hoffywhf
- Apr 23, 2013
- 3 min read

Spring Jobs

Spring is always a nice time of year. Along with the fall season spring also tends to be a very busy time of year for us. All of a sudden all of those projects we were putting off until the weather was nice . . . well that excuse is no longer valid these days. In the next week I need to body clip my usual suspects. I always like to start with Lily and get the big clip job out of the way first so one day in the very near future Lily and I will be having a date with the clippers. Last year it got so warm so fast I had to start clipping in late March, so I am hoping some of the big jobs will go a little more quickly since the horses have had some more shedding time.

Another project that I need to do is to sort through all of the blankets and relabel all of them. They get sorted and separated into two piles: those that just need to be cleaned and those that need cleaning and repair. I’m sure that doesn’t seem like it should be such a hard job but when you need to relabel and closely examine well over 100 blankets that takes awhile. It is no secret how much I dislike handling dirty horse blankets and as such this is not a job that I eagerly anticipate.

Jason already had to get all of the various lawnmowers and weedeaters ready and they have been in regular use for a month now. Next up will be getting the bushhog ready to go and doing the spring service on the tractors and utility vehicles. Jason will log plenty of hours on the tractor mowing the pastures and spraying for weeds.

Every year at some point in the spring the horses begin to ignore the hay in their hay feeders. That started happening last week. This means we get to add another job to the list of spring jobs, cleaning out the hay feeders. This is another job I don’t really enjoy. We do this a couple of times during hay feeding season as well. This is one of those jobs where it is impossible not to get dirty. Someone has to stand the big hay feeders on their side and roll them out of the way while the other person uses the front end loader on the tractor to push the old hay out and add it to the compost piles. Whether you are on the tractor or the one manhandling the hay feeders it is guaranteed that you will be covered in hay. It can be a perfectly still day without a hint of wind, but as soon as we start this job it is a sure bet that the wind will start whipping things around.

These are just a few of the glamorous spring jobs that will be occupying our time these days. With the exception of schlepping all of the dirty horse blankets around I really don’t mind any of them. And I would rather be sorting through dirty horse blankets deciding what needs to be repaired than dragging them around putting them on the horses, so even that job has it’s silver lining! I hope all of you are enjoying your spring jobs as well!

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Cuffie and Norman are All Pony, All The Time

Homer and Moe

Jason being the Pied Piper and leading the way in; he is carrying a feedbag for enticement. Now that the grass is going strong we have to beg the horses to come at meal times.