I love me a half day at work

Today I only have to work a half day. 

I love this.. it gives me extra time to work on the barn. 

My plan today is to get gravel and mats and gates.

Tomorrow is the arena rails

Sunday is the finishing touches on the stall.

That means.. Next weekend is footing and fencing and Beau HOME!

I am far from being done, but the basics will be there.. and then I will gain an hour a day to do work around this place and get caught up on some other areas..

Also.. I will take some pictures of the industrial stuff my Hubby brought home...

Shelving, work tables, desk, chairs, and more shelving and cabinets..

Most are for his shop.. but some are for the garage.. and He did his own version of a garage sale..

He got all the cabinets, and the tables (which are HUGE) and other items for 150.00.. and he told me that just one of the work tables can run in the thousands of dollars.. Whooo hooo!

So he is off to the dump right now, and I am going to get ready to head out to get me some gravel after swinging by the barn to see Beau and clean his stall... Only a week or so more to have to make that drive.. soon I will be posting about our rides and less about my mucking of the stall.

4 months, 3 wrecks on the corner

We officially moved into our house about 4 months ago.. as of last night, we have witnessed 3 car wrecks outside of our house.

We live on a country road... 35mph type of road. Where our house sits there is a corner. This intersection is two 35mph roads that people travel well over the speed limit on. When we had the snow day in December.. We had two wrecks that day in our ditch.. one actually went onto our lawn and was sideways.. We had two families in the house that day while they waited for tow trucks.

Last night we had a third family in the house, but this time it was a little more serious.

I was doing the dishes and Paxton heard the wreck. My DH and child looked out the window and saw a jeep flipped up on it's side on the far side of the intersection right across from our side yard. They went out to call 911 and to see if everyone was okay.

When Paco came back in, he said that there was a woman and a child that needed to come in and sit down while they waited for the fire department and police.

I put the dogs away and they came in. This poor family. Their child had just gotten out of the hospital, they were actually on their way home from the hospital, and they get hit. The driver of the other car was outside, and my DH had asked them to just take a seat until the aid car and police got there.. the driver was attempting to move his car and leave. He appeared very "high" on something.

The fire department arrived and the mom and child went out to get looked at. They were pretty shaken up.

When the police arrived, it was a little crazy outside of our house..and the driver of the car that caused the accident left in the police car.

I was amazed at how quickly it was all dealt with though.. about an hour from the time the wreck happened until the tow truck drivers had the street cleaned up.

A bit of excitement at the corner again.

We joke about this corner and our property.. people typically will just pull over and park in our driveway, they will do u turns at this corner quite frequently, police will hang out there, and people will just ride their quads, dirtbikes, lawnmowers and such around this intersection.. it is just a little weird.

The county sheriff had come by last weekend and stopped to chat with us. I had told him.. The police are ALWAYS welcome to come and sit in our driveway, or use our property to set up a speed trap on this road...

There is a large equine facility across the street, we have dogs and kids, and this road is notorious in the last four months for speeders and wrecks.. I didn't even mention the wreck a couple of weekends ago right outside our shop on the other end of the property... so really.. 4 wrecks in 4 months..

I really hope this is not the trend... one wreck a month.

One more full day of work, and a half day and then it is on to more barn progress... and I also have to do a post about what MacGyver brought home last night.. It involved a 24 foot moving truck to get it all home...

Bath Time

To Body Clip or Not? That is the question for some. Most people I have talked to that do not show or ride much in the winter do not clip. I would prefer not to, but since we ride most days.. and because schooling shows for me start in the beginning of March, I usually end up clipping.

Beau grew an enormous amount of hair this winter.. and he was sweating pretty good after just moderate riding, so the decision to body clip him or trace clip him was discussed a couple of weeks ago. Last year I did a trace, and we ended up body clipping him before our first big Morgan show anyway, so I decided to body clip him. This year, with all the barn work however, I knew I would not have time... so I hired the former trainer to clip him.. and it is taking longer than I would like, but it is getting done.

