pasture rehab

The big and back pastures are torn apart. The ditches are dug, and there are about 40 trees down in the big pasture. It looks like a disaster area. But, the guys doing the work are really good and will have things cleaned up as soon as possible. We will have to do some ditchscaping in the spring to clean up the sides, but right now, the soil needs to settle. The trees will go away tomorrow unless it rains. They can't get the big trucks in if the ground is soft. Right now, there's a huge excavator in the back pasture. Crazy!

After it's all over, we get to put up about 1200 feet of electric fence. Yikes! Fortunately, we bought some really easy stuff that takes next to no time to put in. (http://www.horseguardfence.com) It's really good stuff.

The trees are all gone. Another 1/2 a day, and we'll be ready to start fencing. We'll have to wait until the weekend since we don't get home until it's already dark. But, I am really impressed with the guy who has been doing the work. He's honest and is very careful to stay in our budget.

Shame you had to lose trees, they give such nice shade. Slows down the wind too, gives the birds a place to perch and nest.
Glad the pasture rehab is going smoothly and on budget for you. Bet the ponies will give it a very thorough once over when they get in there.

Why do you need an electric fence? Have the horses tried to escape a lot?

Fiff, we have no shortage of trees near/in the pasture. The trees we took were blocking the drainage, and that made the grass flood. All in all, losing the trees was a benefit.

Arni, we use electric because we don't want to dig fence post holes in the areas where we need that fence. We use fiberglass posts to hold the electric tape, and it woks really well near the ditches where the soil stays wet. wood posts rot quickly and cost a lot in money and labor to replace. The electric fence I use is set up especially for horses, and they don't normally challenge it. It also has the benefit of looking nice. Let's hope Envoy won't be escaping as much now that we've fixed the holes in the wooden fence.

No more visiting the neighbors without you huh?

Fingers crossed. We still need to fence the back of the big pasture before we test that area. Looks like a weekend project.

UGH!! I can think of better ways to spend a weekend still it's got to be done.

The good thing is that the electric fence only takes a couple hours to install.

THAT's good! I hope it's a couple hours well spent.
**crossing fingers that it works the first time**

We've been having good luck. The part that will take the longest is installing the ground wire. It takes a metal pole pushed all the way into the ground, and a rubber coated wire connecting the fence tape to the pole. The run we have to do is only about 200 feet long, so we should be done in about an hour.

Here's the reason we need to put in fiberglass posts and get the drainage fixed.

That's me in my kayak pulling the electric tape across the drainage ditch at the low corner where 3 canals meet.

The spring and summer aren't nearly as wet. I do like showing people our pasture swamp though. We now have a resident blue heron. I wake him up almost every night when I hang the hay nets on the fence.

Cool.....a pet heron!
Shame it's so deep in that spot, you could plant rice.

Ugh! No rice paddies for me, thank you. I think I'll just let the ditches do their job, and stick to pasture grass. Next job in the pastures is finding good spots for 2 baby oak trees that I have in pots right now.

Hmmmm.....can you grow some fish in those ditches? Nothing like fresh fish for dinner....easily caught in your own backyard. LOL

We actually get fish swimming up from the Bay. That's why the blue heron has taken up residence. I think they are probably small bass (rock fish) and maybe some other not-so-tasty things. When I was paddling out, I saw about a million guppies and tiny fish. Yup... We could catch dinner. But, I don't like CLEANING fish, so we will just let it be a sanctuary for birds who like to fish.

Seems you also have a fish sanctuary....at least for the ones that get away from the heron.

And the snapping turtles.

I forgot about those. We have them here too but are rarely seen. Do you see yours a lot?

They're everywhere around here. Almost as common as box turtles. I've seen HUGE ones on the road.

Really? Are they as big as car hubcaps? I've heard we have a few ones that big here, most are smaller than that.