Trenching for the water line to the barn

Our friend John is very talented with heavy machinery and masterful with a backhoe, here he works with Bob to first dig and here bury back in the water line to the barn.   We went with 1-1/2" poly line, the same as the main line.   We curved the trench around one section of bedrock, only to encounter another!   This one was a little deeper so we went to its surface at 32" below grade and enveloped it in 2"rigid styrofoam (top and bottom), before filling it in.   We marked this spot and will mound over it as well for extra depth.    We then connected at line at the "T" rough in that Mickey's Plumbing left for us.

Transformation - lovely to food

Lovely but rather too much percentage alfalfa (legume) in this particular patch for what is best for the "Angara" horses.   The rest of the field was more timothy grass type hay and preferable.  Nonetheless, it was baled and the end of July meant that we had 270 small bales in as a backup supply.  We will be using large bales in free choice feeders for the majority of the feeding.   

Mago prefers to play

Mago is shown at his temporary home, but he would rather play than hear that we are working on his permanent home.  That said, now that he has "natural horsekeeping", he does not use the barn much.   He and the three "girls" have a combination of 24/7 outdoor living with pea gravel loafing areas, barefoot hoof trimming methods and mixed pasture, rock and trees for a paddock along with a run-in shelter.   They rarely use the shelter in winter, preferring snow and blizzard outside..... however they do use it often in the summer to get out of the sun, plus to escape driving rain and sleet.  Since he was "rescue", I had a horse chiropractor look at him a couple of days ago to be sure he is ready to go under saddle.  He does not mind it being put on or me riding him for short periods, but I wanted to be sure he did not have any muscular/skeletal pain issues.  He has a clean bill of health (with a few preferred massage spots)... so is ready to GO!  Will make more time for him but keep at the log house project.

Wild blueberry time!

Mid July brings lots of wild blueberries this year in the field next to the house.   Harley has added blueberry detection to his doggy skills and helps to find them, but also EATS them!!!  They are very tasty but small, so it takes lots of picking to get very many.  Bob is shown enjoying some on ice cream.   Ahhhh.

Porch soffit progress

Installing this soffit is making Bob a patient man.   He rests under where he's made progress.   It is a little tricky getting the pieces to fit snugly so we take our time and work through it.

Art imitates life?

This opening is on the east side of the house and will eventually be a bay window with a sit-in window seat.    For now the opening is still settling in and although the concrete piers are already installed under this section of porch, we are going to wait another year for the opening to finish this settling process before putting the window structure in.   In the meantime, Catherine cleaned, caulked and weatherstripped the spot in preparation for another winter season.  The space looked awfully BORING, so a little Folk art is now added.   Note the LARGE F for Folk and small a for art.....   Catherine had better not have her heart set on being contacted by the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto.....    Harley poses in front of the mural but George refused (he has become a little pudgier than what the picture shows).

Happy 143rd Birthday Canada

We take a break at Angara to celebrate Canada Day.  In the absence of a flag pole, we improvise with a front and centre location under the arch.