Hey-- I'm finally BACK! . . .

It's been weeks since I posted a blog!  Once I finally retired a few weeks back, there had been SO many fun things to do here at the house that I haven't even spent much time up here in our office!  And we've sure gotten a lot done so far!

One great thing -- the barn porch concrete area and a walkway from the porch out to the round pen have been completed.  You wouldn't think horses would care about concrete, but as it has turned out, OURS certainly do like it, that's for sure!  

Arthur heading into his stall on that walk for his dinner last night.

And then there's Shadow heading in for her dinner yesterday evening as well.  

Shadow's stall is over on the far side of the barn so it would be more direct for her to come through the gate and turn left right away -- but no . . . she stays on the concrete entirely. She walks directly up to the barn and then turns left on the porch, not over the grass.  Hmm.  That's a surprise to us. We had that walk put in so WE wouldn't have to walk in the mud to close that gate before a storm, but they like it too!

Now the guys who handled that concrete have removed those boards off of the sides of the concrete so we'll get Jerry tomorrow to fill in those post holes so the horses won't accidentally drop into one and hurt their leg.  Then once those holes have been filled in, they'll all be allowed to hang out there on that really full porch and then we'll no doubt be able to see them most of the time because they will no doubt be hanging out there instead of over on the other side of the barn.  I'm going to love that!  

Now that the barn porch has been completed, that same guy is currently working on replacing our driveway and -- more importantly -- the pipe going underneath the drive that allows water to run out of our yard and over into the canal next to our property.  

Once they pulled out all the old concrete and got down to the pipe we found that it is completely and totally full of mud! . . . no wonder the water couldn't get out!

That old pipe was crushed AND filled with mud.  Good it's being replaced.

Here's what happens every time it rains currently:

Every small rain fills up all the area there in front of the house and barn because the water can't make it past the drive and out into the canal. 

This is a view from the porch after one of those small rains.

So as soon as they repair that pipe going under the driveway I HOPE all that water will once more be able to just drain out into the canal.  

It's supposed to rain most of the time next week so I'm sure we'll be finding out very soon!