Back in the Construction Zone

Last Friday we celebrated the day after Thanksgiving by finding ourselves back in a construction zone. I’m here to tell you it seems like it will never end. A couple of weeks ago we had some a day of heavy rain. It was the first heavy rainfall since the warm season grasses went dormant (and hence were not soaking up much water) and we found that we had some issues with drainage and standing water in a couple of areas which needed to be addressed. In addition to our drainage issues we needed to relocate a couple of our water hydrants and we also upgraded some of our existing water “infrastructure.” We added lines for waterers, put in some more shutoff valves, etc.

Looking at these pictures that I took on Friday it is hard to to believe that through Saturday we were all working in t-shirts in gorgeous 70 degree weather. That changed on Sunday and the last few days have been anything but gorgeous with cool temperature and lots of rain. I’ve been sporting an unhappy face and several layers of clothes and the horses have had their rainsheets on. Thankfully we should return to more pleasant weather in a couple more days.

Getting back on topic the horses found it very interesting to watch the big excavator digging away in their paddocks. We would chase them away only to have them come back and resume their positions. The only problem with this is they tended to park themselves right in the way and then when the operator needed to move around to work on different areas they wouldn’t move, and instead would stand there and have a stand-off with the excavator. Another one of those scenarios where if someone had been riding them it would have been 1001 excuses to spook.

Faune acting as supervisor while the poor guy operating the excavator played dodge the horses(s). Faune was one of the ones that would. not. move. when the excavator came towards him, and I finally had to run him off with a leadrope!

Romeo doing some supervising

While the contractor was working away on the water lines Jason was working away on our drainage issues. Jason was running what we were calling the “mini me” excavator. Of course he wants one of his very own for Christmas but I’m pretty sure Santa isn’t planning to leave one under the tree.

Jason figuring out the controls

Jason dug trenches and then we placed tile drains in them. I am happy to report that our drainage problems seem to be solved, his work has been well tested from all of the rain the last few days. Jason was at the back barn trenching away and we realized it was almost two in the afternoon, we hadn’t eaten anything all day and we were hungry.

We decided we were going to take a break so we could go somewhere to get a quick bite to eat since we were starving. Then we realized that we had dug a trench from one side of the barn yard fence to the other – and the truck was parked behind the trench. In what can only be described as a stroke of genius (not) we had trenched ourselves in! This led to some testy moments when we realized we were going to stay hungry for awhile. We wasted some time and both displayed what could best be described as a crabby attitude as we tried to decide who was responsible for our predicament.

the trenched in truck

After a few minutes of ill-tempered squabbling we re-engaged our brains and began dragging a couple hundred feet of tile drain around as fast as we could and positioning it in the trench. Jason then backfilled in a few feet so we could drive our genius selves out of the barn yard and go eat. We now are the proud owners of some new tile drainage and even more water lines. Who could ask for more?

Fonzi napped in the hay while Silver, Chimano and Romeo were eating