Before clipping however, He had to have a bath. So here are some pictures of my disgusting pony before and during his bath.






And into the washrack



I think he has a little "mule look" in this photo..lol


T is bathing him.. and I am taking pictures.. I normally bathe him myself..




And this is his favorite spot to be scratched or rubbed or shampoood...


I have pictures of him half clipped.. but my netbook that I use for getting my pictures off of my camera is toasted right now.. we have a nasty problem that I have not been able to fix.. and it is a 150.00 netbook that I most likely will not pay to be fixed.. so I have to save up a few weeks to get a new laptop.. grrrrr.

I will take more pics of him as he is finished being body clipped.. I have to say.. that when he is clipped.. I am in LOVE with his color.. and I kind of wish it would stay. It reminds me of Gruella.. He actually looks like a big baby deer when he is all clipped up...

Supervisor

house 536, originally uploaded by mysticfish.

Here is a nice picture of the Supervisor

Helpers

house 544, originally uploaded by mysticfish.

Just thought I would share the kind of help we get each weekend.. These are the "supervisors" helping Papa out.

Supplies

Since I am getting close to bringing the Beau Monster home.. I am starting to make my list of items that I need to have at home for my barn and arena.

For me.. I have to decide what I need to have and what is on my wish list for later. There are those things you can't do without, and things that would be nice to have, but would not fall into the HAVE to HAVE category.

What I feel I need:

Corner Feeder (this is for supplements and grain)
Water Bucket
Cross Ties (for the aisle, so I can get him ready)
Stall Mats
Bedding (I use pellets)
Hay (I would like to have 3 months of Hay to start with)
Triple Crown (2 bags at least to get me started)
Muck Bucket
Stall Picker
Plastic Shovel
2 Garbage cans (the metal kind with lids)
Tack Room Door
Arena Footing (I am starting with Sand and Sawdust)
Mounting Block
Hose
Hot Tape and Energizer for temporary paddocks and Arena
Two Gates for the arena

Did I forget anything???

Here is my wishlist:

Mirrors for the arena
Dressage letters
Cones
Trot Poles
Beadboard for my tackroom
Chairs, lamps, counter and cabinets for the tack room
second stall completed...
Wash rack and mats completed
Matted and concreted aisle
Concrete in the feed room with sliding doors on the feed room
Compost bin for manure
Yard Cart
Trailer for my lawnmower to move poo around
an Arena Drag/Harrow
Tractor (a large one..)
Hot water tank
Gravel all the way around the outside of the arena
Paddocks finished and fenced
Pastures fenced
Trees cut up and moved out of the pastures
a new job that allows me to work from home
winning the lottery!

I think that covers it for now.. I could keep going, but the last one really sums it up.

More Barn Progress

Another post with pictures..

After the wall went up, it was time to "clean up the barn and the arena" so that we could get ready for the next phase.

The next phase involves MacGyver building a door, installing the hardware, getting washed rock and mats, installing the corner feeders and latches.  It also involves putting up rails in the arena, getting the first load of footing delivered and coordinating with a tractor to move it all around.  But before that all can happen next weekend..(Wishful thinking possibly).. the debris, vehicles, scrap wood, garbage and large rocks had to be removed.. So.. Saturday afternoon this began:



This is just ONE of the big piles of crappy wood and scraps that we had to remove..



And another Pile...



So I decided to take a load out with the "farm truck".. and my husband had a better idea...




This last one says it all......


We finally got it to work correctly, and ended up with:


I really really need a burn permit now.

Here you can see we are getting there.. a few more piles.. and to move my Red Truck.. and soon it will be clear..


Only 28 more wheelbarrow loads and I ended up with my arena looking like:




And my aisle looking like:


so it is close now..

He did some welding yesterday while I did the heavy lifting.. and I almost have a stall door. He stopped to get lumber today.. and so this week.. the stall will be finished.. and this weekend we will be getting T&G for the Arena.. once the rails are up.. I will drag the arena with my lawn tractor and home made drag, and then the last bits are the Footing and the Tack Room details.. so.. Crossing my fingers.. but He just might be home within those two weeks!

