Not much progress on the shelter for the new pasture, but lots of other things got done.  Anton drove around like a madman yesterday, all the way to Hollister to pick up rubber for the roundpen.  We spread it today.  Tomorrow I will think of a way to water it automatically, I am thinking about 4 sprinklers on the perimeter.
Yesterday, Anton also picked up more tube to finish off the shelter.  He looked at a used (or better "pre-owned) solar system which we have decided we are going to buy with our retirement funds (seems like a better investment at this point).  Today we arranged funding for it, worked out a scheme to pick it up and talked to our contractor friend who will help us with the electrical.  The solar system will get hooked up to the well meter.  We will be able to limit our usage to the night and produce during the day.  With a "time of use" meter, we will hopefully produce at high value and use at low value. 
Anton also picked up my father at the SF airport.  He will stay with us for 2 weeks. 
Unfortunately, we had to put Hermod down today, that took up some of my time.  I also went to pick up a horse at UC Davis this morning, but by the time I got there and waited for 1 hour for the vet to be done with it, the owner changed her mind.  That was a wast of my morning.  Rode Verite and trotted 4 minutes.

We are back from a weekend in Mendocino at a Wedding. 
I got my bearings back today and paid bills and did date entry.
Anton fixed the poop scoop, fixed my cell phone charger, put gravel at the round pen entrance, got materials together for the shelter (roofing), got ready for tomorrows big day.  Tomorrow Anton is driving to Hollister to pick up rubber for the round pen, stopping by in SJ to look at a Solar system he is thinking of buying for the well and the house, stopping in Oakland to pick up some more steel for the shelter, stopping in SF to pick up my father who is flying in from Italy.  
Sarah last week cleaned out the casita, stained boards on the eurowalker, dragged pastures, and did all my work while I was gone.

The pasture is coming along well.  Anton finished welding the fence and will work on the gates tomorrow.  Then it's shelter time.  For the roofing we will use sheet metal that we have lying around.  The roof will look a little different than the existing shelters and the footprint of the shelter will be slightly smaller, but the roof won't be peaked so there will be no issue with gutters in the front.
Anton serviced the lawnmower, checked water level on all golf carts, replaced light bulbs in at the condos, checked leaks on the cross country course, switched out the big hose on the arena sprinkler and checked electricity consumption in the barn and at the well.
Before he left, Larry cleaned up his "wood shop" area and put all the power tools in the stuff room.  He did however leave a pile of bad lumber around that we will have to clean up and take to the dump. 
I dropped off taxes and expect to see my done package in the mail any day now. 
Sarah stained shelters in the pastures.

Done with taxes, just a few finishing touches and they are ready to be taken to my accountant tomorrow.
Larry is cleaning up before he leaves us.  He has moved all the woodworking tools into the stuff room, which in turn he has cleared out (with Derick's help) and put all the stuff in the lean-to, in which they both built more shelves for more stuff.
In the meantime, Anton has fixed the new generator, which had already been dropped from the golf cart once.  He put it on a metal frame which will help with future droppings.  He ran errands yesterday and straightened out paperwork and important e-mails that needed to be sent. 
Today, Anton is welding and building gates for the new pasture.  Larry and Derick were welding on it yesterday.  Anton is also evaluating all the materials that we have lying around for the shelter in the new pasture and ordering what we don't have.
Champion Ray has been cooking for us since Friday, thereby keeping the working boys focused on the work.
More later.

I have skipped 2 weeks of blogging!  Mostly because my boys were on vacation and I didn't get much done above and beyond my normal daily chores.  The boys have been back for a week and, although a lot of time was devoted to settling in and doing laundry, some things got done. 
Anton has been working on fixing the things that had broken down while he was gone.  Top priority was figuring out why the well was tripping the breaker daily.  We were worried because we thought that the newly installed cycle stop valve was causing the electrical overload, but fortunately no, it was just coincidence.  Anton did his magic with his electrical meter, cleaned some contacts, wiggled some wires and fixed the problem.  Second on his list was fixing our water heater in the house which is old and both the flame and the pilot were not staying put.  As it so happened, we got a free water heater from a friend a few weeks ago, so Anton installed it.  It worked for a day and then that, too, stopped working.  After some testing he figured out that the thermostat is faulty.  The new part should arrive in today and I hope that finally I will be able to take hot showers in my bathroom, rather than in the horse wash rack.  On the list was also fixing the generator which has been run out of oil.  It was on his last leg anyway, but still, it has caused Anton to have to spend the day yesterday putting together another one.  Yes, it is a generator out of an old RV, he installed a tank on it and a muffler and bolted the new generator on one of the golf carts.  He had to fuss with it a bit, adjust this and that, change the oil, tighten some things, but now we have another working generator.  Anton wants to mount it inside one of the long golfcarts as the new tool golf cart.  He will have to make some mounting brackets and some modifications, I bet it will be another half a day. 
In the meantime, Larry continued to work on the new pasture and has lots most of the back fence done.  Because the generator was out of commission yesterday, he built a "ski ramp" jump for the cross country course yesterday.
I have spent some time training Sarah Lam last week and this week, and with her running the place for 3 days, I have been able to get a good start on my 2007 taxes as well as cleaning off my desk and sending out some good overdue e-mail.  Yay Sarah!