Fixing Fencing

First Post of the Day

There is so much happening right now, I could do several mish mosh posts and I would still have things to write about! And those mish moshers would be looooong.  

So, I'm going to do single topic posts, and start with the horses. And as Tim mused (and has said before), "Something always happens when I leave."

From mares foaling unexpectedly (Dolly with Sultanna, Sultanna with Little Feller, and Sultanna with Two Socks) to compressor tanks unexpectedly triggering and more, it does seem that when he needs to travel, something happens. It doesn't happen every time I'm in charge of the barn, but there have been enough times that it has become a running joke between us

And this time, not only did we have the air compressor issue, the very next day when I checked the horses, a strand of fence was down.

I almost missed it; it was the bottom strand of wire and was lying in the grass inside the pasture. 

The downed wire started at the gate by the water trough

went south and turned left at the fence corner, 

and then continued east to the next gate. That's a high tensile wire ratchet/tightener on the wire and lying in the grass. Its edges are pointed and not too sharp, but I still didn't want to leave it lying out in the field.

I didn't think that particular strand of wire was electrified, but I still went into Tim's shop, grabbed some work gloves, and put them on first.  Then I walked around the fence, pulling the downed wire through to the outside all the way back to the gate by the trough.

That done, I called Riley to report the downed fencing. He and I both knew it was highly unlikely that the horses were going to go down on their knees and crawl under the other three strands of wire to go gallivanting, but he said he'd come out and fix it before his Dad returned home. 

Then I texted Tim who made his tongue-in-cheek comment about things happening when he leaves town. He also asked me if I knew who had done it or had any suspicions. I didn't see it happen, but I suspect it was Eazy. First, Sultanna and Hokey have lived there for years and never taken fence down nor have I seen them testing fence, shoving their heads through it to graze on the other side, or reaching underneath the fence to graze.

Eazy, however? He was doing just that during one of the barn checks this week - reaching underneath the fourth wire of the fence to graze. Nine acres to graze from, and still the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. Yep!

"Why are you looking at me?? I didn't do it!"

Tim gets home today. I'll still do a barn check after church and hopefully there won't be a third "something" that happens before he arrives!

Stay 'tooned!

March the Lion

First Post of the Day

"Howling winds." "Incessant strong winds." "Highest winds [measured] at Purdue airport since 1991."

All comments by Chad Evans, longtime (and highly accurate) weather forecaster in our area. He was speaking about yesterday afternoon. And boy howdy, was he right.

One of Lisa's fence posts snapped in the high winds and a section of her fence came down.

She's done a temporary repair and we are all grateful that Nash and Mama were at our home when it happened. Had they not, no doubt Nash would have gone visiting and there is a very busy highway just a cornfield away from Lisa's back yard. A potential disaster was avoided.

Lisa also lost some siding on her home in those "incessant strong winds." She will call her insurance agent Monday morning about repairs to her fence and to her home.

Craig and I had some roof damage - this shingle landed on our patio and it isn't the only one gone. You can see that our patio rug has been blown around - we put a chair on it to hold it down until the winds died and we could straighten it out.

On Fridays, yard waste is picked up in our area of town and we had set a tub out at the curb. It blew away. A search discovered it down the street and in a neighbor's yard.

And, as we looked for the yard waste tub, I discovered someone's Amazon delivery had blown into our front yard. I retrieved it, checked the address, and then walked down to the home it belonged to and hand delivered it to its owner there. (They were shocked that it had blown off their porch and into our yard. I was pretty astonished myself.)

This wasn't our first wind event of the month and it looks like it won't be the last. We are expecting severe storms and possible tornados tomorrow. I have a new safe space in our home that fits both humans and dogs and we may get to try it out.

March is going out like the proverbial lion this year. Sure hope April will be quieter.

Mending Fences

Tim's away, and so I am in charge of the herd. (With lots of help from Lisa.) After work, I stopped by to fill the water trough and see how Diablo was feeling - her feet are tender again, and Lisa reported that she was lying down this morning when she did her own barn run. (Not abnormal behavior, but when you have a horse with sore feet, it's something you watch a little more closely.)

The herd was way out in the west pasture, and since my own car (with my basket of treats in the trunk) is in the shop, I didn't have any sweets to entice them to come up. But that was okay - I didn't mind hiking out to see them. And, I especially wanted to observe Diablo and see how she was moving and if she continued to be tender. 

I walked out to the the wooden paddock and saw this:

One of the top rails on the enclosure had been knocked down.

 The boards are new - obviously Tim has repaired the fence recently.

It's not a critical fence, just one that sets the paddock aside from the pasture, but there were wood screws sticking out of both ends of the downed rail, and those could harm the horses. So, I hefted the rail and worked to see if I could repair the fence.

Not too bad! 

I shoved the screws into their holes and then tied one end with some baling twine that was on the ground. It won't take much for a horse to knock it off again, but it should hold until Tim returns later this week and gets a chance to repair it.