July 23, 2023
A new fellow moved onto the property last fall. He stays in his RV in one of the RV slots. His name is Logan and he is a long time friend of Winter's. Logan agreed to move on site with a reduced rent with the agreement that he would help ar ound the place.
For the first couple of months of his stay we never saw him. Turned out he is in the reserves and was on duty. When he returned he was very busy at his day job. Nevertheless, he has turned out to be a big help.
We don't work together much. I tell him what I think needs to be done and he does it. One of the first tasks he took on was brush hogging the back pasture. No weed control had been done there prior to our arrival, and we showed up during a drought so the herbicide man said that spraying dormant weeds wouldn't do much good. However, the weeds continued to outgrow the grass, blocking sunlight and diminishing the grass as pasture. So the weeds need to be cut down. Logan took on that chore. Recall we moved the horses to the front pasture (our front yard) so they were eating well during this period.
Logan also brought a tractor and a plow with him. So after the first attempt with the shavings in the arena, Logan plowed them in. We are going to try shavings again but not plowed in as deep.
We were going back to Albuquerque so I mentioned to Logan we needed to move a viewing stand in the arena and that I'd like to move the old cow squeeze shoot to a different location. When we returned from Albuquerque both tasks were done.
I also use Logan as a sounding board for my ideas. Sometimes it's just nice to talk to a man rather than constantly being bossed around by all the women on site. Next chat we have will be about drainage. It's raining here today so I've been inspecting the drainage patterns. All in all they are pretty good, but the stalls beside the indoor arena catch some water and I think there is a relatively easy fix. When Logan and I talk we can bounce my ideas around. For the lower barn some seious work may be needed.
In addition to being a help and a sounding board, Logan is a tractor mechanic. Boy, I can sure see that as a help over time.
