Horse-y Hilton

This is an interior shot of our little horse barn. It's a very misleading barn as from the outside, it appears about half the size it really is. Bob did a bangup job of tearing up the floor and finishing the walls so that there are no edges or nails to get cut on. (Note the "handle with care" graffitti!) The addition of the chandelier was my touch!
Crispin has downright luxurious and commodious acommodations, seeing as he was living in a herd of seven or eight mixed ponies and horses with a run in shed and round bales of hay to squabble over. I was so afraid that he'd miss his pals.  But instead, I think he's sighing an equine sigh of relief. He seems so relaxed and nonchalant. Who knew? Maybe he wanted a home like this forever...

From the outside, we erected a windbreak as the barn was positioned with the doorway to the north. We wanted Crispin to have 24/7 access so that he can stroll out at midnight and enjoy the full moon and a nightcap of hay and water, but still have protection from the wind. It seems to work just fine and he is savoring his freedom.

The electric fence seem to be working fine. Don't get me going on how complicated that was! Ten minutes before the horse was delivered, Bob and I were still not sure whether we had it rigged right. But no escapees means it's working, and Crispin doesn't seem to mind his incarceration in a glamourous prison system!

My Christmas Pony

In truly remarkable contrast to my greatest fears- that poor lonely only Crispin would spend his first TWO WEEKS running around the paddock like a pony with his head missing, trumpeting and pitifully whinnying for all of his absent friends- Crispin has out done himself in expressing poise and equine composure. He has been peacefully grazing and engaing in such horsey exercises as sleeping standing in the sun. I apologize for having doubted his "equine-nimity". Maybe he finally feels (correctly!) that it's a pleasure to not have to fight for every bit of grain, or every flake of hay. And he seems to be enjoying the company of Bob's sculpture, too.
He seems to like his new house; Bob spied Crispin with his head sticking out of the stall, watching for human activity early this morning. So far so good! Here's another picture of the contented and relaxed horse. He made funny little snuffle-y whuffle-y nickers at me this morning. Just in time for Christmas... what more could a girl want??

Musical Interlude Number 156788

At least someone is having a good time! The irrepressible Jules is all smiles as he has a favorite ball (or twenty) thrown into a freshly raked pile of leaves. He's so agreeable and willing to just get on and have a good time... something that has been in short supply lately as Bob and Rita have encountered especially tough times in the household project department. Nothing at all has worked or been easy.

But Jules is a charmer and doesn't let anything get him down.

Thank goodness for dogs!

The Wild Kingdom

The Gods of Completed Electrical Circuits and Bringing the Equine Home must be sour on Bob n' Rita as we have had nothing but really egregiously hard times since we embarked on this last major project of 2011. We spent several days stringing electric line (wires and tape) (and humming Glen Campbell's iconic rhapsody "I am a Line Man for the County...) and have yet to determine why we can't get a shock out of the system. The box clicks and the red light pulses. Bob got shocked (accidentally) when one of his smaller sculptures touched the postive and ground terminals so the box must be okay. I called Tractor Supply and received what seemed like good intelligence; we had neglected to complete a part of the system and still no go. Then I discovered a wire touching a post and we worked that out and it STILL didn't work. Baffled and defeated, we turned to ripping the floor boards out and finishing the stall. I'm outside and Bob is ripping the boards when he erupts from the building... turns out there's a skunk under the floor he just removed. I mean, we have been noisy as all get out. Skill saw running, we're moving wood and stomping around; you'd have to be deaf not to be disturbed and this partcular skunk is asleep? Just our luck.
We went next door and borrowed a HavaHeart trap and procured cat food to bait it and our older trap with. But we can't really complete our floor removal until skunk removal is done. This project is progressing too slowly! Bob actually turned to me and exploded wtih "Maybe we SHOULD eat the horse!!"
I know how he feels.

