Horsekeeping
Lucky enough to have a horse.
Husband is WFH. He is WFH up at the barn. The horses are loving having a person with them for hours on end. Cookie fests. Timely hay snacks. Company to hang with. They are quite happy with the new arrangement.
Me, not so much.
I had not realized how often I wander up to the barn in a day.
This is not a Woe Is I post. I know how good I have it. This is more about how things organize themselves in ways one does not foresee.
Upside: Husband home all day. After 32 years of marriage (?!?) we still enjoy each other’s company.
Downside: I’m still alone all day and now I can’t go to the barn.
A lot of people can’t go to the barn to see their horses. However, my barn is in my backyard. Going to the barn involves walking 70 paces.
On a normal day, I go to the barn 3? 4? more? times a day. Feed breakfast. Let out after breakfast. Feed lunch. Let out after lunch. Pick up buckets if I haven’t before. Random checks throughout the day. Walk in the pasture. Fill water. Whatever.
If I leave the property, I check them before I leave. I check them when I get back. Not doing that, at the moment, of course.
One of the joys of having horses at home is sitting at the barn in the sunshine [Split Personality]. We are just coming into ideal weather for that.
These days, husband “goes to work” at the barn. From my point of view, he’s gone at least as long as before. Okay, with a break for a bike ride and lunch. I’m whining here. Work with me.
Since, he’s already at the barn, so he might as well let them out after breakfast. No need for me to go up to do so. Ditto lunch. Monitors how much hay of which kind is eaten throughout the day. Feeds hay snacks to adjust in light of this data. Lets in and out of stall as needed. And so on. Makes sense, he is already there.
I limit my extraneous visits. Leave him alone to work. One reason he set up a workspace in the barn was to be able to concentrate. When I say I can’t go to the barn, I really mean I don’t. The fellow works to keep us all in kibble. I can at least respect his privacy.
So I’m stuck in the house. All the responsibilities of horses at home. Feeding. Poop picking. Vet care. None of the gratuitous horse petting.
I know. Poor me. Being down in the house all day is harder than I expected.
Stay safe. Stay sane.
Katherine Walcott
Virtual Brush Box 
I’ve been pretty smug about staying at home. I meant to comment on your earlier post that I garden and knit, same old, same old for me. And I enjoy the extra time to think about it. We’re pioneers, we can do this!
But. Yesterday, the roof started to leak. Heavy rain and strong winds blew the rainwater against the wall where it found a gap between the sliding doors and the upstairs porch. No! We just built bedroom, the porch and sunroom below!! My special room! Not what I meant when I said I can do stay at home!
Not really on point to your post but more an unexpected event. I expected to run out of stuff, to have to go to the hospital, to have people die. I was steeling myself for those crises. But not the roof! Not now!
It’s a reminder that we don’t get to choose. Life deals, we cope. I wish you the best. You are an outdoors person so it must be hard.
It would all be bitch whine and moan, my life I mean, so this is as far as I’ll go.
32 years? Wow!
There is a significant difference between working from home and sheltering in place. I’ve worked from home for 25 years. I didn’t realize how often I went someplace or did something. Small things but diversions. My husband worked from home part of the time. Now he’s home all the time. It feels different. I still am able to go to the barn as I’m in a self care situation, but even there, I don’t feel comfortable riding out on the trials or even working the horses hard. I view my time there as a treat but I also am very conscious of staying safe. I know I’m lucky to have the ability to work from home, and I’m not going nearly as stir-crazy as some of the folks I know, but this self-isolation is tough.
I find my ability to cope with small setbacks has been greatly reduced.