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More barn stories!
7 years ago
Hey everyone! I'm probably gunna be keeping the theme up of just being quiet for a bit here then dropping in every now and then. That's just how life is going right now lol.
But I'm back with some more barn stories, this time a collection of evidence to support my assumption that my boss has adopted me like some kind of wage daughter XD
Alright, so Liz is a pretty motherly woman to begin with. I've found out she and her husband don't have any kids of their own and prooobably just end up adopting whoever works for them to make up for it XD
So story #1.
Wednesdays are my maintenance days pretty much. I'll spend like 6 hours (10-4) doing whatever Don (Liz's husband) sets the project for the day as. Could be weeding all around the property, painting the fences, deep cleaning the stalls, scrubbing down the mats in the barn, raking leaves etc.
Well this day was a weeding day and it turned out to be the ONLY brutally sunny day in a string of overcast cooler days, go figure. Now regardless of what the task is for the day, I always go muck the pasture first since Liz likes it done every day. Usually takes me about a half hour -45 min to do so it's close to 11 by the time I start weeding.
Start with all the flower beds at the back of their house and spend roughly a half hour back there when I hear the little side gate open and Liz comes strolling up asking if I had enough to drink. I had just brought a small can of soda with me since it's all we had at home and I didn't have time to pick up anything so I told her that but said if I get thirsty I'll just take 15 min to run down to the gas station and get one of those big cans of monster or something.
She seemed to take it at that and disappeared back to whatever she was doing. 15 minutes later I hear the back door of the house open and Liz comes strolling out onto the patio with a tall glass of ice water and just stands in front of me, shakes it a little bit, and goes "ahem"
Me: "Oh my god, Elizabeth I said I'd be alright you didn't have t-"
Liz: "Oh I know you did."
Cue 5 minutes of me trying to tell her it's fine, I don't need the water while I've got streams of sweat dripping down my face. She just puts her hand up, shushes me and goes.
"Well do you want it?"
Me: "...... yes please"
Liz: "Atta girl."
Comes out and brings me the water, tells me to just go park it in the shade for a bit and take a break. It was close to 12 anyhow and that's when I go feed the horses their lunch. So I take a welcome breather in the shade, am drinking my water as Liz disappears back inside again... and then she comes back out with an orange for me to eat.
For the whole rest of the day then as I was still weeding, every hour or so Liz would come out and ask if I wanted that cup of water refilled and refused to take "no" for an answer
Story #2
This was during the morning half of my Saturday shift which is pretty easy and routine. Get to the barn, set up the horses' breakfast, fill up the water buckets in their stalls, bring em in, clean em up, pick the pasture, etc. I had just brought Annie in when Liz comes strolling into the barn, says morning and then asks if I'd want a donut. Not even one she had in the house. She was apparently running out to the store, wanted a donut as well and figured she'd get one for me too if I wanted one.
Side note, those like sourdough glazed donuts at winn dixie are to DIE for.
Story #3
This was another Wednesday shift where the theme of the day was deep cleaning the stalls in the barn. Now, the whole barn is built out of this like plaster/concrete stuff inside and out (it's honestly rediculiously fancy and the groom's quarters is straight up a mini apartment.) so "deep cleaning" the stalls involves bringing the horses out, usually putting them in the smaller paddock if it's nice out or the wash rack if the weather is pretty rough. Then all the shavings are pushed into a big pile in the middle, the walls are wetted down with the hose and then you get to scrubbing with a bucket of soapy water and a stiff-bristle brush. Top to bottom, every wall, hell of an upper arm workout.
I usually do it on my own but today Don was helping me out with it so we could cut down on how long the horses were just standing in the wash rack since it was pretty stormy out. I put the hay cart in front of them and put their water buckets in it for them anyhow so they were at least occupied lol.
Anyway, it took about 2 hours to do all three stalls and I went out to go take care of the pasture since the rain had let up a little bit but hadn't stopped. Good thing I had a rain coat. Get that done, get back in the barn and Don asks me if I had brought anything for lunch. Usually I do but I hadn't had time to grab anything today so I said nah and that I was alright, I'll just take a couple minutes to dry off and have a drink. He says alright and that he'll be back in 5, just running into the house to take care of something. I'm sitting on the bench in the barn just scrolling through my phone and Don waltzes back in with this plate with a little sandwich and some chips on it saying he made me a quick lunch. Complete with a little cup of some cold sweet tea.
