The Day After

It's the day after Christmas and I feel like I've been hit by a truck. We have been so busy trying to unpack, find hay for the mares this late in the season, everything else, that I didn't actually decorate for Christmas until the 2 days before. The tree got done the afternoon of Christmas Eve.
 I wasn't procrastinating- I did try to get it done earlier in the month but I had to stop. I found a lot of broken Christmas decorations from the packers/movers- including my tree. Being upset like that isn't the right time to put up decorations, so I sorted and found allllllll the broken stuff, and set it to the side. 2 weeks later, well, still pretty upset, but I HAD to decorate at least the inside before the 25th- so I did!
 And now, I am going to leave it up til sometime in January. Today I am going to work on the area that is going to be the second pasture. The horses have been in the first field just over 3 weeks, and it will take me at least 2 more weeks to get the second pasture done. That was a lie. It will take me at least 3 weeks to get the second pasture done....maybe longer.

Blue = original fence lines, Red = planned fence lines, Green = actual new fence lines so far

As you see, we haven't really stuck to the plan for the pastures. That plan was made when we had no idea what the reality of the place was. Now we know. But it looks really nice. Straight lines, perfect corners, 2 even pastures with the little field up front..
  See how the little front field went from a planned pretty nice rectangle to a sort of funky shaped deformed rectangleish like shape? The small notch around the carport happened because initially we were just going to move the carport- its one of those aluminum framed/roofed things that are supposed to be portable... Well. the old owners set each and every leg of that frame in concrete. So we decided to notch the pasture around it, and store the lawn "tractor" and other equipment in it. Not a big deal.
  So my husband is out there digging post holes with an auger, he gets all the corners on the notched side done, fence posts and supports done, and has the corner by the storage bin to finish.. Drilled it down, and as the auger is pulled out, the hole instantly fills with water. From the surrounding soil- no waterline, just really really wet soil.
 There is an arched line of bushes that isn't in this google map view of the property, and the decision was made to "arch" the fence line to follow the bush line. which would put the corner post in drier soil. It looks OK in person, just a bit odd shaped to see the outline drawn with the bushes not visible. We ended up using the back side of the shelter-that-will-be-a-barn as pasture boarder due to the massive root system for the three very big trees that surround it. And when we are done, both the pastures will extend all the way back to where the plan was- we just didn't have the time to create the new fence line for the first pasture.

What will be the second pasture

   It LOOKS like putting in the second pasture should be easy, right? I hope it will be easier than the first one, and easier than the little field around the shelter-that-will-be-a-barn was. The gate, the front fence line, and most of the center line are in place. We just have to finish ripping out the last of the old fencing, the old T-posts, the old small field gate, all the rotted posts, fill in the holes those posts were in, dig new post holes, set them, create the braces, set T-posts, caps, run new fence, and while we do that we are going to get the posts/t-posts in place to run the back of the first pasture where we wanted it to be. Oh, and we are really hoping that all the winter oats we planted come continue to come up and develop a good enough root system that 2 hungry horses don't destroy it all in a week. Oh yeah, and we are going to try fencing off an orange and a lime tree that are planted in this area, they are both fairly small...