Unique Continuity of Jules in Space

Jules, who was asleep at the top of the stairs, didn't know I took his picture and fooled around with it on the computer. He was laying on our nasty stained carpet at the top of the stairs, so I gave him a more fanciful crash site. He's tired as he ran around all afternoon, chasing balls and barreling at full tilt into the carefully raked piles of leaves that I'd assembled, ready to cart off to mulch the blueberry plants.
Bob and I are really tired, too, as we spent all (of a rather lovely day for the third of December!) day outside, finishing the horse fence and erecting several serious metal gates that Bob constructed. Tomorrow we have to pull up the floor in half the small barn and make a suitable stall for Crispin. There are so many details and odd its of things to prepare for The Big Day, when Crispin is actually delivered and can begin a new chapter in his life. Crispin doesn't know that he is to be re-incarnated as an art project. Yes!! First the dog and now the horse! Is there no rest for the animals of the BobnRita ranch?? Pressed without consent into becoming fodder for oddball practises and projects! Secretly, I think animals enjoy this sort of thing. It takes them out of the humdrum existence that is the fate of most critters. Crispin will have his own chandelier in the barn... how's that for falling into the lap of luxury?
Life here is never dull. But we could use a million days off (with pay, thank you). I'm so tired I can't even blog. But stay tuned as The Big Day approaches and we (no doubt) encounter all sorts of interesting mishaps and adventures once the horse arrives.

Beige Bloggery

I never use these colors!! Or lack of color... sort of subdued beige and browns. But I liked the look of this chair (on the way to the dump) when it was seated on the fallen leaves. It gained a composure and dignity that it sure never had at our house.
Odds and bloggish ends: my eye was newly messed up by several doctors (no doubt well-intentioned!) attempts to fit me with a corrective contact lens. A mere three hours of wearing the lens one day and I swore I saw worse than I had previously. The next morning I called the office to complain of this and they had me re-insert the lens to see if the fogginess cleared. Well, it didn't so I had to high tail it back to Yale and have the lens evicted from my eye and life. I think we're supposed to try again with a different lens, but I'm sort of gun shy as my vision is worse (without the lens) than it was before. To be honest, I've been sort of excited that I could see the random thing with my left eye; very erratic but I'd be able to read the digital clock in the car, or see some lettering very clearly. I was starting to pick out individual leaves on the ground on my walks. And now? It's all sort of hazier than it was; almost like it was sanded with very fine sand paper so that it's blurry on a micro-level. I suppose that makes no sense to anyone. But it sucks!! I have two more eye appointments early this week; wish me luck.

More of What Artists Do in Their "Free" Time

(And exactly what is "free time", anyway? Bob and I seem to specialize in lurching from one major project to the next. I admit to lying about all that free time we'd have after the chimney.) Here it is the end of November and we're still finishing up the horse fence. Which involved plenty of digging and driving in of all kind of fence posts. Remember us digging holes, several months back? Lots of holes as previously announced in another blog posting, in almost another life time...
So far, it resembles a mini Christo (and Jean Claude) project. We have hundreds of feet of electric poly-tape horse fence festooning the "back forty" awaiting final connection to the posts. As we are using several varieties of posts- mixed metal and wood- we need different insulators. Those are the plastic devices that afix the tape and wire conductor materials to the posts. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that the company that sells you poly fencing doesn't sell all the various shape of connectors needed... thank goodness yet again that Bob and I are clever and capable and will create our own insulators and adapt those that are available. Bob thought to use those little plastic electrical tapes that are used to bundle wires. We found them at Home Depot in exciting neon colors (they were out of black)and it made the job that much more festive and entertaining. I think The Horse will likewise be amused at our sense of playfulness:

I am being ironic here, as it was a pretty miserable day to be doing this relatively lightweight job. It was drizzling and chilly and we were chilled to the bone.
Oh and an aside to all of our tasteful friends who no doubt will shudder when they see the screaming white plastic fence bisecting our property: we will replace the white tape with nearly invisible wire in the future. We are also sensitive to the graphicness of this tape fence, BUT as it offers superior visiblity, The Horse will see it and not try and run through it. It's a temporary fix to get Crispin home and carefully contained.