January, 2005 Report

This has been the busiest month on record.

The demise of Bahama Star Farm does not affect the Preserve directly and we actually are benefitting by now being able to fence in small, temporary lush grass pastures for the mares. We are back in drought time and while the grasses in the forest are regenerating, it is a slow process and will likely slow even more. We have no way of knowing how many open areas there used to be before humans changed the face of the island and so we are feeling our way back to a natural balance for the horses. Letting the mares have controlled access to the grass has already been of benefit, especially since the areas are in a part of the farm that has not been worked for several years, thus there is greatly reduced risk of re exposing the mares to the herbicides, pesticides and fertilizers that may have caused problems in the past.

Along with moving the pastures on roughly a weekly basis we are continuing to cut the new fence line for the stallion area.

We had our first case of lameness in 14 months, but it had nothing to do with feed. Nunki bruised a heel bulb on her left fore, but within 24 hours she was healing well.

We have acquired a 1987 Massey Ferguson tractor. We can now get some serious work done, even get the firebreak started and start clearing more old logging roads for hiking and biking trails which will also act as more firebreaks. Next project is to set up housing for the security men and we are working on having a 40' fiberglass container moved to the Preserve.
 

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