The farrier came by this morning and give the horse a bit of a trim. We are trying to recover her hooves from a bit of neglect on our part, and she needs to be done in increments. The guy I hired has been willing to come twice on a single appointment, so I paid him more than he asked me for. He said he did not want to charge me till he had done the job right, and he felt that he was unable to the first time. Well, that was not his fault! He is going to come by again in three weeks to work her over again, which will be on a different appointment than these last visits, which were the original appointment. Anyway, the mare’s hooves are coming down, and I am glad it is not all at once, not just to let her be less tender under the hoof, but also so she can adjust her stance back to a more upright position.
After the farrier left, I had some things to take care of for Missus, then I went to town to get a new gas lid for the truck, and new coolant reservoir lid for the car as it just broke on Tuesday, and some electrical supplies to hardwire in a heater for Missus’ little cottage out back. I was almost done with that just after the sun had gone down when all the girls came into the cottage with Bandit, our half border collie, half Alsatian.
The dog had blood on him which turned out to be from his roommate, the Billy goat. The goat is rutting, and acting like a real jerk, and won himself a good bit on the ear. But then, that is not the goat’s fault. Anyway, the dog found himself a way out of the pen and took his leave from the goat in order to get some peace. I knew right away where he had done it, so I finished the wiring, put on the heater, and went after the fence.
The fence repair was one of the easiest I have done on the farm, day or night. In this case, it was night. But I picked up the roll of fencing and brought it over on the pallet forks of the tractor, measured off a piece as if I were measuring off some paper towel, and then used the lights on the tractor to illuminate my work! The light was coming from behind me, so the goat and I cast shadows, which I watched to make sure the goat was not charging me the way he has been the dog. I finished fixing the fence, and am secure the goat isn’t getting out, and I put the dog elsewhere for the night. I will have to get some fence supplies tomorrow and build a new pen, I think. It’s time that goat got his own place again and stopped pestering the poor dog. They were okay together for a while, but the goat’s tongue has been hanging out and flapping. He is in a mood.
Tomorrow I would like to put the new heater into my shop, too. I have what I need to do it. If I don’t quite get to the new pen, I am okay with that as I have an auger on the way, and would like to set posts with it, since the ground is already frozen up to a degree here. The auger should be here on Monday or Tuesday. It would be good for it to arrive first, so I can not only get into the ground as necessary, but also get in deep enough to set the posts in properly. All of my posts up till now are set to shallow as I cannot get the manual post hole diggers to clasp any dirt beyond about two and a half feet down. The handles won’t spread enough, and I don’t want to dig the hole any wider so the earth around the hole is undisturbed and firm. The auger ought to make a big difference in getting deep enough, keeping the surrounding ground firm, and just plain being easier. It should also help me to reset several fences around here and set in the new paddocks whenever the canal company buries the canal. I will probably set in small shelters with it, too. Oh, and I could use a couple of woodsheds.
Everything is under control on the farm again, for now. Slowly, we are improving things, too. It’s good to feel the progress!