What I learned about barbed wire

I needed a change of pace, after so much blackberry cutting. I decided to try to cut barbed wire. First I had to go to the hardware store to buy whatever tool that cuts wire best. Then I had to test out all the different wire cutters on various cables and wire rope that they sell bulk. I had a lot of people trying to help me, I didn't want to get to my pasture and realize that the tool won't cut it.

As I type this my handy new snippers are sitting here next to the keyboard (can't wait to show my man when he gets home!) and 4 little pieces of barbed wire (gotta show him that too, so he can practice!). If I have some sort of typing spasm, I'm gonna get a bloody elbow.

Anyway, nothing could have prepared me for what happens when you make the first snip. With lightning speed, both ends fling themselves away, flailing barbed wire through the air. I shut my eyes instinctively, and wondered how I'd keep from really hurting myself today. Snip #2 was equally violent and unpredictable, the diretion the wire would fly. It must be under some sort of tension.

Snip #3 taught me that the wire always springs away from the cutters. It doesn't want to be near me, it wants to fly away, away! Good. That's better.

After the first section, post to post, I ignorantly thought that I'd have 4 strands lying on the ground. WRONG. Did you know that barbed wire winds itself up? This is fantastic! It coils ITSELF! All I had to do was cut each 3 meter section, and it would coil itself back into a neat little circle. I was blown away. This is gonna be WAY easier than I thought. (And since none of it is rusty, I don't have to go get a tetanus shot! Bonus!)

I learned to twist the wire cutters when my hands get tired. That helps them cut. Cutting the wire is not easy, but that moment when the wire snaps away and then coils itself is wondrous. A few small strips fell away and I realized how easy it would be to lose a small bit of barbed wire in the long grass at the fenceline. *shudder* Also, even the coils are hard to see in the grass - I had to be very very careful to keep my coils together in large stacks, and not keep making small stacks that would be harder to find later as the sun was setting.

It always startles me when the fish jump out of the water in the pond. I still haven't seen them, just the splashes and ripples they make when they jump. They approve of my change in fencing, I think.

I thought of the Sam Savitt book where the horse gets trapped in barbed wire, and waits all day, til they discover him and very slowly cut him free. I would not be the person for that job - each snip takes me some time and twisting and a lot of energy. After 4 snips I really need a rest. That patient horse!

I have to say that cutting that barbed wire was SO much more rewarding than blackberries, cuz 1.) when it's gone, it stays gone, and 2.) I removed a 20 meter section of barbed wire in about an hour, and in the previous hour I only made it ONE meter through blackberries.

Now I'm starting to find things in our beautiful pasture. Down by the creek, the other day, I found a horrid bathtub, apparently used as a trough for the cattle who once lived there. That has to go. It's a pet peeve of mine to recycle bathroom furniture as horse troughs. Well guess what, today I found ANOTHER ONE. This time in beige, but full of water plants and actually it had been there so long, it's almost implossible to find or see. Next to it I found another fence of barbed wire, this one rusty, and, standing back, I counted. How many barbed wire fences are down at the creek? In one spot, *5* in a row. GEEZ, this is gonna take a while. First to figure out which ones are actually on our land!

I also found lots of tires, two of them those monster truck ones. What is up with the tires? Oh geez, gotta get rid of them. I will not have junk in our pasture. I know what I'll do. I'll hitch up Baasha and make him pull that bathtub up the hill. And the tires. He's a good puller. I'm thinking a skijoring (sp?) set will do fine as a makeshift harness for pulling things out of the lower pasture.

The S's were there, they said the neighors I'd met said I was very nice. I think it really depends, but I'm glad they think so: ) The S's said they had the furnace inspected and the chimneys cleaned. They are so awesome, they are taking care of things to the very end. They said they'll be out in 2 weeks.

2 weeks!

I have to get the barbedwire out so I can put up a horsefence, so I can move!!

Exciting!

Advent Calendar Multiple Mystery Geocache

Saturday we drove to another state to a place called Wachberg, or Drachenfels (Dragon Stone). We had worked the last two weeks on puzzles, my man and I, to solve for the coordinates to this 26-cache loop in the hills of the Eifel.

