Slow and Steady

The last few days have been a blur. We are somewhat busy with the Sanctuary but also busy with life in general. The Sunday before last, Mike and I made a flying trip to Sanborn, Minnesota to buy a "new to us" bale spear for the tractor. I can't remember if I posted about that or not. It was a solid two hour drive up and another two hours back, but the time will hopefully be worth it this winter when put in round bales. The current bale spear works best for big squares and tears apart the strings/netting on big rounds. Since we are going with big rounds this coming winter to help cut down on chores (having a toddler and an infant doesn't give much time), we opted to try this method. Hopefully this way I can focus more on checking over horses and making sure they are keeping up with the proper weight rather than trying to struggle with hauling hay through snow drifts. I may have to play musical pens to make sure everyone gets in to eat but that'll be something I worry about this fall/winter.

Because I can't ride and we aren't hauling horses all the time, Mike tore into our trusty stock trailer. There's been a few things that have needed repair over the years that we haven't had time to fix. We have the big trailer we can always use but also bought a different stock trailer (only good for hauling horses in the summer) that I can use (bought it for the tires). Once Mike got in to the project, he realized that there was more that needed to be done rather than a bit of superficial surface rust. We've had it for 12 years and haven't put any money into it except for tires and the latch (which broke). So now we'll need to keep it for at least a few more years before we get rid of it. Hopefully by then I can find a reasonably priced three horse slant bumper pull. Mike is hoping to have the trailer completely fixed by the time we pick up Ivan and Brego in a week or two. But the way things are going, we may be taking the blue stock trailer. The gray trailer is currently on jack stands with all four tires off. It's an interesting sight.

Last Sunday we ran up to Madison to check on Brego and Ivan during their "summer retreat". We decided to haul two horses up to the "summer retreat" to help cut down on pressure on our pastures and to eat down a decent pasture at Mom and Dad's. I think Brego and Ivan are liking all the grass. There's a bit more hands on at the "summer retreat" because there's less competition. The other day the wood chip guy came to drop off wood chips. He wasn't sure where to go because the horses were in the way. Mom through a lead rope over Ivan and lead him out of the way. Ivan has always given me grief about leading. Apparently he prefers mom's special touch. Once the truck was in the horse pasture, mom let Ivan go (Brego followed like the normal shadow that he is). Well the horses walked over to the truck and the guy standing there. Mom had to laugh because Ivan came up and stuck his nose right in the guys space and the guy apparently wasn't comfortable with horses. But Ivan and Brego behaved themselves.

I think having Ivan and Brego away from Dude is a good thing (or at least having Ivan away from Dude). He's less pushy and seems to really be mellow up at the "summer retreat". Hopefully he keeps that mellow attitude. If the pasture holds out, I'll pick them up in another week or two and then keep them at the Sanctuary until mid August. Hopefully the "summer retreat" pasture will perk  back up if we don't over graze it and they can enjoy the fall in Madison.

I need to do some quick fencing this week. The horses have been in a quarter of the big pasture but after two weeks, they've eaten it all down. Now there's just thistles. I need to flip it so they get a different quarter of the pasture. I also need to get the pasture sprayed because the thistles are going to start blooming. Unfortunately because I'm pregnant, I can't spray so I'm going to have to go out with a tree trimmer and whack them off instead. I haven't been feeling the greatest over the past couple of days so I haven't done anything. Hopefully I'll start feeling better and get out to the pasture before the thistles bloom. I'm afraid we need to spray every year to keep the thistles down.

So we've been busy and hopefully this weekend we can do a small fencing project. I don't want to get too grand of an idea on fencing because I have no idea what the weather will be like or what I'll be up for. Now is the time to be busting butt on getting stuff done but I can't seem to move fast enough to get anything accomplished. Guess that's just how it'll be. Slow and steady.