outside shift

Our land work has shifted from the inside to the outside, weather permitting. We are seeing dryer days, or at least occasional dryer days. Consequently our barn remains a work in progress. I am not much help with bendy, building or heavy duty type stuff but offer anyways. I think I just slow down the process :/ Most of what you'll see shared is all Brad's hard work, and work hard he does.

manure pit (politely labeled) 

freshly poured containing walls

Yard work is not a priority, but lessening constant sandy dirt tracked inside by multiple large dogs (& people) is. Over a span of several days Brad graded and graded, and graded some more, before spending our first hot weekend seeding and covering the sizable area between our house and barn. We went from an extended wet cool Spring to **bam** hot Summer! 

view from house deck of work in progress

view from driveway

view mid-way 

Ticks, coyotes and mosquitoes have taken the fun out of hiking with the dogs on our property this Spring. Sadly, our daily walks abruptly stopped. From what I can see our paths have become lush and overgrown. 

We ordered mosquito eradicators for around the house & barn, with hopes that after 15 days we should see improvement. 

mosquito eradicator

We planted three Autumn Blaze Red Maples along our driveway, where the Maples won't be an issue for our horses (they are toxic). Looking forward to seeing their Fall color! Happy Mother's Day to me!!

three new little trees, mid-left

Hay will be a challenge to put up this season in WI, due to wet weather. Our hot dry summer like weather lasted briefly. We are back to cooler days, which I like. Not ideal for growing things tho. 

Brad reseeded another field to grass hay. Two fields should provide us a healthy supply, and then some to sell. IF we ever get a good stretch of dry sunny weather. He also did most of the field work to replant two of our other fields back to alfalfa to sell. 

Autumn Maples with teeny tiny alfalfa in foreground.
The neighbors lawn is mid-strip, our new hay field behind.

A few weeks later we put in four apple trees at the bottom of our property. Cortland, McIntosh, Gala and Jonathan. Not sure how much we will spray etc, might just let them grow natural. I know I know apples get wormy, so we will be looking into a happy medium.

Brad up-cycled materials to build four protective cages.
Hopefully it gives the apple trees a fighting chance from destructive deer.

We are starting to designate a couple small garden beds. Repeat after me, ONLY A COUPLE garden beds!! We have waaay too many gardens at our old house. We put them in when we were younger and stupid ambitiously passionate about gardening. As you likely know, gardens are ever changing and never ending back breaking work. I learned the hard lesson many moons ago that planting Perennials doesn't mean forever, silly me. 

Altho I still love gardening, my body doesn't. Plans are to relocate some favorites perennials to our new home, return some beds at our old home to grass and redo the remaining. They need to be more manageable. Hopefully I can hand the care over...someday. This is one hefty goal, that I know won't get completely done. I'll be happy with whatever does get done.

For now, I am enjoying annuals and potted summer camp plants at our new home.

Brads old boots are made for planting

Barn post got finished & forged iron hanger mounted
I promptly refilled and hung repurposed baskets

New barn planters I "won" (the right to buy) at a fundraiser.
Table geranium is several years old, one of the plants I still overwinter *^*

Brad finished off westside of barn

He also built one raised veggie garden bed
to try, before possibly adding a couple more

Hope everything is going & growing well for all of you! Looking forward to catching up soon!!

breaking the silence

Somehow the entire month of April came and went without posting a thing. No words, no photos. I've got plenty of both to share, but my computer time has been limited. Primarily because living with a puppy is a life changer. His naps get used for processing photos and things like paying bills, phone calls and running errands. Things I can't do or do very long, when the busy body is awake. Tank will be 5 1/2 months tomorrow and is a great addition to our family. We love him! He is very sweet, keeps us laughing and on our toes. His favorite things to do is steal socks out of the dirty laundry, play with Jameson and retrieve anything. Thank goodness he has slept through the night since we got him, but when day time rolls around it's game on.

Tank at 5 month vet visit (53 lbs)

Our horses are all doing well. It's been a whole year since I have sat on a horses back. I'll just edit further commentary. You are welcome :)

Cierra & Brad rode in a ranch clinic last week. I took photos. WI weather continues to be wacky, so the clinic had to be held inside. Sigh. I managed to get a few pics, but shooting anything indoor is less then ideal for me.

Brad & Cierra
(extended ranch trot)

Our bobcat went back to the workplace, so I am wheeling it again. Daily. Thankfully it makes appearances for the bigger jobs like filling the feeder, hauling dirt etc. 

Brad recently put in a permanent manure pit, same location. Down the road, around the bend, through the sand pit, up the slope and into the next county...

Midwest Horse Fair came & went mid-April. We were not into it this year, and didn't watch a single clinician. No clue why. We did however enjoy an excellent Friday night PRCA rodeo, and saved a lot of money shopping for our usual horse supplies. Much to our horses dismay, we also bought a large square orange slow feed net for our feeder.

breakfast with the new net

My 10 year blogaversary passed by during my hiatus. I had a reflecting blog post started, but those take time. They are my favorite type of posts to read & write. Hoping to get back to blogging more regularly. It could happen?!! 

I'll close with my favorite photo from the rodeo. Looking forward to catching up on each of your blogs! 

Dan James