A little more work

We spent this holiday weekend mostly relaxing and having fun, with a little work on the side.

 

Saturday Matthew burned a couple of the remaining piles of tree tops and stumps in our back two acres.  This turned out to be a little more work than we expected since our lack of recent rain made the fires spread a lot more than previous ones.  We managed to keep it within the bounds of our clearing but it ended up burning about a third of the back.  Now we won't have nearly as many weeds and seedlings growing back before we can plant pastures!

 

On Sunday we went to a wedding shower for some dancing friends of ours.  We had a great time eating snacks and playing games.  Here is Matthew in a hula-hoop contest against the bride-to-be (she had hand surgery, hence the brace).

 

And here I attempt the plastic wine glass stacking contest.

 

Today we spent a few hours working around the house.  Matthew made some shelves to put up in the garden shed.

 

Now the garden shed is looking a bit more organized!

 

While Matthew did the shelves, I cleaned up the barn in preparation for another hay delivery.  We also fixed up some of the pallets for the hay.

 

Matthew has mostly finished organizing his shop and it looks much better too!

 

And finally, most of you know that I have been sort of starting an aquarium cleaning business for about two years now (I have one client, haha).  This week a coworker at the science center approached me about taking the business to the next step.  Matthew and I met with Amber and her husband this weekend and planned out the company.  We now have business cards (my first project using Adobe Illustrator) and a website, hopefully we will have many clients soon too!

Weekend Project

This weekend we continued working around the house.  Now that the horses' pen is complete and their water tank is in its permanent location, we decided to finally run a water line to the horse shed and the rabbit shed.

 

I started digging the trench while Matthew started on the plumbing in the well shed.

 

As usual, I had some four-legged furry helpers.

 

We dug about 100' of trench from the well shed to the horse shed with a spur to the rabbit shed.

 

Matthew installing the plumbing at the horses' end.

 

Yay, water for the rabbits! (with a spur that may someday go to a sink in the barn)

 

And water for the horses!  One hose is for hosing down the horses after I ride them and the other is for filling their water tank.

 

We installed an automatic float valve on the water tank so it will constantly refill itself.

More photos

Here are a few more photos of the fencing.

 

 

Rabi and Mow looking over the fence.

 

Looking from the house towards the barn and back of the property.

 

 

From the back looking towards the house.

 

 

From the back of the pasture looking down the fence line towards the road.

 

And a video of the horses enjoying their new pasture.

 

 

Finally, a photo of the finished closet in the purple room.  Now this room only needs a new door and new carpet.

Garden, Fencing, Painting, and More

We have had a sudden burst of activity at the house over the past week or so.

 

The garden is continuing to flourish despite our lack of rain (the soaker hoses have been getting a work out!).  This is the first time I have grown potatoes and they are now big enough to hill up.  As always, the kitties were there to help me.

 

While in TN, my mom gave me some asparagus seedlings that she grew from her plants.  I don't have a permanent bed for the asparagus yet so I potted a few seedlings in each of these pots and set them in the garden for now.  It will be at least another year before the plants will produce any spears to harvest.

 

To make feeding the horses a little simpler, I made this white board chart using the vinyl cutter at work.  Now if Matthew or someone else has to feed the horses for me, they'll know who gets what.  I already added Spice and Peanut (our miniature horses) since they will be joining us soon.  Once I have a tack room we can hang the chart above the feed bins.

 

Our biggest (and most expensive) project has been installing permanent horse fencing.  We decided to hire someone for this project instead of doing it ourselves.  It only took them two days and looks great!

 

Some of the supplies.

 

They used a tractor mounted auger to set the corner posts but dug all of the line posts by hand.

 

They also used the tractor the run and tension the fence wire.

 

While they are installing the fence, I dug out the chain link posts that were inside the horses' pen.

 

Here's one photo of the finished fence!  More photos to come.

 

Inside the house I have been working on one of the guest rooms.  I painted all of the trim and inside the closet (yes, I am a perfectionist!).  The closet doors don't look too bad until you see them re-painted!

 

 

And here are a few more photos from around the house:

 

A new addition to my flower bed, a columbine.

 

Bagheera enjoying a stack of towels.

 

A little hatchling box turtle that someone rescued and brought into the science center.  He's now enjoying our woods!