Projects: Brett

One thing about living on a ranch, there is never a shortage of projects.  The weather has been gorgeous this week, with an occasional puffy white cloud floating across clear blue skies, no-jacket-required warmth during the day and cold enough at night that it feels good to snuggle down deep under the quilt.  This weather begs us to be outside during the day and we’ve both been overdoing it with our projects.  Pacing is not a strong point for either of us.  And, we have always been competitive with each other so neither one of us will throw in the towel first.  I get mad at him when he overdoes it, and he chastises me when I do the same.  Do we learn?  No.

We’ve had a lot of rain in March and April so the stream is singing and the grass is growing.  And growing.  And growing.  The horses in the side pasture (we can’t decide what to call that pasture: the side pasture, the oak pasture, the long pasture, the shady pasture, the sloping pasture...sigh), have been taking advantage of the fact that there isn’t wire blocking them from the grass.  Lucy, also known as Gumby, gets down on both knees and reaches her neck under the bottom rail, to nibble at the grass.  Tex eats what he can reach without being a contortionist.  Luek just pushes against the bottom rail until it gives, and snaps.  Brett is really tired of fixing broken rails every morning.

Luek looking innocent.

Voilà! Brett has a project.  

I helped him unload the wire panels from his trailer yesterday.  As we pulled the panels out the back, let them bang onto the ground, and then dragged them into position next to the fence, Luek and Tex kept a safe distance.  Luek, who is pretty unflappable, snorted a few times.

Lucy, who is the most flappable horse I’ve ever met, stood at the fence with her head hanging over and didn’t even flinch.  Go figure.

Brett spent most of yesterday and all of today tacking up the panels.

It looks great and should save the fence rails.  The pasture with Flash and Pistol already has panels and/or wire and the rails there are rarely broken.  This project has been on the “to-do” list for a few years and Brett finally had enough with fixing all the broken rails.