Four wide

Clip-clop-snort-clop clop clop...  It's about a 1/4 mile down the road from the end driveway to the pasture gate.  The five of us have been making the trip up and back every day for the last few days.  The ponies are thrilled to be out on pasture - especially since there's some green to it.  It's just shy of 10 acres that hasn't been grazed for the last two years, so there's considerable old stuff there, too - a nice prairie mix of buffalo grass and some longer stuff.

I didn't think we were ever going to get the fence finished, but the weather finally cooperated and it's up.

We've had rollercoaster weather here lately, but I had managed to get the small piece of grass north of the driveway sectioned off with temporary electric fence and they'd been getting an hour or so a day on that, so getting out on grass wasn't a complete shock to their systems, and I've been gradually increasing the amount of time they're out. They're up to six hours on the big pasture now.

I haven't gotten a water tank in yet, so for right now I fill two big plastic tubs for them.  Thursday and Friday we had 80's, and they drained them.  Today we had a high of 41' - the high was lower than yesterday's low.  They weren't nearly so dry.

Currently we have to walk all the way up the road to the southeast corner of the pasture to get to the gate.  On the plus side, there's a grass shoulder wide enough for all of us 90% of the way, and I can see clear to the stop sign in one direction and almost as far in the other, so we stop, look and listen before starting out and if I hear anything coming in any direction we wait until I see which way the driver's going to turn.  (So far there's been a sum total of 1 car to wait on.)

The plan is to put in a walk-through gate on the north side, and then I shouldn't have to take them down the road at all.  I'm looking forward to that.

Coming in for the evening trip down the hill

It took them all of one trip to figure out where they were going every morning, and now they meet me at the gate and stand in a row to have their halters put on.  I'm a little slower; I haven't quite gotten the perfect twosomes down yet.  The only one I'm sure of is Rufus.  He walks on my heels, and he has shoes on, therefore he's an outside horse.  Other than that, they walk along politely whoever they end up next to and they've even figured out the four-wide swing at the pasture gate so that I can hook the line behind us, and the swivel-to-me at the barn gate so that I can take their halters off and block the way back out at the same time.

Speaking of the line at the pasture gate...  The existing pasture gate is one of those multi-strand wire things.  And it was a miserable pain to start with.  I can't open it one handed.  (It's tight, heavy and awkward, and I have to literally hug the fence to open and close it.)  I didn't want to leave it wide open, but I couldn't get it open easily once I had them all caught without one of them - or me - stepping in it on the way out.  And I surely did NOT want to open the gate before I had them all caught.

I woke up in the middle of the night with the solution: I tied a strip of polywire decorated with a few strips of orange surveyor's tape to the gatepost on one side, tied a gate handle to the other end so I could hook it on the other gatepost, and viola, a gate I can get in and out with four horses attached.  They respect the polywire, because it generally comes with electricity running through it.  They can also see it much better than the brownish wire gate.  The best thing is, I can unhook it one-handed, walk in keeping it snug, swing them around, and then hook it again.  Once they're all in and turned loose, then I close the wire gate and they're secure.  It will work until the walk-through's in, and/or we get a regular steel gate up instead of the wire.

See the house & barn roofs behind them?

When I walk up to get them in the late afternoon, they've been great so far about heading my way.  They get a drink, I halter and flip leadropes across their backs, collecting them one by one once I have the last one haltered.  Then it's back down the hill.  Today it was chilly with a stiff northeast wind, and I was wondering if I'd have my hands full.  Thankfully they were only a little lookier than they've been on the warmer/calmer days. 

Other than that, Cat 1 and Cat 3 have been hauled to the vet, tested negative for feline leukemia and FIV, and had their respective reproductive bits removed. Cat 1 has forgiven me.  Cat 3... not so much.  Cat 2 will hopefully cooperate and catch himself in the livetrap Sunday night so that he can take his trip Monday morning.  And that's the news that is news from around here.  Now I'm off to catch up on what everyone else has been occupied with while I've been incommunicado.

Stupid Human Tricks

Another beautiful morning

After Tuesday morning's run to T's mom's for showers and internet fix, T headed for H- for a round of shopping.  I stayed here and played with the pruning shears.  I managed to get the majority of the baby honey locusts cut off at ground level in the creek bed.  I also knocked the pointy clumps off the mature trees up as high as I could reach, collecting the spine clusters as I went.  That took a good chunk of the afternoon.  Good exercise, too.  As I pruned I was dumping the branches and small trees over the fence in piles, so then I had to collect them all and haul them back closer to the house to be burned.  (If we ever get wet weather.)

That was NOT fun.  The ends aren't barbed like burrs so they slide right out when they stab through your clothes, but you know how old barbwire forms big tangles and springs back at you?  After much cautious yanking, no small amount of cussing, and some gingerly squashing down, I had a truckbed full to brimming with one big spiny octopus load of trimmings.  Then I had to unload it all.  T missed all the fun.

Filled the horse tank, then put the hose in the cow tank and let it run for a hour or better - the cows were forming circle around the tank three deep when I got done unloading the locusts, so it wasn't a surprise that their tank was pretty well down.  While it filled I got the horses weight-taped and wormed.  None of them were thrilled, but they all behaved pretty well.  Even Sunny didn't put up as much fuss as he's been known to. 

