Archive for the ‘Chronicle’ Category
Spring Grazing
We are trying something different this year. Instead of confining the horses to the paddocks for a few weeks to protect new growth in the fields, we have left the gates open. The horses are getting a natural, gradual adjustment to fresh grass grazing this year instead of the controlled exposure we have done in the past, where we increase their access time in small increments each day.
At this point, it’s hard to see if this might negatively affect our fields in the way literature on the subject warns. I’m happier letting the horses’ digestive systems adjust to the transition from dry hay to green grass without our needing to control it.
I also like that they aren’t suffering the stress of confinement when they want to be out grazing in the fields.
For these thoroughbred mares who have been rescued from some dire situations in their lifetimes, seeing them so completely contented now is deeply rewarding.
Cyndie and I are heading out to a pancake breakfast at a local maple syrup producer this morning to purchase our annual supply of the sweetness. We bring our own wide-mouth Mason jars, and they fill them at a discount. We first learned this practice from the people who designed and installed our fences. They had to stop working on our property one day to go to the limited-run event and offered to bring us back some syrup.
I felt like I was engaged in some illicit activity when I met them at the end of our driveway, and they passed me two large, unlabeled jars filled with what looked like dark moonshine liquor or something, and then drove off. After one taste, we realized this was something that we needed to make a priority every year.
This morning, we are meeting the couple, Tom and Sue, at the pancake breakfast to catch up on each other’s lives and also reminisce about those months when they got to know us as the suburbanites making a leap into their world in rural Pierce County, WI. They taught us a lot at a time when we didn’t have a clue about how much we were about to learn.
It’s going to be sweet, in more ways than one.
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Minor Victories
I monkeyed around with a lot of little issues yesterday, most of them related to tweaking the mounting points in the barn for my shade sail. Very few of the things I tried to accomplish were easy victories. When nothing is going smoothly, I am tempted to give up and try again some other time. I ended up doing just that.
The day started with my left foot giving me a weird feeling as I walked. It almost felt like one of the toes was missing, though I knew it wasn’t. By the end of the day, after standing on a ladder for much of the afternoon, I figured out that my foot was complaining about standing on the rung of a ladder. Maybe my foot was unhappy with my recent addition of extra weight around my middle. I had my annual physical on Tuesday and learned the actual number for my weight. We don’t have a scale at home.
I also received fresh readings for my fasting glucose and cholesterol numbers, which were both elevated compared to a year ago. It wasn’t an increase into scary territory, but since my numbers regularly fall just outside (above) the desired healthy range, they tend to get noticed by my doctor. This time, I was meeting a new doctor who agreed to take me on as a patient after my previous doctor retired. Luckily, they share very similar opinions and styles, and my elevated numbers didn’t cause him grave concern.
However, they do bother me a little bit. With Cyndie’s support, since she prepares our breakfasts and dinners, I am renewing an effort to control my blood test results by diet and exercise. We are targeting a cholesterol-lowering, heart-healthy menu. The challenge will be, as it has always been, maintaining this effort for longer than a week or two.
It is way too easy to fall back into old eating patterns.
For all the issues that put up a struggle the whole day through yesterday, there were a few others that went my way. For some reason, I couldn’t get a picture from our surveillance camera down at the barn. Simply cycling power to the camera was all that it took to remedy that situation. Also, while I was up on a ladder in the barn, I found myself in reach of an LED lightbulb that was failing.
During a trip to the house, I asked Cyndie if she remembered where we stowed the box of spare bulbs. She found it on the first try, and soon I had a good bulb installed in place of the old one.
Minor victories.
Barn Afternoon
We recently learned that the new liaison to This Old Horse was only fulfilling the role temporarily, and yesterday he showed up to introduce us to the person taking on the job in his place. While waiting for her to arrive, we puttered around the barn and talked about horses and my new shade sail project. I’m planning to put up a short temporary barrier to keep the horses away while work is underway, and Jeremy offered some good ideas on how to achieve that.
We put out a water trough as an alternative to their usual automatic waterer because that will be blocked by the temporary fence.
The horses were briefly disturbed when I brought it out, but quickly went back to their feed buckets and ignored me while I held the hose to fill the tub. Mix was a little jumpy about investigating it closer, but she soon dipped her snout and got a little drink. Later, I watched as Mia was eyeing the new feature in their space, and Mix walked right up to it and took another drink. That was fun to witness.
