Our awesome neighbor's help with a barn flooding problem . . .

For those of you who are horsey photo addicts stick with me because the cute pictures are at the bottom of the post (well aside from the awesome one above hehe). I don't think I've mentioned it before, but our lease land is at the foot of a small mountain (not like Rocky Mountains type mountain, like foothills type mountain) so we get a lot of run off when it rains (especially the heavy downpours we've been getting). The big old barn on the lease land was built like a million years ago for working cattle so it's not really in the most ideal area on the land and it's been wallowed out over the years. So now the area where the horses seek shelter (thank goodness the hay area in the center of the barn is raised lol) is usually more than ankle deep in mud.

So our awesome neighbor brought his tractor over and helped us reroute the water around the barn by digging ditches for us. It would have taken forever doing this with a shovel because of the tree roots and the length of the ditch. Now it goes around the barn to the edge of our property and into the city maintained ditched by the road. :) It will take a while before all of the water is out of the barn, but now that it has a place to drain to it will dry up. The horses are going to appreciate it so much!

This is the length of the barn at the rear which has three doorways (one of which is blocked off for the lease land owner's storage purposes, we only get to use one side).

This is down the side. On the other side of those trees at the left of the picture the ditch turns left toward the road.

Widening the ditch some more. I want a tractor like his!

Looking through the barn back toward the house. See how much water is standing inside? Luckily it's mostly in the middle so they have been able to stand on the sides out of the water, but it will be much nicer now.

My husband used a shovel to dig a trench so it could drain. We will eventually fill in the hole and make a slope away from the barn to help prevent it backing up into the barn, but the tractor couldn't get that close, so it will have to be done by hand.

Okay, now on to the horses. Faran and Zeppelin were not at all impressed with the tractor. They weren't really scared unless it got too close so they kept their distance.

Handsome Faran!

Faran tried to follow Chrome, but the tractor got too close so he trotted back to donkey lol.

Chrome on the other hand was fascinated! My husband chased him away because he didn't want him too close, but Chrome just trotted back around (above) and stood watching (below) for ages!

He just stood there watching the tractor, totally fascinated.

Can you see the gears turning? So was his fascination a sign of intelligence, curiosity and bravery or just a dumb, easily amused brain?? LOL

Look how relaxed he is and how intently he watched the tractor.

My husband did finally let him come closer to investigate, which he took full advantage of.

He's so brave, facing a tractor without flinching!

Checking out the attachment on the rear of the tractor that he was digging with.

When we stopped for a break he took advantage of the lack of movement to touch the drag thing.

Back in motion again.

Reaching up for scratches and petting from the neighbor.

He eventually got bored and wandered off to graze (on our non-existent winter grass lol).

But he occasionally came back to check on our progress. :)

It was funny at one point he led the herd back to the front of the lease land where we feed them, I guess hoping we would follow and bring them an early supper lol. This is the order they always walk in. :)

He was so cute when he realized we weren't going to feed him he stood staring at us (subliminal messages?) from a distance (I zoomed in for this shot).

When I whistled he grew about a foot lol. Look at the other picture at how high he raised his head. So cute!

I love my beautiful boy. I love his confidence and calm curiosity. :D

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!