Thanked him profusely but said he honestly didn't have to and he just insisted that he didn't want me working this long with nothing to eat (I still had basically another half of the day left to go)
Was a killer sandwich too.
Story #4
So being Florida in late May-early June.. it's wet. Very.. very wet. And even when it says it shouldn't rain, sometimes Florida just decides to spawn a thunderstorm out of nowhere. That happened on one of my Saturday shifts in the morning right as I was rolling out in the golf cart to go pick the front pasture. And since the forecast was saying that there wasn't gunna be any rain that day, I had left my raincoat at home.
So imagine my surprise when I start picking the pasture and all of a sudden these dark clouds roll up and start bucketing down rain XD. Now, I'm not fussy enough to go running for cover just when it's a bit of rain and honestly I kinda liked it. I had just gotten out of the barn and boy was it humid in there that morning so hey, bit of a free cool shower to wash me off, right? So I keep at my work and like 3 minutes into the sudden rainstorm I hear Liz hollering for me from the fence nearest to the house and she's waving for me to come over. So I drop the pitchfork on the back of the cart and zoom over thinking she might want me to put the car up while it's raining this hard or something and when I get to the fence and hop out she just pulls up this big black garbage bag that she cut holes in and is holding it open for me saying she made me a quick rain coat.
We laughed about not having predicted any monsoons today and Liz said she had just looked outside, saw it was absolutely pissing down rain and was like "Shit! Poor Becca!" and hurried out with her DIY rain bag.
Of course the rain stopped as quick as it started like 5 minutes later but it's the thought that counts XD
So TLDR of all these lil stories. It's pretty awesome to have a boss(es) that are so rad and really take care of ya when you're doing all this work for them.
But I'm back with some more barn stories, this time a collection of evidence to support my assumption that my boss has adopted me like some kind of wage daughter XD
Alright, so Liz is a pretty motherly woman to begin with. I've found out she and her husband don't have any kids of their own and prooobably just end up adopting whoever works for them to make up for it XD
So story #1.
Wednesdays are my maintenance days pretty much. I'll spend like 6 hours (10-4) doing whatever Don (Liz's husband) sets the project for the day as. Could be weeding all around the property, painting the fences, deep cleaning the stalls, scrubbing down the mats in the barn, raking leaves etc.
Well this day was a weeding day and it turned out to be the ONLY brutally sunny day in a string of overcast cooler days, go figure. Now regardless of what the task is for the day, I always go muck the pasture first since Liz likes it done every day. Usually takes me about a half hour -45 min to do so it's close to 11 by the time I start weeding.
Start with all the flower beds at the back of their house and spend roughly a half hour back there when I hear the little side gate open and Liz comes strolling up asking if I had enough to drink. I had just brought a small can of soda with me since it's all we had at home and I didn't have time to pick up anything so I told her that but said if I get thirsty I'll just take 15 min to run down to the gas station and get one of those big cans of monster or something.
She seemed to take it at that and disappeared back to whatever she was doing. 15 minutes later I hear the back door of the house open and Liz comes strolling out onto the patio with a tall glass of ice water and just stands in front of me, shakes it a little bit, and goes "ahem"
Me: "Oh my god, Elizabeth I said I'd be alright you didn't have t-"
Liz: "Oh I know you did."
Cue 5 minutes of me trying to tell her it's fine, I don't need the water while I've got streams of sweat dripping down my face. She just puts her hand up, shushes me and goes.
"Well do you want it?"
Me: "...... yes please"
Liz: "Atta girl."
Comes out and brings me the water, tells me to just go park it in the shade for a bit and take a break. It was close to 12 anyhow and that's when I go feed the horses their lunch. So I take a welcome breather in the shade, am drinking my water as Liz disappears back inside again... and then she comes back out with an orange for me to eat.
