Easy Come, Easy Go

Easy Come #1: My mother has been getting her will sorted out recently. While the cash holdings are easy to divvy up fairly, some of her valuable items are posing more of a challenge. In particular there is a beautiful diamond ring that belonged to my grandmother. We all agree that this treasure should stay in the family and my sister (who believes that diamonds are a girl's best friend) is a willing steward. My mother is adamant that I (who believe that dogs are a girl's best friend) receive an equivalent cash gift, which is typically generous of her and much appreciated by me.

Easy Come #2: Three years ago the Government of Canada decided to stop taxing scholarship money. At the same time the University of British Columbia decided to continue taxing scholarship money at source, presumably because it results in some financial benefit for the institution. Putting modesty aside I will admit that I am an elite student who earns more in scholarship money than most Canadians earn annually. It never bothered me that the government took a chunk away (most of it was theirs to begin with), and it certainly doesn't bother me if they want to cut me a huge cheque every spring.

Easy Go #BX25: Today David and I bought a Kubota BX25 sub-compact tractor complete with front-end loader, a backhoe and a post-hole digger. Between my mother human and my mother country most of the cost will be covered, and a little bit of debt seems like a small price to pay for the huge workload this machine will take on around Farcical Farm. It is scheduled to arrive next Tuesday, so I guess one of us should break the news to Henry over the weekend.

All Will be Revealed

I was looking forward to yesterday with anticipation and trepidation. Not because it was my 33rd birthday (thanks to David and my mother for cash infusions against my vet bills), but because the snow finally melted. For the first time in three weeks I mucked the paddock with a manure fork and a wheelbarrow instead of a spade and a make-shift sled. And for the first time in three weeks I could see all the manure that had been hiding.

It took three hours and eight or nine (I lost count) runs to the manure pile, but the paddock is almost back to normal. Now all I have to do is move the stuff that I have been piling in the pasture up into the manure bins. Have I mentioned how badly I want Henry to grow a front-end loader?

Hardworking Henry

With the ambient temperature at 5 degrees Celcius and the relative humidity at 80% it is hard to get turnout sheets dry without bringing them into the house (which I try to avoid -- we don't need the smell of wet horse layered over the smell of wet dog). This morning I washed Tonka's 1200D sheet and draped it over the conveniently-horse-shaped Henry to dry with the assistance of two oscillating fans.

Meanwhile Tonka looks like a private school girl flirting with skirt length rules in his new sheet, which is considerably shorter than his other two.

Raven was feeling better today, moving well and eating like she had never eaten before. Kerstin spoke with best leg vet in the Fraser Valley and he agrees that her symptoms are consistent with bone and/or cartilage damage. He recommended that we put her back on one gram of bute per day and Kerstin will come do the x-rays later this week. We recently got a newsletter from her practice saying that they had purchased a digital machine, so I should have news for you in near-real-time.