July in a Nutshell

It appears that I've completely and utterly lost track of July already. I was going to be so good about posting and then "poof". Partly it's the holiday and partly its' the baby brain. We haven't done too much at the Sanctuary as of late but here's what's been going on in a nutshell.

Smoke. Like everyone else in our area, we've been dealing with smoke from the Canadian fires. The smoke haze has been keeping the temperatures down (thank goodness) but it has been causing some issues for breathing. So far I haven't noticed anyone having too much problem with breathing other than Rabbit but she always has difficulty breathing in the summer.

Fencing. The end of June we moved some of the temporary fencing around in the big pasture and flipped the horses over to the next section of big pasture. I kept them on the other part too long and was afraid I'd burned it down. Luckily we've had plenty of rain so the grass is coming back. Hallelujah. The horses have been on this second half of the pasture for two weeks and hopefully it'll hold out for a little bit longer. There's seems to be a lot more grass. This section is probably twice as large as the one they were on in June.

More Fencing. The first part of June I put Junior and the mares into the fall pasture because the summer/road pasture doesn't have any fencing. I had to use the corral panels that  make up that pasture for the smaller drylot (after the gate fell down from the post rotting off and the tornado taking the rest of the fence). But the horses have grazed it down and I dont' want them to ruin the pasture so we need to do some quick fencing to get them to the different pasture. I will end up using corral panels but all of the ones I usually use are in use in the big drylot. I'm going to sacrifice the small pony pen and pull those corral panels. Hopefully I can get that done this weekend and move the mares and Junior.

Even more fencing. Last week we picked up fence posts and some panels. The big drylot fencing is pretty  much gone. The original fencing was destroyed by the horses (and the rotting fence posts). A few years back we put in metal fence posts and put in more panels. But the horses figured out how to stand on them to reach the grass. This spring we had to take all of our corral panels and put them up so that the horses wouldn't climb the fence (and fall out. Chaos already managed to fall out once this spring). And now that I'm locking horses in at night to help keep the pasture going a little farther, I figured the horses would be pushing on the fence even more. So now we need to pull the corral panels down, and put the new panels up (along with adding a top board and electric to each panel so there's no climbing over). I'm having a hard time finding time to get started on that project. It shouldn't take too long. Just one day to really buckle down and get it done but with me being so far along in pregnancy, I can't really do much these days. Anyone want to help?

Busted Fencing. King continues to blow through the temporary electric fence. He broke the fence again two days ago so I had to pull him from the pasture. He's now on permanent timeout until I pull the temporary fence down. He started taking other herdmates with him this last time around. The whole point of having a temporary fence is to keep the horses OUT of certain parts of the pasture, not to let one or two in. But that means I need to come up with a plan for King.

Naughty. So not only do I have a naughty King but a naughty Skippy. I've been staking Tommy and Skippy because Skippy kept blowing the electric fence. I think after putting up electric in his small pen, that he's hopefully learned not to blow the fence but I'm not sure and haven't had time to pull down the temporary electric fence for the ponies and test out the theory. I'm also not in the mood to catch a loose pony if he does decide to blow the fence. So now I'm trying to figure out where to put three naughty horses/ponies so they get grass but stay where they are supposed to. Once we get the corral panels up, I can use them (as long as someone else puts them up and I just supervise).

Excavator. Another reason we need to  move the mares and Junior to the summer/road pasture is that we are having an excavator come and dig a hole. A few years back we had an accident and lost a building. Unfortunately, since then we haven't had the money to take care of the building so its' been sitting there as a gigantic eyesore and reminder of what happened. Now that all the major medical bills are paid for, we can tackle a little bit of cleanup (at least get it done before the next two-legged family member gets here and medical bills rack up from that visit).

Summer Resort. Ivan and Brego have been in Madison at their "summer resort" since the first part of June. The pasture is just about done so I need to go and pick them up this weekend. I hope that Ivan has learned to be a gentleman again. He'd gotten to be so pushy that he was making me mad more often than not. So much for him being lazy.

Trailer. With having to pick up Ivan and Brego, Mike still needs to finish working on the stock trailer. I'm not sure that it'll be ready by this weekend. Apparently only one brake had been working for awhile and he went in and got all of that fixed and did some other major repairs (didn't know they were major until he got into it). It's a bit odd to see a stock trailer sitting up on jacks with no tires. I'll refrain from the pictures because it makes us look like more than plain white trash. :-)

Health. Everyone (both two-legged and four-legged) have been fairly  healthy (knock on wood). The pregnancy has slowed me down to a crawl. I'm not yet to the point where I'm staring at a wall but the time is coming. I haven't yet started the big countdown but in my head there's a mini countdown going on. Unfortunately with me being in the final trimester, my brain isn't functioning like it should. I'd like to think I'm a bit more quick on my feet but these days I'm lucky to get my shoes on the right feet. So I'm sure my posts will be lacking even more because there's not much to talk about other than I'm still prego.

Trouble. Mike and I are still struggling with the loss of our little minpin, Trouble. She was such a fixture in our life that its' a bit hard to let go. Of course, after 12 years, anything is a bit hard to let go. We both swear we keep hearing her in the house. I've been affected by loss before but this one hit me hard even though I'd known that she'd really  needed to go a month earlier and if she hadn't gone that way, we would have had to put her down at the end of July. But still, a loss is a loss and it's hard to take.

Donations. We had a huge donation at the end of June. The money donated makes up for us  not having a spring fundraiser. I'll write more on that because it deserves its on post. But least to say, totally blown away by it. I'm hoping that after the baby arrives, that I'll be able to get my brain focused a little more quickly on fundraising ideas and activities. I know that I've asked for ideas before and people have come up with some fantastic ideas. Unfortunately right now I can't implement any but maybe this fall after the baby is born, or this winter we can begin implementing them or at least work out the finer details so we can jump on them right away come spring/summer.

I'm sure there's more going on but my brain has slowed to a crawl. If you are curious to know about what's going on, please dont' hesitate to ask. I might not answer right away but dont' take that as anything other than me being slow to respond because my brain isnt' working. I know I was asked a question almost a month ago and it took until today for me to sit down and actually answer. I hate that my brain has gotten to that point but there's not much I can do, other than ask for everyone to be patient with me.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. We spent it with family and it was a much needed break from the normal routine. Here's to smooth sailing for the second half of 2015.