Posts Tagged ‘fences’
Wanting Green
The horses are starting to seem a little hangry with the amount of grass surrounding the paddock that is turning deliciously green.
I’m wondering if they will be so excited when we open the gate to the back pasture that they will take off running as if they were in a race like they did last year. The other option, which I’ve witnessed more often than not, is that they will take one step through the gate and start munching grass like they may never get another chance.
At present, they are twisting their necks to reach under the bottom boards of the fence to nibble any blades they can reach and then they look at me like I must be thick-headed not to understand they want out.
I tried cleaning up manure before the next series of predicted rainy days and made it about halfway through the paddock before the wheelbarrow was full and I was out of time. I see again more evidence proving an off-handed comment our fence installer made about the ground being high along old fence lines.
My mind tried to imagine why there would be a build-up of earth along a fence over the years but now, having heavy animals, I see they compress the dirt everywhere except under the fence, leaving that as the higher ground.
The horses pack the ground so densely that it’s hard for the grass to grow. Never mind that grass seems perfectly able to grow through our asphalt driveway.
Even when an odd tuft of grass does overcome the compacted soil and start to grow, the horses kill it by munching it down to a nub.
Given enough evolutionary time, I wonder if horses could learn to leave enough grass growth that it doesn’t all die so that they always have some fresh green blades to eat.
I suspect they’d prefer to not be confined to a paddock or any fenced boundaries so they wouldn’t have to worry about overeating in one limited space.
Won’t be too much longer before we can open up the pasture for them. I offered to drive Cyndie down along the path around the back pasture so she could watch them in case they take off in a gallop again. Even though she is making good progress a week and two days after her knee replacement surgery, she isn’t ready to walk the uneven surfaces of our property yet.
Her first physical therapy appointment was last Tuesday and the therapist gave her permission to take a stroll outdoors on our driveway with her walker as soon as the weather takes a turn toward warm and dry. It was a pretty safe grant to make since Cyndie is healing well and the weather shows little sign of improving for quite some time.
She’s going to get a little hangry herself, waiting to get out of her post-surgery confinement so she can walk outdoors again.
Soon, I say.
Relatively, that is.
.
.
More Fence
Yesterday, our fence crew pounded the last posts for the paddocks, and put up a lot of boards. After boards, they will mount one line of wire along the top, which will be able to be electrified. This will discourage horses from chewing on the wood of the fence. Next, they will attach gates, and then complete the installation of the automatic waterer, and we will be out of excuses for not having horses here.
I guess it is time to take care of all the little details we have neglected to worry about until after the fact.
This afternoon, Cyndie is expecting a visit from a person with the local extension service who will review our situation and offer advice on best practices and available resources to support our efforts here. It’s another step in our effort to learn more about what we have gotten ourselves into, even as we forge ahead with plans to establish the infrastructure from which we will operate.
We have stumbled here and there, seeming to get ahead of ourselves sometimes, while allowing a few important details to fade into the background, but the progress we make is part of the way Cyndie works. It gets us moving toward our goal, and forces us to learn on the fly. It creates a bit of mental stress for me, but I can accept it, because if it were up to me, I think we’d be stuck before we even started.
I’d be hung up trying to answer the practically unanswerable questions, trying so hard to avoid a misstep that I’d end up not taking any at all.
Here’s to Cyndie’s brilliant capacity to bring our dreams to life, and our amazing progress thus far!
Stored Energy
I stayed overnight in the cities for two days in a row, so yesterday was a precious return to Wintervale for me, after work. There is no snow anywhere in sight!
I went for an abbreviated walk to survey the conditions and found that it appears to be as dry as I’ve yet seen it this spring. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean it is dry, by any definition of the word. There is still standing water visible on the gravel drive in front of the barn, slowly trying to make its way down to lower ground.
Just as I was thinking about what that meant for our fencing project, the contractor called to check in. They are so far behind on every job they have booked, that it will take them long days and weekends to adequately serve all their customers. He did not want to hear that there was still water on the driveway there.
We are hoping to see a fair amount of activity over the days of the coming weekend. Maybe even some progress on the hay shed!
I came upon a broken tree limb stretched across one of our trails, and marveled over the new growth sprouting, regardless the fracture at the trunk of the tree. All that stored energy still does what it is programmed to do.
I wish I had some of that energy in me, for all the spring projects unfolding before us at a thrilling pace right now.
