Horse Notes

Dino had one of his periodic bouts with colic last week but seems to be on the mend. Occurs a couple times per year, he has some diarrhea and he goes off his feed and water. I give him a mixture of wheat bran and psyllium to help clean him out. I also use a trick I learned from a Linda Tellington-Jones book called "belly lifts". In the book they use a towel and two people, but with the minis I can just lean over them and lock my hands around their belly and lift.

I have started on expanding their paddocks. So far all I've accomplished is to auger the 14 holes for new fence posts. Most of the holes require at least two attempts to get deep enough. The auger will go down until it hits a layer of clay and then it just spin on top of the clay. I found the solution was to pour a bucket of water in the hole and wait a day before trying again. With high temperatures in the 90's for at least the next week I probably won't be making any fast progress on the construction.

On an unrelated note, I have a new neighbor. John is a recent retiree from Portland. One of the first things I mentioned was the automatic outside light on his garage, you know the orange colored sodium things. He must have found the switch to disable it since it wasn't on last night. There is enough light pollution around here from the airport, we don't need any more. Seems like a nice guy and replaces some folks who didn't even talk to their neighbors.

Next weekend is the renewable energy fair. I still need to disconnect a solar panel that was used to power the garden pond pump since I'm donating it to the auction. John worked in the recycling industry in Portland, I wonder if he wants a free pass to the fair.