TOO MUCH RAIN!

I am soooo sick and tired of rain.  This black clay ground of mine is just a sponge right now.  The driveway is looking like something set up for a mud bogging contest for big trucks.  This time of year is usually my most productive with the outside work.  Usually it's nice and dry now, and with the cold temps, and slow growth of all the grasses, trees and weeds, its normally a great time to trim fencelines, gather broken limbs, and just do some overall maintenance on the place.

Aside from the horrible mud, I have learned something new that I hate wet ground for.

Pam is confined in my small pen right now with my son's quarterhorse.  This pen used to be my goat pen.  It is made up of 5 strands of electrical wire (which is not hot because the unit died) and before putting Pam inside, I added one strand of barbed wire to the top and stretched it nice and tight.

Pam has no fear of hotwire.  I don't think she's ever been around it.  Needless to say, she figured out that she can stick her head through the fence to get at the grass on the other side of the fence.  I noticed some of my posts beginning to lean, and I knew I needed to get another hotwire unit, but I figured I had some time.

Did you know that in this spongey ground, a draft horse can put it's head under a tight barbed wire strand, lift her head up, and pull 6 t-posts out of the ground?  I sure didn't.  Saturday my son went to feed his horse, and informed me that Pam was out of the pen.  Sure enough, she had lifted 6 posts up and then as the wire slide down her mane, she just walked forward, breaking the 4 strands of hot wire (which was not hot).  GRRRRRRRRRR!  Of course, this happened an hour after I had come in for the day, showered, and gotten in my comfy flannel pj bottoms.

So ol' Tim got to spend saturday night, out in the cold, pounding fence posts back in and fixing fence.  To add insult to injury, I had to cut my awesomely tight strand of barbed wire to get Pam back on my property.  She then got put in her small stall, and had to wait while I fixed the fences.  I went to Tractor Supply, and got a new hot wire unit.

I rigged the whole pen up with 2 strands of hot wire.  One at about 4 foot high, the other at about 2 1/2.  One leg of the hotwire also runs down the stall she is in.

I got it all rigged up, and went inside and plugged it in, and I had a short somewhere.  So out into the cold I went to find it.  I found the problem spot, and as soon as I fixed it, I heard a startled Pam jump about a foot off the ground and run to the other side of the stall.  I guess she was standing with her neck right on the hot wire just leaning on it.  A sadistic grin came across my face.  Hot wire is a great lesson for a horse to learn and a wonderful thing for a horse to respect.  Because of Lily's great respect for hotwire, I could put up a single strand of wire and she was contained.  I'm hoping that I can get Pam there as well.

So Pam got moved back into her pen and got given some food.  I smiled a bigger smile the next day when I noticed that she spent all day eating on the round bale in the pen,  instead of reaching through the fence for the other grass.  HOORAY FOR HOTWIRE!

Now ... if I can just do something about drying up all this land, I'll be able to actually work my land.  I hope someday it dries up!!