Got back from the reunion Sunday night and spent the evening getting things out of the way so Joyce could manage to clean on Monday. Whew! Darned good thing someone does come to clean -- it forces us to put things away every now and then, at least! Anyway, it's looking decent again for a while at least. Kind of echos in there, though, since all the rugs are rolled up out on the porch at the moment. But the rug cleaning guy comes tomorrow so they'll be back in place in time for the holiday visitors.
The guys who are going to help Mark string the rest of the fencing are also coming tomorrow. They'll be here for two days, anyway, so I sincerely HOPE they get it all done. It poured down rain Sunday night and all day Monday and Monday night so it's reaaaaally messy out there. But that's what boots are for, huh?
Between paying the fence guys and buying the hay supply for the winter, it's going to be a darned expensive month around here. But despite the fact that the temperatures haven't gone down to freezing at all yet, the grass is pretty much history already this fall so we do need to get the hay in right away.
When I ordered Lizzie's ear nets (I finally found ear protection that does NOT have a face mask -- I'm sure she'll be grateful), I also ordered three hay nets so we can hang supplies of hay out on the fences in the pasture for them each night rather than bringing them in and having to clean up their stalls every day in order for them to get enough to eat. I tried putting hay out in piles for them, but they eat for just a little while, then proceed to walk around in it and spread it all over the ground and waste it. Torri has been using hay nets for hers so it didn't take much for me to figure out that it was a fine idea.
When we bring them home, we'll use the hay nets in their stalls, but we've also decided to bring home that shelter we bought when we were a stall short over at Al's and put it out in the middle of the big back pasture. The thing is about 20 X 30 or so, so we can leave both ends open and easily fit a round bale holder inside. We'll put some mesh over the round bale and let them eat out there or in their stalls, as they prefer. That will let everyone stay as far apart as they would like. And by putting the shelter in the middle of the pasture, we will be able to move the temporary electric fencing from one side of the openings to the other when we divide the pastures so they will be able to access the shelter no matter which pasture they're in at the moment.
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| Plot plan with hay shelter |
I'm thinking it might even be good to pour a concrete pad for it so there would never be a problem with mud and it would make it very easy to clean both spilled hay AND horse poo out of there. Or maybe we should just build up the base and put mats on top. Hmm. We might even be able to put some gates up on each side of the round bale to enclose things like the carts and things we will need to clean up the pastures so they won't have to sit outside or around the barn in the way. (I can just see Mark rolling his eyes as he reads this -- and getting a horse seemed like such a simple thing initially, too.) But hey - I'm just trying to make it as easy as possible for us down the road when we can't get around as well as we do at the moment!
On the other hand, maybe we need to stop worrying so much about that. Mark's aunt at the family reunion Sunday was talking about how she finally learned to slalom ski on her 80th birthday, so maybe we DO have plenty of time to deal with these horse things! (She and his uncle, a retired Naval aviator, didn't think twice about driving themselves from Virginia - or is it North Carolina? - down to Louisiana for the reunion and they are now 87, I think!)
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| Uncle Ralph |
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| Aunt Dot |
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