Life as we know it ...: The weekend so far . . .

Well, the pastures are finally ready for fencing. The guy even left the grading machine for Mark to use after it rains a few times to smooth out the last of the dirt lumps so it will be absolutely smooth and we can plant pasture grass. This picture shows about half of the center pasture that we gained by doing all that grading. We hadn't even planned to use that area originally since it was so full of stumps and low spots and all. So - an extra pasture -- NICE. The biggest pasture, though, will still be behind that line of trees on the left side of this picture.

I stood in the center of that back pasture and took these pictures:

This one is looking left toward the woods on the East side.

The one below is looking toward the canal on the West side of our place. (If Mark ever gets rid of that huge pile of tree trunks and branches piled there in the middle it will look even larger. That pile has to be at least 10 or 12 feet high.)

Our property doesn't appear to be all that big from the road, but the back of the property is about twice as wide as the front, so the horses will have a pretty nice size pasture back there.

So now we just wait for the fence bid on Tuesday. Mark and Jerry will be working on trimming out the barn in the meantime.

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Yesterday we were supposed to go to Joey's first obedience class. We jumped in the truck bright and early, both of us really excited to get started.

The class was supposed to start at 9 AM, but when we got to the park there was no one anywhere around the dog training area.

Driving out, we passed by the regular dog park where all sorts of dogs were running around loose - Joey was VERY interested in that, but we didn't stop.

I tried to call the people about the class, but I only got their answering machine. So Joey and I went to breakfast and then, thinking I may have been wrong about the time, we went back to the park at 10 AM -- still no one there. We walked around the park for a while and then went back again at 11 - STILL no one. By that time, Joey was getting so bored with the whole thing that he just lay down and went to sleep! I guess young dogs are like kids - they can sleep in the oddest positions!

So at that point we just went on home. I'll call those people on Tuesday and find out what the heck happened.

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Tomorrow we're going to go see if we can find a couple of Cypress trees and another couple live oaks. I want to plant a live oak on the west side of the small paddocks outside the barn so they'll have some shade when they're locked in there.

I'm also going to see if I can find four solid-core doors to be used as shutters on the two front windows. That way we when we have hurricanes I can just close the shutters instead of worrying about covering the windows with plywood.

I want to use solid core doors because they are so heavy they'll be absolutely secure. Can't imagine anything being blown through one of them like it could through plywood.

But to make them look like real shutters between storms, we'll have to route grooves in them to make them look like boards and fasten on some cross boards for the same reason. But that can't be all that difficult. The only hard part will be installing them on hinges sturdy enough to support the weight of a solid door -- probably 80 pounds or more. I know how heavy they are because we used them as desk tops in our office and I can't begin to lift one even slightly! But I've found some hardware I think will work online.