I had so many things I wanted to do last weekend, but the weather was so nice, I wanted to play a little instead! We did get some actual work done and yes, that means testing out the new tractor. Right now my 3 horses are in their own pasture's, so I turned Brandy out to graze in the long run so we could get the tractor into her barn. (Goodness Brandy is filthy!!)
It is still really muddy in Brandy's pasture, we had to put the tractor in 4 wheel drive. My OH was able to get one side of the barn scooped out. But the pasture is still way too muddy, even with 4 wheel drive. So my OH had to take the tractor out of the pasture. That meant I had to finish scooping poop by hand out of Brandy's barn. This mud is really getting to me. We had 4 dump trucks of gravel hauled in last fall, which went in the high traveled areas, but once the rain starts, the mud just seeps up through the gravel and it does no good. We have plans this summer to put in french drains, then the geotextile fabric, then add more gravel. It's going to take a lot of work and money to get our pasture's back. We have mud 8 months out of the year. Even when we have a few good weather days, it will start to dry out in places, then the rain moves in and it turns into a foot of mush again. Still dreaming of moving to Arizona.............
Even though we didn't get to do much work with the tractor, my OH told me to jump on the tractor and take it for a spin. I cruised all the way around our property line. It was so much fun!! I can't wait for it to start drying up around here (possibly could be another month or so before that happens!) so I can get some work done!
I didn't get any training sessions in with Chance over the weekend. We were too busy playing with our new toys and having friends over for BBQ's on both Saturday and Sunday. But I did put a fly mask on Chance for the first time. She did really well with that. The little heatwave we had over the weekend really brought out the flies. Our first Fly Predator shipment does not arrive until May. So fly masks and fly spray will have to work for now. Chance and Fritzy got their turn to graze in the long run too.
We are really loving our Rustler UTV!! It has been so much fun!! Even Bailey has figured out how to jump up into the back. The Aussies are getting a ton of exercise. Their favorite part of the day is to go out and feed with us. We could never keep up with them pushing a wheelbarrow, now they have a hard time keeping up with the Rustler! After we feed, we go the long way back to the house to give the dogs more exercise!!
Monday was just gorgeous out. I did get Chance out and worked on bitting in the round pen. She was very good. I was going to do that again today, but guess what? It is nasty out there!! Rain, rain and more rain! It is supposed to rain for the next couple days. So I probably won't get to work with her again until Friday. The good thing with Chance is that she learns so quickly and retains what I teach her, so I don't worry about getting consistent work days in with her. After I was done with Chance, I took the UTV over to my rose flower bed and weeded for 4 hours!! It's amazing the amount of weeds that still come up through the weed block and bark!! Once the bed was full in the UTV, I drove it to my dump sight, hit the switch and it dumped the weeds for me!! No more wheelbarrows for weeding either!
13 comments:
How fun to get to use teh new toys! Glad your dogs like yours, we never had dogs that wanted to get on ours, just follow along.
New toys, the time to play with them and springtime, what more could you ask for?
Nothing says fun like a Tractor and UTV !!! Oh and BBQ's friends and ponies!
Aw man, look at those muddy tired on that tractor! Did C have to go wash them off immediately??? Hee hee. The first mud and dent is always the hardest!! ;-)
great toys! We are getting rain again too sigh , enough already!
Wish we had some of your rain! Those are some super toys, fun AND productive.
New toys are so much fun. Sounds like I need the ATV with a dump bed. Hmmm....
Connie
You didn't ask for advise, but I wanted to let you know what we have done for mud control that has worked beautifully. I live in Portland, OR by the way, so understand your frustration. 5 years ago we made mud free turnout areas for winter turnout. We dug down 8-10 inches, put a layer of landscape fabric, then put 1/4" minus down. I know that is a lot of gravel, but we don't have to keep replacing it because it disappears into the mud. If you put large rock and then 1/4 minus, the large rock will work its way up. Our horses are barefoot, so i don't want that to happen. Fdza side benefit is that our horses feet stay dry and hard all year! I make sure to pick the poop and hay out of the paddocks each day too.
Getting new toys is great, but playing with them is even better! :-D
The utv looks so fun - I want one!!!
The flies were bad in Spokane, too--and I was fly masking mine as well. Our shipment also starts in May. Luckily, our mud is almost all gone now. I don't like mud at all.
Wow! That is a horrible amount of mud. We're dry 10 months out of the year and even when we get rain, the little bit of mud off the top that we get is dried up in a day. I can't imagine what it must be like to have to trudge through that slop and it must be horrible for horse hooves, too.
My farrier recommends his clients create a muddy area for horses to add some moisture to hooves and to make it easier for him to trim, because it's just so dry here that hooves are so rock hard solid and wear out his rasps and nippers quickly.
But at least with all that rain you get a lot of growth of vegetation. We're getting a little bit of grass sprouting up from the dusty here in New Mexico, but not enough of anything to do any weeding or hand graze my horse.
Happy Birthday to your sweet kitty!
~Lisa
I am so sorry about your mud. We had so much rain last year and I kept thinking, "This is what Paint Girl has to deal with all the time."
Your French drain project sounds like it will help.
Good for Chance and her fly mask. She is so pretty!
Happy birthday to sweet Madison!
Happy birthday Madison!
That's so exciting about the fly mask! What kind do you use?? I've been wanting to get one but we didn't have them when I was a kid so I don't know much about them. I mainly want to use it on the horse trailer so Chrome doesn't get hay in his eyes, but I want a nice one that will last.
Good grief on the mud! Wow! I couldn't imagine all of that. We haven't had rain in months so I could actually use some lol. Wanna share?? :D
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