Projects

There have been a lot of projects going on here this summer/fall.  Nothing huge, some downright little...

The chicken coop was a bit too cold last winter, so we've added some insulation.  Shavings getting into the corners of the door were a problem last year, they'd freeze and cause the door to not close properly.  Also we put in some roosts and took out the pallets that the hens had been using as roosts, holy smokes that made it seem SO much roomier in there!

Pie wanted an outhouse due to hosting jackpots and now having a boarder.  So he & J started building one (almost finished, just a few touches left)

Pie also wanted flags around the arena.  Seriously, he wanted them around the whole arena.  We compromised on two (it went something like "NO.  You can have two or none, your choice" lol)  So now there is a flag on each side of the gate.

The announcer booth got a coat of paint (white).

Corral panels were removed and a gate put in going from the arena to the pen beside it.

An electric waterer was put in the cow pasture.  This was probably one of my fav projects to have done as it means no more hauling water!

Not really a project, but Norman the runty little "let's give it a gamble" bull was sold and we have a replacement bull, Baxter.  Baxter is a papered Dexter, black and naturally polled (yay!  that means there's really good odds his calves will be polled too!)

A head gate was put in to make handling the cows less redneck and easier on everyone, human and bovine.

I've FINALLY started getting my barn more organized.  The tack room is okay, Pie bought me some sweet saddle racks last year so that made a huge difference. Then I got the storage/feed room cleared out, shelves and counter wiped down and floor swept.  Organized it and it looks much better. Still have two piles of miscellaneous stuff to go through and keep/donate/sell/toss, then decide where to put the keep stuff.  That will be a relief to have done!

I know, I know, some of this needs pics... hope to get some soon.

Wilder

George & Rootbeer are in a pen (too much grass for those little guys is no bueno) but the big horses are all turned out together (my 6 and KD's 2) 

Well the horses were all putting on a show the other day when Pie & I were out doing chores.  We had to just stop and watch them... it was hard not to, it's quite a sight to see that colourful herd in motion!

(black, bay, varnish roan, grullo, sorrel with a ton of chrome, a white grey, a steel grey and a palomino, it's so pretty to watch them all together)

They were all ripping around and then breaking off into little groups to play.  Snaking heads, rearing, dancing and prancing in little circles, bucking and then the whole herd would tear off again only to start the cycle again.

While it was entertaining it was also nice to see how much Wilder is changing (KD's steel grey).  When she brought her horses here KD & I both basically described him as socially stunted... it was like he didn't know how to speak horse. That was something that caused problems for him in the past.  He would get picked on or bullied because he couldn't read what other horses were telling him.  Tizzy (KD's palomino) thankfully understood he was her "little brother" and watched out for him & tolerated him.

Being turned out with my herd in a fairly big pasture has been good for Wilder though.  He's made at least one friend (Applejack, KD& I both called that one on the first day! lol)  He's gradually learning how to get along with everyone else (even Voodoo! :o ) and he's no longer constantly glued to Tizzy's side :)

During playtime the other day Wilder's progress really showed.  He didn't just run with the herd, he took turns playing too.  Instead of sticking with just Tizzy and Appy (like I was guessing he would) he alternated partners like everyone else - yay Wilder! 

There were a few times where he seemed a bit confused but he would just move a few steps away and you could almost see the wheels turning while he figured out what was going on and then he would join back in.  So while I wouldn't exactly say he's fluent yet, it's sure good to see Wilder learning how to speak horse :D

2013 Haying

No, we didn't just finish.  I'm just a little late getting around to posting... this season instead of a field of dreams it was more a field of nightmares.  The hay itself looks good, but getting it down, baled and put up...

First the new to us swather we bought last fall.  Yeah, we pretty much bought a POS.  We knew it wasn't great, it's pretty old.  But it was in our budget and with a little bit of work it should have been fine.  SHOULD have.
Instead it got a few feet and kablowey... the header deck came loose.  The good news is there is a very small chance it is fixable if someone who knows how to weld decently and knows farm equipment can fix it without it costing a fortune she'll get another shot at life.  The better news?  Our neighbour asked if it's still drivable and when we said yes he replied "Well bring it over, pretty sure I can fix it!"

The swathing was done by the same neighbour that cut & baled for us last year.

The square baler worked fine, until we were almost done.  Seriously, we were thisclose and it calved.  Good news though, it's fixable.  In the meantime neighbour that is going to look at fixing the swather came by and baled for us (rounds).

So we ended up with 6 rounds and hundreds of squares... with only Pie & I to put them away.  Once again good neighbours played a role.  My friend/neighbour SD runs a group home and he let us hire one of his guys to help pick and stack bales.  It still felt like forever getting them put up though because we only had a few hours each day before it was time for Pie & I to go to work.
One of the guys from work came to help one day too.  He worked his butt off and wouldn't take a dime, he just came to help because he's never done it before!

In the end it all worked out, with the blessings of good weather, family and good neighbours we have a hay barn filled for the winter :)  I just hope it's not as long as last years!