Skunk spray remedy, run-in shelter construction, and free dirt!

What's that smell???

I was helping the girls get ready for bed when all of a sudden I could smell it... it's 🦨...and Max is outside 😳 Now, you will never meet a nicer dog than ours. He's all heart but when it comes to common sense, he is lacking abundantly. He's not a real quick learner either. Apparently getting sprayed once wasn't enough so he thought he would do it twice...in the same week 😭😭😭 Not to mention it was 10pm at night BOTH nights when it happened. Ugh. Anyway, why am I talking about this on a homesteading page? Because we found a home remedy that worked like a charm! 3 parts hydrogen peroxide, 1 part baking soda, and a little dab of dish soap. I used 3/4 cup hydrogen peroxide:1/4 cup baking soda. Scrub-a-dub-dub and Mr. Stinky can rejoin the family again. So, if you find yourself in a similar situation, give this mix a try! Farmer Dave tried to catch said skunk but instead he caught this little fella...

Possums are harmless so we let him go live his best life. We are still working on trapping that skunk.

If you build it, they will come

Hip hip hooray! We finished the second horse stall in the barn (make sure to check out our IG to see how we built it!) and have moved on to building the run-in shelter in the field. Both of our ponies prefer living outside so having an outside shelter will make that easier for everyone. We decided to make it 10'x20' so there's plenty of space for both horses without overcrowding them. It's not the fastest structure to build, with lots of angle cuts for the roof boards and the added difficulty working on tall ladders.

It's starting to really take shape but the next phase is going to be a real doozy. Someone (not me...I'm terrified of heights so a ladder is all I'm willing to climb) needs to secure boards across the top of it for roof support. Poor Farmer Dave is always the designated height guy because I'm a wussy about it. I'll be sure to take pictures of his bravery for everyone. Once the roof is on, the sides should be fairly quick to throw up. Did I mention how ready we are to be done with horse projects?

Free is for me!

In a twist of good luck, we were given over 40 loads (roughly 900 tons!!!) of FREE clean fill dirt! Our pasture floods routinely (see previous post about saving our freezing chickens this spring) and we needed a massive amount of fill to create a flood free zone for a riding arena. This was honestly a pipe dream because how we were going to get enough fill to do that was likely never going to happen. The cost of trucking in fill dirt is insane (we paid almost $400 for around 40 tons which is 2 truck loads to level the run-in shelter area) and it just wouldn't be financially feasible for the amount we need.

So, how'd I get us free dirt??? Simply put, I asked. PennDot was scraping the ditches in front of our house and I noticed they were hauling out the premium soil...so I asked them if we could have it...and they said yes! We later learned that you can actually sign up online and ask for dirt when they are in your area so if you ever need dirt, you should look into signing up online for it. It was a win, win for both of us because they were trucking it almost 30 minutes away! God sure blessed us abundantly! Now Farmer Dave has to figure out how to spread it with the tractor 😬 You would think he would be sick of me and my honey-do list by now but he isn't...maybe because I'm willing to bribe him with cookies and pie. He really does deserve an award for helping me with all of my projects.

We have the back fence pulled down and set up a temporary step-in electric fence while we work on it. Polly decided to see if the rope was just a suggestion and she learned quickly it isn't. We had the old fencing down in less than an hour last night so we should be able to get the high tensile up pretty quickly. I was also able to harvest our onions for the year! Although it wasn't as bountiful as I would have hoped for, they are much better size than last year! I'm planning to braid them or hang them to dry and extend their shelf life. I'll keep yinz updated on my method next week!

I'm off to work on the fence and ride my boy Sparky! Make sure to check back next week to see how Farmer Dave does suspended in the air 🫣 See yinz next week for more farm fun!