Sunday Reading - The Law of Threes and Circle of Life

Things began to warm up yesterday some enough to get me out of my renewed hibernation and back to work anyway. I managed to get the first mowing of the year completed without a small engine breakdown (amazing) and the day was calm enough to burn the pile of old boards I had pulled out of the now cleared fence line. All I need to do now is wait for the ground to dry enough to plow up the new orchard area.

I didn't make it through the day without a few incidents however. For some reason my farm truck has decided it no longer wants to go into first gear so I am going to have to drop it by the shop to find out what is wrong and how much that is going to cost me. Lovely. Secondly the old pin that holds the blade on the right arm of my tractor also came off and allowed the stabilizer/sway bar to also fall off while I was backing up. Yep bent the hell out of it and there was no way I could find that allowed me to bend it back. I finally got the thing off the tractor and I guess I am going to have to take it somewhere with a heavy duty press or something to straighten it. Great more costs.

Since all things happen in threes and the great Spring Breakage must happen I didn't have to wait long for the next hammer to fall, this time it wasn't mechanical but did cost some money. The first of the retired old nags has finally passed on now. As I was mowing I noticed the old girl just turning around in a circle slowly. Once or twice is nothing of course but I stopped the mower and sat there watching her just turn around and around for several minutes then she fell over. I walked out into the pasture and she managed to get herself back up and then immediately stumbled right into the hay rack.

Yes it was time.

At 36 years old she has lived a long time for a horse. For the last few years we have had to feed her straight alfalfa (when she would take it), equine senior and beet pulp soaked in water twice a day but the last two weeks she has refused almost all of it. Three bills later and a visit from the vet and backhoe guy and the job was done. There goes the load of gravel I wanted to get hauled in this week. In a very short amount of time however that money will be recuperated because the old girl cost some serious money to feed the last few years. In fact she was running us almost half of that $300.00 a month easy just for feed.

I did manage to make a couple of interesting observations however. First off the backhoe guy was amazed at the moisture level in the pasture. He went down at least seven or eight feet in record time and there was moisture already seeping in at the bottom. This is contrary to what I have been hearing about the ground moisture being so dry deep down lately. Also when the time does come that I can do something else with that pasture it is going to be magnificent soil and I am not making some macabre grave statement either that was the best soil I have seen ever. The Small-Hold may lack for trees but it has the best 20 some odd acres of soil I have ever seen. Fifty some odd years of manure and rotting hay and being cropped close by horses has done it's job. Lastly whatever the vet guy used was some fast acting stuff the whole process was finished extremely fast and painlessly.

Except for the one horse my mother keeps to ride, all the old girls here are over 30 years of age so this is a scenario that is going to play out a few more times in the near future. Might as well get used to it. We have done all we can to allow these old horses a peaceful long retirement but there is no stopping the circle of life. Perhaps I am being a bit sentimental but as much as I complain about the expense and "wasted space" I am not going to hurry the process on either. Of course if/when things get really bad and the special food and such became unavailable well I may have to re-evaluate things. I hope it doesn't come to that however.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!