Lily's First Ground Drivng Lesson

Today Lily got her first ground driving lesson. Though that was not the plan to start with. I've been thinking of getting a set of britchen for Lily. I don't need britchen to keep her saddle back, a crupper has worked just fine for that but I kind of like the look of britchen. She's never worn britchen so I thought I'd take my harness over and put it on her to see how she reacted to it on her. So, I dug my harness out and over to the barn I went. She had no reaction at all to me putting the harness on her. She just seemed to enjoy getting attention. She was so quiet about it in fact, that I decided to go ahead and put on the driving bridle. She's never worn a snaffle bit or blinders. Again, she had no reaction at all. So, I figured why not go ahead and see if I could ground drive her. I hesitated over this and wasn't sure about trying this in an open area but decided to go ahead and try driving her around in the area between the house and the barn. Well, there was nothing to worry about, though she wasn't sure about the steering at first, she did not get worried and quickly figured out what I wanted and did a great job. This mule has such a good head o

n her shoulders!

Making A Farm

Well, I have to say that I haven't gotten in much riding time lately. Fred and I have been very busy trying to turn our little place into a farm. The property had several cleared areas on it that could have been used for grazing the animals but they were not large areas and they were interspersed between wooded areas and none of the areas could be seen from the house due to a solid line of trees behind the house. The entire property slopes downhill south to north. The house is on the west side of the property on Cedar Bluff Lane. The property going east slopes downhill 150' or so to a little creek.

Shows slope of land behind house. This is before clearing

From the creek, the land then slopes uphill 75' or so to a more or less level area that was fairly open. There is a path the runs the entire property east to west where the water line comes across the property.

Path (where waterline runs) to the top of the hill

Top of he hill looking southwest

Top of the hill looking north

From the creek to the top of the hill was wooded.

Wooded area from creek to top of hill

I decided to clear the wooded area from the creek to the top of the hill that was north of the waterline path. That would give me a really nice pasture area and I would have full view of the pasture from the house and deck.

From the top of the hill, the property slope down to another creek. There is a small patch of open grass area on the west side of the creek at the bottom of the hill about 40' wide and 100' long (guessing) and then across the creek is a strip of open ground about 60' wide and it runs the entire length of the property along Black Ridge Rd.

Strip of clear land west of the creek

East side of property along Black Ridge Rd.

We decided we wanted to hire someone to come in and clear the land for us. We did the work ourselves on our property in Maine over the 30 years I was there and I just do not want to do all that work again or take that much time to get the work done.On the recommendation of a neighbor, I hired Bickett Construction out of Ridgeway to do the job. They specialize in farm tiling but do other jobs in the field tiling slow season. Their sale rep said promised that when they were done, all I would have to do is seed the property for my field. And he said they would put in a culvert at the creek behind the house so we would have easy access to the new field. I made sure with the sales rep we were clear on these things as having this work done was not cheap.

Well, this will make short work of some land clearing!

Path they made from Black Ridge Rd. to top of hill for equipment They could not get up Cedar Bluff Lane to the house with their flatbed.

Ready to start some clearing

And the work begins

Property cleared on east side of the creek behind the house

Piling the brush for burning

Anyone bring the marshmallows?

 

 

 

 

Burying the remains of the burn pile

 Bicketts also leveled the ground beside the house where the barn is going to be built. This was a bit tricky as though the ground didn't look all that sloped, there was over a 3' drop from one side to the other of where the barn was going. So the choice was to either bring in a ton of fill, or split the difference and move dirt from one side of the area to the other and just make sure it was done so that water would drain away from the barn and not into it. We chose that route. Bickett's had the equipment and experience to do this correctly.   

