We had horses for years . ..

but all three of our horses are now gone.  Both Mark and I weren't able to ride over the past few years, and it had gotten to be a real problem about going out there to the barn and dealing with them.  

But I'm really glad we didn't just sell them to people we didn't know.  Instead now Shadow, my really gorgeous horse, is living at our best friends, Janet and Mike.  They had five horses already, but when I let her know that we had to remove OUR horses, Janet said she'd really like to take Shadow.  Shadow is younger and much taller that our other horses, so she hauled her up to their place and she's just fine up there now.   I love seeing her when we visit them often.

There is Shadow back behind one of their other horses -
but she was watching us visiting there then!

And the other two horses - Duke and Arthur - are now over at the place just across the road where they get people to come practice riding on all their horses -- they have something like 20 or so horses over there.  People who come ride can eventually let those folks buy a horse from them if they're good enough to handle a horse. But since there's less than a mile away, we can go over there occasionally and watch folks riding those horses we sent over to them.  For instance, here's a very young little girl who was about to ride Duke.  

Here's that little girl who's about to ride Duke out in the large property.

And here she goes out to the big area where she can get up on him.

When we go over there, we can pet our horses, but if someone eventually decides to buy Duke or Arthur we probably wouldn't be able to visit with those horses any more. But it is much better to have them over there than we would have been able to sell them to anyone ourselves because we can watch anyone riding who might want one of our horses. And they don't let anyone buy one untill they ride over there so those folks can be sure they'd be able to handle them correctly.  So eventually at least when those folks who have them selling them, at least that would be folks who would have been good about dealing with them.  They would have been riding them there so they could check them out.  So those folks never sell a horse unless those people are good at handling them.  

Anyway -- two previous horses are over there now.  But Arthur has a bit of a problem in one of his feet so no one was able to ride him when we were over there last weekend.  But there's taking good care of him and keeping him inside so his feet will be getting better.

As for us, we've been doing SO much about changing out the barn and all since the horses are gone.  I guess I'll show you when we're doing over there later on - but I haven't taken any photos about that at the moment.

Well, I'll try and remember to fill out this "Life as We Know It" blogger sooner because I've let SO much time gone before filling this up again today.  Sigh.

So much has been done finally!

Someone came by a couple weeks back to let us know that they were about to install both of our driveways coming in from the road across that huge drainage ditch running along the front, and all the way across the front of our large property eventually.  And they also come to install some driveways in front of that four acres right next door where are relatives are going to build their homes eventually.  

Our relatives bought that acreage a couple years back, but both couples are about to build their houses as soon as they retire from their businesses far away from Louisiana. Mark's sister Vicki and her husband John currently live just outside of Washington DC (DC is where her husband currently works for the federal government).  And the other couple currently live over in Mississippi since they're both working for the Veterins Administration over there.  But since they both used to live here in Louisiana, both couples will be building their houses right next door as soon as they retire -- and they'll both be back in Baton Rouge (well - St. Gabriel, actually).  Anyway, they needed driveways installed across that drainage ditch in front of THEIR properties so that they could drive in and especially that the guys who build their houses will also be able to drive in!  So we were all very happy to have them installing those things last week!

There were three or four trucks plus all kinds of machines going to work on installing those containers to make driveways available across that drainage ditch there in front.

Those containers are much larger than the older one was in our front driveway because they want all that water to move through that area over to the water line along the side of our property.  And we sure are glad about that since we really don't want water raising up into our house ever!  It didn't happen last summer, but the water raised up very near the front porch that's about two feet higher than the property.

 Here was a photo I took when I woke up and saw that the water was coming up to the house last August!  (But thankfully if didn't make it all the way up into our house.)

But that water was even higher out in the back pasture!

So our horses raced up to their barn and they just stayed there on their porch where they only had about 3 or 4 inches of water on that porch -- WAY less than out in the pasture!

Anyway, those guys did remove the cement from out of our driveway last week and installed a much larger container under the driveway.  And they installed it all the way over the water line on the side finally - about 120 feet wide!   But the guy who's going to put back the cement will eventually be here maybe next month. 

 

Then we'll be having him add concrete from that entry over to the existing driveway so it'll be possible to drive in and just go around and drive out the new driveway that was just installed without turning the car around.  Looking forward to that!