I am linking this post up to Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage.. because.. well.. This place is starting to show some transformation!

This is why I feel a little older today

Last night we celebrated my oldest son's 20th birthday.. 20 years.. It can't be.. it just can't have passed that quickly. I love this kid.. I love his girlfriend. They are wonderful to each other.

Happy Birthday Cody!

Weekend Updates

I know that I can sometimes neglect this blog.. I assure you, it is only because life and projects and broken wrists and birthdays get in the way.

I have several update posts.. but I want to start with last weekend's pictures and updates.

Typically, my sister and the baby come over every weekend to supervise.. this was true the weekend that Paco broke the wrist.  They came over on Sunday, and this is what we had accomplished...

Lights in the tack room and the front of the stall.

so..


This photo is the concrete footing that MacGyver put in for the stall front.












This is the footing before we cut it off.. he used a pressure treated 4X4X8 in the ground to keep it from rotting out, set in concrete and then he used regular wood joined with dowels and glue so that I could have the "look" I wanted.




This is him working on all new wiring and electric for my tack room.
I ended up with two new outlets one on each side and a light switch.. He put them all in the wall like a regular house so that none are sticking out. Yeah!!!



I apologize for the blurriness in some of the photos.. I believe it is time to take the camera in for a good cleaning. This is the frame of the front of the stall.



Here is the pile of Tongue and Groove that My lovely husband surprised me with. This will be for the side walls and eventually we will redo the back wall with this as well. We will also have the T&G on the front of the stall for a finished look.



A Better picture of the framing and wall coming together.



This is where I started to get really excited.. I can totally see it coming together now!



Here is the wall up!



The plywood is going to be on the horse side.. it is easier to replace if he decides to ruin it!



And let there be light!!!

This is where we finished up Saturday afternoon. We then moved on to clearing up the arena... and I am still pretty sore from all of that work we did from Saturday afternoon to yesterday.

We also had a birthday dinner to attend last night for my oldest son and our good friends daughter, and I still had regular chores to do.. Luckily this week.. I have a half day on Friday, so I can do even more and get that much closer to the pony being home!

Saturday Continued...

The doctor who wanted to talk to me was an Orthopedic Surgeon.

He explained that Paco did not just break his wrist, but that he broke the growth plate and it had come out of where it was supposed to be.

He explained that we had a couple of choices..
The first was to take him up to the O.R. and assemble a team and put him under to manipulate the arm back and set it.

The second was to let him attempt to surprise Paxton and put it back in.  He explained that it is a one shot deal and if it didn't work, we would have to take him up to surgery and fix it there. 

I was hesitant, and Paco heard our conversation.  He agreed to let the doctor try to do it right there.  I will say this.. my kid is ONE TOUGH KID.  I don't think I could have handled it.

They took him back to X-Ray to make sure it went back where it was supposed to be.  After they put it in a splint, they told us that they wanted us to follow up with the surgeon on Friday.  Okayyyy..

I still didn't really understand what was exactly wrong, other than he had a broken wrist.
We headed home with some pain meds and he was to NOT MOVE HIS ARM.. ummmm yeah.. he is 14.. okayyyyyyy...
Sunday passed with him on the couch and coming down to the barn where we were working.. oh.. every hour or so.. he was having a hard time sitting still.

Sunday night, I looked at his arm.. and thought his hand was in a different position than it was.. so I decided to call the nurse on Monday am.  We waited on the phone for over 40 minutes on Monday and I just thought it would be easier to take him in.  His fingers were all swollen as well (even though he was elevating and icing the wrist frequently), so we headed in.

They got us in very quickly, and after the first doctor looked at it, decided to take another X-Ray and send us to the Orthopedic Surgeon down the street.  So after a couple hours at one Doctor, we headed over to the second appointment with the X-Ray in hand.