You can't part a man and his dog! (dog riding in dozer)

 

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 Bickett did a very good job overall. But, there were a few glitches between what was promised by the sales rep and the business owner who did the work. The owner was not prepared to either get the ground to the point that it was ready to put seed on nor was he willing to put in a culvert at the creek. After telling him what the sales rep had promised and being told he could NOT do that for the price that was quoted there was a bit of back and forth calling between me, the sales rep and the owner. In the end some effort was made by the owner to do what was promised. First he pushed a bunch of roots and dirt into the creek bed, which is dry right now feeling that would provide a way for us to cross. But though the creek is dry now, a LOT of water flows through it in heavy rains and it flows though with a lot of force. That was not going to work at all and we asked him to pull it all back out of the creek, which he did other than 2 huge rocks that still need to be moved. He did put in a culvert but without consulting me on what size culvert was needed or where I wanted to put it. The one that was put in is a 12" and that is going to be too small when we have heavy rains. Where he put it is fine though not necessarily where I would have chosen to put it. And he did run a disc over the field to smooth it out a bit more. That helped but it was still a long way from being what I expected as "ready to put in seed". While I was not happy about this as I did not get what was promised me by the sales rep, I do feel that overall, Bickett's did a good job. They showed up when they said they would and got the job done quickly and efficiently. The sales rep was honest and never tried to deny what he promised me. I would actually recommend them to others and just caution to maybe get things in writing before having the work done which I did not do.

But, this left Fred and I with trying to decide how to get the pasture to what we felt was ready to seed. I decided that a York/Landscape rake would likely do a good job finishing the field. I tried to find one to rent but had no luck with that at all. So, I decided to buy one. The question came to buying a small one to go on our lawn tractor or a large one for a big tractor and borrowing our neighbors tractor to do the job. We decided to go with the large one and I'm sure glad we did! So, farmer Fred got the job or raking the new field and the rake did a great job! It smoothed the ground perfectly and pulled up a ton of the roots. We piled the roots and burned them. There were still some roots left behind even after going over the ground with the rake. I got the job of going around and pulling them up or cutting them as necessary. This took me about 3 days of long hard work and created another nice big pile to burn. And the field is now ready to be seeded in. Another neighbor has offered to help us get the pasture seeded in. He does this kind of work professionally so has all the right equipment to go on a tractor. The seeder, disc and rollers that will get the job done properly and quickly. And since he is my next door neighbor down hill from me, he has motivation to see that we get this ground growing grass soon because if this soil gets washed out, it will end up going his way!! But truly, I have some great neighbors here and my appreciation of the help we've gotten is beyond words.

Farmer Fred raking the field

Fred cutting some of the wood we saved from the clearing

Burning the last pile of brush and roots

My future pasture grass sitting in bags in the back of the truck. Below are a few before and after pictures.

And a couple more

Short but Sweet

I got out for a quick ride with Delbert today. We didn't ride all that long but I had yard work I needed to get done so that was perfect. It was a really nice day. Warm but no bugs. We rode approximately 4.5 miles. I took my good old girl, Marie.

Riding with Sandy and the Gang Day 2

Sandy sent me a message this morning to see if I wanted to ride with them again. I guess Lily and I weren't too obnoxious yesterday that they were willing to have me along once again. I was happy to go out with them again so I hopped in the truck and as I was pulling out of the driveway, I discovered that my little mouse friend was still in residence in my truck as it did a few panicked laps around the floor of my truck again. I'm going to have to do something about this......

When I got to the barn, I grabbed Lily's halter and stepped out into the pasture. All 3 equines were munching hay at the feeder. I called to Lily and her head popped up, she saw me at the barn and came right over to me. This was a good sign. She must have enjoyed herself yesterday also to be so willing to go with me again. she loaded pretty well this morning. Today was warm again but not as humid as yesterday. There were very few flies at all out on the trails.The group was already saddled up when I got there so I quickly saddled up Lily. She was quiet this morning so it didn't take me long. Today we rode to Garden of the Gods. We stopped for a while at Buzzard's Roost. We had lunch at Garden of the Gods. Lily was more settled today and a pure pleasure to ride. I kept her behind other horses today and she did well slowing her pace and not crowding up on the horse in front of her. I had to check her back occasionally but not a whole lot. Lily only had one very brief naughty moment and that was near the end of the ride. I asked her to go down a different trail than the others were taking. She though we were separating from her new buddies and she popped up in front and threw a little buck to register her protest. I gave her a boot in the side and pushed her forward with a stern "QUIT" and she moved down the trail as I asked. She didn't make too much fuss about loading to come home either so a very good day!

