Week Ending Nov. 9, 2008

This has been a very busy week, tiring but we got a lot done in the pastures. Thursday afternoon I picked up a Cub Cadet tractor from Cedar Street Rentals in Batavia. We rented it for two days so we could put some road fabric and 5/8" crusher run stone in three shelters and pastures in an effort to stop some of the mud we get every winter and spring and to make it safer for the horses and volunteers. We still had quite a bit of stone that we purchased last winter and were not able to spread. In fact it was blocking our center aisle and we had to drive our small tractor around the outside making deep ruts in the clay soil. Our son-in-law Verne drove the rented tractor and I drove our smaller older one trying not to move much stone with as it can't handle the heavy stone without breaking the front wheels. Other volunteers helped lay down the road fabric and rake out the stone as Verne put it down. Judy Maher paid for the tractor rental as well as raking stone. Liz Lioy, Jean Fiano, Brian(Liz's new boyfriend), Lina Fox(SUNY Geneseo student, Steve Harrison, Chris(fighting a bad case of flu) all raked and I was using the small tractor to spread. We started at 8:00 AM and worked until feeding time at 4:00 PM on Friday and from after feeding at 9:00 AM on Saturday until about 3:30 PM on Saturday. We ran out of road fabric on Friday afternoon and Chris and Liz went and bought a new roll at new price increase of $334 for a roll 12.5' x 432'. We got the last of the 32'x32' corrals done along with the large shelter on the hill which houses Gabe, Bonnie, Honey, Vixen, Muldoon and Khanty. We laid a path of stone 72' wide by about 50' long so they can get to their without going through mud. The stone extends out 12' on each side of the shelter so the volunteers and feed the horses without sinking in foot deep mud. Next year if we can get another grant, we would like to put sand on top of the stone so it's easier on the horses feet and they have something to lay down on. Once the stone is packed down it will be more comfortable but that may take months unless we can borrow a roller and compact it that way. By Saturday afternoon everyone was tired and sore. We still have three pastures to add stone to and hope we can complete that next year. It's amazing that we have been working on this facility for nine years and there is still so much to be done but we are making progress. If something ever happens to Chris and I, this place can never again be used for farming not with all the shelters and stone we have put in.