While Cyndie was introducing our newest liaison, Maddy, to the horses, I puttered about with changing my kludged rigging of the shade sail inside the barn. I’ve been trying to more closely position the anchor points to simulate the way we hope to mount it on new posts in the paddock.
I finally got frustrated as dinnertime approached and decided to stop and sleep on it. I’ll take another look today and see if a good solution materializes for my fresh eyes.
In the middle of moving around in the barn, I found that Asher was sitting on the cool dirt he had dug up without proper authorization. It’s hard to get upset with him when he is looking so damn regal and self-satisfied.
Cyndie had filled in the hole already once before I found him like this. Before I called it a day, I filled it in again, knowing full well he will likely dig it again next time he gets a chance.
Cyndie spent time installing new mesh curtains with magnetic closures in the frames of the barn doors so we will be able to leave doors open for air circulation without worrying about hordes of pigeons coming in.
With an enormous number of projects currently deserving springtime attention, it felt nice to get away with neglecting them for one afternoon while we busied ourselves in and around the barn.
All things in due time.
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Different Birds
It’s so wonderful living in the country surrounded by all manner of growing trees and plants, as well as the abundant wildlife that inhabit our forests. Right up until the point when the birds try to nest where we don’t want them. Even though there is an abundance of trees to choose from, they prefer manmade structures, like our house and barn.
We’ve made progress interrupting the habits of the pigeons under the overhang, but a new irritation has arisen from different birds up at the house. Cyndie thinks it might be a robin because she saw one sitting outside the front door for a long time, and it appeared to get upset with us standing around on the front steps.
The problem we are having is that this bird seems to want to make a nest out of mud. We keep finding splatterings of dirt all over the front steps. Five minutes after sweeping the steps and landing, the dirt returns. We figured out the bird was grabbing potting soil from the planter on the garage window, so Cyndie tried covering it up.
With the top covered, I noticed evidence of dirt being pulled from around the edges. Cyndie stretched plastic wrap around the dirt. Not long after that, since the dirt was still falling on the front steps, I looked around and saw dirt disturbed in a nearby free-standing planter. Cyndie covered that.
When we stepped out of the house yesterday, Cyndie noticed dirt and moss pieces scattered across the roof over the entryway. I got on a ladder and looked everywhere for evidence of where they might be trying to build a nest,d but found nothing.
Out in the yard, I found more planters that Cyndie was trying to protect.
“I paid good money for that planting soil!” Cyndie exclaimed.
I brought a bucket up the ladder and swept off the shingles and gutter cover as best as possible. I don’t know why that would dissuade the birds from trying again, but for the rest of the day, we didn’t need to sweep the steps another time.
Would that it be that easy.
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Open Invite
If you are curious about what it would be like to walk our Forest Garden Labyrinth, there’s no better day than the first Saturday in May every year when The Labyrinth Society sponsors their annual World Labyrinth Day event, “Walk as One at 1.”
This year, the first Saturday falls on May 3rd, and we are hosting an open house from Noon to 2 p.m. with refreshments provided.
For me, the charm of World Labyrinth Day is the concept of people creating a wave of peaceful meditation that moves around the planet as each time zone reaches 1:00 in the afternoon.
Peace is always a worthwhile subject deserving our attention, but this year feels more deserving than ever with all the rancor being caused by the systematic destruction of democratic principles occurring by the day.
Our Wintervale Forest Garden Labyrinth is registered with The Labyrinth Society and can be found on their worldwide locator here.
We have been hosting Peace Walks on World Labyrinth Day for many years, despite the first Saturday in May always being too early in the growing season for our 11-circuit Chartres pattern to look its absolute best.
The above photo is how it appeared last year on World Labyrinth Day. That day, I started what I hope will be a tradition I keep every year on the first Saturday in May. I measured the circumference of the maple tree we transplanted to the center of the labyrinth.
In just under two weeks, I will find out how much bigger the trunk has gotten in a year. I have no idea what to expect. It’s pretty hard to notice a detail like that by just looking at its appearance.
It would make me happy if I could be taking this year’s measurement under a clear blue sky on a warm spring day. Fingers crossed for good weather…
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Easter Feast
Cyndie performed her magic once again and produced a feast of epic proportions for members of her family and our kids, too. Like all good gatherings in a home, the kitchen was the primary hub of conversation at the start.
After they were kicked out in the direction of the seating around the fireplace, Cyndie set out the wide array of brunch choices she had prepared.
