Up a tree and underwater

 

Poor Rattle.  He's been spending quite a bit of his time in trees the last few days, no thanks to Squeak.

Inside the Granary when Squeak braces him, Rattle hides under the lawn tractor where Squeak is too big to fit.  Outside, he scoots for either of the two big trees that are close by.  Squeak chases him up as high as he'll go, then descends to one of the first big limbs and lounges there daring him to come back down.

Rattle's cat clock imitation

He was up there last night most of yesterday afternoon until I brought the horses back.  Finally came down once I walked over and Squeak retreated to the barn.  Squeak had him treed again this morning when I went down to feed them all  their breakfast.

The ponies, meanwhile, are very pleased with life.  

They've apparently decided that they can spare time during the day to nap instead of eating constantly.

When I went up to fill the water buckets they were hipshot in a semi-circle enjoying the breeze, but woke up long enough to investigate the possibility of lunch being delivered.

One of yesterday's projects was the barn stock tank - between the hay that's been dripped into it and the tank heater, it's developed some green scum.  I'd heard some good things about this non-chemical stock tank cleaner so I ordered some and let the horses drink the tank down for a few days.  The cleaner arrived yesterday, so I emptied the rest of the water out and rinsed the tank.  The directions said no scrubbing required, so once I had it pretty well sprayed out I refilled it and added the cleaner.

It takes a one capful per 50 gallons, added once a week or so depending on usage.  Pretty economical, considering a bottle is 32 oz.   More info at Aspire Premium Equine Products....

Got the tank full, only to discover that it had sprung a leak... right at the bottom, of course.  After some fiddling around with various ideas that didn't work, I finally got a latex glove out of the first-aid stuff, plastered it over the hole on the inside of the tank and then screwed a nail through it until the leak stopped.  It's temporary, but it'll work until the horses drink the tank down and I can JB weld it or I can locate a rubber washer & bolt combo that will work to seal it.

On the plus side, my make-shift patch held water overnight and the tank's clean.  We'll see if the remaining algae disappears and how quickly, and if it actually works long-term.