Relative Something

Our fall colors are off to a brilliant start. It was a little foggy when I woke up, and became thicker as time passed. It made me wonder what the dew point temperature was. In checking, I discovered it was 44°(F), which is what the air temperature had reached, so we were at 100% humidity.

I could see the sun rise over our horizon, and instead of burning off the fog, it became more obscured as it climbed. When it finally burned through the milky soup, the changing leaves began to radiate color at maximum glow.

My week got off to a magnificent start of its own yesterday, because the excavator finally showed up to create a better defined drainage swale across our pasture! Of all days for my cell service to go wonky, I didn’t receive the call that he was on his way. I was working down in the woods, clearing trail. I dragged a few branches out into the open to toss on the brush pile, and immediately caught sight of him up on our driveway. It was a very happy moment.

We briefly discussed a plan, which started with me moving the horses out of the way, into the pasture to the north of the driveway. Of course, I was wanting to do this quickly and placed the halter over the first horse that allowed. That happened to be Hunter. He did fine, until we reached the pasture gate. Then he became hesitant. I succeeded in getting him inside and headed back to get Legacy. Next, came Dezirea who was showing a little extra nervousness. The sound of the excavator’s skid-loader may have contributed.

When we arrived at the pasture gate, the rambunctious boys were crowding our path. I grabbed the handle of the web-line that creates our “gate,” and opened it to guide Dezirea in. As I did that, Hunter took advantage of me and hopped over the web as it sagged, getting himself loose outside the pasture.

In that second, he gained all my attention, but I had the gate handle in one hand and Dezirea’s lead line in the other. Luckily, he simply started grazing in the grass out there, giving me a chance to release Dezi from the halter and secure the gate before going after him. It was the classic opportunity for me to be in a hurry and him to not want to be caught. I know how that exercise plays out, but I felt pressured to get the last horse out of the paddock and open gates for the excavator. After a couple tries to entice him into the halter again, which he rebuffed instantly each time, I resorted to just getting the lead line over his neck.

It is not very secure, but he begrudgingly allowed me to force his return using that method, getting him back through the gate again and inside the pasture. It took some effort to relax my energy by the time I made it back to the paddock for Cayenne. She was her usual angelic self, and with the horses all together in the north pasture, I could focus on facilitating the excavating.

It was a joy watching the skill of the operator, Andrew, as he worked to create the gently sloping channel across the width of the south grazing pasture.

Now I have a time-sensitive need to get some grass seed planted. It’s so close to too late in the season that I had given up thinking about that part of the project. However, the weather prediction indicates there could still be enough time to get some growth.

Anything that starts growing now will be helpful come spring, when the flowing water could cause significant erosion if we don’t do anything.

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