Riding with Sandy and the Gang

My friend Sandy was down to High Knob for a long weekend with some friends. She invited me to go riding with them and I was delight to take up the offer. We had planned to ride out at 9:00 am but the weather was not looking good this morning so the ride was put off until 10:00 am. I was happy for the delay as I'd been a bit slow getting around this morning. As I was pulling out of the yard, a mouse popped out from under the truck seat and did several panicked laps around the floor of the truck! ACK! When I got to the barn, I left both truck doors open in hopes my little hitch hiker would hop out. I gave Marie a dose of banamine and checked her eye as she has managed to scratch it yet again. It was looking a bit better this morning. I got Lily and quickly groomed her. She jumped right into the trailer this morning. When I got to High Knob, the group was nearly ready to head out so I quickly saddled up Lily, who was quiet and cooperative and mounted up. We then ended up waiting a short time for something, and Lily was a bit impatient go get moving. But, she was not being all that bad about it either. Just a bit fidgety. It was warm today and a bit humid. Lily didn't seem to mind though. We headed out to Twin Towers but somehow missed it. We had a stop on the way to Buzzards Roost for 2 riders to switch tack and horses. That is where Lily decided to show off an impressive side pass down a hill over a small live tree and a small dead one sticking up in a rather pointy fashion and about belly height to her. Thankfully it broke off when she went over it and it didn't seem to phase her.

We stopped for a break at Buzzards Roost, then rode up to the top. From there we headed over to the Tee Pee and then through Rice Hollow. I love that trail! We stopped for lunch at .. I think it was Whiskey Cave. I tied Lily to a fairly small tree and then realized it was dead. As she was vigorously rubbing on it, I had visions of it breaking off and her running off through the forest dragging a dead tree. I am surprised at the lack of flies when out riding. There were a few big horse flies plaguing Lily when she was tied up a few times but only a few. I didn't see any deer fly today. Sandy and Terri headed back to camp part way through the ride. Terri felt that the horse she was riding was struggling a bit with the heat and didn't want to take any chances with him. So good to ride with people that put their horses well being first.

At one of the high line areas we rode into, there were 38 horses that I could count. Though it was tough getting a good count as groups were riding and and riding out constantly. We stopped there briefly. As we were riding out of there, we ran into Anthony and Cathy and their family heading in. Just after we left them, we found a horn bag laying on the trail. We picked it up and there was a cell phone in it so we knew someone would be seriously unhappy at losing the bag. We figured the best thing to do was turn it in at the office at High Knob camp. But, not much more than 1/2 mile down the trail we came across the owner of the bag back tracking to find it. 

We were out for 4 hrs. today and did 9 miles. We kept the pace easy and took plenty of breaks. Lily wanted to move along faster but did very well at handling the slower pace. I did lead for awhile with her and she did great with that too. Lily was, however, a bit of a snot about loading for the trip home. Guess she wanted to stay with her new friends.

Good Mares and New Friends

Today was just an absolutely lovely day. Mid 70's, sunny, light breeze, no humidity and no bugs. A perfect day to take out Marie. I didn't have any real destination in mind other than to stick to the trails with the easier grades and less rocks for Marie. We headed out by Black's Cabin and crossed Black Ridge Rd. and headed down 184. I took several trails going south and rode to Elbow Tree. From there I crossed back over Black Ridge Rd. and rode to Initial Tree. Just a little way before getting there I caught up with 2 other riders. A woman out with her young granddaughter. I rode in to Initial Tree with them. We tied the horses to the high lines and took a long break there. I had a good time chatting with the woman and her granddaughter. Both were very nice. She has a permanent camp at Double M so we exchanged numbers so we could get together to ride sometime. I rode back on 185 along the creek. We did 9 miles and were out for 4.5 hrs.

As always it was a wonderful and relaxing ride with my good old girl Marie.

High Country Trail

Went out for a very nice ride with Delbert today. Another lovely day. We rode down to the creek and up the long hill that connects into 185, the High Country trail and went back 185 the lower trail. We did 5.5 miles and were out a couple hours.