Really Mother Nature? What did I ever do to you?

Right so those of you who've been following the story will know that I am once again in the process of major life changes.   Now work with me here -- finished lessons last Friday.   Lease is up at the end of the month.  That gives two weeks to relocate twelve horses, all equipment, and 2000 bales of hay.   While still looking after the horses at the first barn.  And Christmas falls right in the middle.

Right.  No big deal.

And then That Witch Mother Nature decided to add her two-cents and throw an ice storm in the only time I could arrange to move.  Bitch.  Yes, sometimes that's the only word that fits.  So yesterday and today -- during which all but two of the horses moved -- it was freezing rain and all kinds of horrible driving conditions.  I'm afraid to see what might happen when we do hay next weekend.  I'm really hoping she's through pmsing by then!  Which, btw, if you're around next weekend -- all help welcome!

In an apparently unrelated statement -- some of you are aware of my love/hate relationship with trains.  Stay with me here, it fits with the moving story.   My love/hate relationship is a little skewed.  Sasha loves them.  Me, not so much.   So you shouldn't be too surprised that in Acton, where I've seen a train maybe three times in the two years I've been at this barn, the railway crossing lights started flashing and the barrier lowered.  What *was* somewhat amusing was that they only stayed down a fraction of a second before raising again.  Ummmm okay.  Looked pretty carefully before crossing, but no train.

Clearly it was one of Santa's minions running last-minute errands.   Flew past so fast we didn't even see!

And on the return trip -- same thing!   And back again both laps on the second round...   A crazy day for elves!

And speaking of elves, was definitely a crazy day for Winthorpe.  Who?  Right, Winthorpe is the Christmas elf that lives at C's house.  His job is to report to Santa on whether the inhabitants have been naughty or nice.  Since being there, however, he's shown a disturbing lack of decorum.  We've found him passed out drunk -- beer bottles littered everywhere, smoking stuff he shouldn't be smoking, and failing sensitivity training horribly!   We're not sure exactly where the line between naughty and nice is being drawn *g*   Will be interesting to see where he ends up next!

Anyways - we did the first load of horses, no problem.  Athena walked on the trailer without any hesitation!  Sweet.  Driving was slow but not actually all that bad, and the threat of weather had scared the last-minute shoppers away so even in "town" there wasn't really any traffic.   Nicole and I went to load the truck for the next load and "Laur can you unlock it?"   Ummmm no, it's not locked.  The keys are still inside.

Well, part of that statement was true anyways.  The second part.  *sigh*   Called CAA, who were great - gave me zero hassle about my membership being unavailable (ummmm locked in the car) and were super pleasant to deal with.   But then in the end, Dad came to the rescue with extra keys faster than CAA :)   Just glad it was at the barn we're moving *from* that they got locked in because we spent the time being productive and packing while we waited.

Next load went reasonably flawlessly, all things considered.

Last load though -- should've been the easiest (I'm not new; I took the difficult horses first).  But while they loaded like the pros they are; they decided they wanted nothing to do with trailering.   Just lovely to have the trailer being thrown around at the same time That Witch started getting really angry.

We did eventually make it.  Very slowly, but we made it.   Trees were cracking ominously all around and we saw one very exciting set of fireworks that we're pretty sure was powerlines coming down.  But we made it.  Got everybody settled.  Double checked all had hay and water.  Finished unpacking what stuff we'd brought (this was all kinds of fun since the hill was pure ice -- trailer on top, barn at bottom).  Backing out on ice in the dark was less than fun and took longer than it should've, but with patience and, potentially uncalled for, laughter - it got done.

Go back to the other barn, planning to do night check and then leave.   Which we did, technically.  Just that we did so in the dark since that barn had no power.   Really?  Oh yeah - I couldn't make this up.  We turned Nicole's car and mine both facing in the barn with lights on so we could see -- mine had one door propped open with a leadline just in case it chose to lock again.  hahaha fool me once...

But eventually all was done, all ponies settled in for the night, and the drive home wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared it might be.

Now - to go see what Winthorpe's been up to....