After the feast had a little time to settle in our stomachs and stories had been shared, a visit to the barn to see the horses was offered to anyone who hadn’t closed their eyes for a nap.
We brought a bag of carrots for the mares and found them to be wonderfully social and welcoming of our visit. The expected precipitation held off until everyone had departed for the afternoon with plenty of lovingly packaged leftovers.
As evening approached, I was able to spend a little extra time in the barn after feeding the horses to make some adjustments on the shade sail. In addition to tightening the tension to continue stretching out the creases from the folds of the shipped package, I changed the anchor points to better represent the way it will ultimately be hung.
I’m hoping we will be able to figure precise positioning of the four new posts based on measurements of the corner brackets of the sail in the way I have it suspended in the barn. The challenge I discovered while trying to remove ripples via the less-than-ideal anchor points tells me that exact post locations are something we don’t want to take lightly.
It will mean a lot to me to get it right on our first try.
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Mixed Result
My mind continues to linger on the shade sail project even though our contractor, Justin, won’t be available to do the post-installation until 10 days from today. I’d like to do as much preparation as possible before his hourly rate kicks in, so I decided to work on the leaning fence line yesterday.
The first thing I did was tie a guide string that indicates the straight line originally established for that length of fence. Then, I stood and stared at it for a long time, wondering how to go about the multiple steps that would be required.
- I knew I would be unscrewing horizontal boards from the posts.
- I wasn’t sure how to manage the pending curiosity from the horses.
- I was hoping to pull the uphill post that will end up being replaced by the new shade sail post.
- The other post to be replaced has a gate attached to it.
- Where do I put the gate when it has been removed?
- Can I temporarily put fence webbing to keep horses from trying to cross there?
- Maybe I could pull the other posts upright before pulling the gate post.
I opted for pulling the first post because that seemed the most straightforward. The only way I could imagine successfully extracting that post and persuading the rest of them to stand back up straight was to use the diesel tractor.
After wrapping a chain around the hook on the loader bucket and then the post to be pulled, the slight touch of the lever lifted that post flawlessly. That’s the way I wish all things worked.
Next, I moved the tractor back and wrapped a tie-down strap around the next post over to apply pressure against the weight of the tractor. I’m sure the come-along would have been the more appropriate choice, but it was up in the shop garage, and the strap was right there to grab. I’d already made more trips back and forth to get one more thing than my sanity in the moment wanted to tolerate.
I was able to bring the post in line and only lost a little of the upright level when releasing the pressure. Looked straight enough to the naked eye. Moving to one of the two most tipped posts, which happen to be on either side of the waterer, I repeated the routine with the strap.
That post offered much more resistance than the first one. I’m going to need to do a lot more digging in order to gain the inches needed to get it in line again.
It was getting close to feeding time for the horses, and I wanted to get everything put away before starting that process. That meant repeating the routine of trips back and forth to carry all the stuff I had brought out throughout the hours of trying one thing after another to achieve my goal.
I made enough progress in the end to feel successful about my efforts, although I didn’t realign as many posts as I hoped. Luckily, I have plenty more days to fiddle around with this before the sail frame installation officially gets underway.
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Thinking Things
I hope you don’t mind that I haven’t asked you, dear readers, for money, and I haven’t splashed advertisements all over this virtual space, either. It’s not what I do. I consider myself lucky that I can get away with that. Obviously, asking for money is a reasonable thing to do when you have no other source of funding.
These thoughts have been triggered by two things. First, the multitude of activist organizations that are bombarding my inbox with messages emphatically spelling out all the atrocities occurring in our country that need to be stopped.
“Send us $9 monthly.”
“Donate now.”
It’s hard to argue with the craftily written paragraphs that imply the money I give will stymie all the threats to our democratic freedoms unfolding over the last three months. Alas, they are undone by the repetition of requests and the absolute nothing that happens to stop the horrors piling up by the day.
The second thing that has been irking me is the massively intrusive advertisements that a certain weekly documentary series mashes into its podcast format with overdone hype. I am grateful that this person is traveling far and wide to gather stories and employing a crew of staff to record sound and video, which costs a lot of money, I’m certain, but there must be other ways to finance the project.
The current method they use is making it hard to listen to their otherwise very interesting story.
I had a very interesting –read that “chilly”– bike ride yesterday afternoon. When I finished mucking about with various small projects, I was warm, and the air temperature was almost 60°F. I figured the exercise of cycling would naturally heat me up, so I didn’t put on long sleeves.
