Activities around Geek Acres

What can I say but life is pretty busy, we are gearing up for beekeeping, dealing with a mud season (aka muddy ponies) and preparing for spring in many different ways.

Steve has been working from home rather than on site for his recent contract, which has been great. He's also had some fun making things with his new wood working toys. He's made several bluebird boxes, hive stands and a beekeeping tool box for me and has other things in the works. 

 I've spent a lot of time painting the beehives. There are many steps involved since I'm not painting them just one color, I'm painting them like houses. The first one I painted like this cute building we saw in Rome that was gorgeous. Then I decided to make a stone sided gothic style manor. I found a dollhouse company that makes cool stencils for doing stonework on dollhouses so I used it for the beehives using paint. Easy peasy! Just takes a really long time but going a little crazy on cuteness is sort of my thing. 

We also prepared our apiary site.  The first site we had liked was a bit too shady so we decided on one much more prominent in our backyard and with full sun.  Hopefully it will work well.  

That shady area is just down the hill from the beautiful plum tree we had to majorly cut back.  It was plagued by black knot fungus with the only way to help it survive being to cut out the infected wood.  I thought this tree was so pretty but it was over grown, not pruned and in a shady area it just had all cards stacked against it.  We will see if it can survive and if it will return to it's pretty self some years down the road

Stay tuned, we got our bees and I have a video of our bee package installations.

I have a pinched nerve in my neck and having pain and numbness so haven't been able to do much the past couple of days.  The horses are doing good, I've been dying to go work with them but that will have to wait a little bit.  At least it's greening up and they are shedding and getting shiny again!

Snowmageddon 2018 NC

We received more snow in NC than they have had in years, at least in the Piedmont area.  Our snow measured about 10 inches on average.  Coming from Colorado I was thrilled!  I was working the day it started snowing and was able to leave early as soon as my husband texted me that we already had 7 inches.  Bernini, my little Fiat 500, did fine in the snow until I got to our unplowed road.  I basically drove and pushed the snow in front of me until it made a wall and then the little car was stuck.

Steve was home working so I could call him to get the tractor out and rescue us, otherwise I would have had to walk to our house and do it myself but I'm glad I had the option either way.  He came down with Kevin, the Kubota, and plowed the snow from around the little car.  Then I followed him home as he made a path for us and a path up our driveway.

Once home I had the pleasure of watching the ponies play in the snow.  I don't know what it is about snow but they love it!  Chance was running around while Daenerys was nuzzling me in hopes of treats.

Chance loves to put his lips on everything!  He plays with water and hoses, humans he tries to groom etc.  It wasn't a surprise that he wanted to lick the snow off the nearby pine tree, he was so cute and acted surprised when the branch eventually dropped a ton of snow on his face.

Dani like to roll in the snow but also just followed me around while I was out there.  She was very much wanting the love.  It was still pretty warm considering so later that night we had to dry the horses and blanket them for the colder temperatures that were to come that night.  Leave it to NC to have rain and then snow fall followed by very freezing temperatures to make the roads lots of fun!  Luckily I was done at work for the week so I could just stay home and enjoy the pretty snow.

The next day was gorgeous!  The sky was so blue and the barn was it's pretty red color, I love where we live!  

The barn roof had some neat patterns on the snow from the wind.  Look how pretty it is!  I'm so glad we finally painted the barn since it looks so nice!

Loki had fun helping us take care of the horses and he enjoyed bounding in the snow but also keeping to our path out to the barn.  You can see how deep it was!

The ponies were toasty in their blankets and looking for their morning feeding.  After a couple days the snow did mostly melt away and we have been enjoying the mud and muddy ponies.  What fun.  I'm glad we got the moisture, it will be good for our pastures.  I always enjoy horses in snow though!

Reddish

We've finally finished painting the barn!!!  

Steve's dad started us with one full side painted in the red but I realized the custom base we went with made it a bit too bright.  The second coat is the less vibrant red and I like it so much better.

The trim was the hardest part of course since we tried to tape to get straight lines but I always end up going back over the mishaps with a small brush for touch ups.  Steve had to do the high areas on the ends of the barn since I hate getting too high on a ladder.

I did the majority of the lower surfaces and trim...section by section.

Steve also fixed the stall doors that had really chewed up wood and it looks fantastic.

Here's the shed row side all painted red and awaiting the trim work.  It seems we had to wait a long time between painting days because of weather or temperature so it felt forever to get this completed.

I also painted the two gates attached to the barn.  One stays open most of the time to let the horses come and go and therefore the white X faces outwards with a neat effect.

I like the pop of the white trim!  Above you can see the left door doesn't have trim below the door.  We'll cut a piece of wood at some point and match it to the other door.

For now I am so pleased to finally have this task done and hope the paint holds up for a while.  Of course we already have smudges of dirt where the ponies rubbed some body part on the edges....LOL.  It's a barn, it's gonna have dirt!  I will have to buy some more of those nubbin scratchers and place them near their favorite spots!

It's so great finally having a major task complete and we can move on to yet more projects we have on the list!

Barn Lighting

Daylight savings time end means it gets really dark at 5:30pm and I, not being able to see in the dark need lights in order to feed my horses.  The southside of barn where we've added the new fencing is now the feeding area directly out of the feed room.  

We added a new light on one end of the barn to light up this area and also to continue lighting in the direction of our run in shed where there are hay bags for an addtional feeding location.

Also right by the feed room there is a new light shining down towards the door.  My interior lights work great and the new location for the switches work perfectly.  

