What a productive weekend here on the farm!

Ed managed to rig up a bar/chain combination to hold the motor on my van in the air while I helped him drop the transmission out of the van. Poor van - all it's insides are spread willy nilly throughout the garage. Our other boarding family came by early evening and got to spend some time with their horses before they were called home. The best thing is that Ed and I thoroughly went through our priorities in order of job and expense so we're both on the same page for spring activities.

Since we've decided to sell our rental house in Newton Ed's taking vacation next week to fix the few siding boards that need repaired. Before he does that, however, we will run the back fence because our farmer could show up any day now to plant and we need to be prepared so we don't end up with 4 horses and an angry cow locked together in a small pen for several days while we run the fence.

The next expense after that is a good used saddle. Kim and Brian feel that Fizzle should be ridden more and I offered to help them out a few times a week but then realized that the saddle in our barn need a considerable amount of repair. Smoke and Fire have both walked with a saddle on so I'd like to not let too much time go by before working with them in saddle again. I've been doing some calling and found three shops in Wichita that offer used saddles but I really don't feel like taking the mower on a 100 mile trip so I'll wait for the weekend when I will either have the van or use the Honda.

After we get the saddle we need to finish off a pasture/pen that really just needs about 50' of fence - won't take much at all. This would give us a small pen, med. feeding pen, 1/3 acre pen, 1 acre pasture, and 4-5 acre pasture -- plenty of rotation and space for moving everyone to keep them all happy. The last two fences will separate the remaining acres giving us four large pastures, the 1 acre, and then about 8 remaining for a riding pasture -- this is where we'll put the outdoor arena and round pen. Ahhh, the round pen. I really REALLY want to get the round pen after the small pasture fence is up but I can't believe how expensive it is, even used. Amazingly used corral panels around here go for about $1.50 less than new at auction - isn't that crazy?! I've even taken to looking for used ones in the Kansas City area thinking that eventually, someday, my van will be fixed and I could borrow the boarder's trailer to go get them. At $50 each and needing 13-14, this expense is high on the "need" list but low on the "chore" list due to it's cost. If anyone hears of any good bargains for panels, let me know.