Well, a week or two ago we finally got that new bedroom installed in what WAS the back porch previously. I thought that would be all we only needed to deal with.  And now that exterior bedroom IS a great place these days.  That Jenkins Tile & Marble company finally came by last month (after I requesting them back in November of LAST year!) and installed the marble walls and all those marble window sills as well.  

That marble wall and marble window sill runs all the way around in that room!   And they gave me that marble "wood" piece along the floor so that I can put electric down and it won't be visible.  Oh - and I got that air conditioner installed as well since that room isn't getting the heat and cooling inside the house.  But hey - it's just a good as the other bedrooms now.  Nice.

And as you can see - it's easy to see the horses out in the pasture OR over in the barn.  I love that.

Of course this blogger hasn't been installed for quite a while since I've been working on things at the house, then just resting!  But I'll try and remember to add something to this blog much sooner again.

That room on the back porch is getting there!

Hey, although that room on the porch isn't QUITE done yet it'll sure be done before TOO long!  

Jerry comes by every weekend to clear out the horse barn and pasture, but he repainted all those porch walls and even the sides of those windows as well as both doors!  So that area is looking much better now -- but of course the windows and all that marble on the window sills and all the walls below the windows -- even the new floor out there  -- haven't been installed just yet.  

But we ARE about to put in all those windows soon.  The glass company is coming over this Friday to confirm the sizes (we told them the size of what we needed installed, but they insist on checking it out themselves before they bring that glass over here).  We've bought LOTS of those PVC white quarter round sticks to place around the windows to keep that glass in place.  So we'll be installing those on the outside edge of the windows.  Then when the glass company places those glass up against those quarter round sticks, then we'll just place additional quarter round sticks on the inside of the glass as well.  Then that'll hold all that glass in place completely.  
  

And we'll also be getting two actual installation windows  as well (instead of plain glass) so that if we will want to open windows we'll have two of the 11 windows that we will be able to open.  Also, since we have a heating/air conditioner it has to go out through a window so we knew we HAD to have a window there next to it, not just glass.

And John Schexnaildre, the guy from that garage floor experts store over in Port Allen, will be coming over next week and putting in that really good flooring over top of those old porch floor boards.   It'll be pretty much white!  Nice. 

Our porch floor will look good like this - but he sent several photos of possible colors.  
I'm not sure what this is - a garage or a basement or whatever, but it's be fine on our porch.   

I saw that flooring over in the LSU Veterinary hospital when I took Gigi a couple months ago so I called a guy to come check it out over here on the porch.  And John came and said he'd be glad to put it in there.  But he has to go work on installing something for five days over in California this week so he can't come do it until the NEXT week! I was really happy to have him come by here from close by over in Port Allen, but apparently folks want that company to work for them all over the country, not just close by!  Gees! 

Anyway, I haven't taken many pictures currently, but I sure will post lots of new pictures here once we get everything done out there.  Looking forward to it.

Oh - and Jerry and Mark replaced that tent top cover out in the back yard. It ended up being larger than it needed to be, but it sure looks pretty good now.  Then we'll be adding covers on the sides as well, but we haven't gotten around to those just yet. 

I'll tell you what -- once weve retired we sure have been working on all kinds of things here at the house these days! Sure hope we get it done soon.  We sure need to just relax around here eventually! 

Our work around here has been way-less-than-appropriate lately . . .

Everything we wanted done generally GOT done whenever we decided on doing it previously.  But hey, everything we needed done recently just hasn't gotten done at all lately! NOT good!

We decided to repair that back porch and turn that part of it into an interior room -- the porch that I just noted in this post previously.  So we asked Jenkins Tile & Marble to install the marble window sills and possibly install marble walls below all those windows as well. 

So one of the Jenkins Tile & Marble store guys came out and checked it out and determined that they could install all those things I wanted.  I was pleased about that because he would be installing all those marble window sills AND placing marble walls below all of those windows as well!  BUT I found he wouldn't be able to come install all that stuff for THREE months from then!!  Good grief!  That Jenkins company is working on SO many houses that got flooded back in August so we have to wait until they're done repairing ALL those houses that they got requested back in August.  I thought they could do ours sooner since it would probably take way less time to complete our porch as opposed to all those house repairs.  But they just put us on the list next after all those others.  Sigh.  But since I really want them to fix all those things for us, I'm having to actually wait until probably MARCH!  And they made me pay $1900 dollars before putting us on that list!  Then I'll complete the rest of the payment after they finish installing all that marble.  Well, I sure can't find someone else to install it sooner since they got ALL that money.  Sigh.     

