The weather has been totally crazy. While the Midwest drowns, we get nary a drop. You’d think they could build a pipeline from the Mississippi west relieving their swollen rivers, and filling ours, but I guess that would be too easy. We are tinder dry here with nary a drop of rain after a very dry winter. The winds are fierce drying out what little moisture is left in the vegetation. Normally by now the wild grasses are sporting new green shoots beneath the dry brown grasses, but even the weeds, which seem to survive the harshest of conditions are having a time of it. Still, and all I have managed to get some work done.
I finally got the water line in the pasture fixed. I couldn’t screw out the broken piece inside the corner coupling. The only choice left was to try to dig down deeper, and cut the corner off. This would move the pipe farther away from the shuffling barn making it more difficult to build a brace that would keep the horses from being able to break the pipe again. I lucked out, and once I dug out the corner coupling it moved. Could it be? Yes the coupling was loose, and I was able to simply twist it off the waterline. I attached the metal threaded coupling to the new corner, and as best I could, applied primer, and glue to the corner coupling. I am assuming that there will be no leaks. I didn’t feel like making yet another trip to the water main to check. I used a metal threaded coupling instead of a pvc coupling hoping this would better withstand prodding from you know who. I attached the pipe back on the line, and buried everything. After letting it set for a while I attached the hose to fill the tank, and water the loose dirt around the pipe. It seems to be fine. unfortunately I don’t have any good wood to make my guard. All I have is old wood that splinters whenever I put in a nail. The pipe is fixed, and I no longer have to haul water to the pasture, so for now that’s good enough for me.
My other project is to rearrange the arena so I can utilize the shuffling barn next to it. I have 4 – 6 horses coming sometime soon, and I want to put them in the arena for a while before I throw them in the pasture with the other mares. They are coming from Az. A friend has too many horses on her property so as long as she pays for their feed I told her she could leave them here. One (Star) is ours, and hopefully Lightning will go back with her for training, and maybe showing. I want to work a deal where she will train our youngsters in exchange for board. We may keep Aulina’s baby Cupid it just depends. Her sire is a Ben Rabba grandson I think (half-sibling to Aulrab). The lines are far enough removed so that she could be bred to either Ibn or Jeri. I think one of the reasons that Angel didn’t cross well with Ibn is that the lines are too close, and Storm didn’t get the best of both. She has tried to give me Cupid before. For some reason, I don’t think she really likes her. She had issues with Buzz (her sire), and maybe some of those feelings are tied to Cupid. I don’t know, I just want to get everyone here, and go from there.
Meanwhile I have to have someplace to put them all thus the arena project has become a priority. It will shorten the arena a little, but it’s so huge that we will hardly notice. First I had to clean the area out. We had all kinds of gates, and old panels leaning against the side of the shuffling barn. Those I pulled out, and piled on top of the roof of the other shuffling barn. The previous owner used to keep calves there or an occasional horse. When we cleaned the place up all the junk went there. We eventually got all the wood, tires, and other garbage out, but the metal is still there. There are left over pipes that they used to make some of the corals, heavy iron pipes. That was a real chore to move. What I couldn’t drag I hauled with the gator. You can move almost anything with some good rope, and the gator. There were two good gates that I could use so I left them out, and easily available.
Next I had to move the panels to enclose the shuffling barn. The panels themselves are light enough, it was getting them apart that was the fun. I had several ideas in my head about how I wanted to arrange everything, finally deciding on the best solution that would cut the least amount off the arena. While rummaging through Rudy’s stuff I found this wonderful metal stripping that I used to attach the gate to the barn. I had to use wire to attach the other side of the gate to the panels. I like that tape. You nail it on, and the panels are secure. I got some more for the other side of the barn where the panels will be flush. It’s cool stuff.
It was getting late, but I had at least another hour so I began going across the arena. The span is too long so the previous owner used T posts to help stabilize the panels. After all these years the panels are leaning over, but I was able to pull out one of the T posts without too much trouble. Now it was about 4:30 and I still had to go to the store. I also had to pull out more T posts, and then there are the two big gates to maneuver (with the help of the gator once more). Wisely I chose to quit at that point. Tomorrow is still supposed to be nice if a bit chilly. I was pretty puttered out anyway. After tomorrow all bets are off, as the wind is supposed to be back Friday, and Saturday.
I’ve been wanting to utilize the two barns for some time only Rudy has always poo-pooed my idea. He’s not here right at the moment so I just did it. Besides, this way we can do pasture breeding, and who knows what else. With the gate we still have use of the arena as an arena. Not that we’ve used it of late, but as we grow (more than I want) we need to utilize all the facilities we have. I still want to do something with the other barn, and I would love to get rid of all the metal, but that will have to be for another time. The other barn needs more work including putting on a new roof, and siding. I’ll have to get help for that, it’s a bit more than I can handle. Hopefully I will finish everything tomorrow, in plenty of time before the new horses arrive. We’ll see what happens.
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