Seems I have been so busy with life that I seem to be forgetting to live.

Hehehe. That sounds really good and rolls off the tongue nicely, but it really isn’t the truth. The truth is that I have, in fact, been busy, but not so busy that I couldn’t take the time to hammer out a few posts. I have been lazy and remiss. That is the fact. My mind has simply been on other things.

So, I’ll catch everybody up on what has been going on and what I have planned for the not-too-distant future.

First off, I’m sure my readers are aware that my mare Lizzy had her colt on September 14. He’s now two months old and growing fast. He’s a handsome fellow and will be a credit to his sire and dam. He was born a sorrel and white tobiano, but has since changed colors drastically, to black and white. He is still showing some sorrel highlights and there is some sorrel still in his mane and tail, but I’m pretty confident he’ll end up black and white. His registered name will be Touch the Clouds, named after a Sioux war chief from the late 1800s, known for his great height (he was about 6’5″ and 260 pounds by one account) and strength. His barn name is Chief. I have the papers in process, but had to call the Missouri Fox Trotter Horse Breeders Association and have them hold off when he started changing colors. His photos and description would have been wrong! I sent in a DNA kit as well, so he’ll be “gold-papered.”

Over the past several months I have been working to earn money to pay for some improvements on my place in Eagar, Arizona. I had actually planned to spend the money on refurbishing my horse trailer and finishing out the camper compartment this year, but after spending some time in Eagar with my parents and spending some time walking over and dreaming about my 20 acre parcel there, I decided my priority should be getting that place to where it can be productive and actually pay for itself.

So, a couple months ago I bought a load of 4-1/2″ pipe, so I could  rebuild some fences, start a pipe fence on one side of the place, and build some corrals and a pole barn. Dad and I got started on it a few weeks ago.

In the process, I came across a tractor in Eagar that had been sitting in a yard for a long time. I made the owner an offer, which she accepted, and I took it home.  Drove it home, actually…well, to my place there in Eagar. So I am now the proud owner of a 1962 John Deere 3010 Diesel tractor and several implements, all in need of some tender loving care to make them work again. I don’t know what it is about old stuff, but I thrill over making broken stuff work again.

The tractor is now running and working, after adding about $2,500 in parts to the initial cost of $1,500 (and $500 for the implements). I’m told I’m still under the value of the tractor, so I’m happy.

Last month I bought a new heavy-duty three-point post hole drill and a couple augers, which ran about $1200. Dad and I punched a bunch of holes with it and set some fence corners and line posts as well as all the upright posts for a pole barn and corrals. I also spent about $1,500 for lumber for the barn and shed roofs. Now I need to save up some money for the metal roofing and siding and some pipe for the pipe corrals and fences.

The corrals will be 16′ wide and 42′ long with a 32′ X 16′ hay barn at the east end and a shed roof covering the south end of the corrals. I like the plan and will likely expand it to add more corrals as the need arises.

As I increase my little herd, currently three horses and a colt, most of them will be kept on the place in Eagar most of the year. Several close relatives also keep their horses there. I hope to end up with several more horses and a couple mules eventually.

The plan is to split the 20 acres into four 5-acre pastures, with the southernmost being used for barns, corrals, arena, training area, and trailer parking. The other 15 acres will be pasture, which I hope to be able to irrigate from a well. There is a dry irrigation pond at the northwest corner of the place that used to have tail waters from two irrigation ditches running into it. A number of years ago the ditch company put those ditches in pipe and the former owner of my place sold off the irrigation shares, so the pond is dry. My intention is to hire somebody to expand and deepen the pond and level out the banks, so that it actually resembles a pond about an acre or so in extent. I hope to have a well drilled near it and install a windmill on it to fill the pond and maintain a constant flow. I will then irrigate the whole acreage from the pond.

My place has a well down at the southwest corner that has been tested at 65 gallons per minute. I’m in the process now of getting it back into working order – new pump and controller, well head, etc. However, 65 GPM is a bit low to effectively irrigate the whole 20 acres. If I can fill that pond from a separate well with a windmill on it, like plan to, I can irrigate directly from the pond at the flow rate I need to maintain the proper pressure and flow rate to the sprinklers.

As I was working all this out in my head (since I don’t actually have the money to do it right now) it occurred to me that my place might make a good place for folks coming to the White Mountains with their horses to stop over. I participate in a number of forums and facebook pages about horses and I have noted that every day there are folks seeking “horse camps” where they can park their living-quarters trailer overnight as they pass through the area, or for several days while they ride local trails. I posted a query to one of those groups to try to gauge the interest and see whether it would be a good idea for me to try to place several short-stay RV spaces on my place for horse-campers. I was surprised by the response. It appears there is plenty of demand for such a place, even in little old Eagar, Arizona! There just aren’t enough places that cater to horse folks.

I also received more than one query in the responses about long-term horse boarding on the place. Maybe I’ve found a way to make the place support itself after all.

So, my plan is to approach the Town of Eagar and find out whether they will allow me a permit to install maybe 10 short-stay RV slots on the place, along with a bathroom and shower, with full hookups and a dump station. If the town allows it, I will start with five spaces and go from there. l’m not sure they will allow it. If not, I’ll just look at boarding horses. We’ll see how it goes.

And now for the grand finale – for this post, at least. I have set the dates (tentatively) for the next leg of my Mexico-to-Canada trek. Dad and I have discussed ways to make our pack trip a bit easier for our better-halves to deal with. We decided that if we cut it up into legs of 7-10 days, rather than a month at a time, we might just be able to finish the ride before we’re both too old to ride.

So, since we had to stop in 2016 at Flagstaff, Arizona, having made a grand total of 555 miles since we started (at least that’s what the GPS said), we plan to start right where we stopped and go to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. Yes, we will be crossing the Grand Canyon on this leg…finally! As close as I can figure, the distance to the South Rim is about 108 miles. The distance rim-to-rim is about 22 miles or a bit more, so we’re looking at a grand total of about 130 miles. Toss in two rest days and maybe another day at the Grand Canyon as a fudge-factor, and I think this will be a 10 or 11-day trip.

So, I will be applying for a back-country camp permit for the Grand Canyon for May 1 and 2, 2018. Which means we’ll be departing Flagstaff on April 23, 2018. If we have a mild winter, that time frame should have good grass growing along our route to keep the horses in weight without us having to haul all our feed and should have the water sources along the route full. At the same time, it should get us through the Grand Canyon before the mad summer rush begins.

We will end this third leg of our trip at the North Rim, where we’ll be picked up to return us and our horses home. That should have us home by the weekend of May 5.

A couple of my riding friends have expressed a wish to make the trip with us, so this should be fair warning to them! I’ll get in touch with you shortly, so we can all plan toward it.