Today we managed to get the garden stones that will make up the walls that will hopefully keep the new stall area level.We spent hours yesterday driving from hardware store to hardware store, in 3 different cities, looking for the stones that match what we have, since they will connect. Finally we found them at a big store called Bauhaus (love that name) in Cologne.
But our Prius is not strong enough or large enough to carry so many, so we had to rent a truck.We were so nervous! It had been a while since my man had driven a stick. He did really well considering the bigness of that truck.
Working on a time limit (paying by the hour for the truck rental, and fighting traffic), we unloaded all the stones in only 10 minutes! But then it took us 10 minutes to sweep out the truck, organize the tie-downs, and relock everything. Then zoom he was off and I started to move the stones over to the stall area.
As I snapped the photo I noticed something I hadn't seen before - Baasha was lying in the barn site, in the mud!
As I approached him he started rolling and I thought, "Oh no, he's gonna roll right off the cliff" and he did!
I saw a vet call happening (or worse) as he got his legs wrapped around the Tpost, but somehow he extricated himself. I have no idea how we avoided disaster there. But it obviously shook him up, cuz he ran down the hill to the pasture. I'd never seen him hurry so fast down that slippery hill. Then I heard galloping hooves and neighing and he was running around his pasture. Was he glad to be alive or was he expressing his stress? I have no idea.Finally he calmed down and came back.
My man returned in under the 2 hour goal (whew!) and started helping me move the stones to the stall area. That will prevent my horse from rolling there until we finish it.
Here Baasha shows off how dirty he managed to get, and the cat joined him for the photo.
Our next step is to order a load of gravel to use under/in the stones (I guess they explode in winter otherwise?). I still have lots of digging to do - alone - cuz my man goes back to work tomorrow.***
The terrier lady came over and gave us a huge basket of sage. It's not the sage I'm used to from home, it's edible sage. So, I guess I don't need to give any to the hippies next door for their sweat lodge. She didn't know my man has been sick, but she told me to make him sage tea when she found out. I made him some and it wasn't too bad. But what else am I gonna do with so much sage!
She also gave us the biggest Kohlrabi I'd ever seen. It's almost as big as a human head. I'm cooking it tonight the traditional German way (cream sauce with nutmeg).She showed me her new chicken flock - 8 hens and one rooster from Holland. The hens are a pretty brown with silver lace looking heads and necks. I am on her waiting list for eggs, I reminded her.
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I edited some photos in this post, darkening and contrasting them because they were washed out.
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10 comments:
Your huge project is coming along so well! Hope tomorrow goes well for you. Don't you wish you could ask horses what on earth they were THINKING when they do stuff like roll off a hill?
WV: exces. Seems appropriate!
sage: dry it, and crumble it into soups and breads, and ANYTHING that contains poultry or eggs! Jim includes dried sage from our garden in his brining solution for the T'giving turkey.
You can dry it by stretching it on a screen (window screen is fine--it's practically winter anyhow so you can take the screens off the windows for a while), and keep it out of the light. Rattle it around every few days so that it will dry completely, and then stick it "head first" into a paper grocery bag to store in a cool dark place until you are ready to crumble it and use it for food. (I keep big bags of sage in our closet).
Hooray for your barn!
I'm always yelling at my horses for rolling too close to the round pen railings. I have a heart attack when they get their legs tangled in them. I'm interested in those blocks. My mother offered to help pay for a block wall to put up between the horse paddock and the nosy neighbors' house. I was quoted over $8,000 for one stinkin' wall! Yikes. Then I found out that our county only allows 6-foot high walls, which wouldn't be tall enough to prevent prying eyes from seeing over it since their property is elevated above mine. The guy said he'd cheat and make it 8-feet tall, but said I could get into big trouble if the neighbors complained to the county. Rules suck.
Funder, thanks, I hope so too (no rain please!).
Aarene, I have to say Germans do not use window screens. I don't know why - they're just not afraid of bugs. But I'm me so I found some at the store - they're so odd, you stick this tape around the window frame, and then get this big fabricky mesh and stick it to the tape, and then cut around the tape (that is the hard part, making the cut straight). So I cannot get the screens down unless I want to buy new ones.
I wonder if I just put the pieces on the radiators if that would work. Do you have this type of sage, with the big leaves?
NM, Does your county allow bigger walls if someone has a stallion? Or maybe the rules are different for fences. That is way too much money for a wall.
Sage is part of the "parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme" mnemonic that I use for poultry seasoning:). You can tie it in bunches and hang it in a paper bag (to save the coloring) anywhere not humid to dry (like all herbs).
G, I'm not sure we have paper bags in Germany. I've never seen one.
Lytha- I'm in Berlin! We have paper bags. They sell them for bio (although I just use a bin myself). You only need the bag to save the color though, and prevent spilling.
I'm reading through your blog backward, but off to get my kids now.
Or a thin fabric bag would work. Cheesecloth, or something sheer that ladies' dresses are made from. Just toss them in a square and tie the corners with string. If you hung them above a radiator they'd get gentle heat. :)
Whew! That was a close call with the sweet Baasha boy rolling off the cliff! Silly muddy boy!
What a big project you have going on - wow! Good luck - I will keep reading to see how it goes.
My garden is full of Sage. We use it in many dishes - stuffing (of course - parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme) but as vegetarians, we aren't really "stuffing" anything except our faces!!! LOL! Anyway, I used it in a frittata tonight, and in sauteed mushrooms - melts - anything! I cut it up right over the pan. Mine isn't that large though. Brian's daughter (my step-daughter) is named Sage, by the way. Before I met Brian I hoped to one day name my daughter "Saffron". Well, that was right out the door when I met him and he already had a "Sage" - it would have been too weird!
Wow...that kohlrabi looks like something from another planet! lol! How was it after being cooked?
I've never seen fresh sage that looked like that. I've seen our wild sage (bleh!) and I've seen dried sage in the spice aisle. I wonder what that fresh sage tastes like? savory? spicy? sweet? zesty? lemony?
Those concrete blocks are very cool. They look heavy, but easy to assemble to make a wall. I don't think I've ever seen blocks as big as that here, though. Most are half that size, I think.
Looks like it will be a lot of hard work to get started with leveling, but then will get easier as the project progresses.
I'm glad that Baasha escaped injury. :)
~Lisa
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