Hurried Tidbits
I’m short of time, and seem to have just bits and pieces of news and thoughts, so I’ll take a shot at just tossing them out for today…
• Worked a 12-hour shift at the day-job yesterday, and thus had a chance to drive home after the daily rush-hour traffic jams. There was noticeably less traffic than I commonly face in the mid-afternoon time slot I usually target. That’s not a bad option.
• Minor, but exciting, progress on fencing yesterday. The area is too wet to work in, except up near the barn, so that is where they confined their efforts. They installed fences that create a channel out of the door, which will lead to gates at the entrance of the two paddocks.
• I got a call while I was at work, from the fence contractor checking if it was okay to put all their equipment in the barn, as more precipitation is predicted for the next few days. Rain and/or snow. There is a possibility for heavy rain. Due to that, and the snow that has yet to melt, our region has been put under a flood watch.
• After a brief period where our two cats seemed to be getting over their unexplained spat with each other, they resumed the hostile animosity a couple of days ago, and have us rather confused. Also, the wee one, female, Pequenita, seems like she doesn’t feel well. She doesn’t always keep her food down, and seems to have less of her usual energy. It may or may not be related to their relationship troubles. A check up with a vet is in the plans.
• My thumb pain continues to debilitate most of my actions. I bought a brace, which has helped to protect from exacerbating the problem, and I am eagerly awaiting an appointment to have a specialist look at it on Thursday morning.
• Thursday’s weather could make the driving to the appointment a little challenging. I’m going to do everything possible to get there. I sure hope the specialist has a similar level of determination.
• In light of the recent terror bombings in Boston, I want to echo something that I read, credited to actor, Patton Oswalt: (paraphrasing) “There are more good people than bad. We outnumber you, and we always will.” For every tragedy that bad people unleash, a much greater number of good people respond, giving care, soothing others, spreading love.
Those are my bits for today. Stay warm and dry, and do something good. Spread some love.
We’re Off!
We are off to a walloping start for the new year at our place. We took care of some details that have been lingering unaddressed during the time we were overly focused on our open house/party, and the Christmas and New Year holidays. Cyndie now has Wisconsin license plates for her car, and I learned that our energy company does the billing for electric and propane, independently. I applied for auto-pay, but it only went into effect for the electric bill. I was past due on the propane, because I needed to apply for that separately. Who knew? It’s all taken care of now.
We made some great progress in designing the layout of our future horse spaces, and the fencing that will define it. Our special friends, Barb and Mike, were here to ring in the new year, and helped us identify a miscalculation (confusing ‘feet’ for ‘yards’ in our numbers), which allowed us to move past a stumbling block that was truly foiling our attempts to plan. Then they graciously accompanied us in trudging through the snow to ‘test’ our layout in real scale.
I remain pleasantly encouraged that we have plenty of space to accommodate what we currently have in mind. It’s not a perfect science, since we don’t know which of our potential plans will actually be achieved, in the long run, but the possibilities appear to allow room for us to fit any of the variety of visions that are floating in and out of our dreams.
The owners of the fencing company came to our house on the afternoon of the New Year holiday, to consult on the current status and future planning. We came a couple of steps closer to choosing the type of fence, and are now leaning toward a vinyl-coated high tensile wire strung between wood posts. It will help keep the total cost of this phase of our project down in a range that almost fits our budget.
They will be pounding some stakes and stringing temporary lines to help us visualize how the fences for two paddocks around the barn will look.
These are significant steps for us. In the month-plus since we started talking with this company about our wishes, the progress has felt rather hobbled. There is a very good aspect to the delay of progress, in that, we have had time to adjust our perceptions and work on our imaginings of what we wish to create.
I take it as a good sign, that none of the changes that have evolved are very significant. Overall, it is pretty much on plan with our combined visions.
On top of the energy we felt from working on that project, our inspirations were led to spend some time together exploring the possibilities for a dog, or dogs, that will be good companions for horses, and visitors, and our cats, and us! We share a feeling of attraction to certain, but not all, herders, for our situation. We like the Belgian Shepherd, Australian Shepherd, Sheltie, and Great Pyrenees. All tend to have similar benefits/challenges. It will be a tough choice.
There is plenty ahead for us in 2013. It feels like we have picked up right where we left off in 2012, and we got a pretty good start on day one. Hang on for another wild ride!
Relative Something 