A New/Old Horse

Long time readers of the blog might recognize this horse.

Or maybe you've noticed him on the blog header painting.  

The dates are all foggy now, but I found some pictures of Gato back in 2012 and a picture of him still here when Hickory was here...which I'd have bet money that never happened, but there you go.  Pictures don't lie.  Thank goodness for the blog.

Gato has spent the last however many, many years at Asbury University in Wilmore, Kentucky, as part of their Equine Studies program.  He has been a long time favorite there and, as was stipulated when we donated him to them, has returned here to retire.  He's now 28 years old!

I picked him up yesterday and let him explore the front field by himself for a bit while the boys watched from their stalls.  Everybody seemed pretty chill.

"I'd never do anything bad."

 

"Yeah, right, Lancelot!"

"Let's get him!"

Things started off okay, but Lancelot got very possessive of Frankie and told Gato to stay away from HIS best friend.

Gato said, "No problem.  I'm just here to hang out and eat some grass."  

And then Lancelot repeated, "I said STAY AWAY from Frankie!"

"Dude, I heard you the first time."

This continued on until things escalated to the point I had to lock the two idiots in one of the smaller paddocks so Gato could settle in in peace for the night.  Everything seems to be going better this afternoon.

Boys...

Gato's in great shape for his age and is still a very beautiful horse.  I'm glad to have him back here...even if Lancelot's not thrilled ;-).  

Want a new puzzle?

A Bunny Dreams And The Blog Saves The Day

Our worst Christmas present this year was a water leak on the farm so bad that the water company actually called us.  As Tim said, "When their number shows up on the caller ID, you know nothing good is coming."  

We spent an entire day looking for the leak.  We've had lots of practice in the last 20 years and are pretty good at it...unfortunately.  Where 35,000 gallons of water has disappeared to we do not know.  We even had professional help come in and they were stumped as well.  

Fortunately it's between the house and barn and we have a cut off at the house that we can turn off and on to keep the waterers filled.  It's a hassle, but it could be so much worse.  And at this point, with no clue where to dig to fix the break...we're finally running all new water lines.

The power and water companies have been out to mark the lines that they are aware of.  The other myriad of lines running throughout the front half of the farm over the last 50+ years are a bit sketchy.  As our water guy started digging in the front field yesterday, the mystery deepened.  

Where we thought the line he wanted to tie on to was, was not.  He found an old septic line...in a random spot.  The water company came back out.  Dig some more places.  Everyone still stumped.  Tim remembered fixing a leak a long time ago down in the creek bank.  If we could just remember where that was, that would probably be the clue we need.

You know...I wonder if I put that on the blog...

I did!  In 2008.  And with a picture that we could use to line up with a tree and the neighbor's house and Bingo!  Blog for the win :-D.

So what's Pinot up to?  Pinot now wants to run around the yard and barn and refuses to stay in his outdoor pen.  He can dig under his wooden fence in less than 5 minutes, but I bet he's thinking if he could just use that digger...

Here's a short video of Pinot out exploring in the yard on Christmas Day.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady)