Weather here in this area is just AWFUL! . . .

I knew it was going to continue to rain for weeks, but all of the sudden this morning when I woke up our entire property was covered in water -- I mean REALLY covered, more than a foot high so far.  Who knows how high it's going to end up! SURE hope it doesn't end up inside the house!  But it already has already filled up inside the barn!  Poor horses!!  

 

You can't even see the sidewalk from the house over to the barn --
there's more than a foot of water over it!

And even INSIDE the barn there's a good 6 inches of water inside there already too!

The horses are hanging out on the outside of their barn porch where there's about 4 to 6 inches of water - but if they go inside their paddocks there's almost a FOOT of water up their legs!   Poor babies!

And our entire acreage is completely COVERED in high water at the moment.  The drainage canal running along next to our property is running over so the water can't run away from here any longer.  NOT good.

The entire back area has turned into an enormous lake.  That building was set up about a foot and a half high -- and the water is all the way up to the floor back there already!

Looking out from our front porch, our entire front yard is covered in horrendous amounts of water.  Those raised beds there by the porch are obviously full of water as well!

You can see here that the water is almost up to the foot and half high porch!  NOT good!

And there on the side of our house, the water is all the way up to the wall - hope it doesn't end up inside our closet over there!

Oh, and when we changed our home insurance we no longer had water insurance.  For some reason the new insurance didn't ask us about storm insurance.  So if our house ends up wet I guess we'll be stuck with dealing with it personally - NO insurance!  Good grief!  

Well, I guess there's absolutely nothing we can do - just cross our fingers and wait and hope that rain eventually STOPS!  Lets HOPE so!!!

Our barn is getting there! . . .

While Jerry was working here this last weekend, he finished painting the areas that still needed painted out there on the barn -- the upper ceiling on the outside porch, some newly replaced wood up at the side of the roof, etc.  And it's all looking just fine now.  Of course, down the road he's also going to need to paint all those heavy steel fences all around the barn as well.  They're red now - they were red when we bought them - but they need to match the trim colors on the barn (and the house, for that matter!)

That "red" fence there in front is the same kind as we have
all around the other sides of the barn porch.
They ALL need painted that dark green/turquoise
the same as those posts and raised flower beds.

Since Jerry got that ceiling painted last weekend it matches the house now!
(And that storage building there on the far right is also that color!)

See - the porch fence and the barn doors and posts as well as that hay container
out there in the round pen are already painted that nice color.
So it'll be good to have the fences match as well.

Duke is inside his stall eating hay and Arthur is eating the
hay in that container out there on the porch.
He prefers eating out there and not in HIS own room --
even as a mule, he likes to stay close to horses all the time!

So there are those red fences (they're on the porch on the far side of the barn as well as at the back) that are going to get painted the same color as those doors and posts eventually.  Note that the hay storage building back there on the far left above is also pale blue with that dark color door as well.  And the building out in the back pasture is that color too.  We LIKE that stuff obviously! 

After we added those fences we put in those gates there inside the porch in that picture above.  In that photo, you can see that gate back there at the end of the porch and there's one there in the middle as well.  There are also several other gates around the other sides of the porch as well.  So whenever we need to separate the horses for some reason, we can close each of those gates and they can then remain either inside their stall OR on their portion of the porch.  That doesn't happen often, but of course each time we feed the horses, just that center gate in the picture above gets closed but NOT locked so that Arthur can't go out of his room (that door on the right) and go back there into Shadow's room (see her face sticking out of her room?) and eat HER food as well.  Unlike Duke, she doesn't force him away from her food so we need to keep him out ourselves because he's not supposed to eat more than we give him so he doesn't get even fatter!  But once Shadow is done eating, she just pushes that gate back against the wall and walks on down the porch to that hay container there in the photo below.

See that porch? . . . that concrete floor is extended way out past the barn porch ceiling on this side -- probably about 15 additional feet over toward our house.   

That concrete porch above tilts slightly over toward that red fence so when we bathe the horses there on that porch the water goes out past that fence and into a deep hole full of  stones that we use to dump out those water buckets there in front of Arthur daily so we can clean up those cans each day. But the huge water falling onto the concrete during their baths at least doesn't end up in the dirt inside the paddock so they won't have terrible mud as a result (well, except when it pours down rain of course).  Glad that cement leans outward!