Waiting for that last few inches of tank to slosh full I finally just stood there in the sunshine for a few minutes, basking.  I'd shed my quilted jacket sweating over the trees, and it dawned on me I was standing outside in a long-sleeve shirt and jeans, in December.  Not exactly the season's usual base layer of long underwear and additional woolies, topped off by heavy winter coat, scarf, hat and gloves I'd have on in SD....  Lovely, but something tells me I'm not going to enjoy June, July and August, much. 

Yesterday we spent most of the day working on horse-proofing the creekbed.  I clipped out more trees, T used the chainsaw to get some of the bigger stuff whacked off at the base, and we strung fence across to keep them out of the pile of washed-down trees and debris the county needs to come clean out of of the bridge base on the upstream side of the road. 

Well, you can almost see something....

Hooray for chainsaws!

The horses initially viewed all this noisy activity with suspicion... from a distance.

As far away as they could get

But it didn't take too long before they chalked it up to more bizarre human behavior and went back to eating, creeping incrementally towards the noise.
 

Finally, it was time to take down the fence and introduce the ponies to their new pasture.  I collected Sunny and led him over - they have to go down a short, sharp dropoff just past the fence.  Not surprisingly, Sunny and Rufus, the two who've been ridden through the most rough country, baled right down.  The other two weren't far behind. 

The first victim

Where's he going?

Down in the bottom

Initially they weren't too sure about staying down there - the wind had treetops rushing and squeaking together, and the leaves underfoot were loud.  Once they'd charged up and down through the gate a couple times, Sunny scrambled up the slope on the far side with Rufus a length or so behind. 

Rufus and Sunny explore the topside

The others followed, and they poked checking out the new boundaries.  Then they skidded back down the hill and back to the safety of more familiar space. 

"I think there used to be a fence here, George!"

When we turned them out this morning they cruised the pasture a couple of loops, then settled in grazing at the far end away from the creekbed gate.  But they were gradually easing their way that direction.  Once they're comfortable down there we'll run a temporary fence across the north section of orchard pasture  so that the grass there has a chance to recover. 

Snow be gone!

Put in just over half an hour with Sunny yesterday - 50's and melting slop had me shedding layers and keeping things slow.  I came home liberally splashed and splotched with mud, but completely happy.

The snow is disappearing quickly, soaking right in - which is great, considering how dry it's been.  I don't want to see a spring as wet as last year, but some moisture is welcome.

Didn't saddle Thunder, but I did take him out and do some groundwork with him. If/when Sunny and I head for the show ring this year, Thunder will be going too, and since we haven't reached the point of under-saddle classes, I'm going to see if we can't at least do some halter.  It's not my favorite thing, but it will broaden his horizons which is the important thing.  

One goal yesterday was just some separation time for both boys - breaking up the normal routine a bit.  They're both copacetic when it's them that's leaving, but they don't like being the one that's left behind. 

There are tiny spring green grass shoots poking up among the dead brown winter scruff, and Sunny was eager to snatch a few so once I had his saddle off I let him nibble for a bit.  The best spot was out of Thunder's sight, and that had him racing and whinnying.  Sunny wasn't concerned.

I offered Thunder the same opportunity when I had him out, but he was content to stand, soak up sun and let me brush him.  Unlike Sunny, Thunder assumes that when he's attached to a person he needs to focus. Good boy!

Thursday thoughts - Of nothing in particular

In Sunny's opinion, grass is something to be thankful for.

The first round bale of the season is out, but none of the horses are interested yet.

A bit of warmth, and all of the past weekend's rain means that there's new grass poking up, and it's getting all their attention. Sure, they might snatch a mouthful of hay on the way up to water, but the bale is pretty much pristine at this point. Still, it's okay that it's there. This way they'll be used to having it available, and won't gorge themselves silly they way they might later when there isn't any greenery attracting their attention.

The forecast for this weekend is windy & warm (60's) - sweet! Good for grass, and better for fencing. We'll (fingers crossed) work on the front alley like I'd planned for last weekend. Wearing blaze orange, highly visible from the road... hopefully our presence will deter any idiotic road hunters before pheasant fever gets the best of them and they start blasting away across the pasture.

In other news - I picked out a new camera.

I was this close to buying another Nikon Coolpix like the one Sunny stepped on - but then I actually got my hands on a Coolpix L16 the other day. Unfortunately, in the multiple new editions since my trusty L6 came out, Nikon's moved the SD card slot from the side of the camera (where it's super easy to access), to the battery compartment. That's bad news in my book.

We have several of the more expensive Nikon digital SLRs at work. They're great cameras. But we've had to send them in numerous times to get the battery door hinges & latches replaced. The battery springs are too strong for the thin plastic catches on the doors, and they don't stand up well to frequent use. I've never used the cable that came with my camera for transferring pictures - I prefer popping the card out and using a card reader (that way I don't have to install any extra software on my computer). So with this design I'd be putting a lot of extra wear and tear on those flimsy little plastic catches. I just don't think they'd stand up to it. And replacing those doors isn't cheap. :(

Glad I discovered the Coolpix are now made that way before I ordered one.

So I explored the alternatives, and found one made by Canon. A Powershot A590. The reviews on CNET and elsewhere were mostly positive, so hopefully I'll like it when it arrives, which it's supposed to do tomorrow!

I'll keep using the Nikon at the farm, though - I just won't have to worry so much about it getting smashed! (Does anyone else experience camera withdrawal when your batteries go dead or you forget to bring it along? I guess there are worse things to be hooked on though - lol!)