Posts Tagged ‘planning’
Growing Grass
I have developed a new fascination with growing grass, which seems funny to me, since I put so much energy into not growing grass during the 25 years we lived in Eden Prairie. Now, as I drive through the countryside, I take note of the neighbors who have grass fields for cutting hay. There are a couple on the way into Ellsworth that look pristine, and have inspired me.
The other thing that inspires me is watching the horses graze. I want to give them the best of what they want, and I’d sure like to have more than they need.
Toward that goal, we decided to mow the area to the north of our driveway. Cutting down the weeds rejuvenates the grass that is already there. I used the brush hog behind the big tractor, and had to navigate around the pine trees planted in the west portion of that area, which made it a bit of a challenge.
I took pictures of the ‘before and after’ view. One of the first things you can see in these images is how the weather changed yesterday. It got chillier as I worked, becoming a dramatically different day over a span of just a few hours.
The other thing to notice is the trail we had that was cut around the border of the field. You can see how green the grass is where it was mowed. That’s what we are after.
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I wish it was as simple as knocking down the weeds to get what we are after, but it’s not. We plan to have this area for grazing, and to keep the big field for cutting hay. If we are to let the horses graze here, we need to get it fenced. How complicated is it to add fence? Now we know. We need to think ahead to where access through a gate, or gates, will be located. We have to establish the most logical perimeter, which won’t necessarily end up being the area that’s cut.
Fencing the area will block our trail. We could move the fence that will contain the grazing area in a bit, to leave space for a trail around the outside, but that can tend to make the northern property border ambiguous. The existing property border has remnants of rusty barbed wire fencing, which we want to replace. If we update the border fence line and fence the grazing area inside that, we end up with double the fence.
That’s a tough decision for me. I don’t want more fence, I want less fence.
It’s not as simple as just cutting the area to get everything we want, but at least just cutting it will be a pretty simple way to grow grass. That’s a start.
Loosely Planned
Our Sunday was rather loosely planned, and ultimately, I wavered away from focusing on our priority of creating drainage channels around the paddocks. I did start the day on that project, but after cutting through sod outside the end of the small paddock, nearest the hay shed, I decided to wait until the work to replace our culvert gets done.
Did I mention the culvert here yet? We need to provide a way for water to drain beyond our new driveway loop, and a plastic culvert was buried beneath the gravel. Shortly after it was installed, I discovered it had collapsed and cracked open, filling with dirt. The contractor is switching to a metal culvert.
When that gets completed, I will feel more motivated to attempt to construct a final version of drainage waterway between the gravel of the driveway loop, and the first paddock.
Around the time I decided to take a break from the drainage ditch, our daughter, Elysa, arrived. After a little lunch, Cyndie wanted to take advantage of the extra hand, and Elysa’s knowledge and skill with horses, to take pairs of horses for another walk around our property. I claimed the role of gate handler.
Our little herd of four are quite the unit, and the two horses that get left behind during walks make a big fuss. After closing the gate, I hang around to offer calm confidence to the anxious horses. It is little consolation to them, and they fidget and call out until the horses out walking finally emerge into view again.
It was while we were completing this little exercise that my project shifted. I had been standing next to the round pen, and could see it deserved some attention, to continue working on getting it level. At the same time, Cyndie decided to pick up sticks, branches, and roots in that area, and also to rake up some of the dead grass piled from our previous cuttings, to use as a ground cover in some of the muddiest spots in the paddocks.
Elysa agreed to pitch in and help and we enjoyed some wonderful time together, laboring away. In no time at all, the afternoon disappeared on us and it became time to feed the horses. It is so wonderful to have an extra person available for these tasks, especially one who knows horses.
As I puttered with moving wheelbarrows through gates, and picking up rakes and pitch forks, I watched the actions of Cyndie and Elysa in the small paddock with all four horses. Cyndie realized she hadn’t finished picking up the manure in that paddock, so I brought two tools for the job, enabling them to double up on the task. A few minutes later, the horses came over for some attention, and Elysa dropped her scooper and obliged the group. She is smart about priorities.
I saw Legacy grip the handle of her scooper and pick it up. They reported that he was being mischievous with all their stuff. He certainly doesn’t hesitate to check things out.