Steve still has to work on the south side of the barn where the stalls are to rewire the lights for the stalls which are switched on via the tack room.  Then there is a new location on the outside of the barn for a switch that will turn on the aisle lights and barn yard light.  Our barn will be well lit for any needed illumination!  I could even work one of the horses at night if I need to!  

And as you can see the barn is getting painted.  Steve's dad worked on the southside of the barn while we were on vacation in Australia.  We had to buy more paint so the next two days with the warmer temperatures means I'll be out there adding a second coat and starting on unpainted sections.  I'm loving how it's looking so far.  The sunset lighting in the above pictures sure makes it glow!  LOL

New fencing section

Steve and I have been busy as usual.  I've spent time finishing up my Scuba diving certification in prep for our trip in October to Australia.  Before the trip we wanted to get a new section of fencing put up to change where the horses are fed now that the only door you can use for the feed room is the big door.

Steve staked out what he calls the "whoop-de-do" like what we have on the other side of the barn.  It's basically a human fence pass through.

Steve's new auger makes the job of digging post holes so much easier!!!

He also make sure that the fence posts didn't slope therefore you have a place to rest your beer when you are working out in the yard!  LOL.

We got a new 14 foot gate placed (eventually wanted to get another in the back so you can enter with a truck and trailer through the back to deliver hay etc.)

Then of course the posts had to be cut to the fence size, they were just a little too tall.

I started working on painting the doors to the hay room....we'll eventually have the entire barn painted but that's a lot of paint and time.  Luckily I have a father in law who likes painting and stayed here while we were down under!

So the rest of the post is just pictures since as I write this we have to head out and finish up installing some barn lights and doing some wiring.

I played with a silly filter on my camera here.

Complete fencing!

Lastly we had to run the electric fence connection to another area of the electric fence so we rented a trencher to do that job.  The picture is of Steve but I'm the bad ass who did the job mostly!  Hear me roar!  More to come!

Barn doors

Our hay room barns doors were falling apart and since we rearranged the hay room so we can stack the hay completely against the one wall I'll be accessing the room from these doors instead of inside the barn aisle.  We needed new sturdy doors that would function for this.

The most easily accessible picture I have of the old doors is this photo of me moving a planted water trough to our front side yard.  Love my tractor!

Steve is the man and got all the supplies he needed and went to work.  He made them so lovely!  We'll be figuring out better steps than my improptu blocks that happened to be lying around the property.  It's always one step at a time.

Of course now I need to get them painted and paint the entire barn, we have the paint just the time and not really hot weather is our preference.  This will give me motivation.  We still have to fix a few of the lighting switches so that they make sense for how we are arranging things and then we will install a fence near the new hay door to expand the wormhole area for the horses.  It will give them more space when they aren't in the pastures.

Ponies are doing well, haven't ridden in a few weeks.  Been working on a scuba certification and then also went to the beach to relax for a few days.

So hot and humid

Since its been so hot and humid I've ridden very infrequently.  Mainly hosing off the horses and working on projects or just staying cool myself.

Chance is always so itchy and sweaty, would love to find a shampoo or topical spray that can help with that.  At least the boy is flexible and can reach the itchy parts.  He's also a good drinker!

Hope you all don't mind the short post, did this on the phone since I really wanted to get something up!  Fall is coming soon I hope!

Trailer maintenance

My trailer was parked by the barn for the past nearly two years since moving here....has it really been that long?  In that time gunk has grown on the paint and simply made the trailer very dingy.  I didn't know how much until I moved the trailer away from the barn where it received more full sunlight on both sides.  I took the power washer out and began working on the trailer.  WOW.  You've got to be kidding me!  Many shades of ick came off the trailer.

I have some more work to do on it, the interior got scratched up in the move and a lot of paint is peeling so I'll need to power wash that, sand some and repaint some areas.  You have to do this with older trailers anyways but my plan will be to freshen it up and then get a good cover for it.  I should have done that to start with but after moving and all the stuff that goes with that it was far from my mind!  We are continually doing work around the place or just maintenance but at least it's slowly settling down.  Ponies are happy and I've taken some more lessons on Dani but lately it's been sporadic with rain and my schedule.  

Tree Frogs and Water Troughs

While working on the barn wiring Steve and I have noticed that we hear a really load trilling sounds sometimes.  I've identified the call to a tree frog called Copes Gray Tree Frog.  Lo and behold one evening we heard the sound not up in the barn roofing but near the water trough.  There there were two tree frogs handing out on the rim!  So cute! 

I knew that there was a build up of gunk in the troughs even though I scrubbed them and refilled them weekly.  It builds up so fast and sometimes no amount of scrubbing work will reduce that thick layer bio-film.  I would only scrap the surface with my scrub brush, it was frustrating.  

So I took out our power washer and spent a hot day powering through all that gunk; soaking myself in the process but I didn't mind.  It working like a charm.  I'll still scrub every week but will most likely have to do a deep cleaning on a more regular basis.  I've also gotten some apple cider vinegar to add to the tanks again so help reduce the rate of growth; I'm only adding a cup per filling and we'll see how that goes.

The scum builds up pretty fast with the heat and humidity but at least the power washer makes the trough look almost new.  I'm sure the horses don't care either way as long as the water is clean and fresh but come on....frogs were starting to like it so they were well overdue for a good cleaning.  Yuck...so embarrassed to post this!

Just look at it now, brand spanking new and shiny looking!  The frogs have since moved on but water beetles continually like to inhabit the trough within a day or so.  Luckily I've yet to see mosquito larvae so my weekly dump and scrubbing prevents that issue.  A power washer is such a great investment.  I've got another power washer post coming up!