Skunking, Round Pen and Pasture Fencing

I had the shear pleasure of a skunked Molly on Friday morning at 5:30 AM!!
As you know it's still dark out at that time of day and I no longer use the leash on Molly during chores. She has free run of the farm and she takes full advantage of that liberty.   I was out collecting the horses from the pasture and all I could see was the white pants of Molly take off past me int he pasture.   It wasn't that leisurely lope of a dog that's just happy to be outside...it was the dedicated focus of a dog on a mission.   As soon as I seen her dash past me I started calling her name.  As most of you know here recall when her nose is turned on is virtually zero...this day was no exception!  (I have hopelessly tried to explain to her that she was created with 2 ears and 1 nose for a reason!)   You can imagine the scene...Pitch black, still, crisp morning air, frantic woman hollering at the top of her lungs for a dog that might just as well be deaf.   At this point, I have no idea what she is after.   BUT then the smell hits me and the frantic yelling turns into "I am going to kill you dog" threats!   Of course the happy go lucky blond circles past me and assaults my nostrils with most vial smell ever.    Then in the beam of my flashlight, I witness her rolling and slithering through the tall grass...she might just as well been smiling she was so happy that she showed that kitty with the white stripe who's property it was on!

Well here she is with the de-skunking potion on her head that got hit the worst.   I pretty much died of hysteria putting the stuff on her.   It was the consistency of icing and I just found it overly hysterical that I was icing the dog.  DH was not finding any humour in this at all.   Dear Lord, I am laughing now just thinking about it.   I guess when you get lemons, you have to make lemonade!

The new round pen's first layer of base footing is in and so are all the fence posts.   We will now put the screenings in and re-compact before we add the sand.   It's looking really good and I recommend Jim Nagel for any local blog readers that need some fence posts pounded in.   The job was done within the week that I called and not only are the lines straight on the paddocks the round pen turned out perfectly.

I spent my Saturday finishing up the fencing in pastures #4 and #5.  There are still a few gates to be installed however they are on back order so I have installed a few temporary wire gates in the mean time.   We recycled a few boards of white oak fencing that was moved from the old house to here.   It's a good reminder of where this journey truly began and also it feels good to repurpose lumber whenever possible.   These boards were put up at least 8 years ago at the old house and were removed when we built the little barn at the old house.   They sat in our scrap wood pile for a few years and in the move they got transferred to the scrap wood pile here.   (Reta and Bill...I know you know how much Shit valuable scrap lumber was moved).   When we cut them to length for the new fencing location at HP Haven these oak boards were rock solid.   It's a true testament, that if you just buy good quality up front the first time, you save money in the long run.    Not only will I not have to worry about these boards rotting, I won't have to worry about them being chewed either!   Doubly happy me!

Here is DH finishing the last screws.

Here's the "herd" enjoying the new grass.

Today we had the pleasure of a BBQ and horse back ride with a co-worker and friend Matt with his wife Selena and two daughters Lauren and Kylie.
The girls were naturals up on Emma and I can see some horseback riding lessons in the families further!  :-)

The garden may have had a pretty sad yield on pretty much everything that was planted; then not cared for.  However, I did get about half a dozen beautiful sunflowers from the seeds that came from my garden last year.