Flies and Sanity at the Barn

It's been a while hasn't it? 

Here's the latest news from the West Coast:

I was laid off in 2009, and have had difficulties in finding a part-time position close to home. Back in November I started working as a Farm Hand at a local horse stables. I must admit over the last few months, I have had thoughts of, "What the heck am I doing!" and, "How did I go from Accounts Receivables and staying at 5 star hotels to Poop Shoveller?" I must say I have learned a lot, and it's been an amazing journey, with some ups and some downs. 

I've been keeping a journal for my girls and thought you may enjoy this story, so I'm sharing it on the Wild West Blog. Let me know if you'd like to read more about 'the barn' and I'll share a few more here. 

Have a wonderful day!

Anuschka

The Flies... they were bad!

Monday May 6th, 2013

The morning started out pretty bad. Our catalytic converter was stolen off the Toyota 4 Runner and over $2,000 to fix. Last year, there was a string of thefts here in our area and it was all over the local papers. Seems they took a break for a few months after the publicity, but, now they're back. 
My first thought, “There goes our vacation money!” I have had such a great need these days to go rest and relax. My body aches, my mind is burnt out and I just want to go somewhere and drink margaritas. Even if it’s not Mexico, I don’t care; I just want to veg out, read a good book by a campfire, write a story or two beside the ocean, or listen to some beautiful music while sipping a sherry beside my husband. That’s all I want. It’s not much.

My drive to work was sorrowful as I watch my vacation dreams slip away into mechanical bills. I cried. Then I got angry.

“How could someone be so disrespectful? What kind of Mom would bring up a kid like that? Didn’t she teach him manners?” then some more judgements, “She so... didn’t discipline her kid!” I was still fuming when I started picking the paddocks at the barn (barn lingo for scooping up the poop).

“The nerve of some peoples kids, and now we have to pay for it!” a few flies flew past with a buzz, “How are we going to pay for this?” I was having a melt down, my own personal pity party as the horses looked on. Then, I began to notice all the flies hanging around the paddocks. There were swarms of them and a few more flies flew past, then one landed in my ear, “EEEEWWWWW!” 

I was contemplating stealing one of the horse's fly masks.

I did the ‘knock a fly out of your ear’ dance as Lil’ Jo watched on. His fly mask had fallen off and he was doing his own version of ‘keep the flies off my face’ dance, which looked very similar to the head bobbing motion found done by patients at a mental institution. Between the two of us, we probably looked ready for a straight jacket and a padded room.

Then I entered Odie’s paddock. He rushed up to me, and rubbed his fly infested face on my arm and I was greeted by a cloud of the swarming beasties around me and the poop barrow (aka wheelbarrow).  It was nasty. I may have screamed a bit, bobbed my head and I distinctly remember my arms were in motion above my head as well. Looking from a distance some may have thought I was doing a punk rock dance, but it was just the fly dance (I have another one for mosquito's). 

I’m so glad there was no one there to take pictures. 

There are things in life that will irritate you, that will anger you, that will sadden you. Sometimes, it’ll be small like lice, or medium like flies and sometimes, it’ll be big like those huge horse flies at the beginning of summer. But you will get through it. You always do.

As long as it’s not a brown recluse spider… those things can kill you.






As I write this there are 3 flies buzzing around my head by the computer. Did they follow me from the barn... No, the dog left the back door open. She knows how to open the screen door, now I have to teach her how to close it. 


For more information on the stolen catalytic converters click here.
For more information on the brown recluse spider click here.