The Fall of Sampson

In the last few months, it has become obvious that we needed to do something about our horses' dry lot.  Water erosion had taken the footing down to stone, making it extremely hard and uneven.  

I like to have a softer footing for the horses.  After speaking to our neighbor, an excavator, we decided to have the dry lot regraded and covered in a layer of stone dust.  The nice thing about stone dust is the fact that it compacts with time.  We opted to just have the upper half of the dry lot redone - and to leave the lower half as it is (not bad at all).  The work was done on Friday morning while the horses were out grazing.  We were quite happy with the end result and I can't help thinking that the horses are much more comfortable.

Then, on Friday night, around 9:30 we had a thunderstorm - nothing extreme as far as we could tell - just the usual thunderstorm with a gentle rain.  We were relieved to not have a torrential downpour that might shift some of the newly covered dry lot.

By Saturday morning, the sun was shining and we headed out for chores... only to find this, upon our arrival at the barn.

Yes, this is our 270+ year old pine tree that stands in front of the barn.  About 10 years ago, it was struck by lightening.  Although, it seemed to do ok after that lightening strike, we feared that irreparable damage might result in the eventual loss of this beloved tree.  Friday night our fears came to fruition and half it the tree toppled into the horses' dry lot,

 breaking through the pasture fence on the other side of the lot, and threatening to crush the fence directly beneath it as well.

With the help of a few neighbors (one being a tree service fellow that we have used in the past) we had the tree cut into pieces and removed.  We were then left with two fences to be rebuilt and a giant pile of limbs to be chipped.  Luckily, we own a wood chipper - so we turned all of those branches into pine chips to cover the lower half of the dry lot that we had not had resurfaced.

 I can honestly say that this past weekend was the most physically difficult two days we have ever had on the farm.  Thank heavens this sort of catastrophe is rare!

Through all of it, we had the comic relief offered by one playful puppy - who, by the way, was so patient while we did all of the work!

He has no trouble finding ways to occupy his time.

There's nothing more fun than a bucket of water!!

Hubbs and I are so grateful to be able to start a new week with all of that work behind us. 

 Last week's heatwave is over for the foreseeable future, so we hope to just enjoy life on the farm.

With no more catastrophes, please!

Finally, off the needles... I've been knitting this tote bag. 

 Now to line it with fabric and reinforce the handles so they don't stretch.  Last night I started another knitting project... more on that as I progress.