Here it is, the last day of 2010, and it is 7:23 in the morning, and I think I should get out of bed, but I just don’t. There is a lot to do today in the duck pen, and to put a few finishing touches on the horse’s catch pen. It might also be nice to sort out the chicken feeders to their proper heights, and see if any of the fowls are ready to go loose for a while in the garden or yard. We also need to call to get a bonfire approved, and to prepare it with all wood out on the vegetable patch in order to add potassium to the soil and enrich it for growing. Then the digging can begin.
So much to do…
I would like to see about enlarging the vegetable patch so that by the time we start planting, we have the entire back fenced area for growing, and not just the section allotted for it now. The kids want to grow corn, and I think that for seven people, that is going to require some serious space, probably equal to about three quarters of the space we have on the entire vegetable patch now! It would be most wonderful too if I could use the outer fencing as part of the planned chicken moat, but I will have to see what kinds of bugs are attracted to our garden and if it is worth it to build such a thing around the garden for the chickens to run in. It is meant to be a way of controlling insects in the garden without using poisons.
There is a 30 foot by 295 foot section of the property on the west end that runs the entire length from front to back that needs something doing with it. I think we should put the horses in there to graze it off, then start leveling it off and preparing it for use as animal pens, or a place to grow fruit trees. It is fenced completely, so there is plenty of potential there for just about anything as it is raw desert landscaped now.
I have had an idea for the horse shelter too! It could use a feed and tack room built onto it. It would be dead easy to construct and could be added nicely onto the current structure right behind where I put Umber’s pen. It would also add a bit of wind protection to that pen, and better shade in the evenings. It would also centralize the care and maintenance of the horses to that one place, rather than using the end of the 35 foot horse trailer as the sole tack barn. There is a saddle rack that holds two saddles on the cleaning platform, so it would be dead easy to use that as a rack in the tack room! Maybe the cleaning platform, which is made of railroad ties, should be dug up and put next to the other horse’s catch pen. That would really put everything horse related close at hand!
As I said, there is much to do for this old ranch hand!
Moving the cleaning platform would free more space for the vegetable garden! The water could be channeled back to the vegetable garden after it runs off the horses! Then we could wash the horses and water the garden at the same time! The only thing that would be interfered with is where the trailers get parked. It would be ideal if a space could be set aside for them which is accessible from the driveway without being visible from the road, but where?
There are many ideas floating around, and all of them useful material for The Prospering Peasant. I need to get it going. So now, I have guilted myself to the point of getting out of bed, and getting to work on that duck pen, and then ringing in the New Year with loads to do still..!!
Happy New Year..!!