Best of 2024

Ahorsegirl
Jan 3
4 min read

Let’s start out with the homestead/farm stuff and then get to the personal stuff!

Homestead/farm best:

Simplified waterers : SO ran PEX along the fences so it makes it easy to mow, drain in the cold months and pretty to look at for the horses to get clean water. One of these years I will get automatic waterers but for now this works quite nicely!

water line for watering horses down pastures, in the winter I just make sure I have it drained at the lowest point

Clearing of more scrub land in the pastures (tractor work + burning )

TONS of sticks picked up from the pastures, I even had a few times my family came over to help!
enlisted my sisters help this day to help
Expanded gravel. We expanded the driveway to make it wider, neater and added some trailer parking. We also got a couple loads of gravel for upkeep on the drive. The only negative on having a long driveway.
never appreciated gravel as much as I do until we paid for truckloads of this stuff . $$$ ouch
Raised beds ! My garden was horrible this year but I learned a lot so I can grow some lovely vegetables this year. I bought these off of marketplace and got them delivered for 20 bucks each! I just stained them and lined them with plastic myself.
lined the raised beds in a extreme downpour which was fun
Installed a hitching post! It’s odd the things that I never thought about until we started a horse farm basically from scratch.
Planted some ornamental grass on a steep hill we can't mow and also a privacy grass for the RV campers/us
Hosted RV’ers and tent campers on a couple different platforms. This was a learning year for me as I discovered another branch of income for off road and tent campers! We had several campers come out and it was pretty easy money small as it was.
PERT test complete for our future rental cabin on the farm! I’m not sure when we will build it but we have a pass!
digging up the land for the PERT test for the sewage
New shelves in the barn for the horse stuffs!
Ripped out some nasty old fencing to clean up the area beside the barn. It’s not complete yet but it looks a ton better than just a year ago.
different perspective but huge difference already especially after i get this old chicken coop torn down

Personal best of 2024:

Lessoning with Murphy! We’ve gotten so good at loading on the trailer and going to lessons again have truly brought me so much joy again. My friend Erin lives about 5 minutes from my house so I trailer over to lesson with Susan. Truly sooo grateful I cannot wait to continue this in 2025!
good boi
Girls trip to Maine! I had a blast on the trip and it was non stop laughing. I met these girls 10 years ago and we have traveled together every since.
10 years of travel buddies
Getting to ride with my kiddo on Murphy. My kiddo has had bad allergies to horses, as in eyes swell up so I’ve been very cautious in his exposure. But his allergies are slowly getting better and we are able to be around the horses more together. I hope and pray we are able to go riding together more as he gets older!
best ride ever
Starting a new sister tradition of bringing the boys and going camping! I brought my dog and my kid and although it was kind of rough sleep wise I really really enjoyed it! We definitely plan to make this a yearly tradition of moms and sons go camping weekend.
hammocking
Going legit trail riding . OK It was under 2 hours of riding but weirdly enough I had never trailered somewhere *just to trail ride. And murphy was a dawg about it. Just ate up that trail. I definitely want to get out and do more of this in 2025
eating up the trails
Finding true fulfillment and joy in motherhood. There’s a saying about when a mom gets her pink back and mine came back this year. I said yes to a ton of adventures and he came along and made it so much better. We went wading/swimming in creeks/rivers/wading pools, rode bikes, went hiking, and a ton of other places.He is so much fun to hang out with.
biking at our favorite trail minutes from our farm
I decided I didn’t like how I felt and changed it. I didn't like how I looked so changed it. I didn't like the stress I felt from ignoring finances so I also got so serious about my finances and am truly working to becoming financially free. In just 3 months my spending is down 10% and that includes Christmas spending. My next goal is getting that grocery budget down but I’m proud of how much I’ve cut from the budget already.
walking in the woods
Starting this blog. For years I would actually write out my thoughts in word , just save them and delete. I finally actually did the thing and we shall see where it goes. It may just be for my son when I’m gone for him to have but it also it cathartic for me.