Posts Tagged ‘reuse bale twine’
Adjustment Time
It looks like we have reached the point in our change of seasons where the temperature will drop below freezing and stay there for a while. We have had almost two full winters of temperatures frequently rising above freezing, and it’s reached the point where it’s become my expectation. I’m going to need to adjust my mindset and acclimatize my body for something closer to old-fashioned winters real quick.
When the temps stay below freezing day and night, lake ice finally gets a chance to become thick enough for skaters and ice fishing fans. The ground will begin to freeze, and without snow cover to provide insulation, it will freeze deeper and deeper into the dirt. Then, when we finally do get a decent snowfall, it won’t start melting from the bottom up.
It just might make me feel like a kid again.
Yesterday, I updated the braided bale twine we wrap around one of the posts supporting the barn overhang. Can you tell the difference between the old and the new in the photo?
The horses have proven they like to rub against it. Covering the wooden post protects the horses from getting splinters and keeps them from chewing on the wood. Finding this creative use for the twine cut from hay bales keeps the polypropylene out of the waste stream.
I decided to do the wrapping while the horses were being served their feed for the afternoon, but I started before the feed buckets were brought out. They showed a healthy curiosity about what I was up to. Light seemed to think the new braid I brought out was for them to chew on.
After Cyndie served up their buckets, she helped me with the exercise of going around and around in what felt like an endless number of circles to tightly stretch the braid on every corner.
Now the horses can rub against a wider span of the bumpy braid when the rain blankets we just put on them again become bothersome.
Rubbing against the posts is a much better option than against the hay nets that Mix was trying to use. The metal clips on the blanket were getting snagged in the netting while we were standing there, and unfortunately, they don’t rely on finesse to get themselves out of such situations.
Hopefully, the horses will adjust quickly enough to the cold temperatures that we can remove the blankets when the current bout of precipitation moves off to the east.
Accumulating snow can’t be far off in our future. It would be great if the next batch of precipitation coming our way wouldn’t start as rain.
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Overnight Success
It was a treat to find obvious evidence yesterday morning that at least one of the horses took advantage of the new surface to rub against.
It sure is nice when a plan works out just as we hoped.
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Reuse Wrap
We got a start on the great idea that keeps us from throwing our scrap bale twine into the trash. After making a few long strands of braided scraps, yesterday we wrapped our first post to create an improved surface for the horses to rub against. I wish we would have known about this trick sooner because it is not uncommon to find lengths of the horses’ manes or tails snagged in a splinter of wood grain on the edges of the vertical boards of the posts.
It was cute having the horses be only mildly curious about the strange new decoration in their environment. They took turns approaching to sniff the braided twine and I wondered if they could smell that our hands had been working the twine. They definitely witnessed us working on braiding multiple sets of twine scraps over the last few weeks. After giving it a sniff, they seemed perfectly satisfied that our project was harmless and we could be left to wrap uninterrupted.
When we stopped back at dinnertime, I noted there wasn’t a single hair of evidence that any of them had rubbed up against it yet. There was plenty of hair on the ground where one of them had laid down and rolled around, so there is no question they are still heavily in spring-shedding mode.
I really like the new feeling of happiness each time we cut another bale open and pull off the twine as compared to the old feeling of frustration over what we were going to do with the mountain of cut pieces proliferating non-stop. Now, it’s more like a perception of not having enough twine to braid.
I want to offer another shout-out to Kim Hallin of Unbridled for posting her helpful video about the concept of putting our old twine scraps to good use.
We are looking forward to our horses developing an appreciation for this upgrade to their hangout space. I’m particularly hopeful that they will like rubbing up against it a lot more than chewing it to bits.
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Not Snowy
At least it hasn’t been snowy on the ranch the last two days. It has been rainy, however. Wednesday night we experienced a thunder and lightning storm that had me sounding stressed in my slumber. Cyndie spoke soothingly and I recall hearing her voice, but not what I had been dreaming at that moment. She said I quieted right down and my breathing soon returned to normal sleeping mode.
When we stepped out in the morning to feed the horses, I asked Cyndie if she had arranged the rocking chairs under the tree by our driveway.
She said she hadn’t touched them. That meant the way they were laying in the image above was accomplished by the wind. Previously, the chairs were upright, sitting side by side, and facing downhill.
The chilly rain is keeping the horses under the overhang space where they can munch hay while staying out of the wind and keeping dry. When they aren’t chomping bites of hay from the net bags, it appears they are using them as a surface to rub against. I found a mat of horse hair coating the outer surface of one.
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This serves as a good incentive for us to get our newly braided strands of old-cut twine wrapped on one of the posts for them to rub. We are making decent progress in converting individual lengths to reusable bundles!
It’s not as fun to do braiding when it’s so cold and wet but while waiting for the horses to finish the food in their pans, I twist up a section to pass a few extra minutes. When it is sunny and warm, sitting under the overhang braiding while the horses watch is a lot more fun and we get a lot more done at once.
Before the rain got intense, Cyndie and I stepped out to pull our custom netting from the top of the landscape pond. It’s proved to be a convenient way to keep leaves out of the pond over the off-season.
I hadn’t gotten around to putting the pump and filter back in before the rain picked up. I ended up moving on to something else and the pond stuff sat out in the rain for a couple of days before I remembered about it all and moved the buckets back into the garage –after pouring out the water they had collected. It reminded us to put out our rain gauges.
The last few days of spring weather have been messy, limiting our outdoor accomplishments, but at least none of the precipitation coming down on us has fallen as snow. Thank goodness for that.
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Not Money
For several days in a row this week, we were able to give the horses more attention than they have gotten from us in a long time. I think Cyndie’s increasing mobility has paid off for our horses in boosting morale. They have never given us any indication that they like to be brushed. Actually, just the opposite, but after Swings finally reacted with such whole-body acceptance to Cyndie working her mane the other day, we have fresh hope that we can teach them all this same appreciation.
Yesterday, we did some bale-twine braiding while the herd munched a noontime snack. We figure it will help them accept our plan to wrap posts and hang braided strands if they’ve watched us making them. I am so happy to have discovered this simple reuse option for the polypropylene twine since I didn’t come up with a local recycler that collects used bale twine. Keeps it out of the waste stream for a while longer at the very least.
While I was noticing the horses looking so happy to be watching us, I was reminded again that this retired phase of their lives is the first time their existence wasn’t related to making money. The reason they were born was that people wanted to make money off of them. The reason they were trained to race was money driven. After their racing days ended, all four mares were repeatedly bred in hopes their foals would become money-makers.
We don’t know for certain but based on the horse’s behavior, we imagine the grooming they received previously could have been rather business-like as opposed to focusing on the emotional needs and desires of the animal.
I don’t mean to imply that the treatment they are receiving from us isn’t rainbows and lollipops all the time. I wrote yesterday about working on disciplining their bad behavior. We have also recently taken the annual step of closing off access to the pastures. Mia so sweetly showed up at a gate Cyndie had just closed and forlornly gazed out at the field as if to ask for a pass.
Sorry, no can do.
At this point, it’s for the good of the grass. We need the turf to firm up a bit and the grass to grow at least six inches so the field will become robust enough to support the pressure of four heavy and hungry beasts.
So, we are giving the horses a dose of our own “This is for your own good whether you like it or not.” The difference is that our decisions aren’t based on making money off them. I would like to believe they can sense the distinction.
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Relative Something 