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.

The Other Project

While Marty was visiting, he and Brett completed two projects.  One was the shed removal and the other was replacing the fourth side of fencing around my garden.

The first day they removed the old fencing, dug holes and set the new posts.  They also moved a water faucet which was in the line of the new fence.  The old fence meandered down the side, sagging here and drooping there.  Brett's fence is perfectly straight.  Are you surprised?

The second day they put up the fencing.  Fortunately, deer did not figure out that there was no fence for that one night.

The birds and I love the garden.  I love being in the garden and I love looking out the kitchen window, past the roses and flower bed, through the orchard, to the chicken run with the dressage court in the far distance.  What view could be better?

Especially, when it is framed by a perfect fence.

Send it to Shed Hell

Brett's friend Marty came up last week to visit for a few days and help Brett with projects.  The project I was most interested in them completing was removal of the shed.  It gave me the creeps every time I looked out the kitchen window and saw it, crumpled on the ground.

They were happy to oblige.

Brett found his sledgehammer under the debris; the one that the kids had been using when the shed collapsed.

They loaded it into Brett's trailer and took it to the dump.

Before they left, Brett took a picture of it piled high in his dump trailer and sent it to Camille.  She texted him back "Its gone to shed hell."

Finding The Arena

Sunday, we were back at Oak Creek Ranch.  Brett's friend Marty helped get the tractor unloaded and then he and Brett got the box scraper attached.  Even though the sun was high and blazing down without mercy, Marty and I knew that Brett was going to use the tractor for something.  He didn't haul it all the way up from Aspen Meadows to have it sit in the barn.

The warm up arena is full of weeds.

Brett went around and around, scraping up the weeds.  Marty and I threw the weeds into a cart and dumped them outside the arena.

After a few times around, the base sand made an appearance.  It started to look like an arena again.

Brett made good progress and I expect he'll keep working on it this week.  Having Marty up was great.  He kept Brett company and they took turns driving.  He helped load the tractor and its attachments.  He helped unload the tractor and the attachments.  Brett drove him to the airport Sunday afternoon while I finished up the chores.  Thanks Marty!!  You're the best!