Progress!

Well, we got the first delivery of fencing materials yesterday . . . one small pile of the big corner posts and stakes for laying out the fence line.  The rest of the posts are supposed to be delivered tomorrow.  They better be - the guy who's digging the holes and cementing them in the ground will be here to start tomorrow. 

Took off work mid-afternoon today to help Mark lay out various odd fencing areas - the paddocks, the dog yard, and the area by the front drive where I wanted the fence to slant inward in order to leave enough room on the driveway outside the fence that when we pull the truck in with the trailer attached we'll be completely off the road even if the gate isn't open. 

But wow, was it HOT!!  I really feel sorry for the guy who's going to be installing all those posts tomorrow.  By the time we finished just measuring all those areas I was absolutely dripping wet -- and it's supposed to be even hotter tomorrow than it was today and I think there are something like 230 posts!  Poor guy! 

We found a second source for the fencing itself --  Ramm Fencing.  They have pretty much the same sort of fencing and accessories as Centaur, although they don't have the 5-inch-wide fencing with the electric wire along the edge.  But their thick, vinyl-coated electric fence wire comes in black, white or brown and NOT that black and white striped stuff that Centaur has.  Ramm also has all those little details we need to finish things up -- the U-channel metal to hold the stall divider boards in place, black "paint" that isn't "just" paint, but puts a coating on the posts, great gate latches -- all sorts of good stuff.  So it looks like we'll be ordering the front fencing from Centaur and the back stuff from Ramm.  Nothing is ever simple.

Talked to the vet this afternoon about Ladybug and she thinks we can remove that rubber tubing from her ear this weekend if everything continues to improve.  Yeaaa!  I was a little concerned about the swelling below that lower opening, but she thinks it will resolve without any further incisions.  Sure hope so.

And Joey . . . well, he's still Joey.   Here's a picture taken yesterday of Rocky looking at me like he really wishes I would help him get one of those chew toys from Joey because Joey sure won't let him have one!  Poor guy.   First Niki and now Joey -- Rocky is always the low man on the totem pole.

And all that fuzz on the rug? . . .  that's the remains of the bath mat that Joey unraveled.  Yep - he discovered that he could pull on it instead of chewing and it would come apart.  When I came home there was string all OVER the room.  I picked up the majority of it, but what's there in the photo is what's left that I hadn't vacuumed up yet. 

Oh - most of you know that Mark has a bit of trouble with his depth perception.  Fortunately, it didn't materialize while he was driving the car, but rather the mower.  He was making a turn by the canal yesterday when he got too close to the edge and the mower slid off into the canal.  Oops.  Luckily, Mark says his motorcycle experience taught him to get out of the way of falling vehicles and he did.  Thankfully, he wasn't hurt -- just VERY VERY VERY filthy since the bottom of the drainage canal is about a foot deep in yukky mud at the moment.   Good timing, though.  We decided to make the riding path on that side of the property a lot wider.  Don't want to have to get out of the way of a falling horse one day!

Here's the mower after it was hauled out of there.

Mark says the mower wasn't all THAT badly hurt either - he can fix it.

Sigh.