I got frustrated solving them, I'm not the mystery type, but my husband is famous for his own mysteries (one of which is simply to figure out the exact coordinates of my home in West Seattle, *lol*). Some of the puzzles were, literally puzzles, the kind you do on your computer, moving the pieces with your mouse. Incredibly frustrating cuz there's no box to hold the middle pieces while you work on the edges, and no screen area to put them as you sort them! But I did my best and solved a few of the 26.

It was called the "Advent Calendar" cache cuz each puzzle theme was an elaborate stylish advent calendar, if you can imagine that.  For instance, I solved lovely scenes with Christmas decorations, relevant information hidden in the beauty. I'm embarrassed to type this cuz I"m sure I'm not being accurate enough for geocachers, if someone wants to correct me please do.

The loop would be shut down Monday so we had to do it this weekend.

We arrived in this spectacularly pretty state, not sure which, but we walked through Canola fields that were peppered with deep red poppies all around. It was humid as we climbed over those hills and my sweat was dripping onto my glasses as if it were raining.

A Discovery Park-type radio "golfball" rose in the distance, and J explained that it helped monitor the moon landing.

We walked between a ? field and a barley field with really real mountains on the horizon. Well, hills that don't quite make my criteria for mountain, being less than 2K feet. There were CASTLES on the tops of them, and I'd forgotten my camera.

We walked between apple fields. Hillsides covered with nothing but irrigated apple trees. And in this agricultural desert, we found horses. Huh? Germans are so weird.

You'll be in the middle of nowhere (OK not really, but no house in sight) and then you'll find a battery-powered electric wire fence and a few horses in a field with a trailer tank waterer. These horses are living seemingly independently. I don't know how the people reach them, but we passed several fields like this.

One field had a gorgeous bright chestnut Thoroughbred. There was no doubt about her breed, she was a gleaming example of the noble breed. A thin stripe ran down her forehead, and as soon as she saw us, she cantered across her entire field to greet us. It was one of those moments where you want to look behind you, "Is she saying hi to someone behind me?" No, she wanted to see us. My first guess was that she was left alone, but no, soon after, her matching chestnut beauty cantered over to us.

I couldn't fathom why we were interesting to them. We did NOT have Mag with us (lol).

But I reached my hand over and pet her in the face, and she tried to nibble me, and I saw the tiniest of baby teeth, she couldn't have been more than 2. Then the next, she also tried to nibble me and showed me her age. Babies.

They both had striped hooves, and both had cracks running up from long overdue trimming. They both had nylon halters hanging loosely, unfitting, on their faces. I sighed. Remember, there is no house in the area, nowhere near here. Then she stuck her face through the fence and I realized it had loose nails sticking out of the posts, right by her eyeball, and there was a coil of barbed wire around the gate and the post. These two beauties were just kind of left to their own devices and I must be honest, this does not happen in Germany, in my experience, people don't stand for this kind of negligence. Then again, I recently learned that I should not speak for the entirety of Germany, as small as it is, there are regional differences in things such as horsekeeping standards.

We left and the both of them stared after us.

But I couldn't turn away and the blaze faced one lay down to roll, and the other one was so intrigued she stood directly over her as she rolled. Kind of jumping on her like a goat jumps on things. Adorable.


About mile 8 I got really bleary, I couldn't find a stump to sit on so I sat on the ground until too many insects were crawling on me.

I strangely was not hungry, thirsty, nor sore. I just was in a dream-like state from the humidity and hill walking. I was also enjoying the area immensely. Dragon Stone is gorgeous.

One young woman on a gorgeous bay Warmblood was coming directly toward us as we popped out of the woods suddenly, and I didn't hear them, so when her horse did not spook, but continued to walk calmly by, I said to the rider, "Braves Pferd! Sehr Brav!" "You are such a good horse!" I think most horses are upset by geocachers who just pop out of the forest without warning. Normally I would have announced myself or remained hidden behind a tree in the distance, but this one took me by surprise.

J said, "What were those things on the horse's legs?" I said, "Leg protection. Many people rely on them. I think they're important for sports such as jumping. But just trail riding, I want my horse to learn to be careful."

