Posts Tagged ‘spring chores’
Taking Advantage
Unlike my usual mode of operation where I dig into a big project that commands the bulk of my day, I set about trying to touch as many little tasks as possible to take advantage of this quick dose of summer-like weather that has shown up. We hit 80°F yesterday!
One technique I employed was to simply jump on whatever popped into view and do a minimum amount of work to achieve satisfactory progress.
The easiest of these is continuing to pick up a winters-worth of fallen branches wherever I turn. I tidied up the barn a bit since it was delivery day for bags of feed. That triggered the moving of Cyndie’s treasured picnic table made from a repurposed door out to her chosen location beneath a giant old tree in the woods by the house –kicking away fallen branches as I went.
I was eager to clean out the flattened ornamental tall grass by the shop garage. Nothing fancy here. I kicked my perfectionistic desires aside and focused on the intention of making short work of it.
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I made a point of getting the horse water fountain cleaned while the herd was out grazing new sprouting blades of grass in the back pasture. Of course, they eventually noticed I was up to something and came running in to check on me. I hustled to replace the stopper so the pans would start filling with water. Light didn’t wait and poked her nose in to drink before I was able to get the cover on that muffles the loud spraying from the water valve.
Then she circled back to get in proper order behind Swings, who politely waited until I had collected my things and headed up to the barn. All four of them looked rather cute lined up nose-to-tail to take turns at the waterer.
The best way to take advantage of a summery day in April is to go for a bike ride, so that was something I intended to fit in with as little extra effort as possible. Having an E-bike made this much easier for me. Gliding along with an electric assist made my first ride of the season on the local hills more of a pleasure cruise than a strenuous workout.
Keeping it short and sweet got me back home in time to feed the horses their evening rations.
Even though it feels like summer, there is still snow to be melted. The pile of snow that slid off the hay shed lands on the shady side of the structure. It might be the last snow to exist on our property this year.
My last task of the day was to do a little light housekeeping so Cyndie wouldn’t return to a complete disaster. It’s only been a week but I feel like I will need to adjust to having a housemate again. I’ve enjoyed being able to leave my things laying around without having them be in someone else’s way.
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Nice Out
It seems like I have fallen into a heavy rotation of posts about the weather, or at least, heavier than what I’ve normally referenced since starting this blog so many years ago. Living in the country with acres to tend and animals to care for has a way of amplifying the significance of the weather, particularly when the conditions are extreme or out of the ordinary.
As we enter the last week of April, finally having warm sunshine be the order of the day is unleashing a sense of urgency for getting into the outdoor spring chores. We started first thing in the morning yesterday, building a fire outside to burn combustibles from Friday’s garage clean-up that didn’t fit in our trash bin.
While we were out on that side of the house, we also moved all our outdoor furniture back on the deck, trimmed shrubs, and raked around the landscaping.
The afternoon was focused on the labyrinth. Cyndie did some plant pruning and raking, while I busied myself with reorienting and balancing rocks that had been felled by the long winter.
I was in the woods, digging up some additional rocks, I felt something on my eyebrow that I thought was debris that had kicked up, but when it didn’t just brush away with the back of my gloved hand, I paused. Removing my glove to better reach behind my sunglasses, my bare fingers were able to extricate a tiny tick. Most likely, a deer tick.
Happy spring!
At least it’s finally nice outside.
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Green Alley
I didn’t start the day Sunday with a plan to spend the entire day reworking the fencing around our arena space, but that is pretty much how it played out. We thought we were going to make a run to purchase parts that would allow us to finish the new divider fence in the back pasture. After that, we hoped to take a crack at turning some brush piles into wood chips for our trails.
Instead, I started fixing the sad-looking step-in posts we had used to mark out space for an arena, most of which were heavily battered by wind and soft spring soil. That spawned an idea to also put up the short barriers to the hay-field. This creates an alley between the paddock and the arena space, which we can then give the horses access to, saving me the chore of needing to mow it.
The grass in that space is actually further along than in the back pasture, so we adjusted plans and focussed on getting that space ready first. While I toiled away on details to electrify all the new fence webbing, Cyndie made the run for parts that would allow us to finish both the pasture divider and the arena area.
When she got back and I had the barriers done on each end of the alley, we decided to give the horses their first few minutes on fresh grass right then and there, while we finished up a few details on the arena fence. They stepped through the gate in a very mannerly way, spending a few minutes nibbling the first blades available. In no time, they were wandering well into the space, Legacy hanging close to us, and the three chestnuts moving the other direction.
We needed to limit their time on the grass, which involves the challenge of asking them to go back into the paddock. That’s not always easy, but they demonstrated impeccable self-control last night and headed back inside of their own accord, when Cyndie was preparing to set out their evening feed.
Of course, they subsequently showed great interest in both of the main gates we tend to leave open for them later in the season. They were cooperative about coming in, but they were obviously interested in getting back out again soon. They’ll get that chance today, and for twice the time. We add 15-minutes a day during their transition times onto spring grass, up to about 4-hours. At that point, we can leave the gates open all the time, allowing them free choice all day and night.
Lucky for them, the alley grass is plenty green and growing fast, so they have that to start with while we wait for the back pasture to catch up.
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Relative Something 