I guess since the new year is here, it's about time to sit down and figure out which projects will get done this year!

We've whittled down our herd of animals from 7 horses, 4 dogs and 2 cats to 3 horses, 2 dogs and 1 cat.  With that big of a reduction we need to make some changes in the layout of our horse paddocks and get prepared to actually start riding horses once again.

As the snow begins to melt in the next month or so, our first project will be to rearrange our paddocks, water tanks and feeding locations.  Smoothie and Vido's paddocks will be combined and house the girls (Leyla and Maggie), while Vido will move up into the larger paddock closer to the house.  It should be a simple reconfiguration, but I will need to redo some of the hotcote wiring, move some gates and all of the corners need to be reinforced.  While we are at it, I plan to relocated their water tanks and bury them half way to provide for better insulation from the cold next year.

I'm still considering options for permenant hay and pellet feeders for the horses. We need something that will keep more of their hay up of the ground and restrict access for the herd of deer that seems to show up everyday when I break out new hay.  Hay prices are high enough just to feed the horses, so I really don't need to feed the wildlife too!  Check this design from Klenepipe, it's a fantastic concept.  It' won;t work for our hillside paddocks, but it's pretty damn cool!

Down in the barn we'll continue to get it organized, clean up and ready to start working horses once again.  This past year we cleaned out lots of items from the barn, we added windows adjacent to the tack room and the wash rack area, and I installed skylights in the center isle roof.  The difference is significant.  We also opened up two of the horse stalls to create more interior feed/hay storage.  Eventually we'd like to put up enough hay for 6 months or more and then not have to worry about getting in hay delivery in inclement weather or when the load limits are on the county roads.

I almost finished the install of the grain silo and grain auger, but winter came early.  That project will hopefully get finished this summer and HOPEFULLY we can find a supplier of hay pellets (3+/- tons at a time).

It's sad to see our herd of critters shrink but we found a great home for Scooter a few years ago, Charlie recently moved to a new home across town and is doing well and now it looks like Smoothie has a great family to join!  Of course we will miss them all, but they will be well cared for.