Someone let a Beagle go loose as we were having lunch on a bench and that *@*%% dog jumped all over us trying to steal J's sandwich and I screamed and stood on the bench but the dog jumped on the bench and tried to accost me too. I cannot believe people just lose control of their dogs and to apologize, they scold and cuss to their dog finally, "You shouldn't do that, you jerk." They say that for our benefit, because obviously they don't care to teach the dog not to do that. I really, really hate loose dogs that are out of owner control. Later when we came across a giant Bernese, I slunk off to the side of the trail as the dog appraised us, and then the owner casually reached into her pouch and called the dog to her for a treat, to keep him from accosting us. I think this is just awesome whenever I see it. They seem to understand people don't want dogs running up to them with their nose in my crotch/butt, so they do something proactive, but they also give their animals the freedom to enjoy the woods without a leash. The ones who actually CATCH their dogs when they see us, and keep them on leash until we've passed, those are the ones I say, "Guten Tag, und Vielen Dank" to. Thank you very much.

I would like dogs a lot more if their owners would make better examples of them. I see a lot of both horrible and admirable. But the horrible makes me scared for my life, when I'm on a horse. And many dog people don't know this fear. I exclaimed to J, "I never, ever, let my horse loose run up to someone in my absence and do whatever he likes to them. Why is that someone OK for dogs?" I walk my horse into the street, surrendering the sidewalk to anyone else, because some people are not comfortable being within a meter of a horse. I do this, walking in traffic, and appreciate the people who thank me for doing it. And they do, cuz many people have manners here.

To contrast my pet peeves,  I admit I don't clean up my horse's poop from the streets. Some people do, but we live in the sticks.

I should admit that J called a "telephone joker" a few times (that is the German phrase for someone who delivers help while geocaching). Doro  3 times helped us on this day. In this way, we were able to help another group of cachers who would never ever have found one of them, it was so camouflaged.  They also helped us with one that lay 30 meters from its correct coordinates. The mutual help is so appreciated.

I asked "How much longer" and he answered me honestly. The entire loop turned out to be 14KM. 8.7 miles of hills.

We walked onto an actual golf course after traversing a ........deer guard? It as a cattle guard, but I'd never seen one in Germany. And the holes we so small, a horse could cross it. Not a pony. This golf course was protected on all sides  with what they call "Canadian Gates." What we call cattle guards. But not quite. *shrug* We went over them three times crossing the golf course. Then I pointed across the green and said to J, "Do you know the time I rode Baasha across a golf course...." YES, he knows, he said. I insisted that it is the dream of any horse person who happens to wander across a golf course. (And why would we wander across golf courses without our horses?)

At the little hut for golfers to take a break was a poster about how to survive a lightning attack. How to crouch down, how long to wait between lightning and thunder to be safe.  I read it carefully to J, asking for his help understanding it. Interestingly they had GPS coordinates for every single golf (?) on that golf area. So that helicopters can come rescue sooner. I said, "How dangerous is golfing then?"

The next day I read in the news that 30 people were struck by lightning ON THAT SAME DAY we were there. OK then.

We continued and finally encountered other cachers because this cache series would be disabled on Monday. We knew we'd see others going for a last effort. I admit, I collapsed on a stone while J greeted them and exchanged travel bugs. I waved weakly and smiled a little when I could. It was the end of our day and they had done the loop in three separate attempts. Three pieces. That sounded good to me, except we live over an hour away.

As we drove home, with J driving as he'd promised me, I actually did hang my feet out of the passenger side door, shoes off, because I was so miserably sore and wet. He said he could hardly work the pedals of the car, his feet were so sore.

How many hours? It was 5.25 hours for us to do the 14km. Oh my feet.

Dragon Stone kicked out butts, but was a great memory, and I hope to remember my camera next time we venture into another type of landscape.

Our little, tiny hills welcomed us home, and I gathered enough strength to feed our animals before crashing in front of Star Trek Next Gen season 3.

UPDATE: And now the torrential rain and thunder and lightning has arrived here. I must say I love German Summer storms.