Tuesday, August 11, 2009

peace in the valley

I finished hot-wiring the front pasture yesterday morning. I think I came in the house around 11am, it was already 95 degrees. Ewww. But a whole pasture is done! Yay! Two more to go though, sigh. I think I will take a break though.

1112 feet hot wired
1744 feet to go (whimper)

So, I'd originally gotten a pretty high powered charger, which was recommended by various people, and it ended up being overkill. Word on the street is that the recommended voltage for horses should be somewhere in the 2000-3000 range. When I only had the corral section up, this one was running at 8800 (which darn near knocked me over when it zapped me). Finishing the front pasture only dropped it down to 7400 at the very end of the line, and along the way accidentally electrified a water trough where the wire passed a few inches from the rubber hose. Um, can you say overkill? (I did fix that, I spliced in some insulated wire).

Anyway, I took it back today and got a less powerful one. With 1112 feet done, it's between 3100 and 3400 depending where I test it. That'll do!

AND, here's the big bonus... I've been having to fall asleep with a pillow over my head to drown out the incessant CLICK CLICK CLICK of the charger out in the shed. Man that thing was loud. This new one, ahhhh, peace at last! A barely audible tick, and a pleasant little green light that pulses to let me know it's working. Ahhhh.

I was out in the hammock tonight watching the sky. It's way too early to see a really good meteor shower though. I told myself I had to see five of them before I could come back in the house. I thought that fifth one would never happen, and Olin kept jumping up on me and biting my toes through the sheet I was hiding under (mosquito protection). There were so many more stars visible when I was little. I can barely see the Milky Way anymore. Sacramento is the ugly orange glow not just on the northern horizon, but the whole northern part of the sky. It's really sad. I remember being out in the middle of the night last year at a friend's ranch in remote northern CA, and being astounded at the stars, like I'd almost forgotten that's how it used to look here. I miss the stars.

If I wake up in the middle of the night I'll get up and look at the meteors, but here's hoping I sleep well tonight. Not only has the clicking been driving me crazy, but the last few nights I've been sleeping without the splint on my thumb, and I wake up every time I move because I'm obsessed about hurting it again! I just get tired of wearing that thing though. It's coming along well. There are times I accidentally move it the wrong way, or accidentally bump it on the wrong spot, and it's fairly mortifying, but as a whole I'm not very aware of it when I've got it taped up. The numbness is annoying, and it's soooo weak. I have very tentatively being doing scrim again, and the problem now isn't so much pain associated with holding things, it's just lack of grasping strength. All in due time, I know, I'm already trying to exercise it to the extent that I can, and I'm sorta half amazed I've done all this fence hooha since then. It's the fine detail work that's harder.

Tomorrow I will finish making jam. And freeze a few more pie fillings. These peaches and nectarines are soooooooo good, it's so sad when they are gone, but when they are all ripe at the same time it's a lot of work!

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