Horse Training

We have been learning to train our horses by various mediums. Books, video, and horse training clinics. We've been doing this for several years which is a comment on our slow learning curve as opposed to the horses slow learning curve. We have discovered that timing in horse training is as important as it is in dancing or maybe more so. If you get stepped on by your dancing partner it hurts less than your horse stepping on you. The other thing that counts is persistence and consistency. I am consistently inconsistent and it has been a hinderance. Kris is irritatingly consistent. We are beginning to make good progress. My horse Belle has finally stopped trying to leave me in the bushes. This is a huge improvement. I have been bucked off and stripped from her back by a thicket of jack firs. Lately she seems to have accecpted my leadership or is lulling me into complacency and waiting for a good chance to launch me.
Kris has been training them to do tricks and we both have been working on speed control and making them soft and easy to handle. Surprisingly, it appears to be working in both cases. So, we have had delightful rides and great training sessions this spring. The weather has been co-operating until a few days ago and appears to be getting better again.
We are working on side passes, hind quarter yields, forequarter yields and spins.
These are technical terms that mean we are trying to get the horses to do something other than walk in a straight line.
It is an excepted truism that good horse training is boring. Old people training horses is really boring. We could send you a video of me looking for a lead rope which would take 20 minutes and end with me using Kris's lead rope. I gather that we could include video with this blog and may try that. Now that Belle has stopped bucking, a lot of the interesting horse training is probably over. If it turns out that something good pops up we definitely will try it.

We worked on the water system today which consisted of building the rack to hold the toxic waste barrels. Just as I was getting started I knocked a 2x10 of the saw horse and the edge landed on top the arch of my foot. This would have made excellent video but we weren't filming and I refused to do it again so Kris could film it. Anyway, after looking my foot over and wiggling my toes I hobbled around and kept building. It was feeling much better by the end of the day and I'm pretty sure I didn't break anything.

I have two blog followers! Soon I will be famous.

Mud Season

Every spring our road becomes impassable. It is NOT passable by 4 wheel drive, it is IMPASSABLE. The frost goes out of the surface and remains in below, trapping water and making pools of bottomless mud just below the surface and they're invisible until you are in them. They do appear in the same places every spring giving you a sporting chance, but they don't all appear at the same time. Some come and stay for a while and then are replaced by new ones. Each day the road varies with temperature and sunshine. This keeps things interesting since you have to walk in and out. A mis-step and you are into your knee with at least one foot.
We mark the road to save unwary sightseers from getting stuck. Still every year at least one determined overconfident 4 wheel drive owner moves the saw horse with the sign and plunges ahead and sinks their vehicle to the frame. When they get to our house they have lost some of their overconfidence and are now very sheepish.
Since we have to pull them out and repair the road after mud season, I usually ask if they moved the sign that said the road was impassable. Yes, they reply sheepishly, but are quick to add how good the road looked and how solid it was up until they buried their vehicle. I always want to ask "how's it look to you now," but I don't. I have been stuck on the road and you don't need someone being a jerk to make you feel stupid. It is already plain enough.
This year it was the census lady who moved the sign and drove in about a half mile past us and then buried her car. It was a light car and she made it a lot farther than I would have bet before the road sucked her in. The road was bad enough after she went through we didn't use the tractor to pull her out. (I buried the tractor last year.) So armed with come along and straps we walked up the hill and pulled her out. Then we had her leave it on high dry ground and come back early the next day when her chances of getting out would be improved by cold overnight temps. Fortunately for her it worked. As she and Kris were getting to our drive way another truck came in and turned into the driveway. It was her boss. Pompous, arrogant 4 wheel drive owner who told the census lady she should have called him yesterday and he would have driven up the hill and pulled her out. At that moment Kris was ready to strangle him. "No you wouldn't have" she snapped. He told the census lady to follow him out and Kris said, "No. You follow us out and stay in our tracks." I was still walking back down the hill and missed this performance. I wished she had called the guy yesterday and they could have both been stuck on the road. His truck was much heavier than her car and wouldn't have made it to our driveway after the morning sun melted the road.
It makes you wonder what people are thinking. I guess they are not thinking. We have to repair the road after they rut it up. Water follows the ruts and washes out the road. Fixing falls to the owner. It does make you want to get road repair money out of them before you haul them out. On the other hand, it breaks up mud season.

Rainy Day blog

Kris and I spent the morning working on or solar electric system design. Sounds impressive, but it consisted of taking the manual for each component and seeing if it agreed with the design diagrams of the other components. It didn't come with a master schematic to go by that uniquely went with this system. Industry accepted abreviations abound and make each one almost incomprehensible. Still by laying out all the parts and checking the manuals we believe we are starting to get it. I believe that based on my patience limits that in a couple of weeks we will have a fully operational photovoltaic system with battery storage or a complete meltdown of parts, which may include multiple explosians and fires. Either way I am psyched to get started. Our water system is the other project we are working on. It represents the other end of the spectrum and is very low tech, perhaps no tech which appeals to me greatly. It consists of 4 free toxic waste barrels that were free. (Free appeals to me greatly also.) It is a gravety feed system and has only two valves and a few spigots---no electronics, abbreviations or moving parts to breakdown. It will be hear and functional before the final hook up of the solar electric system since the water may come handy if things don't go well.
We have been riding the horses and having a ball. All winter we watch training videos and then torture the horses first thing in the spring until they get what it is we are trying to train them to do or they get so fed up with our efforts it becomes too dangerous to keep trying.
Since this is my first blog I will try to get this out and see if this is going to work

Missed Skeet Farm

It is raining and blowing a gale today so we worked on the Solar system design. This consists largely of trying to make all of the manuals sent with each component we purchased agree with the other manuals on how to set this thing up. We bought a very modest system but the parts are from different companies and trying to understand what each instruction booklet is trying to tell you and making sure it fits with what the others are trying to tell you is interesting. I am beginning to think I get it. This is worrisome since there are huge areas that I have to ignore to reach this conclusion. Still, I think we will either have solar power or a large meltdown of parts in a week or two when the rest of the parts arrive.

A couple of weeks ago we purchased a set of solar garden lights that run on 3 AAA batteries and hooked it up inside. It gives dim ambient light, but fair light over the stove, sink and table. It required no knowledge of amps, watts, volts, wire size, what a shunt is and why you should have one, polarity, Gfp, Awg, and dozens of other abreviations that mean nothing unless you are an electrical engineer. This one could be that simple but they really don't want "do it yourselfers" putting these together. That makes it all the more attractive to do it yourself.

Our water system is the antithesis of the our Photovoltaic experiment. It is very low tech, perhaps no tech which is the other end of the spectrum and appeals to me greatly. It consists of 4 formerly toxic waste barrels that we got for free (this also appeals to me greatly) and some black well pipe and sundry fittings that will provide us with running water to the sink, hot water tank on the back of the wood stove, and water buckets in the horse stalls. Chores are going to be easier and less time consuming which will give me more time to work on the photovoltaic solar electric extravaganza. If it is still raining tomorrow I shall start to put the water system together. It will need it's own insulated room in the barn loft and that will take more time than putting the pipe together.

We have been riding since the weather is better than you could possibly hope for this early and the horses are getting better with each ride. We keep training new things and trying to expand their repertoire of skills and things we can do with them. Just sitting with them while they stand around or lay down and sleep is fun. Riding is a bonus.