Dr. Dog’s Neighborhood

Ok this post is mostly for A and other horsie minded friends, so you other....yeah just disregard :P

Here is a peek at my daily routine with the ponies, captions above the pics.
Between 7:30 and 8:00 AM I get to the barn and feed them their breakfast of grain(it's already set up)
Kirby and Holi eat fast, Risque' takes his time, he likes to savor his food, Holi is already done and wants out, Risque' is still licking his tub out LoL

While they are eating I set up grain for the next "day", PM and AM for all three of them, 6 buckets total, PM buckets have supplements in them, AM buckets are just grain.

This is Risque's feed, Oats (top right) beet pulp (top left) rice bran(bottom right) and Sweet Feed(bottom left) his suplemts are salt/electrolyte and Su-per Substitute Powder(which he LOVES) a pain managment supplement, it contains Devils Claw, Yucca, MSM, Grap Seed, Ginger, Black Cohosh, Bromelain, Salix Alba(willow bark) Vitamin B₁₂, and Curcumin

This is Holi's feed, beet pulp(left), rice bran(bottom) and vitamins(right) it's a blend of Calf Manna and Sprout vitamins from Fleet Farm(sprout is GREAT but not very tasty, calf manna is tasty but too energy/protein rich so I mix it 2-1)Her supplements are Salt/electrolyte(center) Anti-Hist(bottom right, she gets less than half a dose) and Cough Free(next to the pellets) which she HATES, but it's good for her.

Kirby's tub is much like Holi's, beet pulp(top left) vitamins(top right) rice bran(bottom) Supplements for him are salt/electrolytes(center) and thyroid meds(brown blob on right) it smells like a combination of instant coffee and molasses crumbles, he seems to like it :)

Once they are done the go out in the pasture with the rest of the herd for the day, our herd is 14 horses at this time, they wear blankets or sheets as needed, if it's nice they are nekid :) Then comes the fun of stall cleaning and setting them up for the evening when the horses come back in, but I'll save those boring pics for another post, instead take a peek at my tack/grain room! it's mostly clean right now.
This is looking in the door, grain containers with supplement buckets on top, tack hooks along the wall, saddle pads and drying polo wraps on the back of the door, my locker has grooming boxes and my good bridles in it( my evnting vest too)the grain I set up is stacked neatly and ready to be fed this evening and tomorrow AM, the buckets are color matched to each horse so if I'm not there people will know what to feed.

This is inside my tack room, saddle racks for the two western saddles, dressage saddle, jumping/hunter saddle and behind that one the "band-aid" saddle for teeny kids. The black bag on the wall has my two bareback pads in it(on ubber $$ perelli one and one cheap-o)they gray locker has random stuff in it(some step in posts and my solar fencer I think)the brown box in the center is my first aid kit, that box was a wedding present from my Great Uncle Lyle.

OK last one, the front of my tack/grain room, these bins hold the grain and such that I don't use every day, extra oats, sweet feed, oat bran, rice bran, beet pulp and vitamins, I re-fill my smaller containers from them. The fridge has condiments from our barn cookouts as well as some applesauce/syrup/etc for making meds taste better, having a microwave and hot pot is a must in a barn with no hot water, doing first aid with cold water SUCKS, plus my ponies get spoiled with hot mash once a week in the winter.

So yeah that's about it for now, a peek at my morning routine and how things are organized, or the lack there of heh :) I like my barn and I like doing things my way. I would much rather pay a small fee and do my own work then have a HUGE board bill only to have my horse receive sub-standard care.

http://chandramoon.efx3.com/2009/11/11/open-mic/

So Far Nov ember is starting out as a quiet month.
On Thursday Styles left for a 5 month deployment, nowhere dangerous this time and he'll be back for my B-Day/our Anniversary so it's all good, I may even go visit him around Christmas.
Friday myself, my Ma and two friends went to the Rocking R to trail ride for the day, it was freaking GORGEOUS! out, and we have a great time, but nobody warned us that Friday started deer season here in NoDak(in MI it's Nov 15th and you couldn't PAY me to take my horse in the woods that day) well I had on some bright pink and blue, Pauline has a neon green helmet cover and three of the horses are SPOTTED so we were safe enough.
Saturday was the last home football game of the season for UND, GO SIOUX!! they won but it wasn't a pretty win, they are close to a conference title tho, not bad for only their second year in a higher division.
Not much else to say, with Styles gone it's horses, horses, horses for me. I do some house work and I have some sewing that needs finishing...

I am writing this at a time that I would normally be driving to work. I can't get over this feeling that I am going to be late! I should have left the house 17 minutes ago....but my "work" is now just down the hall! Today is my first day being a "Home agent". After several hours of much cussing and crying last night, I Finley got the computer and phone equipment set up. They did give us a 6 hour training course that briefly skimmed over how to hook it up and use it....but it was not as easy as they made it sound. And thanks to a computer person with no common sense, we were given directions in "tech talk" that totally confused most of us!

I guess I will find out in a bit if I truly have it all hooked up right....if no calls come in I willo know I did something wrong.......Now I am taking my shoeless, sweat pant & sweat shirt wearing self to work!  It feels good to wear comfortable cloths and no shoes!!!!!!!!

Stinking Cold

Good grief ... I leave you guys alone for a minute and ya all go crazy on me ... heehee

Ok ...  maybe not crazy ... but close enough.  I hear there is a new blog (that I just have to be part of) that has to do with TROLLS (goody goody ... can I have fun with them?) and I hear the present one is some little brat names Ken ... or is it Patrick ... either way ... neither one is probably the little twerps name (they're usually too chicken s*** to show who they really are anyway). 