Well that porch is still a mess even though Gigi has been moved over to the other side of the porch (and the other end of the property outside!)

 

We removed all those white metal things things that kept the dogs from breaking the screens.  But those screens are going to remain out there until glass windows get installed anyway.  Jenkins is going to remove those yukky window sills up there in that picture that the dog chewed on and THEN replace them with those marble window sills and put in those marble walls below all those windows as well. Those grubby curtains then will get pitched out and nice new ones be replaced.   But those gruppy ones can keep the porch private and generally keep rain out at the moment anyway.  Then once the marble window sills and walls are installed, Capital Glass will come and install thick glass windows.  That'll make it a regular interior room out there then.  And then we'll also have someone come put in regular flooring like inside as well. 

In the meantime, we're going to repaint all the walls and doors that the dog got screwed up.  Then in fact maybe we'll just get someone to install that epoxy floor then instead of after March!  

Anyway, that porch will be turned into an actual household INTERIOR room eventually.  But it's just taking SOOOO long to have it all done.  Sigh.  

Fortunately THIS door doesn't need painted since we replaced it after the dog moved out of here.  But the door from this end of the porch into the other side of it is a MESS from the dog who was in there previously,.  And the door from this room into the house also needs to be repainted.

So as a result, we have removed everything from out there so that once the windows are done, a company will come and install new epoxy flooring.  But as a result so many things that we removed from the porch got set into the living room.  And that stuff is all going to have to stay in there until that room gets finished up in March.  NOT good!

And then we also had a problem OUTSIDE.  We set up a tarp to keep rain off that part of the yard to our other dog, Joey, could go to his botty outside in the rain.  He won't go out in the rain and instead he pees on the porch.  NOT good. So we set up that huge tarp over at the side of the back porch so that when it would rain Joey could go out there instead of messing up the porch.

But hey -- it was up only a couple days when it got windy and it broke down!  Good grief!  We apparently should have gotten much thicker tarp.  So Mark took that thing back down and he and Jerry went back out to that building out in the back pasture and hauled up a huge tarp-covered tent that we had installed for the horses before we got the them here in our own property.  They couldn't fit into the barn where we were renting (enormous horses there!), so we set up that tarp tent so that the horses could go inside and eat hay etc. during storms.  Then when we brought them over to OUR house they could just come up to the porch outside their barn or go into their paddocks if they wanted to in their barn as well, so they didn't need that tent.  So when it rains they ALL just run up to the barn and hang out on the big outside porch or in their own rooms.  So that previous tent wasn't in use any longer -- it was just stuck down in the building out in the pasture.  Well, when that tarp we had on the porch got screwed up, we decided to put that big tent that we had for the horses previously in our back yard. That way it will not only let Joey go out when it's raining, it will also keep all our things out on the back concrete area nice and dry as well! 

It's pretty large, but two of those boards were broken -- that's why some of that roofing is pulled down on the end.  So we've ordered a new roof AND some side tarps that we can roll up or down whenever as well.  But although that roof has a couple of little holes near the center, it really does keep most of the rain away currently anyway.

And now we're getting Affordable Gutters to come install gutters across the BACK porch.  (They've already installed them on the front of the house AND on the barn as well.)

You might also view that behind that tarp in the photos above is a new fence that keeps Gigi out of the main back yard. You can actually see her there beyond that tarp in both photos above. She really likes that area of the property more than the place where she used to go out.  She likes all those giant trees over there.  They're Live Oak trees so the trees remain lovely ALL year -- the leaves don't even come off during the winter.  And she can view the horses more over there AND she can contact the dogs next door as well now.  (That's what she's doing in those photos -- she's viewing those dogs from the side fence.)

Anyway, for the next couple months I guess we'll see what we can do about repainting those walls in that porch room, and we'll get that heater/air conditioner that we received a while back and figure out where to install a new electrical portion for that thing.  (The only single electric now would be over behind a bed that'll be put in there, so the heater should NOT be right next to the bed!)  