We had a wonderful day of tending to whatever captured our attention, and it was a big bonus to be able to share it with our daughter. That can be a benefit that results from a day that is loosely planned.
Great Anticipation
Today is the day. After years of preparation, starting way back when we hatched this crazy scheme, we will finally have horses. It is the culmination of our vision, and it is the first step into a new normal. What an amazing change this is from our years back in Eden Prairie.
It should be a busy day today. First thing in the morning, I am expecting a visit from a log home professional who will quote the job of sealing up our home and preserving the logs for the coming winter season. After that, we will be watching for friends coming to visit, the delivery of bales of hay, and then the arrival of our herd of horses –not necessarily in that order.
We’ve got some things to do yet, prior to their arrival, so we hope to get one or two chores accomplished before we enter the phase of just standing and staring, which I expect will consume us for the remainder of the day.
I hope they will be happy with the grass they find here. They are coming from fields that have been over-grazed, so our long, thick grass will be a significant change. I also hope I will remember what I learned at the Epona seminar I attended with Cyndie in Arizona.
“Breathe.”
I will remember to breathe.
Final Preparations
I took advantage of being home on Monday and whittled away at the list of things we want done before the horses arrive. Cyndie had to work, so I was left to choosing tasks that I could accomplish alone. One of the big ones for me was to finish preparing the area we have set aside for manure management (just in case the 4 horses happen to produce any manure).
We selected a site last fall, and did some initial clearing. At the time, it seemed like the perfect location, if only we could remove some stumps. We cut into the bigger of two that were right in front, to see if it might come out with minor effort. It didn’t. Elysa’s friend, Anne, volunteered to work on it, because cutting out a stump appealed to her. She made great progress at the time, cutting through all the roots around the perimeter, but the stump held fast.
Early in spring, when Cyndie initially began cleaning out the stalls in the barn, the old sawdust and wood chips got dumped behind and beside the stumps. We ended up ignoring the area for most of the summer, and it grew tall with weeds and some grass. Yesterday, I brought out the chainsaw and made all the stumps disappear, both front and rear (sorry, Anne). Now we are set to dump manure from the front side, and remove it from the back side.
It is another one of our visions realized.
It will be easy to access the manure composting area off the new road that comes around the back side of the barn. Turning around from the view of the [future] manure pile, I took a picture of what the back side of the barn looks like.
We’ve got some spare gates remaining, which will likely get used in a next phase of fencing, whenever that occurs. Speaking of gates, my next project was getting chains installed to latch all the gates in the paddocks. That was definitely a priority to be done before the horses arrive.
When Cyndie got home, she helped to roll some big rocks into the bucket of the diesel tractor. The semi driver scouting our layout said he could back down toward the barn if the rocks weren’t there. We’d been meaning to move them ever since they were dropped on that spot at the start of our re-landscaping project, so we promised him they would be gone.
Now the rocks are back by the labyrinth.
In the evening, before we turned out the lights and closed up the barn, we turned on the electric fence to confirm everything was in working order, and then proclaimed the place ready for horses.
Today, I will mount some hardware to create tie-points where Cyndie wants them, to secure horses during saddling or other tasks. I will pick up some grain from the feed store. I will bring our collection of pallets down to the hay shed, to place under the bales of hay.
We are one day away from the planned arrival.
Counting Down
Okay, I’ll finally admit it. We are now counting down the days until horses arrive here. I have purposely avoided writing about it, in case something interferes with the plan, but now we are close enough that I am breaking my self-imposed silence on the subject. Four Arabian horses have been identified, two mares and two geldings. This fact woke me in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and I wasn’t able to get back to sleep until after I made a list of all the things that were flashing into my mind that remain to be done.
I think I came up with a list of 12 items. After both Cyndie and I were up and talking in the morning, the list grew to 31 things to be done. Yikes! On second review, I was able to convince her that many of the tasks could wait until after the horses arrive, but there are still more things than can probably be accomplished. We’ll just have to prioritize.
