Sunday, May 7, 2017

Stupidly Happy, Tired and Sore

As Brett and I drove out the front gate this morning, on our way to the corner market so he could get mushrooms for his scrambled eggs, I looked over at Lucy, Pistol and Jackson contentedly grazing and said, "Is it stupid that I am so happy that they are back in their pasture?"
Pistol
Brett has been working on replacing the fence that came down under the weigh of the falling oak tree.  It's been slow and difficult work for him -- getting the holes dug, the posts set (perfectly straight), and the rails up -- all by himself.  He had about half of it done, including a new gate to go with the new pedestrian bridge (made from the oak tree), at the start of this week.

Thursday, his friend Marty came up to help put up the rest.  It looks awesome.

Saturday morning, I helped Brett clean up the piles of old fencing, old bent and rusty wire, and the pieces of left over wood.  It took us a couple hours to get the pasture horse ready.

And then we brought them over, out of the confines of the small arena.
Lucy and Jackson
We brought Jackson over too.  The weather is warming, and the ground is dry in most places.  I did find him, this morning, standing in the one marshy area eating away.
Jackson
The water in their water trough had turned a lovely shade of green in the three months since the tree fell and we moved the girls out.  All the gold fish had died, and the water looked disgusting.  I emptied it, throwing bucket after bucket of water over the fence since the drain doesn't work.  We refilled it with fresh water and bought some goldfish.
Lucy
I think we're set.

8 comments:

  1. Love a handy kind of guy.
    What will you do with all that oak? I really love that Brett made a bridge out of some of it!

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    1. We will use most of the wood for firewood. We need to split the piles of oak rounds scattered throughout the pasture. For the big pieces of the trunk, a friend of a friend has been coming up on occasional weekends to mill it. He actually milled us the two pieces that are set together for the pedestrian bridge. Brett sealed it and it looks gorgeous.

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  2. I love to see my horses on pasture again, but it does add an extra layer of concern for founder. I have to rotate them in and out all day. I try to give them all pasture time, even my two who have had laminitis. Grazing is so natural and good for horses. Keeping them off has its own set of issues: stress & ulcers, colic from dry feed...probably a few more. I imagine more worm issues. Looks like your horses are happy and that has to be extremely satisfying.

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    1. Rotating in and out is a lot of work. We do that at the beginning of the season, and we do it if we put the horses in the top pasture which is very lush. Fortunately, the grass in the oak pasture is pretty sparse and they can eat it all day with no problem.

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  3. I think a sense of peace always comes when everything is in its "place"

    Jackson looks AMAZING!!! It is so nice to see him doing well!

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    1. Yes, I agree. I think Jackson looks fabulous right now. It makes me so happy.

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  4. I know exactly what you mean!

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Thanks so much for commenting!