Again, we got right in and talked to the Surgeon.  He explained what happened much better and also told us that he cannot move the fingers much or the hand or the growth plate can slide right back off.  They also informed me that this would be a long bit of recovery.. at least 12 weeks that we would be seeing him.. with a follow up at 6 months if all goes well.

So.. he got a long arm cast.. up to almost his armpit and he has to go in once a week for X-Rays until he has bone healing.. and NO Writing for 3 weeks.

Of course he is right handed and he broke his right wrist. 

I am now dealing with the High School as he has weightlifting.. and The surgeon wrote him a note telling the school that he cannot participate in ANY physical activities for 12-14 weeks at least.. the school is telling me that if he cannot do at least one thing in the class (participate in some weightlifting) that he will not get credit.. so I have been on the phone with the counselor and will be talking to the principal later today.. UGHHHH..

The biggest concern is growth arrest (where the arm stops growing) so that is what they watch for up to a year after the injury.. fun fun.

 I apologize for the late entry and not getting by to everyone's blog.. I came back into work yesterday and Man oh man.. I was behind...

Happy Thursday.. I will post tomorrow on the Barn Progress.. it is pretty exciting!

What a Saturday

Saturday started out as normal as most of our Saturdays have been lately.  My youngest goes snowboarding every Saturday through a Winter Ride program and I have to have him up in Stanwood by 6:00am each Saturday.  This last weekend was his second trip up to the mountain this year.  We headed out on time, he was on the bus on time and I headed back home to get busy on the barn project with the husband.

I had to run to the barn where I board my horse first however, to groom my poor dirty horse beast and to change blankets and clean his stall.  I did all that, chatted with the ladies at the barn and headed back home.  All was still fine.

I plugged my new HTC Droid phone into the charger and MacGyver and I headed down to the barn.  The dogs had been outside already, and we wanted to get busy building the frame for the front of the stall.  Real progress and I was excited. 

I will post on the actual progress later today as some things happened that changed our course toward the end of the day. 

We set the footing in concrete and then one of the batteries for an important tool was dead.  While the battery was charging, we decided to head up to the house for some lunch. 

I then discovered my phone had a shattered screen.. and it looked like it had been stepped on.  The important piece of information here.. my phone was almost completely useless.. it was broken.  I noticed I had a couple of missed calls from Paco though and figured he was calling to check in while he was eating lunch.  When I called him back however, he said that actually he hurt himself.... and then I asked.. well what do you mean?  You hurt yourself like a cut?  He said no.... that they think his arm was broken.. but they had him in the lodge and the bus was leaving in an hour and he could ride the bus back down.. I was to pick him up at the drop off location, and the medics suggested he get seen that evening to confirm that it was broken..

There was nothing else we could do.. so we went back down to the barn and continued working until it was time for me to leave to pick up the child.

After I picked him up, we went to two medical facilites.. only to find them closed.  I ended up taking him to the E.R. in Arlington and we got pretty lucky as it was not busy...

The triage nurse took a look at his wrist after removing the make-shift bandages the medics had done and said right away.. oh it is broken all right.. he needs x-rays.  They ordered the X-Ray and we were sent back right away. 

After the X-Ray, we were waiting for the Radiologist to take a look, and a Doctor came over and asked me if I was the mom.  I said yes, and he asked me to come and talk with him away from Paco... Uh OH.. I thought.. this can not be good... and I was right.

To be continued........

Seed Catalogs

I am in planning heaven right now.

I have received at least 5 seed catalogs.. including one for Raintree nursery and Burpee.. These catalogs are just incredible reading for me...

Yes.. I am turning into a geek.. and I have come to terms with it.

This year, we really want to plant some things to improve our property.  One of the big draws in a lot of the places we looked at over the last year, was acerage that included gardens and fruit trees.  There was a particular place.. one that we were just too late to get, that had the most beautiful grounds.  I want to emulate part of that property by creating some of the beauty at our place.

