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RE: [RC] [RC] Mud and More Mud - Jerry & Susan MilamWe have a 30'wide creek bordering the east side of our property and have floods onto our pasture and barn areas more than we'd like. The past 2 days have given us 6-8 inches of rain and at 1 am last night it came up to the back of our barn. It's never come into the barn before but come into the surrounding paddocks. One time one of the mares somehow had the paddock gate close on here during the night during one heavy rain spell. All the other horses had evacuated to higher gound in the adjacent paddock, but when I can down to feed at O-dark30 found her hugging the barn wall knee deep in very fast moving creek water. Poor baby! Anyway, because this creek frequently floods, over the past few years we have built up with a base of gravel and topped with AG Lime the areas of the paddocks under the 12' & 16' wide barn covering we made around the barn on 2 sides. This has worked well because it's sand texture allows us to scoop poop easily and when they pee in it- the lime neutralizes it well. As the horses stand and walk around on it during the year it packs down and acts much like cement when it's dry. Outside the covered areas are really mucky however and horse or human hate to venture into it with weather we're having right now. At least the barn is high and dry so far. In His Hands, Susan, Fly Bye & Dandy "All you have to decide is what to do with the time you are given." Gandalf the Grey of Lord of the Rings Hi Bob, I gravelled one of my corrals with 6" of roadbase (gravel/dirt mix) and it's held up fairly well. This is the 3rd winter I've had it... No real maintenance so far - tho I expect to have to dump another load in someday. There are a few places where the horses have mashed the rock down and soil is mixing in - we have adobe soil base. I had expected *all* the gravel to sink into the mud the first year, so it has pleasantly suprised me. It is really hard footing when it's hot and dry, and I would not do it in my primary horse area, but it's been nice to have a gravelled area for when the weather is awful. I have a pair of horses that are not on the gravel - they have a big run in shed that I feed them in. They have somewhere dry to hang out, and their hay doesn't get stomped into the mud. Happy Trails, Michelle (Colorado) =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= __________ NOD32 1.964 (20050104) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.nod32.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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