Well today was one of those days where you seem to just turn in circles. Way down the back of our property there is a creek which runs from and to a line of spring fed ponds, two of which are on our land. We are lucky enough to have large mouth? (so I am told) bass, which the children catch and throw back. So they are often down there and exploring. Now along the creek there is a lot of overgrown stuff, blackberries, and thorns, lots of poison ivy and just a lot of branches and sticks which our previous rather eccentric neighbor put there trying to dissuade anyone from entering over the boundaries.

Our neighbor, who thank goodness has been gone for about three months, seemed to have an irrational fear that someone would put one step across the boundary between her property and ours. We would wake up, go for a stroll down to the pond with our morning coffee and find that somewhere in the night, there had appeared ugly and quite extensive barriers with at least three or four "Keep Out Private Property" signs plastered up at the "line" between them and us. She was a little grey haired, quite nosy lady who we nickname the "Grey Harpie". Of course when we saw them on occasion together (she did have a husband but I don't think he had much to say) Rog would exclaim, "There's the grey harpie and her consort!" I wondered why she would think we would want to put a foot over the boundary. There certainly wasn't a friendly face or afternoon tea.

When we were extending our place and almost at move in (the kitchen stuff was all there) I rolled up one Sunday afternoon to see just how close we were to moving in, and she was parked in the driveway. She had actually somehow found entrance and could tell me all about how lovely my kitchen appliances were. I thought she was just a friendly old neighbor and took her for a tour of the house. I don't think she spoke or did a neighborly thing after that. So we came to the conclusion she was just "the grey harpie" with her own set of "unusual" issues.

So getting back to the creek, since they have abandoned the property which is for sale, my kids had ventured to the creek through the branches and sticks and found a cute little bridge that went across the creek and entered into their side of the property line. Unfortunately, the two little friendly horses who follow them around also found the cute little bridge and lots of long grass on the other side. So today was spent building yet another fence to keep them in. There are no fences on the other side so not wise to let them roam, although they would munch their way through the very long and unkept pasture on that side. On reflection, maybe we would be doing the real estate agent and the bank a favor in letting them eat the grass back to a reasonable state.

So we built a fence. Rog is getting to be quite the "farmer Joe" these days between his veggie garden and building fences for the horses. He even looked the part in his up to the thighs waders so he could build it into the pond. He did that not for the horses but the goats he wants! Haven't got them or the chickens yet. Thought I would get used to the horses first. My little girls just had a wonderful time. They put the bridles on the horses, Lady Bug and Angel, and them led them back to our place. They really are very friendly and love those little girls. They followed obediently without any fuss and loved being led around the pasture while Rog quickly put a temporary barrier in place and raced to the hardware and got the materials he needed. I really didn't know he had any sort of "handyman" in him before this farm.

He did regale to me with much merriment how he had waded into the pond (which has a lot of silt around the edges) and when he went to lift his leg he felt his foot come out of the wader and nearly fell on his backside into the pond. That would have been such a wonderful fate for his blackberry which I must say is never off his person. Now I often wonder why, because he keeps it on silent, and I have to call him at least three times before he feels it vibrate and knows to answer it. But it has all of everything on it. His emails, which of course if he did not read immediately the sky would fall and he would be out of contact with anything anywhere technical in a flash. Mmmmmmm.... maybe next time I could give him a little nudge, not that I mind his blackberry being everywhere we are, I would just love to see the expression on his face when he went for a mud bath!