Sunday, January 25, 2009

Ouch, the bill is here

It's been a financially and emotionally painful couple of days. It started on Saturday when we received the bill for burying Silas. Somehow in all of the mess, we completely forgot to pay the digger operator. I feel awful about it but my head was all over the place so I am not entirely surprised. Then, today, the vet bill for the last couple of months arrived. Not really a shock as we knew it would be big but it's still scary to see so many zeros on a bill. Somehow November's statement never arrived so we have November and December in one hit. That said, November was over 10x the December's bill so December barely rates a mention!

After doing a mental add up of vet, burial, milk and sundries, losing Debi and Silas cost us a just shy of $6000 and that of course does not include what they were both actually worth (both emotionally and in a monetry sense). But, well, they were priceless as they were members of our family and we would give anything to have them both here with us still now, today. Don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge spending the money for a moment and we couldn't not try, it just hurts so much to have lost them both after trying so very hard and I feel particulalry bl**dy awful for all the wonderful, kind, caring people who helped us financially and emotionally during the entire ordeal. I so desperately wish we had achieved a better outcome. It's all coming back to me too which makes me feel raw and has been making it hard to sleep again. Mental note to self: Focus on the good stuff Lou!

Anyway, I am heading out now in 30+ degree temperatures to feed/water the 'kids' and have a few extra cuddles with them so hopefully will be in a better frame of mind when I come back in...

Ahhhhh, that's better! It's another absolute scorcher here in the Wairarapa. We helped our friends/neighbours get in some of their hay yesterday but half of it is still out in the paddock and, as they will be storing it in our sheds, we need to re-organise our hay so it can fit. Because they got so much, it also means that we have access to a nice buffer should we fall short over winter. It's a great feeling to know that the winter feed is basically in. I also scored 10 bales of lucerne hay off trade me for $80 so I am pretty stoked about that. Just a little extra treat to have handy.

I am thrilled with the quality of this year's hay too. The contractor did a fantastic job and the bales are big and fantastically well packed, even if a few of them have the tensioning a little off. Perhaps the reason we only got 430 odd bales was because the bales are that much bigger than usual? It smells so sweet and the horses absolutely love it. I am feeding out a wee bit at the moment to top up and those who are on hay rations are most grateful it would seem by the way they are lining up at the gate waiting for me when they hear the bike coming, lol!

I think I will head out later with the camera so, watch this space for photos.

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