But hey -- since I've been sick over the last few weeks I guess I won't be spending time to do things out there until it gets MUCH nicer out there than what it is now -- it's about 30 degrees during the way!  NOT good down here.  But it's supposed to be up in the high 70's by the end of this coming week.  SURE hope so!

We're getting our pasture horse fence completed very soon - thank heaven!!

Once Duke ran out across the back fence onto that road behind us a week or more ago, we closed all three horses inside their three paddocks and that big round pen and they were NOT allowed to go out into that big back pasture until that entire new fence got installed and additional electric wires put up along the top and side of the new fence as well. Mark and Jerry have completed the fence, but the horses were still stuck inside their paddocks because they're going to install electric wires on that fence as well this weekend.  

But good grief! . . . this morning another police officer knocked on our door bright and early while I was still asleep! When I opened the front door I saw not only the police woman, but behind her out in the front yard was our mule, Arthur!  And when I ran out there to try and get hold of him, he went racing up the driveway to the road in FRONT of the house!  NOT good -- that road is REALLY busy so he might have gotten hit!  Well, I ran out to try and grab him but he headed out the gate to the road before I could get to him. Wow!  That really scared me!  But just as he headed out to the road a big truck came running down the road and that scared him!  So he turned around and ran back into the yard. Thank goodness!  So I quickly managed to close the front gate so he couldn't get back out again.  And shortly after that, Shadow ALSO came out into the front yard.  Good grief! Sure glad SHE didn't make it out of the yard!

Sure glad that gate got closed before Shadow made it up to the front yard this morning!  Good grief!

Then I found that the gate out of the back pasture into the front yard had been left open when Mark and Jerry were putting up that new fence - and that's where those horses came out into the front yard once they jumped over that gate that fell down at the side of Arthur's paddock.  But as it turned out, Arthur had hit down that gate out of his paddock into that back pasture, then he just jumped over that gate, and he ran across the pasture and found that open gate on the other side and went out of there into the front yard.  Then Shadow followed him as well. Those two hang out together generally. NOT good!  

There were those fences they were putting up last weekend -- and up there all the way to the front is where that gate was open going into our front yard.  And that's where Arthur went out this morning!

Well, then Shadow also came out across that gate and around into the front yard as well, but at least the front gate at the driveway was locked by then so I also closed that row across the driveway keeping them into that front yard while I went back and locked that side gate there way up in that picture above.  

There's Shadow (and Duke further back there to the left of her in that round pen).   They've been locked inside their paddocks and that round pen now for two weeks while Mark and Jerry put up that new fence.  Those horses will be REALLY happy to get back out into the big pasture space once that fence get completed -- maybe by tomorrow evening!

Here are Duke and Shadow up in the front of Shadow's paddock.  So although they haven't been able to go out to the pasture, they DO have several large paddocks and a big round pen for the last couple weeks anyway.

Anyway, then I gave Duke his breakfast this morning and then I went over and managed to get that gate that Arthur had dumped down (it's on the far side of that round pen in the picture above) and put it back up and added several wires to it to hope to keep it installed at least another couple days until Mark and Jerry finish that back fence and get THAT gate put back up correctly.  Well, those horses have been kept out of that back pasture now for two weeks so they'll be VERY happy about getting back out again this weekend, that's for sure!  And then once they let them out they're going to reinstall that gate between Arthur's paddock and that pasture so he won't be able to wreck it again ever!  I'm sure going to be VERY happy once that's all completed.  This morning was NOT good, that's for sure!

Anyway, here's that wire fence that got screwed up when that water came up several feet back in August.  That's why we put in regular metal fencing - then it there's tall water ever again it won't let those horses out anyway!

See, this is that previous electric wire fencing - once water came up past that bottom wire during the storm last month, those electric wires weren't working any longer and Duke shoved that wire down and went out into that back road behind us a week or two ago.  (Unfortunately, we didn't realize previously that the the wire wasn't working.)  And here before they set up the new fence, they put up those additional corner posts there since that corner post wasn't working right either.

But now that fence has been replaced since last weekend and this weekend they will be adding an electric wire at the top and another across the center of the fence - that way those horses can't lean against it and can't put their head across the top of it.