Yesterday was a beautiful day to get a lot done, but we struggled with hitting our high gear. We knocked off some things that were on our list, but not the one that will take the most time, which is unfortunate, because time is now in short supply. It was a beautiful day, sunny, breezy, and the temperature was perfectly comfortable. There was no reason we shouldn’t have gotten a lot done, until our first visitor of the day arrived.
George, from our neighboring CSA farm came over by horse-drawn wagon to deliver this month’s share of meat and eggs. We had a wonderful and valuable chat, but it extended well into time we can barely afford. It is a tough thing to balance, because on the one hand, such interactions are priceless. It is very close to being the very essence of living in a rural setting like we do now. On the other hand, it keeps us from finishing what we start.
Normally, it wouldn’t be such a challenge, but yesterday, it happened twice. The second time it turned out to be the person who will be delivering a semi-load of hay with the horses. He was scouting the route to our property and wanted to check the layout of our buildings and driveway in order to be prepared. He turned out to be another very talkative person, full of knowledge about things pertinent to our endeavors here. Another priceless meeting and exchange that we are blessed to receive, but which knocks us off our list of tasks we want to get done. This took us into the dinner hour, and standing in the cool evening breeze brought on a chill that had both Cyndie and me happy to call it a day.
We ended up building the first fire of the season in our fireplace and Cyndie made soup and heated some french bread for our meal. More things to love about September.
That, and the pending arrival of horses…
Idea Realized
Carrying on with yesterday’s theme of ‘before and after,’ this time I compare my design concept with the actual end result. Last night, I searched out the images I created back in February to mock-up what our idea for a hay shed and new driveway loop might look like. I see now that I didn’t put enough attention toward getting the scale correct.
If you were following along back then, you may recall that my first mockup attempt had the shed at the wrong angle. You can see that one on the right.
When I realized that mistake, I took a second shot at it, rotating the shed, bringing the size up a bit, and then adding some fence. In the end, we didn’t use the two-tone wall that the barn has, but we were able to match the colors close enough so that the two buildings look like they belong together. Unfortunately, the seasons don’t match in these two views, but otherwise, I think you can see that we came pretty close to achieving our vision for the hay shed and driveway loop.
Stay tuned to see the realization of some of our other visions in the days ahead…
Not Long
It is funny to me that I find something slightly amiss when I return home from work in the late afternoon and decide not to dive into some project or another around here. Between the excessive heat warning we have been living under in these parts for the last few days, and my not feeling quite on top of my game, I have avoided doing any real work after I have arrived home from the day-job. It feels wrong.
Therein lies my challenge of living in the moment. There is nothing wrong with taking some time to rest and recoup. I should be enjoying the time to the fullest.
There is so much that I (we) want to get done, that it feels unsettling to allow time to pass without achieving any significant accomplishments. Daylight is growing so noticeably shorter. The month of September looms large on the near horizon, and schools and fall sports are primed and ready to launch. We are in contact with our anticipated source for horses and plans are being initiated to make the transfer of the first 2 of 4.
That adds a bit of pressure to finish additional things in and around the barn. In classic form, as each task accomplished gets checked off, two new things needing attention appear. The closer we get, the behinder we are.
I’m hoping for a new burst of energy to emerge when the oppressive heat and humidity move on. I’ll be working to get everything shipshape and Bristol fashion for the new residents of our barn and paddocks.
Garden Tending
We have spent the last two afternoon/evenings down at the labyrinth garden, trying to finish off marking a rough outline of the path, and get things planted. The creation of this labyrinth has been an important priority for Cyndie, and she has forged progress against all manner of weather delays, lack of time, and conflicting demands.
I think she has been buying plants for that garden all summer long, and I haven’t been able to help her to see where they should go. She has needed to get some in the ground just to give them a chance to survive until we know where they will ultimately fit. Now we need to get everything planted before the growing season is over for the year.
A couple of weekends ago, Elysa helped accomplish the greatest amount of progress, defining the basic path borders for 3-quarters of the labyrinth, using paving stones that Cyndie purchased. Last night, I came close to completing the marking of the last quarter section which remained to be defined, and was then able to adjust the width and shape of the borders previously laid out. That finally brought enough definition for Cyndie to recognize the route, and allowed her to commence with relocation of wayward plants.
