Friday - mid-November

This week flew by! Tom was home yesterday and installed three of the new stall lights with conduit. The lighting looks fantastic! He is utilizing the hay loft for these lights and it minimizes the shadows and cuts down on the glare.

This morning the hose was frozen!! Glad that water line is trenched so deep, or we would have serious issues with water. Everything was frosted over, looked like a dusting of snow.

Speaking of snow, yesterday - Veteran's Day - a D.J. was reminiscing about the Veteran's Day blizzard twenty-three years ago. We got 8 1/2 inches of snow that day, so early in the season for here, and it was not forecasted by any weatherman or Meteorologist. It's been mild, for November, this whole week. Highs in the 60s, clear skies, can't beat that!

We have two weekends before the Thanksgiving holiday. This weekend the weather will be just as nice as it has been. I wonder if we'll get a chance to ride. I hope I can remember how!!

Stinkbugs, Millipedes and Spiders! Oh My!

One thing about country life is the bugs. Insects and arachnids. We don't just have flies and bees, we have everything crawling, flying and stinging. Our basement is full of millipedes and big, beautiful spiders, plus the new scourge of America: Stinkbugs from China! Also, assorted beetles, moths and caterpillars.

I have friends that say "fill in bug's name here" and I'm out of there!" but in actuality what are you really going to do? Not live there? My mother-in-law suggests we get the place fumigated. First off, we don't have the money, secondly we don't want to live within a chemical bath. The bugs are not as dangerous as insecticides. We need insects to survive on our Earth, I just don't want them in my bed.

Irene does what she can about the spiders and millipedes, and we've discovered that wet-vaccing them up has diminished their numbers. A glue board under the washing machine is as clean as the day I put it there.

In the long run, I'm not sure if we really can eliminate their presence in our house. We do need to replace the doors - they just don't fit. The back door especially, since the porch top was taken off. When Irene was smaller, she could slip under the door. That should tell you just how big that gap is!

This place is not for sissies, for sure. Bring your insect book so you can find out if you should kill it or ignore it. You need to know this because it is such a waste of time to smack everything that crawls or flies your way. If it doesn't bite or sting, ignore it.

In this picture is the pan that Tom was using to catch the water from the trenching work and the assorted insects fell into it. I didn't try to save them, I did not interfere with their drowning.

Tuesday Evening Shenanigans

In the evening I was cleaning KC's stall and heard the window in the wash stall rattling. The windows will rock a little when it is breezy, but it was not that windy at the time. Looking up I can see KC's silhouette in the light from the house. His nose was rubbing the window panes! I walked over, slid the window open and he put his nose in for me to kiss. He's such a lover!

Skip sees KC's head in the window and butts him out, sticking his big head in. I scratched his neck and cheek, and both of them continued to stick their heads in, Skip bullying his turn whenever he wanted. The window is smaller than the others and there are no horse-proof bars on it. His head filled the entire window. What a goofball!

I went out to get the little ones, they were way down the field past the trees. I was looking for Lil Fred because he has grain in his stall. Sprite is on the supermodel diet - air and water!

Lil Fred didn't want to be caught, but he did want in, so we raced up the hill to the gate and Sprite came along with us, at high speed (for her). He went through the gate and into the barn, into his stall. Sprite went into the barn, but missed her stall door. I had the 'handi-stick' at my fingertips, so I grabbed it and pointed with my hand to her doorway. She'd have none of it!

Sprite raced past me, out of the barn and I didn't see if she went right or left and it was dark, I did have my headlight lit. Her eyes were glowing under the awning. She did a lovely roll-back, running around the barn with me in quick pursuit. She is pretty fast but has no stamina. She ducked back into the barn, deja vu' all over again, but this time I got her into the stall after a little two-step in the aisle, around the cart with the manure buckets in it.

The boys were just milling around, not eating grass, not going out into the pasture, pausing by Sprite's stall window and returning to the open window in the wash stall or looking in the Dutch doors while I mucked the stalls.

When I was getting the cart through the gate, KC and Skip wanted to follow me out. This would not have been a good idea, and I had to persuade them to get away from me, the cart and the gate. I dumped the buckets into the empty manure spreader, when I returned to the gate they had moved on.

When I left the barn, they were still milling around, loitering. When I came back about an hour later, they were way down the hill where they like to lie down out of the breeze. Both hurried up to meet me at the gate. They really wanted in even though it was a mild night, for November.

Monday - Weekend Look-back

From a dream and a plan, through really, really hard work, we now are substantially completed! At least the dry paddock holds horses, right? That counts more than anything. Next is the electric, but we haven't bought the wire yet, it is really expensive ;-( this farm life is not for sissies or poor people.

