Apple Picking Season!!

Yeah, not that kind of apple.....  :-(

The horses are now going to be kept in the Wormhole and The Shire for the winter while we work on the rejuvenating other two pastures (post to follow).  Since we cannot rotate pastures because of that nor let manure dry out for a couple weeks after being harrowed (dragged) we have to resort to picking the field again to prevent parasite issues in our ponies.

This means we get to pick the field every week!  We've gone a couple weeks without doing such and it took us a while to get The Shire cleaned up today.  It was a gorgeous breezy fall day so I can't complain.  We need to do a final mow too so it will be easier to rake the piles and spot treat any weeds until we can let this pasture rest and reseed next spring.  

Unfortunately our apple trees are still too little to get edible apples so we must be satisfied with pony apples. We are going in two weeks to get four more apple trees and a couple pear trees!  Can't wait to have our little orchard fully mature!!  I'm sure the ponies will benefit from it as well!

It's been a few nice weeks of fall-ish weather here in NC, some hotter than others and many trees are starting to change. We luckily avoided the flooding and other issues further south and east of us. The grass is becoming dormant despite the rains and I'm switching to hay...which means I am now able to get back into the feed room.  Two weeks ago the hay was right up to the door so the ponies had the task of eating our way back into the feed room.

It seems our house and property are unending with projects.  We have discovered mushrooms in our house windowsills so we need to replace our wooden windows, NOW.  The same company is going to put gutters on the barn so we will finally get working on our drainage project.  The shed still needs to be finished too.  We are in it for the long haul so it's good to get all this work done now and we can enjoy it sooner.  Being this is the second house we've owned with wooden and difficult windows to open I'm really excited about vinyl energy saving windows!!!  The ponies are happy and healthy and don't seem to care about any changes we make to our house or property. Fall is a busy time (like summer wasn't?)

I am happy with the weather being much more tolerable for outdoor work, fall has always been my favorite season.  Next summer I will have to just bite the bullet and arise early to avoid riding or working in the heat of midday. Even though I wish I had more time for the ponies I love having a property where they can be in my backyard and I can love on them whenever I desire.  Nickers in the morning is the best way to start my day!

Latches and Rides

There are many things we want to change about the way a couple pastures are laid out and how the Wormhole fencing would make more sense to us.  All that in time.  For now we are using certain gates and getting rid of others.  The gates that are being use are all being converted to an easier latch system.  

One gate just had a rope holding it closed, some others have a slide bolt type latch.  There were a couple that had a "thumb" latch that is a chain with a hook on one end and a flip up round chain link that prevents pony lips from opening it.  These I like and found at Tractor Supply and Southern States  (here's a link with the name) I certainly love heavy duty latches too like this one but these hook and chain ones are more simple and work quite well.

One configuration in the wormhole that leads to Gallifrey are the two gates perpendicular to each other, it's obvious that there was another set of electric wire from the middle post to the outer property edge.  Each owner used the property differently and has things set up to separate horses etc.  We just use the one gate and have the other one chained shut using the rusted chains that are still attached.  We'll get to re-configuring this in time.  It's nice to have all the gates I use set up nicely with easy latches I can open with one hand.

And now for a fun video I made riding Dani around the property.  I set it to 2x speed so it wasn't so long, I sound like a chipmunk but you can see how much I talk to my horse when I'm on their back.  Chance was neighing and my dogs were barking at times on the video.  Too funny.  Sorry about me messing with the camera.  Just that tiny amount of weight was making my helmet press on my forehead painfully.  I will need to figure out the best mount for when I'm riding.

Our Farmlett Name?

I was recently asked in the comments what I've named my little farmlett.  I had Blue Crescent Stables for my Breyer barn when I was a kid.  What a grand name filled with show horses.

Now I have a small 4 acre plot with two horses, a hopeful orchard and future bees....plus we plan to start a garden.  We've named our pastures The Shire, Gallifrey and Westeros after some sci-fi and fantasy loves.  We have the "Wormhole" that is the sacrifice paddock that goes between them.  

It just makes sense to name it....Geek Acres.  Yes.  I'm sure I'm not the first, nor will I be the last but it's my little piece of this world and that name just works for us.  LOL.

And with that said, I'll leave you with this......

Steve in the Lead

Steve and I gave both horses a good grooming on Saturday and then took them for a walk around the neighborhood.  I was riding Dani and he was leading Chance.  It was best for them to start on the ground and since it'd been another couple weeks since the fall and little work done with Chance we figured it was best to do some groundwork.  The weather has been colder and then there has been some rain and even some snow flurries.  It hasn't bode well for the riding area footing, the muddy Wormhole or for giving us a moment to work with either horse.

I rode behind Steve and Chance and sometimes in front of them.  Steve asked questions a couple times about what to do when Chance was pulling in front of him or circling around him.  I told him to snap the lead and make Chance back if he didn't listen and that seemed to work for them.  Chance was excited to walk out of the road and see some sights.  When we walked past a neighbors house things went awry rather quickly.  Chance decided to prance, toss his head and lift his tail.  Gorgeous as he was Steve looked like he was showing a silly yearling in a halter class and Chance wasn't listening very well.