And because that porch is SO large now, when it rains the horses always hang out on the porch.  Before we installed that huge porch, when it stormed the rain blew into their doors so no matter where they were they were often going to get wet.  Now -- nope.   If we don't know that there's going to be a storm (in which case we close their paddock gates), they're generally out in the pasture right up until it begins to rain.  When that happens now, though, the minute they hear the thunder they all three come RACING up onto their porch and they just stay there until it stops raining.   As you know, we had those horrendous trees cut down or cut short back in the pasture so they wouldn't fall over onto the horses, but with that porch now they don't bother staying back there under the trees like they used to.  Great!  We're very happy about that.

Note that barn below.  We are the only home with horses along the road in this area that's full of huge new houses, so we needed our barn to look like a little "guest house" instead of a barn.  And it pretty much does!  But once that fencing gets painted correctly it's going to look even better.  

There's the view of the barn from the front yard.  Fortunately, it doesn't look TOO much like a barn from out there  -- although folks DO often see horses hanging around there. . But I'm sure the neighbors are grateful for it looking like that anyway!

Okay, now that the barn is improving, now we will be in the process of cleaning up Gigi's porch at the back of the actual house.  I'll post THAT over the next week or so.  That porch WAS great for years because I used to use it as an outdoor bedroom.  But once we got Gigi as a puppy, we very shortly had to remove all the things in there that she could chew up or make muddy! . . . the bed, the chairs, the table, etc.  And even with all those things removed, while Gigi grew up out there she had chewed up the window sills and got mud all over the floor and walls, etc.  I guess I'll post the 'before' and 'after' photos once I get that place cleaned up. But it's a serious mess, so it's going to take a WHILE!  Phew!

Wish I knew what all of YOU are working with at the moment. I'm sure everyone is, but at what? . . . I have no idea! Wish YOU had a post!

Okay - back to blog . . .

I've been sick as a dog since Saturday night, but I'm finally beginning to get better at last!  Glad it didn't happen until late Saturday night because half a dozen guys were here all day Friday and Saturday cutting down all those horrendous trees back in the pasture.  I took pictures while they were working on it but I also got them to help with some other things. (They're charging mega-bucks so I'm sure some additional help wasn't an issue.)

Here those guys are cutting back those super tall trees to half their heights - except those that are not healthy.  Those four unhealthy trees were getting removed completely, including the roots.  (Two there by that truck, and two on the right of the building.)

It was amazing that they were able to get those REALLY tall trees
down without them falling on the storage building -- or on them!

So here's how the trees were cut back.  And after this photo was taken, they also removed all those pieces of wood and placed them over in the property next door so they can be burned -- unless anyone wants to come pick up that stuff for their fireplace.  (We use only a gas fire, so we don't need any of those at all.)

Here are those two additional huge trees on the right side of that storage
building that were taken down completely as well - roots and all.

So here's how it looks back there now.  Nice, huh?   The horses are going to be much happier because with all those trees taken down, lots more grass will be coming up now.  (Mark is planting seeds this week in all those dark brown dirt spaces in this photo.)

So in addition to taking down all those trees, they also removed all the lower branches up to about 10 or 15 feet high on the remaining trees so those horses can't reach the branches to eat all those leaves!  Excellent!

And while they were moving things - all those trees trunks etc. -- I got them to help move a bunch of those horrendously heavy fences that we hadn't been able to move ourselves. (Each 15-foot wide one weighs well over 200 lbs!) I wanted to put those things along the side of the barn porch on the side opposite from the house so that when it's necessary to close the horses in, they will be able to go into ALL of their paddocks, not just in Duke's as it has been.  So three of those guys at a time were able to haul those up from the pasture and lean them up against the porch posts for me. 

There will be a smaller gate there on the left and we have added two other gates between that porch and the round pen so the horses will have access to Duke's paddock, the round pen and half of Arthur's paddock, but each of their stalls as well.  Excellent.

As you can see, they're fastened to the posts now with chains, but once Jerry gets them painted to match the posts, Mark will fasten them to the posts with the same metal that he used on the round pen -- much nicer looking.

Arthur is outside the barn area since the other gates aren't currently closed, but they'll be able to hang out in a large area even if they're closed in away from the pasture itself, so I'm really grateful that those guys were able to lift those red fences.

Actually, any regular purchased gate is a nice normal weight.