This morning I fed the 'kids' in my pj's and house slippers BECAUSE I CAN! No more going through mud or manure, just across the parking lot, into the gate, through the 'man door' and into the aisle - so clean! I saved myself 10 minutes this morning with 'chores.' Yea!

FINI!

We are now done the dry paddock! It is HUGE, really, to have this on-going project completed.

TA DA! Presto! Voila' (or for some: Walla, which reminds me of Walla Walla, Washington. A nice town, unless you are looking for work, then maybe not a good fit). My friend Gene complains that the written word will eventually go out of fashion with the demise of newspapers and the invention of Twitter, texting and the like. Maybe he's right, but don't let him know that!

We also have water to the barn and pasture, the electric is run, but not installed. We still have to buy the wire, and that is expensive because it is made of copper.

Late in the day Tom used the manure spreader, which I had filled over the weekend. This is a great invention and glad we have it on-hand. He also mowed the corn field into 'trails' so that we can go riding 'in the dark' after work.

This is really a major milestone in the farm's evolution. Horse-keeping just got simplified! We have some minor adjustments and additions to make, and through the cold months we will continue to address these plans. We might also change our minds about things, too. We can do that, wouldn't be the first time.

The next thing on the 'to-do list' is get our old house rent-able. Also minor, but will take some hours to complete. We have the long Thanksgiving holiday coming up, so we should use those extra days to work on the list and get the house empty and presentable.

Deja Vu' All Over Again

Fence posts, fence boards, just like our summer vacation, except not so hot. Rained on Thursday, a little wet in spots still, but the plastic that was placed on the drilled holes kept them dry!

During a break in our hard work, Tom mowed the yard and some of the corn field. He also mowed down onto the PEPCO right-of-way and later we went for a walk in the 'woods' that is also part of our farm. We have about and acre and a half on the other side of the right-of-way and we explored that for the first time. The leaves are falling and it was easy to get the lay of the land. I think we should build a bridge over the creek and cut a couple trails into the woods in a loop to augment our trail system on our own property.

Early this morning got the hay elevator off the flatbed, parked it next to the manure spreader - this place is starting to look like a real farm! Finished putting in the rest of the fence posts, except the ONE that needs serious work - it resembles a trench, not a post hole. Later in the day we started hanging fence boards !!! and then the battery for the nail gun died.

Thursday Already?

The week is flying by - got four posts in the holes last night and the remaining three were covered up with plastic wrap, rocks and fence posts. It was raining before I brought the horses in for the night.

Sprite was so frantic to go in that she stepped into, but didn't knock over, her water bucket, banging into the gate, too. It doesn't take horses but a couple times before they learn something - right or wrong. She literally drug me into the barn, instead of me dragging her.

This weekend, for sure, we will finish the dry paddock installation. It will make life so much better for me and the horses. I think the first week or less we need to have the big boys out in the dry paddock during the day to knock down the grass that is still there. Tom has not mowed any of it and it does look good, for being mostly weeds. We'll reconfigure the electric fence to enclose the run-in shed and make it possible for Lil Fred and Sprite to share that and get out a little, too.

Earlier in the week, Tom was concerned about the noise of shooting the nails into the fence boards would make, and disturb our only neighbor. Last night, he comes out to blow leaves off his drive way and yard! I guess that answers that question! Blam away! Blam, blam, blam.

The dry paddock is as big as some suburban back yards, ample room for minis. They are so small, they don't even bend the grass and their little mouths couldn't possibly consume all that greenery. I feed Lil Fred a cup - measuring cup, not coffee cup - of 'Lite' grain and it takes him FOREVER to munch that down. Fluffs could stuff that in his mouth in one bite!

Rain today, continuing on until around midnight - ugh. The little ones are in the barn for the day, the big boys are out, with access to the run-in. I hope that Skip allows KC to at least stick his head in. Not terribly cold, but not a day any of us would want to be out in.

Speaking of that: This weekend is the BIG EVENT at the League, the Fall Round-up officially starts tomorrow at noon, but lots of folks, with their horses, are there already. We have attended this event in the past and it is truly a sight to behold. Awesome. The amount of truck and trailers and horses is astounding, really. If you aren't familiar with it, you would think I was a liar. Some couldn't/wouldn't be convinced that such a place exists so close to suburbia and a big city, but it does. A true gem in a sea of development. But its raining today, and that is not fun for campers or for horses tied to a high-line, standing in the rain. I know KC HATES it.