Spring

Today was the first day of Spring, and it was awesome!  Usually I am counting down in anticipation, but this year for some reason it completely snuck up on me.  Most likely because February was great weather and March has already been good and going by fast.  But lo, the radio said today was the day!

It was a gorgeous morning.  Beautiful sunrise, and WARM!  Fed the horses, turned out, did stalls, and was on Daisy for my first ride by 7:45.  Rode Daisy and Cachet, and worked Julius in the round pen.

Super productive!  Praying the weather stays nice and schooling everyone stays very consistent.

Round pen construction is a bear.

With the base done, it was finally time to put up the super awesome, extra-tall, extra-heavy duty round pen that we purchased.... 3 months ago.  Yes, after sitting on the concrete apron of the shop since October, it is finally up.

And I never want to do that again!  As usual, when needing help with something awful, I call the only reliable person I know (that will do truly shitty things with me)-Brendan.  God love him.

It took about 6-7 trips with panels loaded onto the back of his Dodge, dropping them off on the base.

I thought getting all the panels to the base would be the EASY part.  Har-har-har.

Getting that thing to be a CIRCLE and not tipping in all wonky was a trick.  We got it UP, but then looked at our "circle" which was more like a drunk oval.  Then we measured and spray painted the ground, and had to pretty much un-pin each panel and re-do it. (Also, it's supposed to be 70' in diameter and it was NOT.  It was like, 71-72, which really will mess your measurements up!)

Is it 100% perfect?  Straight up and down, and completely precise circle?  No.  But we did awesome, and it totally kicked my ass.  What I can't post on the blog is all the bruises all over my body.  1.) just from moving it 2.) a panel fell on top of me.  That was scary and sucked.  But when you have two vertically challenged people put up a round pen that's 6' 2", and each panel is 100+ lbs...  I'm proud of us, and my friendship debt to B. is even deeper!

I don't have a great picture of the finished product.  But, there will be lots of those, since the very next day I got to start working the horses, again!!!  *happy dance*

Because I'm all about that base, 'bout that base...

Wow, I had to read the last blog post be reminded that construction on the base started back before Christmas!  The holidays came and went, and January has been all the things I hate... cold, wet, wet, wet, cold... So, slow progress on getting the base done.

But, IT'S DONE.  As of, funnily enough, my birthday.  Happy Birthday, me!

Not much rhyme or reason to these photos, but some miscellaneous images of them finishing up.  I think I'll be able to ride on this, and once I figure out how to harrow/what to use with our limited resources, I'll be able to make it work for a while, see how it settles, etc. and then maybe have once last leveling and/or rolling in the spring and add a SCHMEAR of angular sand for footing.

Also, we had some gravel brought into the driveway, which they spread and leveled over the giant MESS that has been created by the water lines being dug + settling + rain + more rain.  Ugh.  It is much better now!

Took Cachet out for a walk today to see if the base was drying and see what she thought.  I definitely think she approves and feels more secure than when she was trying to move around on a slick clay field.  Go figure.