For the whole rest of the day then as I was still weeding, every hour or so Liz would come out and ask if I wanted that cup of water refilled and refused to take "no" for an answer
Story #2
This was during the morning half of my Saturday shift which is pretty easy and routine. Get to the barn, set up the horses' breakfast, fill up the water buckets in their stalls, bring em in, clean em up, pick the pasture, etc. I had just brought Annie in when Liz comes strolling into the barn, says morning and then asks if I'd want a donut. Not even one she had in the house. She was apparently running out to the store, wanted a donut as well and figured she'd get one for me too if I wanted one.
Side note, those like sourdough glazed donuts at winn dixie are to DIE for.
Story #3
This was another Wednesday shift where the theme of the day was deep cleaning the stalls in the barn. Now, the whole barn is built out of this like plaster/concrete stuff inside and out (it's honestly rediculiously fancy and the groom's quarters is straight up a mini apartment.) so "deep cleaning" the stalls involves bringing the horses out, usually putting them in the smaller paddock if it's nice out or the wash rack if the weather is pretty rough. Then all the shavings are pushed into a big pile in the middle, the walls are wetted down with the hose and then you get to scrubbing with a bucket of soapy water and a stiff-bristle brush. Top to bottom, every wall, hell of an upper arm workout.
I usually do it on my own but today Don was helping me out with it so we could cut down on how long the horses were just standing in the wash rack since it was pretty stormy out. I put the hay cart in front of them and put their water buckets in it for them anyhow so they were at least occupied lol.
Anyway, it took about 2 hours to do all three stalls and I went out to go take care of the pasture since the rain had let up a little bit but hadn't stopped. Good thing I had a rain coat. Get that done, get back in the barn and Don asks me if I had brought anything for lunch. Usually I do but I hadn't had time to grab anything today so I said nah and that I was alright, I'll just take a couple minutes to dry off and have a drink. He says alright and that he'll be back in 5, just running into the house to take care of something. I'm sitting on the bench in the barn just scrolling through my phone and Don waltzes back in with this plate with a little sandwich and some chips on it saying he made me a quick lunch. Complete with a little cup of some cold sweet tea.
Thanked him profusely but said he honestly didn't have to and he just insisted that he didn't want me working this long with nothing to eat (I still had basically another half of the day left to go)
Was a killer sandwich too.
Story #4
So being Florida in late May-early June.. it's wet. Very.. very wet. And even when it says it shouldn't rain, sometimes Florida just decides to spawn a thunderstorm out of nowhere. That happened on one of my Saturday shifts in the morning right as I was rolling out in the golf cart to go pick the front pasture. And since the forecast was saying that there wasn't gunna be any rain that day, I had left my raincoat at home.
So imagine my surprise when I start picking the pasture and all of a sudden these dark clouds roll up and start bucketing down rain XD. Now, I'm not fussy enough to go running for cover just when it's a bit of rain and honestly I kinda liked it. I had just gotten out of the barn and boy was it humid in there that morning so hey, bit of a free cool shower to wash me off, right? So I keep at my work and like 3 minutes into the sudden rainstorm I hear Liz hollering for me from the fence nearest to the house and she's waving for me to come over. So I drop the pitchfork on the back of the cart and zoom over thinking she might want me to put the car up while it's raining this hard or something and when I get to the fence and hop out she just pulls up this big black garbage bag that she cut holes in and is holding it open for me saying she made me a quick rain coat.
We laughed about not having predicted any monsoons today and Liz said she had just looked outside, saw it was absolutely pissing down rain and was like "Shit! Poor Becca!" and hurried out with her DIY rain bag.
Of course the rain stopped as quick as it started like 5 minutes later but it's the thought that counts XD
So TLDR of all these lil stories. It's pretty awesome to have a boss(es) that are so rad and really take care of ya when you're doing all this work for them.
Hell, one of the hay bales that I had opened apparently exploded in the hay room overnight after my saturday shift and Liz walked into it that morning like AAALLLL over the place. Didn't once think that I had left it like that so phew XD That coastal hay is such a pain too, it's always falling apart and like 3 flakes fell on me while I was refilling the horses' hay nets. Thought it had stopped after that but I guess it was waiting for me to leave XD
Haha that sounds like it would've been a blast to clean up, or a surprise to walk into at least.