I hear he thinks he is a know-it-all and an expert on "liberals" ... considers himself to be a "conservative" ... and has the ability to to play GOD and decide whether a person actually feels enough pain and has suffered enough for his approval to allow them to exist in his universe.  Kid ... you are nothing and have nooooooo idea who any of these people are you have tried to "influence" with your insecure little triads of unintelligent blabber.  Some of the ones you have called "liberals" are actually conservatives who enjoy the intellectual conversations and debates with the ones who are the liberals ... some are those who are "middle-of -the-road" ... but all are friends, some new and others have been friends for years.

So ... before you infiltrate your obvious ineptness into conversations you know nothing about ... with people you know nothing about ... maybe you should stop to think ... before you stick your foot so far into your mouth ... it comes out the other end.

If you just want to meet people and be friends ... we're really nice people who used to be strangers ... until we became friends who respect each others' point of view.

With that said ... if i have no more gremlins to play with my internal parts (cyber and physical ... the mental was lost a loooong time ago ... heehee), I might be able to stick around a while.

I sure have missed everyone ... :D *HUGS*

http://chandramoon.efx3.com/2009/10/31/sabar-in-nottingham/

I feel like the circus puppy. You know.... the little dog that jumps through hoops just to get a few scraps for a reward.

Well, I jumped through all the hoops master put before me and came out the other end as a "Home Agent"!

I just got the news today from our call center manager that my Internet is good enough and the space I have in my home is acceptable for the work space I need. Two more hoops jumped through.

I'm still a bit nervous about this. They haven't really told us much about how this works. I just found out today that the equipment they are supplying me with will use our phone line. Unfortunately it also means if that is the only phone line we have, no one can use it while I am working, not even when I am on break! I guess once I log into the company system from my home it locks my phone line to them and stays that way until I log off.

So now we are looking into getting a second phone line. Our cell phone service out here in the boondocks isn't that reliable. I would like to know there is a way for some one to call in or out in case of an emergency. That and a reliable phone for hubby to use to keep in touch with his employer. He still doesn't have steady enough work to have a daily schedule. He still has to call in to see if they have work for him or not. I would hate to have him miss out on work, just because they can't call him or because or cell phone didn't have a good enough signal.

I just hope it doesn't cost to much. I would hate to spend all the gas money I am going to save on paying for a second phone line!

I also hope the equipment is easy to set up. They are not sending an IT person along with the equipment. It sounds like we are going to get the stuff Wednesday and have to hook it up ourselves. Then it's work as usual on Thursday!

They are giving us a 6 hour training course on Wednesday and then sending us home!

A few of my coworkers that are also going to be Home agents started bringing home some of their personal belongings from there desks today. It was kind of funny to watch. One lady was hauling out her 2nd box of crap as I was leaving today. As I stopped to hold the door for her she asked why I wasn't bringing anything home yet. All I could do was smile and tell her "I don't have anything except a picture of my dogs, I cup I use for water and a pen!".....I just work here...I don't live here!"

It's going to seem really wierd not seeing these people 5 days a week any more.

I am hating this fall so far.
I am sick again.
I got sick last on October 6th, it started with a sore throat the day after the Packers and Vikings game, it progressed to a nasty cough, head cold, lack of appetite and generaly feeling crappy.
I was sick for over two weeks, it wasn't until October 19th or so that I felt 100%.

That was nice as I had a reunion at the summer camp I worked at to attend
Oct 23-Oct 25th, I had a GREAT time there with old friends(and Styles was so good about being at a place he has no attachment to and no friends at, I loves you Lover for being so good to me) and catching up with the full time workers that remain from my time there.

I started feeling a sore throat coming on last night and chalked it up to talking all day while helping Da work on the trailer and then talking during dinner with Da and Styles(early B-Day for Styles) but this AM it hit me that I am once again sick...and this blows. 

Every year the call center I work for hires on extra help for the Christmas season. The positions are mostly temporary with a few of the positions turning to to temporary employment after the winter holidays are over. This year they projected to need almost three times as many temporary employees as last Christmas. That means they have hired on almost 70 new people in just the past 6 weeks!

All the new hires means, they all need a place to sit and work, they all need desks and phones and chairs.......More then our little call canter building can hold. We are busting at the seams.

The company also had a very small portion of our call center in the Northern part of our state. It was a very rural area and not much population so it was hard to get and keep employees. So they announced earlier this summer that our northern call center was closing and the customer service reps were going to be working from thier homes. About 20 of them were part of a pilot program to see if the kind of Customer service work we do could be done from home.

There project was a success and now our branch has decided to relieve some of the crowded conditions we are working in by turning a few select employees into "home agents".

We were all told this was going to happen in early July. I have been thinking about how working from home would help out in so many ways since that day.

Not having to drive to/from work during a crappy Minnesota snowy winter.... Being able to be home while a fire is burning in the wood stove, (if you have all elctric heat, you know how much $ that can save!) ... Not having to spend $40 a week to put gas in the van to get to work. .....No more 1 hour each way drive time to add on during the already mandatory 10 hour work days!

I wanted to get one of those Home agent positions when the became available!

Last Thursday the company announced they would be making only 11 Home Agent positions available. The call center manager told us she would be hand delivering the letters to the employees that are choosen for these jobs.......My heart sank. We have more then 100 employees to choose from. Many of them have been with the company since it re-opened in 2002. I have only worked there since last year. Technicly I have not even been employed with them a full year. I was hired as a temp and only official became a company person this past March. 

I was sure I didn't stand a chance.

Today at 12:15 pm. The call center manager handed me a folded peace of paper. I opened it and saw "Congratulations! You have been choosen for a Home Agent position. Our desicion was based on your work performance and abilty to work independently.........

WooHoo!

Now I just have to fill out a questionare and hope the house/phone/computer...part of this all qualifies!

One hurdled jumped!