New foal coming any day now

Cori’s foal by Heinse 354 is due May 13, one week from today. But that mare is just about ready to foal. Last night I was watching the monitor and ran down to the barn at 2am, sure the baby was on its way. But, false alarm. Cori is staring to shuffle her back feet and move around as the baby positions itself. Must feel really awkward. So when will it happen? Not sure, but I have to believe the next night or so.

Meanwhile, setting up a camera in the new barn has been an adventure. My neighbor and ISP provider Edwin kindly came down and set up a radio that wirelessly gets a radio signal from the house. This brings the internet to the barn. He also set up an internet network camera for the foaling stall. One little problem though – the camera does not work in low light conditions and since the foal will be most likely born at night, this has been problematic.

Last night I tried something a bit different. I bought a little laptop webcam, but a really good one in low light – the Logitech Quickcam Pro 9000. Hooked that up to a teeny netbook computer and put it all up in the barn, taking my new internet connection and plugging it into the netbook. The netbook is perched on a shelf above the wash stall and the webcam is leaning over the top of the wash stall, peering down into the foaling stall. Pictures below. Click for a larger image.

The Logitech webcam is simply incredible. I cannot believe the quality of the image even in the low light. And there are a number of settings to make it even better.

I was able to use ustream.tv to stream the webcam image to the internet so I could watch it from my house last night. And you know, this worked really well! The image is pixelated – a limitation of ustream – but I may even been able to improve on that.  The point is, I am not able to see my mare in her stall. And anyone with an internet connection and any web browser would be able to see her too.

Let’s hope she has that baby tonight. I would like to get some decent sleep this week.

Scenes from the small farm

Our place is 15 acres in Christiansburg, VA. It is small compared to the 300 acres at Tanbark Acres, 65 miles south. But I like it nonetheless. And it is hard enough to work 15 acres thank you! We’ve been putting up a barn and fencing the pastures for what seems like an eternity, and we have a long way to go. This weekend we were able to fence one small paddock. The larger part of that paddock is getting close to being finished as well. I put some pictures up on flickr.

As a side note, we’re using electrobraid – an electrifed rope – as the fencing material. I like it very much and am quite pleased with it. My only gripe is that there is a lot of electrical splicing because I have so much cross fencing (and therefore a lot of gates, and the wiring has to run in trenches under the gates and be spliced back in on the other side).

A few weeks ago we had a little picnic in the back pasture. I am using that area for hay and a lot of folks never see that area. It is really lovely though. So I took a little video and posted it below. It is rather long, but is quite peaceful.

What a deal!

There are some pretty nice fringe benefits to living so close to Virginia Tech. One is the monthly auction of surplus goods. These are items that the university no longer wants. I am amazed at the collection of things for sale. Tons of computers, hard disks, tables, desks, chairs. And even odd things like some of today’s catches – a pipe threader, a nautilus recumbant exercise bicycle, and an assortment of marching band uniforms (yes, that’s right!).

I had been looking for a workbench to put into the tackroom of the new barn. For something about 5 feet wide, 2 feet deep and 3 feet high (with drawers and storage below), the cost in catalogs seemed to run about $200-$300. That was waaaaayyyy to much for a barn, so I figured I’d see if I might find something at the auction.

Bingo – there was a nice cabinet about 4 feet wide, 2 feet deep and 3 feet high. The whole thing was solid wood (none of that particle board stuff), with a locking door. The counter top was in perfect shape – vintage formica and about 7 feet wide – leaving 18″ overhangs on each side of the cabinet. Perfect for sliding a stool, a 2 drawer file cabinet or shelves under.

I had not bid at the auction before so I was pretty nervous I would screw up, and I really wanted that cabinet. D and I had decided we could go as high as $75, but I was willing to go up to $125 if I had to. Even at that it was a bargain, based on my research.

Bidding started and I waited for the first bid. I was prepared for a fight. But only one other person and I bid and then bang, it was over.

My new cabinet – it’s perfect. And it set me back all of $10.

Wonder what they’ll have next month????

Barn update (plus Barn Day photos!)

Another great building weekend. Our objective is to work Bruce, D's dad, so much that when get returns to his home in Illinois he'll be worn to a stub. This weekend we got all the 2×8's around the periphery (12 feet up), with 2 spans across the aisle. One of the aisle lights is up on a span and the light actually works (yeah!). The front wall of the tack room is framed with the door opening in place. And some big news is that all stall fronts are in and the stall beds have been packed with rock dust and they are ready for the mats. The mats are now laid out behind the barn, waiting to be marked, cut, and laid into place.  Packing the dust required renting a gas powered tamper that dad called a "whacker packer" (that name cracked me up) and Bruce drove the dang thing and managed to come out with all toes still there. Dad made the trip up and helped shovel and haul the rock dust. Hoo Boy, we're all pretty tired.

Now, for the Barn Day pictures from Sept 30. I made a quick/dirty photo album and gathered pics from family. All the photos look great and bring back wonderful memories. A lot of happy faces and hard work in there.  The last 10 or so are from today, but all the earlier ones are from the Barn Day team. Enjoy and once again, thanks to all! Photos –>  are here

How the barn is coming along

We had the “work on the barn day” about a week ago and it was a huge success. Great turn out and everyone worked so hard. Folks have been asking how it is coming along and when pictures will be posted. I am working on that. In the meantime, here is a status report.

- The bank beside the barn has been landscaped and it is gorgeous. We still need to put a retaining wall up, but that may have to wait a little while.
- The inside stall backs and sides are done (again, lovely). The barn team put sides up about 7′ and sealed them. Last week Bruce added another foot and capped the opening.
- The fixed partition is up with the 4′ grill between stalls 2 and 3 . Bruce did that last week.
- We now have the fronts in and completed on 2 stalls. The third has been started. Finishing up will go quickly now that we know what we are doing with this. Looks danged impressive. The stall kits have been a little bit of a pain, but they certainly do look great.
- My brother put in the outdoor lights under the sheds, wired for the dusk to dawn light, and put in 2 of the 4 outdoor outlets. He did a great job. You cannot even see the wiring.
- We added 2×8 headers and an aisle spanner in over the first 12′ and last 12′ of the aisle. They are also 12′ up. Once again I an thrilled with my Werner multi-function ladder. But anyway, first 12′ section will eventually form the floor of a 12 x 12 storage loft. My orion aisle lights will be attached to the aisle spanners. I have 2 four foot ailseway flourescent lights and can easily add a 3rd if I need it.

So, what are we working on next? Well, in this order…
- Finishing the last 2 stall fronts. The should not take long.
- Putting in the aisle lights so I can work in the evenings.
- Framing out the tack room and wash stall
- Putting down the stall mats (that will take a whole day)
- Adding the removeable partitions
- Sealing all the wood
- Finishing the wiring
- Finishing out the tack room and wash stall

Pictures soon!

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