There is still a lot of work to do, before it becomes a true realization of the idea we jointly developed, but for now, the route is walkable, and I think that is amazing progress, given all the other things we are doing around here, simultaneously.
Dramatic Tension
The stories of our adventures creating Wintervale would get boring if there wasn’t a little drama involved. Last week we experienced the kind of drama that I could do without.
After we received the latest invoice for the ongoing projects, the dose of reality reverberated with a negative ripple effect. “What-ifs” started to run free for both Cyndie and me, and we are way too inclined toward feeding off of each others’ dark moods. It was as if each thing we were hoping to accomplish was crashing down in a succession of lost momentum. I think there was a moment for each of us where our thoughts were headed toward giving up on the whole long-term wild bunch of ideas we have about this place.
At first, I was surprised by the level of emotion that Cyndie was trying to manage, but eventually I came to understand the reason for her extreme reaction. There is an event in the Twin Cities in two weeks, associated with the program where she just completed her apprenticeship. She wanted to already have horses here and our operation functional enough to allow her to market her training sessions to the gathering of people who will be the perfect target audience for what she plans to offer.
When we first learned our offer on this place had been accepted, I suggested we live here for a year, and work on the infrastructure before actually bringing horses into our daily lives. Cyndie had a different timeline in mind, and we were trying to accomplish her more aggressive goal, but the weather has been a primary hindrance for that.
Only recently did we get registered with the state as a business, and we have yet to complete a lot of the administrative steps that we have in mind. It’s all work we can do (unlike some of the farm tasks that neither of us are interested in tackling, like managing a sprayer and hazardous chemicals to apply weed killer to the hay-field like everyone is informing us we need to do), but it doesn’t lend itself to being done all at once.
With that target date that Cyndie was eyeing, we were finding ourselves forced to try to do just that: all at once. And, to do so while trying to train our new puppy dog. See why I was feeling ready to throw in the towel?
I still am not sure what will happen. We obviously won’t be as ready as she wants, but as she slowly recovers from the feelings of giving up entirely, I think she is formulating a way to be just enough partially ready that she can still get her name out there, and collect names of others who have interest in what she plans to offer.
One of the things looming on the list of “needs-to-be-done” is smoothing out some of the rough terrain and getting a pasture mix of grass seed planted to improve our hay and grazing. Just when we were thinking we’d never get it all done, an angel appears to help. Our next door neighbor made a surprise visit yesterday. While we were talking, he suggested he could smooth out that area for us if we wanted.
It wouldn’t have felt right to ask, but there he was, volunteering for the very thing we would love to have him do. I found that to be a pretty dramatic moment. And that’s the kind of drama that I more than welcome.
Slow Process
Last year, late in the fall, we kicked off our big fencing project, enlisting the services of a fencing company to remove a portion of old fences, including some very old barbed wire that was entangled in years of tree and brush growth. When that work was done, the ground in those areas was a mess of deep divots with tangles of root remnants protruding every which way.
Two giant piles of root bundles and brush were created from the tree debris that was removed. Slowly and methodically, we worked to burn those piles through the winter and spring. Meanwhile, the fencing crew moved on to build new fences, creating our two paddock areas attached to the barn.
The incredibly wet spring disturbed most of our progress and planning, and the areas of dirt and divots that were too muddy to go near, fell to neglect. We ended up leaving them for nature to address. They eventually became less conspicuous beneath a cover of grass and weeds that grew through the summer.
A couple of weeks ago, when the excavator was here to dig the trench for our new water line to the paddocks, they dug two huge holes and buried what remained of the piles of root bundles that never did burn.
Last fall, a large pile of cut logs from those trees was left at the bottom of our back hill for me to split and stack for firewood. Yesterday, I finally got the last of that pile moved up to the top, near the wood shed.
The uneven terrain remains to be dealt with, but 9-months after we started that first phase of our initial fencing project, we are just now feeling close to having completed the entirety of that goal.
Of course, I still have all that wood to split and stack, but that task will get lost in a never-ending exercise of firewood production here. There are a couple of perfectly burnable dead trees waiting to be felled, and a few new ones that came down in the spring snow-pocalypse, that are all awaiting being cut into logs.
Relative Something 