Busy Weekend

Friday night our gas grill died. It’s been limping along on after-market parts for a few years now. This time the window fell off the front, and while I found the frame in two pieces, there was no sign of the glass. I decided sheet metal work was over the top, so we decided to get a new one when we took the truck out to get the horses on Saturday. We already needed to hit Home Depot for hoses and connectors.

I spent yesterday morning getting ready for the horses to come home.

First I got the tractor stuck trying to reach a spot to winch out a few more logs. It’s pretty deep in the mud, so it will be there for a while until the mud dries out. I managed to bend the three point hitch trying to winch out the tractor. Sheesh and a half. New Holland parts are pretty pricey. I think I have a business trip to Schenectady this week, so I may see what Tractor Supply in Bennington can do for me.

That having failed, I ran magic white tape through the woods. Meanwhile, Lisa began the garden cleanup around the pond.

Hi Boys In the afternoon we fed early so we could leave. Murphy presented us with George looking miserable down in the sunshade. Our immediate guess was grain overload from breaking into Albus’ pen and eating his food. Miguel was also in on the breakout, but seems to be fine. Lisa called the vet, and the advice was to feed him roughage and shoot him up with penicillin, banamine and any vitamins we have. (Yes, we have a pharmacy in our fridge.) That got him moving again, so we hitched up the trailer and drove off. He’s better but still sick today. He’s self-medicating with bad hay from the yard, and we’re continuing the drugs.

At Home Depot we found the world’s spiffiest gas grill. It even has an oven. It took two Home Depot guys as well as me to get it into the truck, after we disconnected the trailer.

Poor Polly We collected the horses without incident, and set off to drop Polly at the farm where she was born. Lindsay Parker is going to start training her for us. We got most of the way up the dirt road to the farm and the truck just stopped moving. It’s only an F150 and not really rated to pull three draft horses uphill through mud. I got Polly, who is now a good thousand pounds, out of the trailer and Lisa was able to get it moving. I walked Polly up while Lisa turned the rig around. (She didn’t even jack-knife it this time.) We got her set up in her natal stall with minimal drama and brought the big(ger) horses home. We left them in the trailer overnight rather than stick them in strange forest in the dark.

Horses are home We turned them out first thing in the morning. Prince and Pearl are very respectful of the magic white tape. There’s an awful lot of stuff on the ground out there. We need to get the sawlogs and firewood out. If we get everything bigger than 2 inches out of there, the Percherons will replace a wood chipper on what’s left. They also like pine needles.

We spent the rest of the day continuing spring clean up, and finished with (local) Italian sausage on the new grill. We’re now taking a bottle of wine out to the gazebo.

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