Our growing list of things to do...

We are probably going to have to have a volunteer day in the next month.....so many things to do to prepare for winter. Yes...I said it.WINTER...rain, snow, cold....water that just won't go away. I dread it but feel we must always be prepared.

We have to provide better drainage and so we have consulted with the county, read online articles, talked to land developers......and we have come up with a plan. We will create a "swale"......(I love that word..because it reminds me of slew and then I think of Seattle Slew..one of my favorite horses)..but I digress.......more about the water. ...our large paddocks get extremely muddy during the winter because of water run off and so we will create a swale, fence it off and create land bridges for the horses to cross them. This means we create a low and wide ditch, plant it with natural grasses and bullrushes, fence it off.....and make a rain garden/low level swamp/pond deal where it empties. This is an entire weekend project.....means we need a post hole auger for our tractor........anyone have one we can borrow?

The rest of the list goes like this........

gutters on the few loafing sheds that don't have one.
Grade at one end of paddock to facilitate drainage.
Another rain barrel to collect water at edge of barn.
Clean gutters,
scrape paddocks and re-rock them
add sand to top of paddocks
lengthen short paddocks in order maximize winter areas.
add top rails to some of fenceline where ..umm...a certain, fat mare is bending it over...to get grass.
build manure containment bins......this involves cement bottoms and cement wall dividers.....
drag paddocks and plant more pasture seed.
put a drain line along east wall of arena
drain pipe to take excess water from arena to rain garden/pond/swamp.
rebuild berm at borrowed barn to stop water from entering barn.
Hogsfuel at borrowed barn paddocks to help with mud.
slider door on new hay storage building
more sand in arena to help it drain
create rock filled drain holes by water tubs ..so that water can be poured into and soaked up, rather than run off.
order more gravel to create road base by upper loafing shed ...help drain standing water.
build covers for short paddocks......
fix light at outer paddock
replace GFI outside shower rack
push manure pile back at borrowed barn,
get brush cutter for overgrown blackberries at borrowed barn
gravel in driveway at borrowed barn
buy more hay
did I say buy more hay???

see ..the list never stops....you think you have come a long way, and then you realize you have a long way to go.