BARN! and NEW PORCH!

[baymule]

Haha, we have Joe, the white horse in the picture, but he will turn 28 in March. He is a dream kids horse, heck he is a dream anybody's horse and we love him madly. But with a 9 year old, 2 year old and 5 month old, the math for growing up together doesn't add up. At some point we will lose Joe, hopefully many years from now, as he leads a soft life. With 3 grand daughters, we needed another gentle horse anyway.....

 

[ducks4you]

...That wasn't enough, so we ordered 3 more loads of lovely dirt. Our horses played in the dirt like little kids. They climbed the dirt piles, pawed at the dirt, chased each other around the dirt piles and bucked and kicked. They had a blast. Who knew? All this time we just needed a dirt pile for the horses!

I should have written YOU when I had to fix the swamp in front of my horse's shelter!! The floor of their shelter is cement, it opens to the south, but we have had 2 wet years in a row and my horses, who canNOT stay out of their "clubhouse" shelter were wading through 2 1/2 ft of water. Plus, the cement had a 1 ft wide notch, like a keyhole. I was expecting to have to pay for a Vet bill and had to do something. EVERYBODY I spoke to told me that sand and gravel would NOT work.
I bought 3500 pounds of sand from Menards. I prayed that my Dodge Cummins 3500 wasn't going to break under the load driving it home!!!! Would have had to explain to my DH that I broke his truck!!
But, it didn't. Then I ordered 9 tons of limestone, like for a driveway, and had it dumped in front of my barn, accessible but not in anybody's way. I paid some help to move it all.
First we used buckets to "drain the swamp". They we dug all debris that had fallen in from soiled bedding and manure to make it as dry as possible.
My two guys dumped the sand in first. It Looked like some of the sand was going to be swamped, too. But, then it started to pile up. Then, one of them left and came back with his dad's old tractor and then shoveled from my pile and dumped in into the ~ 14' x 12' area of bog.
There was a little bit left over, so I asked them to pile it outside of the entrance, just in case I needed some more, bc I could shovel it in by myself.
Didn't need to. My horses spread it out for me.
By the way, I hired these same two guys to put up 450 bales of hay (in two deliveries) into my loft. I told my hayman how I fixed my problem. He was just aNOTHER naysayer, that it wouldn't work.
My help told me that they drove the tractor over the gravel to clean up my shelter for me and were quite confident that it was solid underneath, bc the tractor didn't sink.
Horses are like cats. They DON'T like the toys that you buy them, but WILL play with the water hose if you leave it within reach.

 

[Beekissed]

Bay, I'm so glad to get to see your barn! Now I'm going to watch and see how you fill it up. So....where are the pics of this new horse?

 

[baymule]

Bay, I'm so glad to get to see your barn! Now I'm going to watch and see how you fill it up. So....where are the pics of this new horse?

https://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/we-got-a-new-horse.20112/

 

[Carol Dee]

You can tell by your writing how happy and proud you are !!!! I remember the days leading up to your closing, how much disappoint you had to deal with. Seemed like everyday bought new drama. Now you can step back and say how it was all worth it. I think the best part is how lucky your grandkids are now to have their grandparent so near.

I agree 100% with @Nyboy So worth all you had to endure.

 

[baymule]

Update on the barn. The feed and tack room has been a S L O W project. We keep getting sidetracked. I want it DONE this time. I am beyond ready to get it finished.

We did this in August of 2017, then for whatever reasons, stopped again.

Yesterday, we got going again and made a lot of progress. We put up more sheets of tin on the front and totally got the end closed up. DH and I got started, then he called our neighbor Robert to come over. The 3 of us got a lot done. Supposed to do some more today.

Prince kept coming in, getting in the way, snooping in EVERYTHING. He pawed at the stack of tin and DH ran him out. Prince came back, DH ran him out, over and over. It was comical to watch Prince peeping in the barn to see where DH was. I caught this picture of Prince sneaking back in and DH hiding behind the wall, ready to jump out and yell at Prince.

 

[thistlebloom]

Looks good!
Haha! Prince and your husband playing hide n seek!

 

[Collector]

I love that rusty tin your using makes things look well used. My brother searched for used metal roofing for his new ranch house. I think he paid more than new cost for it but it looks really good. I hope hubby can keep prince out the way long enough to finish the project

 

[ninnymary]

For someone who doesn’t know squat about barns, I love it!

Mary

 

[Nyboy]

Are you using tin for feed room because of rats and mice ?