Borderlands Horse Sanctuary: Fencing Dispair

I went out to do chores Friday night and had to go in search of Bo. It's a good thing I did. Apparently I jinxed myself last Thursday when I talked about fencing and how good fences make for good neighbors. Well, I'm not a good neighbor. Chaos and Rain were out.

All of the fencing (and buildings) were put in around the 1940s (or so I'm guessing). So now, how many years later, all of the buildings and fences are starting to rot away. And that's what happened with the fence posts in the pasture. One of the panels (because there's many panels for our pasture because it's not a perfect square), simply rotted off and took the fence down with it. Luckily it didn't take the entire fence line, just the fence up to the metal posts on either side.

But an opening in a fence is Chaos's invitation to leave. He jumped the fence while we were on vacation and I still dont' know where.

So much to my surprise when I look out and notice that the horses don't seem to be in the right spot. That's because the fence panel broke clean off and I had to rush around and figure out how to get the horses back in and contained for the night. Luckily it was only Chaos and Rain and not the entire herd. And luckily we are surrounded by beans rather than corn this year. If it were corn, we would have been in serious trouble.

Chaos brought Rain back into the pasture and I herded them all back into the drylot for the night. I checked the electric fence so I could plug it in and remind Chaos to NOT jump fences while we wait until morning to put the panel back up. But when I went to plug in the electric fence, it didn't work right. Normally there's supposed to be the reassuring thunk of the electric pumping through the wire. I didn't hear that. I heard a click...click, click, click....click.......click...click, click, click. Umm, that's not right. And it wasn't like it was grounded out somewhere because I had JUST walked the fence.

So now we are without an electric fencer. We had a cheap portable one that died. Our super nice solar fencer died last year and now the plug in electric fencer died. I can't afford another $300 fencer so I'm not sure what to do.

And when I walked out to the pasture after getting the panel fixed the next day, I noticed a dead tree had fallen on the fenceline in the mares' pen. Wouldn't you know it. So lots of fencing going on. Unfortunately, there's another dead tree right next to the one that fell that needs to come down. And you betcha, it'll fall on the tree. But the blade on the chainsaw is bad so we have to get another blade or chains or something before we can do any more tree cutting.

It seems that if it's not one thing, it's something else. And I've been so wrapped up with the paying job and all kinds of other stuff that I havent' had any time to plan for the upcoming fundraiser. I definitely need help with the playday/obstacle course. I think I'm in over my head this time around....sigh.

But instead of complaining, I'll leave you with pictures from the other night (AFTER the fence was repaired and the herd could go back out).

We'll be putting in hay starting this week. The pastures are pretty well done and the horses are telling me they want hay.