Christmas morning has arrived. I am sitting here once again enjoying my coffee and the peacefulness that early morning brings with it. An excellent start to another beautiful day. I can't believe 2021 is coming to an end,and it is time to look back on the year already.
The year started like every other winter in Montana, sometimes snowy and cold and other times nice and sunny. 😉
We did find out early in 2021, that the place where I boarded my horses was going to be put up for sale in spring. That meant we started 2021 to find a place to board 7 horses. We had time, so I just started the hunt by keeping my eyes and ears open. January rolled into February, and brought some of the coldest temps I have ever seen here in Montana. We were dipping into the -20 and -30s. It lasted for about a week, I guess. I can't remember exactly how many days, just know that it was cold and miserable for that time. For the first time ever since owning my little Mazda, it wouldn't start. The cold finally did the battery in.
Once we climbed out of the extreme cold, I was back on the hunt for a place to board the ponies. I found a place that could take all 7, so we reserved our spots for spring and felt a huge weight lift off our shoulders. In February, we also decided to buy our own house with land. This was both an exciting and scary decision.
But wait, February still had more surprises for us in store. The last weekend of the month was the loose horse sale, so of course, we attended as part of the horse rescue. Long story short, at the end of the sale, Sarah K found herself standing in the parking lot with a 4.5-month-old colt that wasn't halter broke. He was given to us because of his crooked leg. So what do you do? Well you call the owners to where you board and ask permission to bring home a baby horse to foster (now named Gage).
Ok, I think we can move on from February now. Winter rolled into spring, and we found ourselves very busy. We were caring for the new baby foster horse and ours, all while hunting for a house with land. The housing market was pure craziness; you had to put in an offer the minute the house came on the market. April brought the house that we would put an offer in on. A tiny house on a hill that had 14 acres. Two days later, we got the call; our offer had beat out the others, and we would be homeowners. Let's just skip the next two months because they ended up being a giant blur of excitement to finally have my horses at home with me and stress.
Summer was arriving; by June, it was proving to be a hot and dry year. We were in a drought, and hay shortages were on the horizon. It did not matter to me because my heart was happy the day we moved into our new little house with the dogs, and the horses would be home a few weeks later. Literally, nothing can compare to the feeling of bringing my horses home!
Here is how we spend summer: Moving, buying and stacking hay, fencing, and building new shelters/ buildings on the property with my parent's help! Literally could not have made this move or completed all these projects without Garry. We were so thankful! Oh, and we made probably 300 hundred trips to the dump. I literally have never been to the landfill as much in my life as I have been this summer.
Lots of happenings this summer, in the middle of everything else, we had a wildfire within 7 miles of the house, emergency trip to Bozeman in the middle of the night on July 3rd for Gage as he colicked due to his hernia.
As summer was coming to an end, we agreed to take in another foster horse until she could be adopted. In August, we welcomed Miss Molly, a Belgian mare. Molly was supposed to be here for maybe a month then available for adoption. Garry was here building and working on our property in that time frame, and he fell in love with her. So Miss Molly would stay as my parents decided to adopt her.
With fall arriving, it meant winter was right around the corner. Yikes, where had summer even gone? Fall was spent getting ready for winter. And well, here we are now in winter.
2021 almost seemed to blur together. We had so much going on. We both stayed at our same jobs. Sarah loves her job at a small animal veterinarian's office, and I love my career as a medical coding advisor. We have been in our new house for 6 months now; it still seems like a fairy tale some days. I can't believe it, we finally got our own home with land for my horses. I open the door every morning and say good morning to my horses 😀. I love every second of it.
In 2022, I look forward to being a bigger part of Team 1 Horse and assisting in saving more draft horses. The rescue helped many horses this year. Enjoy pictures of some of their pictures.
From my family to yours Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope 2022 brings everyone happiness.