From our wonderfully nestled property, I did not perceive much in the way of wind. I also didn’t notice that the brief clearing in the sky we had been enjoying was over, and thick clouds were blocking the warm sunshine.
I soon discovered it was closer to 50 than 60°F and felt more like 30 when creating my own wind chill effect during rapid spurts down hills.
The route I selected was a short square that ended up putting me into a stiff headwind for the last miles to our driveway at a time when my arms were already uncomfortably cold.
Checking the wind speed when I got home verified why the neighbor’s flag was stiffly blowing straight at me as I passed. My weather app indicated a steady 15mph directly out of the north. Yeah, brrr.
I’m thinking I should have worn long sleeves.
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Everything Arrived
Thursday started with a morning delivery of the lumber I ordered for my shade sail project. The truck stopped on the road, and the driver used a three-wheeled forklift to move my posts and boards up the driveway.
Having never done anything like this before, I’m uncertain about a lot of the details. I’m feeling confident about the overall concept, and I have purchased everything I think I will need, but I’m haunted about how it will all work out in the end.
I have decided to install a header around the top of the posts to bolster the stability of the whole frame against the pull of the canopy hardware and the pushing guaranteed to happen from 1200-pound horses with an itch. Watching how the 24-foot-long 2 x 6 boards flopped like noodles, it occurred to me that those probably should have been a beefier dimension.
I’m not used to dealing with such long dimensions in lumber, or anything else, for that matter. It’s hard for me to visualize where 24 feet of something will fit. Even the forklift driver needed to make some tricky adjustments to barely fit between the hay shed and the wood fence with the boards balanced on the forks. There was a little squeaking as the boards rubbed against the metal shed as he eked his way through.
By noon, FedEx had delivered a box with the shade sail canopy on our front steps. Cyndie and I tried to unfold it in the loft, letting it drape over the railing to get a feel for the size. I didn’t realize how big 18 feet is. It doesn’t seem like that much out in the paddock, but in the house, we couldn’t find space to stretch it out.
I opted for the barn.
It took me several tries to rig up attachment points that worked, but we eventually got it stretched out enough to take up slack in the metal cable sewn into the outer edge all the way around.
There was no way we could have done this outside yesterday with gale-force wind gusts howling all afternoon, leading up to a robust thunderstorm just before sunset.
I’m aware that maximum tension is the key to getting the shade sail to perform optimally, but my initial rigging in the barn showed me there are a few little details to achieving my goal that make this project a lot more complicated than it seems like it should be at the start.
My new contractor friend, Justin, will stop by today to take exact measurements to determine where we will place the posts.
We are getting close to finding out how much the horses are going to freak out over the strange new feature appearing in their midst. So far, the flapping labels on the lumber outside their paddock kept them on edge for much of yesterday before I pulled everything off the wood.
If only they knew what was going to happen next.
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Mostly Clean
The problem with taking on a chore like picking up downed branches is that there is no end. Even though my focus was on the area beside the lane around the back pasture, as we made progress, just a few steps away lay another pile of branches equally deserving of attention. It is frustratingly difficult to just leave them be for now and stay focused on the limited original target area.
It has been three years since we paid professionals to cut off dead limbs around the two large maple trees. At the time, we had them leave all the cut chunks on the ground where they landed to reduce their time on scene and save us money. My plan was to clean it all up myself on my own time.
How’d that work out for you, John?
Yeah, I didn’t make much progress with that. Then, a large limb they didn’t cut snapped off in a storm. We cut some of that back, but the rest just added to the mess from before.
We haven’t removed every last chunk that was cut down three years ago, but we accomplished a heck of a lot in the last two days, pulling out what was most visible near the lane by the fence. I’m calling it mostly clean, which is good enough.
I’m exercising my ability to accept that perfection is not a requirement.
It was all rotting in place. Now it can continue to rot in the long, tangled pile of branches forming a border fence along our northern property line.
Late in the afternoon, I met the contractor who will be helping me with the shade sail project. Delivery of the canopy was pushed to today, same as the scheduled delivery of the lumber.
The contractor, Justin, will return on Friday to take precise measurements and provide a cost estimate for his services. He will find me a post-hole auger to rent, and he sounded very supportive of my plans. Looks like he will be available after next week to do the work.
I do believe a new source of shade for the horses will soon be achieved. I am excited to find out how it will look, and how different it will end up being from the images I’ve been creating in my head for the last few months.
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Relative Something 