Memorial Day Weekend

Remember the picture from this post? Rain Rain Go Away I got to spend some time in the seat of my tractor and pull the box blade around the pasture. The rain held off and now my pasture is at least flat. I am not so worried about the horses getting hurt now. I also used the tractor to correct some drainage issues. All the rain caused a lot of erosion that collected along the grasses just outside my back fence. The pasture turned into a pond with heavy rains so I carefully cut the sediment out from under the fence and created a small drainage channel to allow the water to escape. I love my tractor.

The inspector came on Friday to inspect the panels I installed. Everything that I did passed just fine. What I didn't know was that the utility is requiring that the meter socket be changed so I got a correction notice for that. I am a little irritated by that because the county building inspector is enforcing something that is not covered by any code. In essence, they are enforcing a policy for a private commercial company. I am considering complaining about it but the inspector was actually doing me a favor. He could have passed my installation but when the utility came out to reseal the meter they would have made me change the socket and then I would have had to pull another building permit. So the inspector was actually saving me time and money.

My Mom and Dad came over for a little Bar B Q on Monday. I asked them to come a bit early so Dad could help run some wire and copper tubing up to the new evaporative cooler. I had purchased a new drill bit that is 162" long (three pieces each 54" long that couple together) so that I could drill a hole from the basement into the attic. It worked perfectly. So I hooked the copper tube to the end of the bit (it is designed for this!) and I crawled up into the attic. I had to crawl through some trusses and wiggle may way back to where the bit had come up. It was incredibly cramped but I did get a hold of the bit and I started to pull. Then Murphy came to visit. When I finally pull the last of the bit up through the wall there was no tubing connected to the end. Nuts. There was no real practical way to get the tube into the wall at that point so it was time to regroup.

Dad had a great idea. We could run the tube and wire down the wall next to the furnace flue. It was perfect because we had a reference point. I drilled a couple of holes in the top plate. One hole went in perfectly, the second hole was a nightmare. I have no idea what was up there but wood bits would not drill through. Fortunatly I had a long 1/2" twist bit and I finally got through. I assembled two section of my long bit and fed it through one of the holes. I started to drill and something did not feel quite right. I pulled the bit back up and Murphy had struck again - the bit had come apart and half the bit (the expensive part) was now stuck in the wall. NUTS! To make a long story short, we were able to find the bottom of the wall we were drilling through, cut a large hole in the bottom, retrieve the lost drill bit and pull the wire and tubing into the wall. We then enjoyed some very tasty grilled Italian sausage prepared by Kumi.

Saturday was a Westernaires day and it was weird. EHV-1 is in our state so Westernaires was in lock-down - no horses in, no horses out. Kumi had to rent a Westernaires horse for her class. But it was really weird to be at Westernaires and not see a single horse trailer. Kira and I did manage to get in a couple of days of riding. We stayed close to home because of the EHV-1 virus. We are staying away from the equestrian center since that is a place open to anybody with a horse. Better safe than sorry. I enjoyed every minute of our ride together. I am working with Mariah on speed control, collection and brakes. We are making good progress. Kira and I rode in a pair in a figure 8 and tried to keep our horses side by side. Its tougher than it sounds.

Kumi and Kira gave Ebony and Mariah baths. There is nothing quite so wonderful as a clean horse. They are soft and their manes and tails are fluffy. And they don't smell like sweaty horse.

This last picture is one reason why I love our new house. Here are Kumi and Kira after spreading the hay around. They were just goofing off and having a great time and afterwords, they were walking back to the barn arm in arm. One of those moments that parents treasure.

(Note: this picture was taken before the pasture was graded.)