Busy week --

Mark went over to Okay Guard Dogs with me last Thursday to check out Gigi for the very first time.   Jan and Mike and I took her over there on Sunday August 10 just before Mark got off work and ended up in the hospital back on August 13.  And since he was away at work for 2 weeks prior to that, it had been more than two months since he'd seen her!  He and Ken had gotten along well previously when Niki was out there being trained back in 2003, so Mark was glad to get over there and say hello to Ken as well as visit with Gigi. 

 

Mark and Ken talking while Gigi wanders around.

Gigi came back over to us regularly, even though
she was free to go wherever she wanted.

Ken was just putting her prong collar on and taking it right off
just to show us that she was willing to allow that to happen.

Wherever Mark sat down, Gigi would show up and let him pet her
without jumping around and carrying on as she always did before.

There she is -- back again.

She may not have seen him in a long while, but she obviously remembers that he's her "daddy."
He always handled her way better than me before she went up to Ken's so she's happy to see him again.

Another visit.  Every time Mark would move, she would come by and check him out again.

 

She was behaving pretty well again as usual.  But today I gave Ken a call to tell him I couldn't make it over -- too many things to do at the office today.  When he answered, he told me she had been having a terrible time today.  He was teaching her to lay down and stay and she wouldn't do it, so he finally attached her to some sort of thing that would hold her down by her collar.  She had hissy fits, but it was a good thing Ken didn't personally have to hold her down because he probably couldn't have! Gees!  Just as good that I didn't make it out there to see THAT!!!

 

Well, I'll be going out there one afternoon later in the week.  Hope she'll be back to behaving without arguing about it again by then!

 

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Over the weekend too, Zoilo came over with three other guys and they got our new round pen set up in just 4 or 5 hours!  That's incredibly fast, given the fact that they had to dig 2-foot deep holes and pour cement in there to put up all the posts, then they had to connect all the panels and to keep them up as well. (Mark will have to attach them to the posts later on when the cement is completely dry.)  And now it's really a terrific round pen . . . more than twice the size of the one we had over at Al's place!   We bought a number of 12-foot panels for a round pen, but we also used  six 16-foot panels that we bought from a guy who built them himself a while back, and we added a 14-foot gate, as well.  So now it's 64 feet in diameter in all directions!  I thought it might have had to be oval-shaped, but in fact it's perfectly round.  Love it! 

 

 

 

There may be a bit more to do, but it's going to be a FINE place for me to work with Shadow.  That new pen is 64 feet in diameter in each direction!  Great!  There's a small (4-foot) gate there on the right, and that big ol' 14-foot gate that's leaning up against that red panel on the left will be going in there in that open space there at the back to make it easy for Mark to get in and out with the mower and the ground leveling machine.

But now, before we can actually get started using it, we're going to have to get rid of a number of fire ant piles across the center where there used to be fence posts and there is a tree stump 2 or 3 feet wide in there, too.  We had that tree cut down several years back, but hadn't ever gotten the stump dealt with yet.  Unfortunately, that's right along the fence now, so if the horses are running in circles, they're liable to trip over it so we're going to have to get someone to come dig it out.  Then we'll have to level all the ground out well and add some sand along the fence where they'll be doing the most running. 

 

Anyway, here's a listing of the things that still need to be done: 

 

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That home that's been being built across the road from us (well, actually more precisely across the road from Vickie and John and Bruce and Bonnie) over the last couple months is really getting close to being completed at this point!  At least it looks like it on the outside at the moment anyway.

This is the view from our place - we can only see that side of it from home.

But here's the front view.  It's a really REALLY large home, isn't it?

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And on Sunday Joey Hebert finally managed to deliver all the hay we needed for the winter!  We ordered it months ago, but he's had a heck of time getting it baled since it's been raining continually until this last week or so.  But Sunday he was finally able to bring us 150 bales.  That should last through the winter (although Shadow eats a lot more of it than our horses did previously).  But come spring, we can probably request more BEFORE we run out again.    

Here's Jerry hauling the bales over to the hay building, and then
one of Joey's helpers would take them and pile them up inside.

Joey brought it in an ENORMOUS trailer.  He had obviously delivered a bunch to someone else before he came over to our place, then he had another 120 bales that he was planning to deliver to a third place after he left us.

Joey pulled the bales down off that 6-bale high pile of them,
then Jerry would carry them over to the building, and the
guys who came with Joey would pile them up inside.

Toward the end, they piled 10 bales out on the ground and Jerry hauled those over to the barn porch.  We keep 10 to 20 bales over there all the time so we can easily fill up their hay containers twice a day when they get fed.  

 

 

Well, I know it's not all THAT late now, but I am exhausted.  So I'm heading off to bed, although it's not even 9 PM yet!   Sigh.  Tomorrow is another day.