Driveway Hedge - Gone!

In a joint project with the neighbours in front of us, the hedge down the driveway was removed today. The barberry hedge was very much past its use-by date, and contained mostly blackberry and privet held together with deer netting and barbed wire. We all decided that it would be much better to remove it and build a post and rail fence.

Hedge - Gone!

Looking down the driveway towards the road

Still some flattening out to do

pile of scrub/hedge/fence

new fence ready to be built

Pile # 2 of hedge/fence

Looking from road up driveway towards cottage & shed

Removing the hedge has certainly opened things up quite a bit and you can now see the cottage from the road. It will probably be quite windy for a while until Chris' native screening plants become established but it is already a huge improvement.

Stables & concrete

Over the last week or so, construction on the stables/tack up area began. The timber was delivered courtesy of Carters who did us a really good deal due to Chris' HCC work discount. Chris measured it all up and cut it to size with only one measurement mistake. It was ok he informed me, as it would go into the ground anyway.

Posts ready to be concreted in

Posts along end of tie-ups

Plywood lining on wall to protect shed

More plywood lining

Getting post straight with level

Getting post straight with eye-ometer

Good old trusty neighbour Kevin lent us his concrete mixer which looked like it had been around since Adam was in short pants. However, it worked brilliantly and we now have a few of the posts concreted in.

My reward

This week heralded the arrival of a much dreamed about item for me. My new Statesman Horsefloat was delivered from Christchurch. It is a dream come true and I am very very happy with it. It's been years since I've had my own transport and while my friends have been fabulous taking me places with the horses, its been quite hard having to miss out on things because I can't get there, or not being able to go to places when I feel like it. But not any more!

Statesman were excellent to deal with and nothing was too much trouble. I had an extensive list of "must haves"which were all met with a smile. That was one of the reasons I ended up getting a new float. I had been looking at second-hand ones for quite some time and none had all the requirements that I needed. And I didn't want to have to get something and then upgrade later. This float is here to stay for a long time! The end product is just fabulous.

The extras it has include:

• Rear Storm Door which means the entire float is fully lockable
• Electric brakes
• On board water tank and pump
• LED lights
• Front tack locker with internal & external access
• Rubber matting sealed to floor and on ramp
• Aluminium checker plate on ramp
• Rug rack over front window
• Two sliding windows with screens
• Draw bar filled in with aluminium checker plate to handbrake
• Quick-release chest bars
• Fully padded interior
• Saddle racks covered in protective foam
• Recessed tie ups on outside
• Removable head divider

Gear locker with internal & external access

Rubber on ramp

Rug rack

Drawbar filled in to handbrake to prevent trapped legs

Inside the saddle locker

External door to saddle locker

View from the rear with tail gates & padding

Padded quick release chest bar

Sealed rubber matting on floor

Removable head divider

I'm sure this will be the start of many awesome adventures!

Spreading gravel

Today we spread some gravel around the shed and on the ramps that Chris built. It looks really good now, and hopefully it will stop us tracking so much dirt into the shed.

Chris also put in the first two poles for the cattle yard loading ramp. They will eventually be cut to size once the yards are built. At the moment all you can see when you're coming up the driveway is two giant totem poles.

During the week we managed to pick up the rest of the haylage. We got 111 bales in total - not bad for a couple of paddocks and our front lawn. The plan was to shut up the paddocks again for a second cut but I'm not sure we are going to yet.

We also spread some mulch over the septic tank dripper field but I didn't get any photos of that. There's more to spread tomorrow so I'll try and remember to take some then.

The council building inspector came out on Thursday last week and did the final inspection of the shed. We should get the final ok this week and then we can continue with lining it and getting power and lights connected.

More Drainlaying & earthworks

The digger was put to good use over the weekend moving dirt around the place. Chris used some of the dirt from the septic tank hole to build ramps in front of the shed roller doors so we can move vehicles and implements in and out.

Pile of dirt from septic tank hole being put to good use

Ramp into shed, just needs gravel

Chris finished the shed drainage over the weekend. The trenches were all backfilled, once the engineer had been out to inspect the soak hole for the shed drainage ($230 thank-you-very-much!). Now all we need is the council to come out and inspect the shed and issue us with a certificate of completion.

Pipes from roof to water tank

Soakage field for water tank overflow

Soakage pipe

Filling in trench with council approved drainage metal

Filter cloth to prevent soil from washing into trench

Chris also trenched in the water pipes for all the troughs and connected them all up. We have a temporary connection to a garden hose but once the second pump is installed in the shed the troughs will fill automatically. Chris has managed to time it perfectly as the weather has been very hot over the past two weeks and all the animals are drinking vast amounts of water.

Alkathene water pipe trenched out to trough

Tap installed for access to water in the race

Connections

Finally, Chris managed to despatch one of the bunnies that have been eating his driveway trees. There was another one but hopefully it has moved onto safer pastures to eat someone else's trees!

Bye bye rascally rabbit!