There's Mark and Jerry beginning to set up that new fence last week.

Once the fence was up, Jerry was installing all those things that fasten it to each post.

Then once that fence was installed, they added wire insulators.
See - there's one at the top and one in the middle of each post.

This is that wire insulator -- it's going to keep the horses from pushing against the fence.

So I took this picture there at the back of the pasture while I was standing in the middle at the back - this photo is showing half the fence going over to one side of the pasture.  

Anyway, I THINK they'll have put up that wire tomorrow so I hope those horses can get back out tomorrow night.  We'll see.  I'll keep you posted.

This is their normal pasture - sure hope they make it out there this weekend!
(But they're locked in over there in those fenced areas over there to the right currently.)

We're fixing our closet again -- and again and again . . .

Well, we've gotten our closet even a bit better this week:  

Here's his side of the closet, and his shelves and things on his side there on the left.

We do have some boxes of things there below his clothes that we need to get out of there, but of course we haven't done that just yet . . . but soon, I hope!

Then here's my side of the closet -- and the center as well now.  (I DO have way more clothes than he does so I need to have more hanging areas.)

I have to get rid of SO many of those things there on my shelves there on the right -- and even some of my hanging clothes as well -- just have TOO many of them now that I'm not working anymore.

So hey -- if anyone I know needs any clothes of any sort, let me know!  You can come by and see which ones you might want and I'll be glad to pass them on!

Wow - MORE things taken care of today . . .

The Arbor Vision Tree Service came by yesterday and removed that HUGE Birch tree that was next to our garage where it covered the sunshine that needed to shine on our garage roof solar panels.  Without sunshine on those solar panels our electrical cost wouldn't have been as low as it should have been, so we talked to John Marshall at Arbor Vision (they had removed SO many trees all over our property over the last half dozen years) and he agreed to come over this weekend and cut that Birch down for us.  And that got done!  Great!

See that giant Birch tree there just to the left of the garage -- it was SUPER tall.  It had to go!  Those guys spent a couple hours cutting down all the branches and hauling them all away.  Then once those branches were cut off, those guys cut down the whole tree itself.

And now that the tree is down, those shadows there on the solar panels aren't happening anymore!  Great!   (And actually most of those branches were gone when I took this picture so there was just a little shadow still happening.  Earlier, though, the shadows covered at least half of those solar panels.  That was NOT good!)

 

At this point it was obvious that once that Birch tree would be gone we'd even be able to see the pasture there in back.  You couldn't before -- that Birch tree was SO enormous there was no way to see anything behind it.  Nice to have it gone now for several reasons.

Well, as you can see now, there's no longer a tree really close to garage.  Great!

And thankfully those solar panels are completely free to sunshine ALL the time!
The electric bills will be way less now.  Great!

Well, while those guys were cutting down that tree, Mark and Jerry were out in back putting up big new posts at the corners of the pasture back there so we can put up new fencing.  And they put up a brand new electric fence charger so that the electric fence wire would go back to work so we could let the horses back out into the pasture sometime soon until the new fence gets put up next week.  Then NEXT weekend Mark and Jerry and another guy Jerry's bringing with him will install an entire new steel horse fence.  And they ARE going to put that electric fence wire on that new wire fencing as well - to keep the horses from pushing against that metal fence (Duke particularly!), but if that electric wire ever goes out, those horses still won't be able to just jump across the fence and go running out into that road behind us!  And cats and dogs from the neighbors won't be able to come over into our pasture anymore with that new fence put up, now that we'll have a high metal horse fence from the ground up.   Well, I'm sure looking forward to that new fence.  It's gonna be lots less scary about those horses getting out, that's for sure!   

Another BIG problem around here today!

This afternoon a policeman drove up our driveway and we wondered why on earth -- but as it turned out, he came to let us know that one of our horses was out on that road behind us!  Good grief!  And sure enough - it was Duke!  Shadow and Arthur were back there at the fence where Duke had climbed over but at least those two hadn't left just yet thankfully!  

So when Mark went around to the back road, I went out to the barn and quickly got some food ready and called the other two critters in and they came running back to the barn. Then I closed their gates so they couldn't go join Duke. (As I said, they hadn't crossed the fence back there yet but they were standing there calling to Duke and even apparently thinking about maybe joining him so I wanted to be sure they couldn't get back there again.)

