalls three times a week, which includes the seven that I am normally in charge of, plus 5 extra since we didn't really need a third stall cleaner. So 16 in one day was kinda tough.


We have also had to say good bye to some of our horses this weekend. I wasn't around to see them go, so it wasn't too hard for me. Sharon said she had a hard time watching them get loaded in the trailer because she had taken care of them for longer, but we are glad that they are going to good homes. She had also told me that one of my favorite horses, Beyonce, has also been sold. This news made me very sad. Later, I was doing evening chores when I saw a trailer outside the arena. I was heading to the small barn next where Beyonce is kept. When I walked out of the main barn, I saw that it was one of our boarders coming back from a trail ride. Since I had already thought the worst, I started sobbing with relief that I still had a little bit of time to say good bye to her. I have worked a lot with her and her turning out manners, so we have developed a bond and I know that I will have a very hard time once her new owners come to get her since my heart breaks at the thought of her going.

Things are definitely going to be changing fast, so the next week will be even more busy as well as emotional.

This weekend I also went to have lunch with my younger brother, Micah, at the Olive Garden. He must have really missed me because he swept me into a big bear hug when I got out of my car. We don't really have a great sibling relationship, so that kinda surprised me. While it was nice to catch up with him, I also noticed that he needs to work on his restaurant etiquette as well as his appearance as it seems he hasn't shaved in a while. He admitted that he only shaved on Sundays, so he has to work on that.

Well, I think I am all caught up for now. I need to get to bed to prepare for the upcoming roller coaster of a week.

New Beginnings

Hey all! Remember me? Good, I know it's been quite a while and I promised to post more, but I kept forgetting and work and school kept getting in the way.....ok, ok, I'll stop making excuses!! Now for the good stuff....I bet you are dying to know what I have really been up to all this time. Well, I will try to keep this as short as possible, so here goes.....
Since my last post I:

• Spent all spring semester at Kirkwood working at McDonald's and going to class. Nothing much new there!
• Became a vegetarian.
• Quit McDonald's....why is coming up shortly!
• Moved from Cedar Rapids to Cedar Falls.
• Got a small, overpriced apartment in Cedar Falls
• Left small, overpriced apartment in Cedar Falls to move to:
• Beahr Ridge Arabians, where I am still living and working but it is now known as LaBella Farm @ Beahr Ridge. Long story, I'll explain later.
• Applied/attending University of Northern Iowa

Did that blow your mind? Well if it didn't...sorry! Haha, I'm just kidding, but as you can see I was busy taking some gen eds at Kirkwood during the spring as well as working long hours at McDonalds. Now, my days at McDonald's are no more, and even though I miss some of the people and the nice paychecks at the end, I am happy to be done with it and really hope that I don't have to go back to working at a fast food place...ever!!! I still stay in touch with some of the people though, and I try to visit them when I can steal a few hours. This job is one of the reasons why I don't eat meat anymore.

I decided to become a vegetarian in April of this year. One reason being that meat just didn't taste good to me anymore. If I smell it, I still get a metalic taste in my mouth and it still kills my appetite for meat. Another reason is from being a closer at McDonald's, I would see the wasted meat at night and it was pretty disgusting to look at. If one customer was not satisfied with something on their burger, it would get tossed in the waste bin, and at the end of the day, we would have at least $20 worth of meat wasted.....poor animal! I won't go roo far into this vegetarian thing in this post. I still don't have a problem with other people eating meat or pork/beef/poultry production so that's not really an issue.

I have also moved to Cedar Falls to attend UNI majoring in Psychology. I am really enjoying it so far and have made a few friends that I can enjoy outside of work. Speaking of work, I don't have to do that anymore!!! At the beginning of the summer, I started working for Sylvia Beahr at Beahr Ridge Arabians in Cedar Falls and, in late July, moved into their lower/basement apartment, which is huge compared to my other Cedar Falls one. That apartment had nice features, but ended up being small, cramped, and the roommate was eh. She was nice, but she had poor housekeeping abilities, which meant that at the end of the day, I would come home to several dishes on the floor, food left out, and just a dirty environment. It was also overpriced and I can say that I am glad to be out of there.

I love living in the country again....the farm is a place that I can really call home and it is perfect for a horse gal like me. Sylvia had actually put it up for sale in January, and a few weeks ago, Paige LaBella bought it. She has hired me as an assistant barn manager, that is once my roommate, Sharon leaves with Sylvia. Sylvia, her husband Dick, and her sister, Sharon will be moving to Texas in the next couple of weeks. Dick is already down there overseeing the building of their new barn, so Sylvia and Sharon are still here making sure Paige and I get everything down and helping us out until Sylvia's horses can be moved. Sylvia owned this farm for 29 years, so she is very sad to let it go...but she has accepted that it is a big challenge for her and Dick has retired from his job at John Deere and wants to downsize so he will be able to enjoy his retirement more and work a little less. I will really miss them since they gave me my first job in the horse business, and I will miss their horses as well.

Paige LaBella is a very nice lady in her 40's that has a good horse background and we work very well together. She has said that she is very happy with me so far and I am looking forward to working for her in the future.

Well, I think we are very well caught up now and I am ready to go to bed. I will leave with another promise to try to blog some more. Good night all!!!