But the guy we bought those red fences from made them himself -- he's a welder -- and they are incredibly strong.  On the plus side, if any of those trees there on the neighbor's property falls over onto the barn, it might break the roof, but it sure wouldn't fall all the way to the ground with those tall fences over there, so the horses should remain alive no matter what!  

Okay.  Time to head back downstairs and go back to bed. Tomorrow is another day.

Moving right along . . .

The DISH guy just left and we now have that fine TV functioning in the upstairs library.  Love it!

LOVE that TV!
Once we get those bottom bookcase doors installed (finally!)
and we clear out all those unneeded books and magazines
that room should look soooo much better!  Can't wait!

Mark is planning to move his 36 X 80 desk out of our office and place it there behind that green sofa and I am planning to buy another one of those small refrigerators and put it up there as well.  Then while we watch that TV up there in the future, I'll be able to go through ALL those bookcases and clear out everything we don't need to read again.  After that it should eventually look WAY better.

But as for me, my own computer will remain in the office so I can look out that window and see the barn and the horses.  

I took this photo from that window.  Funny.  Shadow and Arthur are there in Duke's paddock watching those guys digging around in our front ditch adding new water lines.  But Duke (back there on the left) apparently doesn't want to go to the bathroom in his paddock because, although he's generally hanging with the other two, in this photo he is out in the pasture peeing at that moment!  What a nice tidy horse, huh!

I posted those pictures Jan took of Mark and me as we were heading out to our anniversary dinner last week on that last entry.  But I also took a couple pictures of them as well:

LOVE those two!  Jan and I have been friends since the 80's, but Mark has been friends with both of them since they were all in college over at LSU way back when.  And Jan was not only the one who introduced me to Mark, but she is also the one who got me interested in horses!  We've only had horses for the last 10 years, but Jan had horses clear back when she was a kid and at the moment they have five of them!   Great couple!

Well, it's about noon -- time to feed the dogs.  Then I guess I can begin clearing out all those bookcases.  Whew!  Hope it doesn't take forever!

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!

Good grief!

Since it was supposed to be nice and clear for at least the next week, I bought 7 gallons of paint this weekend so Jerry could paint that new barn porch and we could paint those new wall panels on our house porch as well.  We've been holding off for quite a while given all that continual rain so I was really excited about finally being able to get all that done. So what happened this morning? . . . I got this new weather prediction e-mail telling me it's going to start raining every day AGAIN!  I guess I should have held off on all that paint after all.  Gees!

And when I went online to check it out, it said it's going to to continue raining through the entire next weekend!    That is NOT good. 

Jerry and Mark were going to put in that concrete for the horse bathing area outside Duke's stall this coming weekend. Guess that's not going to happen. Last weekend they installed a giant pipe underground that transfers the water from the gutter that comes down there at that back barn porch out of the paddock and into a deep gravel-filled hole outside the fence, and the space inside the paddock was then pretty much ready for that big 10 X 12 or 14 concrete floor just outside Duke's stall.  That new concrete will tilt over to the side so that when I bathe the horses that water will also run outside the fence and into that gravel hole.  Well -- I guess it'll be still ANOTHER week at least before that can get installed.  Sigh.  

I'll tell you what, though -- the weather program on TV told us that at the end of May all that rain over the last month or two had been the heaviest amount of rain in something like 70+ years. And they thought it was pretty much over, but given that e-mail above, it looks to me like it might be still another record-breaking rain period this June.  Gees!  I'm sure glad those horses have their porch these days anyway!  They DO love that thing and they sure do need it.

The barn gets prettier and prettier . . . and so does our front porch!

We had gotten a porch installed all the way around the barn a couple weeks ago.

The porch now runs all the way around the barn making the horses
all VERY happy now when it storms these days!

When it storms, Duke and Arthur stay inside their stalls eating hay and not paying attention to the rain at all.  But Shadow stands out of the porch watching it pour down - but not going out into it.  Very nice!

But since it poured down rain last week when the gutters were supposed to be installed on the barn, the gutters weren't put up instead until yesterday -- Sunday afternoon! So when it pours down rain again, hopefully the paddocks will no longer be overrun with flooding water as in the pictures above from water running off the barn roof!  Instead the water is going to run into the gutters and over into the raised flower beds in the front of the barn instead.  Nice!

We got very dark green gutters but they actually pretty much match that very dark teal paint we have on all the trim.  Nice, huh?

