The Mud Season

This time of year we don't have a lot of snow.  I don't mind that so much since snow causes a lot of issues in the south!  What we do get is rain.  Rain means mud at my barn.  The drainage is still an issue with the barn area and this year is the year I will finally tackle it.  I will take one step at a time. 

I'd had one person come out to assess the drainage and they were not hired obviously since they were thinking that we should drain one direction (aka into our leach field) while I was saying we needed it to drain the other direction....though it would mean more work of course.  For those not familiar with leach fields they are an underground system that the effluent from a septic tank (on-site wastewater system) drips.  The septic tank fills with all the waste water from the house.  Solids fall out of the water and have to be pumped out of the tank once every couple years.  The liquid then trickles under ground in a series of pipes (or other devices) to percolate over the dirt where good bacteria will break down the waste and thereby clean the water so when it enters the ground further down there are no bad bacteria.  Having extra water from your house or some other area drain into this leach field is a bad idea.  It needs to stay as dry as possible to only deal with the water from the house and of course rain etc.  I tried to explain it to the excavator guy but he didn't get it.

I worked in public health for 8 years and one of the things I did was inspect leach fields, so I know what I'm talking about and know that I don't want to make a really expensive system fail if I can prevent it!  So I'm working out the detail myself.  My first task will be an area where I normally like to hang the horses hay bags.  It's a muddy mess.  That will just need some scraping and sloping using our front loader and then the addition of good draining substrate.  That will hopefully be done in the next couple of months.  The next step will be at the end of the barn where the horses enter the aisleway.  It just sits muddy most of the year from November until May.  Again that will be scraping and moving in better substrate.  

Look at this old pic from before painting the barn! 
Shows the "pond" in the low area

Later I will try to make the aisle more even and dig a trench where the water naturally goes and pools and back-fill with good draining substrate as well.  The final step will be in between the barn and the storage shed, I'll need to construct a type of French drain to move the pond that forms there.  I literally have standing water there for weeks until it finally dries up. If I can get all of this done this year that will be great.  I will be happy with getting a couple parts of it done.

One section of our fencing has poly rope fence...something we want to move to for the rest of the electric fencing.  I was noticing a weird bump on one part of the rope and upon closer inspection I saw lichen.  Oh my goodness, you can't stop anything from growing in North Carolina it seems!  I wonder if that will degrade the fence in time if I should treat with vinegar or something?  How funny!

The tractor

We've been having fun with our new toy.  It mows well and if we need any front or back implaments we have the option!  We errected a portable garage  to put the tractor and our expanding arsenal of equipment.

Steve purchased it at Harbor Freight a local tool place.  We were able to get it up in a couple hours though we started late and it was very dark by the time we were done.  It felt like camping!

The only issue was about a week later we had a lot of wind and discovered that the anchors aren't that great.  The sign on the inside of this little shed states to remove the tarp everytime there is heavy rain or wind.  Um...yeah that would be a pain in the ass.

My husband was luckily home as the whole shed lifted up and began rolling towards the electric fencing that would have been destroyed and released our ponies.  So glad nothing bad happened but feel bad that I was at work while he struggled with the thing.  He disassembled it while fighting 30-40 mile an hour gusts!

So our tractor, aka Kevin (named after the minion) is in the garage and his car, who is often at the garage at the airport, will be outside for a bit.  We are currently pricing those metal carports that are guaranteed and secured better.  We'll probably get one with one full side as it will be up against our tool shed.  Steve has eventual plans for putting a large garage behind the barn that will store the tractor, our tool shed and then beer brewing stuff for his hobby (of course I will store soap making and bee stuff there too I'm sure!)  But that is many years in the future.

And just for some laughs here's this:

Hot and Humid

I knew moving back to the east was going to be an adjustment to hot and humid summers.  It surely has been rough.  We go outside and barely walk around and we are already covered in sweat dripping off us.  Humidity has been in the 80% range lately with lots of temperatures in the 90s, dewpoint has been in the high 70 degrees as well so it is quite sticky.  The horses have been sweating a lot.

They choose to stay in the barn during the day since it's shaded and cooler.  They go for short trips to the pasture to graze but then wander back to cool off.  They are both great drinkers so I'm happy with that!  Since the barn has a fairly solid stall divider we decided to remove a few boards to allow for more airflow.  A barn fan we purchased was just the ticket for making their haven even more cooling.  Unfortunatly there wasn't a great place to hang it to hit both of them equally but taking down some wood allows wind to blow to Chances stall.  Sometimes though it seems the horses switch it up and Dani is in his stall and vice versa.  

I stood in his stall and made sure there was good wind coming that way.  For now, that is the best location.  We will maybe get another fan at some point to point in the other stall but this seems to work nicely.  Needless to say not much riding has happened this summer.  It's been too hot and humid and then with our pathetic mower it seems all we do is yard work.

We have ideas for reducing our mowing....one of those plans includes buying a good tractor with a front loader.  Only question is what size?  Under deck mower or is a bush hog better for pasture mowing?  Too many choices but these are expensive choices!

The other plan is related to our future want for bees and other pollinators.

In other plans I do have a contact for a riding instructor and think that when it starts to get less miserable I can get back into regular lessons for a bit on both the ponies.  They don't seem to mind just chilling on the pasture and getting groomed now and again but I do miss riding!  I ride the mower more than Dani!

In other news...flies suck.  We haven't had a ton which is great but we do have the handful of large horseflies.  They are mean little assholes and no fly repellent seems to work.  My poor babies.