Steve brought him back to the barn since he was afraid of getting out of control.  I didn't realize that and thought we were going to walk around the back of the property away from the horse Chance seemed to want to impress.  Dani started getting a little agitated now that Chance was gone but I wouldn't have that.  I made her circle and turn her hindquarters and then made her walk behind the house and by a plum tree to the easement on the north of our property.  She glanced at the large heating unit monster on the side of the house but I wasn't going to let her feign spookiness...nope.

We walked around the back of the house and then up the south western side by the wooded lot adjacent to our property.  A loud clicking sound got Dani very agitated and I noticed that a line of the fencing from Westeros was broken and laying inside the field.  There was nothing in our path to hurt her so we walked past the scary spot.  All this time that we were riding around the property Chance was having a fit and galloping around the paddocks and into Gallifrey the pasture we were using at this time.  He gets really upset and tears up the ground with his antics but I made sure Dani kept calm and didn't act up with her own shenanigans.  I don't know what to do about Chance but we'll figure out something.  We'll also have to see how he is if ridden off alone.

I eventually rode Dani around the front of the property and back to the barn where I dismounted to untack my mare.  We ended on a good note, not so sure about Steve though.  I think I need to work on him one on one with Chance, that way I can show him what to do when Chance acts a certain way.  We do plan on taking some lessons soon, possibly together since I'm not against going back to basics anyways.  Always good to work on your seat and the feel of riding since that is sooo much of what it is.  I think a weekly lesson on Chance could do wonders for Steve and I, it would be good for us both to ride Chance and Dani.  

I have noticed though that Chance is slowly getting more responsive to Steve and I at feeding time.  He's nickering more and not acting like we are the mean boss mare like Dani.  Sometimes Chance will move away fast from us as if he's afraid he'll get nipped.  The more we work with him he'll realize we are boss mares but a little more fair than Dani!  He and Dani are definitely different.  He's on the lower end of the pecking order and she's higher so there is a bit more of that "oh my god!" freak out reaction vs. Dani's "um...why should I?" reaction.  It will just take time and as the weather and El Nino cooperate we'll get more time in working with him.  It's a slow process when I have so much I need to do in order to make the substrate safer. 

Oh plus I need to find a job, there is that whole thing, I'm trying to find something biotech/lab related and since I haven't done that work in a while I'm taking some refresher courses at a local college.

Curly Dock is the Bane of My Pastures!

The pastures need some love.  One in particular needs some weed control big time.  Curly dock is a broad leaf plant that is hard to control by simply pulling.  It has a large tap root.  I did some research and came across several recommended herbicides that are intended for use in grazing pastures, plus Chances mom gave me some recommendations since she's dealt with that weed many times.  The herbicides state that you can even let a horse graze right after you spray!  I've decided to give it at least a week or two just in case but the two pastures with the most curly dock are out of the grazing rotation at this time so it's really not been an issue.

Our property is laid out really nicely with a sacrifice area, named the Wormhole since it goes between the three main pastures.  This encompasses the paddock near the run-in,  the stable yard and an part of one pasture I enclosed with temporary fencing to make a "riding area" about the size of a large round pen.  The three areas interconnect with gates to make a larger sacrifice area when it's too wet to be on the pastures.  Below is our diagram, not quite to scale of course, of the property.  Steve and I named the 3 pastures: Westeros, Galafray and The Shire.  The stable yard and a pathway through the riding area is the muddy muck area we'll be working on soon.  The riding area I envision, far down the road mind you, grading it and getting proper substrate brought in to make a relatively flat riding area.

Anyhow, the Shire had the largest concentration of Curly Dock followed by Galafray.  The weed spreads by dropped seed hence the clustering of plants observed.  I spot sprayed both Galafray and the Shire (on Thanksgiving day actually!) with PasturePro using a 4 gallon backpack sprayer.  It just made sense to spot spray this weed for now.  

In the future to control onion or other more spread out weeds I may need to get a sprayer I can use with my mower. Onion seems like a problem in Galafray but there are also bald spots that need over seeding.  I've also read that sometimes balancing the soil pH and nutrients can fix an pasture onion problem.

You can see how the Curly dock grows in clumps and followed a small berm in The Shire.  There was basically a path of Curly dock leading from one end of the pasture the the other in dense patches.  Of course there were some micro-patches in other areas of the pasture too.

Westeros has a few bits of Curly dock here so I'll spray in the spring since the horses are grazing that pasture right now.  The forage is dense and Westeros has fewer weeds than the others so I'm going to focus my efforts on the Shire and Galafray.

Within a couple of days the weeds were starting to melt away.  Many more days later most of the weeds are brown and dead looking.  I'm sure I'll have to spray again in the spring since  I know missed areas or didn't fully saturate certain plants but I feel that at least we are doing something to get this under control.

We'll need to over seed with warm and cool grass species (so the pastures have more year round grazing availability), test the soil and apply lime as needed, aerate, and of course spread some compost when the growing season is back in full swing.  I want to get the pastures nice and lush with few if any bare spots.  Some areas look like they have been over grazed or perhaps had too much pony traffic during wet periods.  It will be a management task for sure to keep the horses off the pastures when they are grazed down to about 3 inches or when it's wet. If there are spots I need to have intensive restoration done I can always utilize temporary fencing to protect baby grasses for a season.  

It will take a few years to get the pastures less weedy and more forage-y.  Pasture maintenance is an ongoing task and on a smaller acreage even more necessary!  I will certainly document as spring comes and I can really assess what is going on with the pastures.  I'll also post information about pasture management as I learn more!