But since the gutters needed to be able to get ALL the water running off the roof, the guy had to cut back the edge of that metal roof so that the water would all run into the gutters and it wouldn't pour out over it.  So it should do a fine job of keeping the paddocks reasonably tidy from now on - and the horses won't end up with mud clear up to their knees!  

So here's the gutter on the far side of the barn 
(that chain fence is going to be taken down eventually).
That portion of the barn has already been painted so you can see
that the dark green gutter looks pretty good with the teal paint.

Here's the gutter along the back of the barn porch.

And in this pic the gutter has been installed at the back of the barn,
but the guy is busy cutting back the metal roof there on the right side
so he hadn't completed the gutters entirely yet in this pic.  And of course
Jerry will soon be painting that new porch there around the back.

Jerry is sure going to have plenty of painting to do before long!  We had all those walls put up on our own porch as well.  I think we'll have those painted the same pale blue as the house itself.  Here's the one over at the end of the porch near the barn:

Our course it's not just that new wall that's going to be painted.  We're also going to have the porch floor sanded down and repainted as well.  (It sure is a mess, isn't it?)

Obviously that storage loveseat there on the right is going to need to be moved since that's where Mark's golf cart is going to be parked eventually.  

Obviously it's pouring down rain in this photo.  The pipe that runs under the driveway and over to the canal has been filled up and needs to be opened back up -- that's why there's practically that "lake" there in the front yard when it pours down rain currently.

We also had a wall thing built at the other end of the porch so that the rain can't blow in onto the furniture down there. And it's also a bit more private now as well.  Nice!

That floor looks really bad, doesn't it? . . . but once we get it fixed up, the porch is going to look SOOOO much better. (And that rolled-up rug is going to get cleaned as well -- that's the one that Rocky died on so it's outside because it smells just awful right now.)

Obviously we can use some additional furniture out there once the floor is nice.
(One thing I REALLY want is a swing, but we'll see.)

We also need to clean off the walls there on the porch as well. And we're going to be planting some things there in front of the porch as well -- but we haven't decided just what yet on that.  Always something, huh?  But life is good for us these days.  And as long as I keep working I don't feel guilty about spending money so I guess that's a good thing.

But one thing I would really like to have is a Dutch Door to replace the regular front door.  As we continue to get older, I want to be sure it won't be a problem to open the door to a stranger.  With a Dutch Door, I could open just the top and the dogs would throw hissy fits but wouldn't be able to run outside.  Then no matter who the person might be, they sure wouldn't want to force their way in!  Well, I guess I'll see if Mark would go along with that or not.  

Barn porch is built - but we still have a LOT of things coming up . . .

We do plan to have a number of things done soon . . . well, we HOPE it all happens soon anyway.  

It's been pouring down rain every day for a week and it's going to continue storming all the way through this coming weekend, so no one wants to come out at the moment to give us a bid on the additional things -- more concrete around the barn, a dug out drain pipe to drain water from the barn and under our driveway, etc. etc.  And Blaze doesn't want to add those walls to the front porch while it's pouring down rain either.  But, the gutter person that I talked with last year IS going to come by Friday afternoon -- I got a bid from her back then, but then we decided to change the barn building so we didn't get it done at the time.  We were going to compare her bid with the gutter guy that Blaze works with, but he still hasn't gotten in touch.  I guess he doesn't want to go out in the rain either. 

Blaze's worker friend who does concrete did come by yesterday to give us a bid on the 8 X 16-foot concrete we want to add outside Duke's stall under his porch roof.  But he ended up bidding $2000!  Gees!  So I checked online at the price of all the things necessary for Mark and Jerry to do concrete work and it only added up to $300-$400 - plus paying Jerry, of course.  Still, I'm sure it will be less than $600 anyway.  MUCH better.

There's that area noted in red lines where we've decided we need the concrete added. (We've made that corner area smaller just so the drainage can work better than going around a full square.) And all those black dots indicate the drain space we also want to add so that if we bathe the horses over there the water will just run out drain area past that fence instead of soaking up the paddock.  

I'll tell you what, though, I am SO glad that Blaze had already completed the barn back roof by the time all this rain began because the horses seem to love it!  When it's storming and I check outside they're all just wandering around to each other's stalls under that covered porch roof over there at the barn. Nice!

Now that Mark is home to stay, I'm hoping to get a flight set up to go visit family and old friends in Ohio in May sometime. Haven't quite decided when exactly, but I'm looking forward to heading up there.