As it turned out, the electric wires in front of that pasture fence wasn't functioning so Duke was able to just climb across the fence!  When that water had raised up several feet all around our yard and in the pasture there in back during that storm last month, it apparently screwed up those electric wires that kept the horses from going across the fence. When the water came up past the bottom electric wire, that's what no doubt ruined all that electric wire.  But unfortunately, we didn't realize that the wire wasn't functioning.   

Anyway, when Duke got out of the pasture, the guy living behind us eventually put a rope around Duke's neck and led him back up to the fence and he came back in.  So I called HIM to come eat as well -- and he did!  Then once he came into the barn I closed the remaining gate, and now all three of them are stuck in their paddocks and in their round pen and NOT able to get out into the back acreage.  

So tomorrow I'll go head out to Tractor Supply to pick up hundreds of feet of horse fence.  I'm sure Jerry will help Mark put up that new fence tomorrow when he comes here to work -- and I hope he'll come back again on Sunday so he can continue to help Mark deal with that fence.  I'm sure it will take at least two days - maybe more!  And once the new fence goes up, they'll be adding those electric wires in front of that fence to keep Duke from pushing against it.  Mark bought a new fence control today to replace that electric wire that wasn't working. And now that wire on the new fence will be at least three feet above the ground so that if another storm happens the water won't cover that new electric wire and ruin it like the last one was.   

And with that new strong fence, we won't have to worry anymore all that much about those horses.  Once we're up into our 80's we sure wouldn't want to have to get them for any reason somehow, that's for sure!  So we'll be really really glad to have that new fence put up.   Whew!

Well - the master bedroom IS a bit better finally . . .

but I'm EXHAUSTED about it!  We removed all that junk out of those two old closets that we weren't actually using once we got that giant 25 foot long closet we had built outside the that side of the house by our bedroom once we added that porch all the way around from the previous front one clear around to the porch in the back.  But that closet had gotten a bit messy as well -- and all that crap in the two previous closets I didn't even remember what all it was because I just never went in there.  Look at these two previous messy closets: 

Stuck a lot of winter clothes in there since the big closet was getting full - and a rug we don't need anymore, and the vacuum cleaner.  Yuk.

Although the dog collars were stuck there on top I didn't even remember what those things were down there below.  (Turned out we got rid of all of it!) 

 But those two old closets are better now:

Those winter clothes are in the REAL closet now, and I'm putting various things that WERE out on my desk into that old closet now.  WAY better!  

And in that other old closet I have ALL those dog things that we've had over the years.  We only have two dogs now, but we used to have seven of them all the time so we have LOTS of dog stuff!

Of   course our regular big closet got to be a pretty bad lately too, that's for sure!  Look at this mess --

We moved that big thing there behind the shoes over into that old dog closet.  And that stuff on there is now up above the new clothes line there across the middle of that closet.

And obviously my side of the closet here was a real mess!  

But now that we got the two old closets set up well we've added a third clothes line there in the center in our big closet, so things are way better in there these days as well:

This is MY half (well, actually my two-thirds) of that big closet.

And there's Mark's part of the closet over on the other side.

Of course I'm going to have to get rid of a LOT of things I don't wear anymore -- especially those pants there below . . . WAY too many of them piled up on the closet there on the other side of that closet that I didn't photograph as well !

Once I get rid of the ones I don't like to wear it'll be a lot easier to pile the remaining ones up neatly!  Hey -- anyone want some pants???

I'll tell you what though -- once I got so much of that stuff done I just laid down hoping my back would get back to good.  I was exhausted!  And Joey joined me, of course -- he usually does if I lay down during the day.  So Mark took this picture.

I do love having Joey around all the time these days.  He's such a sweetie!

Well, anyway we've gotten things a lot better there in the master bedroom now.   

See - that old closet now is handy to my desk!

And I LOVE that desk.  It feels like a real office.

As you can see, our master bedroom is very large fortunately!  (Mark's "office" is upstairs in that big area outside all those bedrooms up there, so that's great as well.)

It's nice that my desk is right next to Joey's crate.  His crate is SO big -- it's great to have the big TV up there on top of it.  So I can see TV at the desk OR in bed - nice!