Irrigation

We have about 6 acres of pastureland to raise hay for our four horses.  One of the biggest projects to get onto in the spring is setting out our irrigation pipe.  You can see this pipe (commonly called gated pipe) in the following photos.  The piping is made up of 30 foot lengths of 8-10 inch diameter polyvinyl chloride (PVC) pipe, with little openings every 30 inches along their sides.  Each of these openings has a gasket cover, which can be opened for various water flows.  We have almost 1/2 mile of gated pipe crossing the back and side of our hay field with additional pipe providing water for our treed areas.  The lengths of pipe are taken up in the fall and stored on the pipe trailer (note picture) after irrigation is over.  They are then put down in the spring before the hay crop has grown very high, so the crop doesn't get too damaged by the tractor pulling the pipe trailer along.  The pipe is taken up in the winter because we allow our horses into the field to graze, and their kicking at the pipe in cold temperatures could cause it to shatter - they're sort of costly to replace.  In the following pictures, I have used Dick as the model in the operations, but most of it is a team activity for sure!!  The first picture is of Dick opening the gates on a pipe along the back of the hay field.   The second picture is our "empty" pipe trailer parked near the tree area of the property.  The gated pipe for that area can be seen to the right of the trailer.   

Springtime Activities

So we get pretty busy this time of year - getting ready for the summer.  Ashley gets us involved in all the track events, where she is interested in distance running (1600 meter or 3200 meter events).  She does enjoy running and continues off and on during the summer months.

We also get the horses hooves trimmed and shod this time of year to enjoy some summer riding.  Here is a picture of our farrier working with our young mustang, Sage.  She is a little new to a lot of different people working with her, but seems to work with this man fairly well.  He yells at her in Cherokee and she knows the language enough to listen up!!  He does a good job with all our horses and has the patience to go easy on Sage.  We are looking forward to some good rides this summer!!

Spring Visitors

We are so excited about spring getting here.  Although we have done a lot of work around the place getting the pasture ready for this year's hay crop, we have been able to get out and get some photos.  Here are some of our spring time visitors.

Senior Prom

well, we have successfully survived the Senior Prom here and I thought I would post a few pictures.  Ashley went with a real nice guy and had a wonderful time.

here's thinking of you!!!

Sorry about not posting lately, spring gets so busy around here.  We've spread the field with the year's accumulation of manure, harrowed, and fertilized now we are about to set out the irrigation pipes!!  We've trimmed evergreen trees and taken big branches out of some willows that were impinging on some of our evergreens.  We've raked the yard and uncovered the roses - yes, and unfortunately we got some snow and cold weather in the last few days!  I don't know if the roses will make it.  There are only seven plants left now.  You just have to baby roses so much in Wyoming - cut them back, cover them for the winter, uncover them at the right time, and on and on and on.  We had planted twenty-four rose varieties at our place in New Mexico.  They wintered over with no care - I do wonder how they are doing sometimes!!  Also busy with other spring activities - supper for the track team, luncheon for a ladies group, school activities, church activities, etc.  Here is a picture of spring at our house last year.  It gives me something to look forward to and I thought you would like it.

Spring Chores

Hey - we are up to our elbows in spring activities here; but it looks like we are going to get some bad weather later this week, so things will have to slow down outside some.  It gives me a good time to catch up on writing and other projects left over from the winter.  Today we finished getting rid of all the accumulated manure from the horses and chickens by spreading it in the field with a manure spreader.  That was a first on using one of those for us.  Did you know that manure spreaders have been around for over a hundred years now, and they are actually a fairly fascinating invention.  One side of the axle runs the gearing to the auger that breaks up big clots and the other side of the axle has gearing to forward the conveyor contraption.  We're still getting educated up here in Wyoming!  Now we are official solid waste managers!

After getting the manure spread around the field, I got the job of harrowing the field to break up the winter droppings that the horses left us.  My neck and shoulders are sure aching tonight; but I am very proud of how good the field looks.  While I did that, Dick cleaned out the spreader and loaded it on the flatbed trailer to take back to the neighbor's place.  Ashley worked on getting a flower bed prepped for transplanting some plants.  She is on spring break right now, but the school really did a number on us this year, she was off on Thursday and Friday of last week and Monday and Tuesday of this week.  Not really much time to go anywhere and the weather at the end of last week prevented us going camping.  Don't have any pictures today, as have been working too hard to think of taking pictures.

Our next chore is getting fertilizer on the field and I might get some pictures out.

still waiting for spring

Well, we've been hit with another bout of snow here, but I think it may be our last.  It was really blowing snow this morning, but this afternoon it has cleared up and the temperature is helping to clear things up.  Nothing much happening - we are waiting for good weather to start dragging and fertilizing the field.