Fathers' Day weekend

Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads out there! I often think of my dad, but especially at this time of year. Not only do we celebrate Fathers' Day, but his birthday is June 14th. Dad died almost 20 years ago of ALS and I miss him very much. He would have been 81 this year.
On a happier note, it was great to get a call from my son, Justin. We don't speak often enough but I love him very much and appreciate it when we can chat and catch up on his growing family.
Carol called and spoke with her dad, Alec, at about the same time I was talking to Justin. It's hard to celebrate when you're far from family, but it does make those times special when we do manage to get together.
We worked hard (as usual!) over the weekend and managed to get a few tasks accomplished. I was up early on Saturday to be at the rental shop to pick up a plate compactor we had rented. The crushed shale we used for the round pen base needed to be compacted before a layer of sand goes on top. Once compacted, the shale does not absorb much moisture so a gentle slope was necessary to shed any rain that falls. That was one of the reasons we chose to put the round pen where it is. From the west gate, the ground falls away about 12" to the east side of the pen. We had put some 2x12 lumber between the posts at ground level to contain the shale and sand. I would estimate that we have a compacted base roughly 6" thick. Ron is bringing up the sand this week and once installed, it should be around 4" deep. This will be plenty to give the horses some very solid footing to work with regardless of the weather conditions.
Our farrier, Jordan Camille, was up on Sunday morning to trim all the horses feet. He asked to work from the round pen and seemed quite impressed with it. He did comment that the rails might be too low for breaking colts but since we never intend to do that, it is not really a concern for us. Being that Sunday was Fathers' Day, Jordan had asked to start early so he had arrived a little after 7am! He was done by 10am and on his way back to his wife and two boys, Tyrell and Ryder, shortly thereafter.
After a cup of coffee, I went out and finished painting the loafing shed in River Run. We had one coat on the exterior already so I did a single coat on the interior and finished it up with a second coat on the exterior. It looks nice colour matched to the house! Once we finish trimming the house windows and doors, we can put some of the white trim on the shed to dress it up a little.
For Fathers' Day, Carol made up a nice brunch for us which we managed to scarf down easily after our busy morning. She has also been hard at work cleaning up the junk piles around house. She's been burning the scrap lumber and some of the smaller pieces of wood we've removed from the ground in the paddocks. We also took a pickup load of scrap material and garbage to the landfill. Anyway, it's making a big difference! All the garbage in front of the house is now gone, and so is one of the two piles off the side of the house. It's looking much nicer! We still have one giant pile of crap in the back beside the driveway, but we're hoping to get rid of that one over the next few weeks as well. Our burn barrel is working round the clock trying to keep up!
We got out for a wonderful trail ride yesterday afternoon. We timed it perfectly between 2 thunder showers. Having the horse trailer with it's built-in tack room parked down by the paddocks worked much better this time. We tacked them up in the new round pen after locking everyone else in The Vale. We had left all the gates open which made it easy to get out of the paddocks safely and without much fuss. Jake and Sierra are much better when they both ride out together - not so much calling out. The four of us all had a great ride with Carol leading on Jake and me following on Sierra. We went out by the well, turned east down the narrow field past the grassy pond and then carried on down the hill. After a few hundred meters, we turned south and climbed up through the trees to an open pasture. We were concerned how the horses would react when turned for home but needn't have worried. Jake and Sierra were both real gentlemen the whole time. We had scouted a few places to trot and were successful when we made the attempt. Apart from a few head tosses by Jake once on the old Sinclair Road, the two of them couldn't have behaved better. What a wonderful ride for our first real "trail ride" at Gull Lake Ranch! We comfortably rode them back down to the paddocks and into the round pen to dismount and untack them. Whisky, (our young guy) must have missed the big boys because as soon as he saw us coming down the trail on our way back, he took off galloping at full speed from one end of his paddock to the other (a few hundred meters). It took him quite a while to settle down even after we let them all back together. We suspect he must have been happy to have his feet all trimmed up and comfortable as they were quite a mess before Jordan got to them. Whatever, it scared me a bit to see him running so quickly over the uneven ground, but wow, he's very fast!

We finished the day up with Carol's famous BBQ ribs. Yummy!