My boss left the office heading out on vacation yesterday at noon.  His Golden Retriever has learned to track missing people and she's been doing quite well testing her down here, so he's taking her up to Indianapolis for a competition entry up there this weekend.  Don't know what he has in mind for the following week but he won't be back until a week from next Monday or Tuesday.  It's going to be difficult for me not to take off a LOT while he's gone!  But I do need to save up those paid days off for vacation time down the line, so I guess I better do my best to head into work anyway.

Well at any rate, I got to go home just after 1 PM yesterday.  I had to work extra hours earlier this week to get all kinds of patent applications filed before he left so I do have enough extra time to have shorter days the rest of this week!  And Mark and I went over to Texas de Brazil for dinner yesterday as well! Fortunately for us, it wasn't pouring down rain when we walked in and when we came back out. 

As I said, though, most of the time lately the weather down here really is pretty awful -- but life is good!   

Wow! The barn is getting renewed really REALLY quickly!

I got hold of Blaze early this week and on Wednesday night he came over to deliver all the wood and supplies for adding on the barn back porch roof.  

When I talked to him I asked him about doing four different things and told him he could decide what he wanted to do (if anything, I hoped!)  Well, he said he would handle ALL of the things I wanted done!  Wow!  And he got started on adding that back porch to the barn immediately.  He delivered the supplies Wednesday and began putting concrete on the posts on Thursday so they would be dry enough for them to work on the porch over the weekend.  Then he finished up the posts and added the panels joining them on Friday.

And today he's adding the roof.  Those red boards holding up the posts until the concrete gets dry will be removed late today.  If he doesn't get entirely finished by tonight, he'll be back on Monday.  But once those extra boards are removed, the horses will be able to come back into their stalls tomorrow morning!  (I was afraid they would push against those support boards and make the posts no longer straight!)

Mark got Jerry to come move that hay hut out of Arthur's paddock 

Here they are before that porch addition began with that hayhut over there in Arthur's paddock
(with no hay in it -- they ate the hay on the porch on that far side lately).

Jerry moved that hay hut out into the round pen and filled it with hay.  

Then when Blaze got started we put the horses OUT of their paddocks and put water buckets into the round pen along with the hay in that hay hut.  They're also being fed on the round pen fence instead of in their stalls until that porch gets completed.  

Arthur and Shadow get chained to the fence while they eat so they can't eat each other's food.
Duke gets fed OUTSIDE the round pen -- he would definately go eat everyone else's food!

While they eat, Mark is there talking with Blaze's son
while Blaze is there on the ladder adding to ceiling boards.

Those horses will be back inside their paddocks (and their stalls) all this week, but then they'll probably have to be locked back out again NEXT week because Blaze is also going to add the concrete under Duke's original porch -- that's such a muddy mess right now!  

Then he's going to add a gutter across the back and along Duke's side of the barn getting all the water running off the roof to go into that raised flower bed around the front of the barn.  (I drew that dark aqua line in the photo below to show the gutter, and those red squares are where the upcoming concrete is going to go.  Nice!

That smaller square area under the porch will be flat, but that large area outside the porch will tilt toward that front fence so that the rain falling on that concrete will go out of the paddock and NOT down into that (currently) muddy area.  Arthur will be happy -- he LOVES rolling around in that sand in there when it's dry!

Another view of the upcoming cemented area.  The hay container and the water buckets will get to go back over to that side once that concrete is poured.  I love that because then I can see the horses from the house.  (Where the hay is now, on the other side of the barn, I can't see them without going outside!)

Then once everything is done there at the barn Blaze will be adding those louvers to the front porch of our house.  And once THAT is done, he's going to come inside and extend the wall of our utility room a few feet out into the garage (the garage is plenty large enough for that), and he will be moving the door going from the utility room into the half bath over about 6 or 8 inches, too, because the washing machine currently sticks out about 3 to 5 inches in front of it!  And once that room has been enlarged, we'll be able to keep our giant upright freezer that we have in the garage inside the utility room.  Now that'll be SO much better!  

He's also going to remove all that plastic siding that's on the walls inside the garage and put up plywood.  That way Mark can hang up all kinds of things on the walls out there that can't be done on that silly siding.  

I'll tell you what - Blaze is doing such a good job.  He may continually have something to do around this place for the rest of his life!!!