**Updates in blue
I’ve been thinking and I think I need you. Again. My dilemma is that there are about a bajillion projects that need to be done on this farm and I have no one to stand on the sidelines, pointing and throwing insults at me, to encourage me to get them done. So here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to use this post as an on-going list of projects, and link to it over on the right. I’ll update it with new projects when I think of them, and hopefully, cross them off as I complete them. Your job is not to congratulate me on a completed task, but to abuse and harass me until I complete them. This way I’ll get them done faster, just to shut you up. Doesn’t that sound like FUN??
This is the level I’m stooping to these days. *sigh*
Here goes:
1) Rebuild or fix the run-in shed in the old fogey pasture that took one for the team in the last big storm.
2) Remodel the big barn on the ridge. This barn is a mess. No drainage at all, so it’s constantly wet and muddy except during extreme droughts. I want to put a drainage ditch along the back wall and under the front eave, rent a skid steer and clean out all the mud, then put down gravel and crushed stone on top. This will make feeding much easier and a lot less of an adventure in two-legged mud bogging. I may also stop losing my boots in the mire.
Big barn is remodeled, but not the way I had originally planned. With the serious drought we’ve had, the inside of the barn completely dried up on it’s own and is nice and level. We put gutters on the back of the barn and used old roofing tin, buried about 6” and screwed to the back wall, to keep the water from rushing in under the boards where they were above the soil. The true test will be the next time we get some solid rain.
3) Level out and put crushed stone down in the quarantine run-in shed. Since it wasn’t leveled when we built the shed, the inside is at a slight incline. This is fine for young healthy horses, but that’s where I’m hoping to put Timmy and Lucille this winter and their old bones would probably appreciate a level place to stand in bad weather.
Putting this one off until next year as well since the healthy young studs will probably still be in that pasture this winter.
4) Replace fence!! I still have almost 1000 feet of woven wire sitting around in 330’ rolls so heavy that I can’t lift them myself. The new posts have been in since last year on the fence line between the main herd and the old fogey pasture, but they still need to be straightened before putting up the fence. Now the priority is the fence line down the driveway, since the posts are rotting and most of it is held up by t-posts and bailing twine. I’d like to try and get 10 posts in per day, but that’s probably overly confident in my abilities to work the one-man auger for that long and still be able to move my arms the next day. I estimate about 80 posts in that one line.
We got about 700’ of field fence with electric put up. We’ve got about 200’ of fence left and 26 posts to get started on the fence line down the driveway.
5) Take down the nasty fence lines that are no longer used. Find some creative way to get rid of the barbed wire that doesn’t involve it being used for someone else’s horses.
I found a bulldozer for hire not far from here to come in and push old posts and wire into a huge pile for burning. After the wood and weeds are burned, the wire will be pushed into a hole and buried… deep!
6) Get a Tetnus booster. That should maybe be number 4.5.
7) Finally put a top on the feed bin in the main barn. I know this sounds like a small task, but it involves measuring, cutting, and other carpentry-type things that my female brain doesn’t do very well. Cut first, come up with creative curse words, throw the hammer, then measure… right?
8) Remodel and clean the chicken coop. The nesting boxes need dividers, there’s about 3” of loose chicken poop everywhere, and the two bags of aluminum cans that were left by the last owners have been pecked open and spread everywhere in the back of the coop. Also need to build a pen for the chickens in front of the coop. I like them free-ranging, but it’ll be nice to be able to keep them penned when necessary.
9) Get Jasmine, Miles, Jewel, Mick, Milo, and Sassy going well under saddle and adopted. Sassy. Egads.
I had to cut back on the number of horses to train this Fall due to lack of free time. Plus, Sassy still hates me.
10) Replace the quarantine fence. The posts are already up, but we didn’t get the electric up quick enough after putting up the woven wire and the horses have done quite a number on the wire. This time I’ll move the horses out, then put up the woven wire and electric to keep them off of it. This is a pretty low priority, since I doubt Timmy and Lucille will be busting through the fence to run down the road and party. They live loose in my yard now and rarely mosey away further than the garden. I love the old fogies. :)
Putting this one off until next year. The electric is keeping the studs in fine, so this takes a low priority.
11) Build a better pig house and fenced area. Since a wild cat and the neighbor’s dogs ate the last two piggies (R.I.P Bacon Butt and Marilyn!), I want to build an area for them a little closer to the house (but not too close, thankyouverymuch), with an impenetrable fortress to sleep in at night.
12) Clean up the garden, cover in composted manure that was collected from the quarantine farm and piled in the driveway over the summer, add other organic amendments (greensand, epsom salt, crushed egg shells, bloodmeal, etc), cover with straw, let mother nature wet everything down, then cover with black plastic for the winter.
It certainly doesn’t look like I’ve gotten much done this year, but when I look back at all the smaller projects I’ve accomplished this summer it makes me feel just a tad bit better about life.
There are more projects that need to be done, but those are the biggest ones and the ones I think I can probably finish before winter. There are two possible outcomes to me finishing this list: 1) I spend all winter in a vegetative state, wondering why my body hurts so bad and I can no longer touch my toes, or 2) I end up a lean, mean, fighting machine who fits into a size 7 jean once again.
I’m hoping for outcome #2, but I’m not optimistic.