They had a small orchard, and an incredible garden.  She had veggies, Dahlias, and Berries in the garden.. and in her orchard, she had peaches, plums, apples and cherries.. all favorites of ours.

I orginally wanted to go all out on the Garden this year and the orchard, but I have realistically decided to scale back a touch.

I am aiming for 4 raised beds of Veggies and Berries, and 4 fruit trees.  Two Apple and Two Cherry.  Next year we will add the Peaches and the plums.  I would like to eventually have three apple, two peach, two plum, and 2 cherry trees.  I also would like to have raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. 

This year, I am planting two blueberry bushes and four raspberries to see how we do.

I have not decided on the veggies entirely, but most likely will have Tomatoes, Peppers, Asparagus, Brussel Sprouts, Cauliflower, Lettuce, Carrots, Radish, onions, Potatoes, squash, Beans, pickling cukes and Sweet Peas.  I may try some pumpkins and corn, but it will really depend on how much space I end up with that is ready to go.

Living in Washington State, we tend to have heavy soil with a large amount of wet in places..and at our house it is pretty much clay with some dirt mixed in. I have decided that for the next couple of years, as I get my "feet wet" in gardening for some food, I am going to do raised beds.

This is what  I am envisioning for the front yard.




Has anyone out there done these from Scratch?  It is supposed to be fairly easy to build these? (and since I have my own MacGyver, I am not too worried about the building of them)

I have access to a large amount of manure and compost in my neighborhood (in fact, right across the street)
and I will have a few truckloads of good topsoil to work with.

When looking at the catalogs, there are a variety of things I would love to grow and try, but I am really reeling myself in right now.  Looking at what we really like to eat, what I can keep up with, and what is fairly easy to grow.

I want to can tomatoes and beans.  I plan on freezing the peas, and the zucchini squash for bread and other things.  Lettuce and cauliflower we will eat all the time.. and the same is true for the Brussel Sprouts and Asparagus, but I have big plans for the asparagus once it is mature and can be harvested regularly. Making Pickled Asparagus...hnmmmmm

I also plan on making pickles if I can grow the cukes.. that will be a total experiment.  I have made pickles with my aunt before, but never from pickles I have grown.  My boys love pickles.. and my youngest especially likes bread and butter pickles.. so this is something I know he will help with.

Growing up, my mom had a pretty fantastic garden, but I have not really grown too much on my own, other than tomatoes and herbs for quite some time.

Anyone else drooling over seed catalogs and planning for spring and gardening?  What are you planning on growing this year?  Anything?  Everything? 

How difficult is a small veggie and herb garden?  Anyone have a home orchard?

I have a tack room!

Yesterday, we finished two walls... so I know have a tack room.  The electrical will be finished on Friday of this week, and we should have the actual stall frame done next weekend as well. 

I hit a wall today, mostly because I was sore, and because we stayed up late last night.  I did get some things accomplished around the house, but we mostly watched movies and relaxed.  I feel a bit bad about it, but I also know we needed to recharge before the week ahead.

Here are the progress pictures:

This is a picture of what will be the feed room.  They had a problem with some of the electrical, including this wire which was just hanging down, not working.

This is the tack room without the walls.  This is what we started with last weekend.

The view from the other side.

This is the frame and re used decking piece getting ready to be installed.  That is MacGyver with the drill..

This is about where we left off last weekend on each side.  3/4 of the walls up in the tack room

This is a bit better picture of the semi finished wall.

Here is the finished wall.  The open door will be Beau's outside door.  The electrical work that Mac Gyver will be doing this week includes, reinstalling the central light in the ceiling of the tack room, and two standard electrical outlets in the tack room.  This way, I have a power source in the aisle, in the wash rack and in the tack room. 

The front side of the tack room and all of the stall fronts will be done in Tounge and groove.  The vertical boards in this pic will be stained darker and we will have lighter wood in the tounge and groove on the fronts.
He is also installing a header at the top all the way around to give it a much more finished look.

Hope everyone had a fabulous weekend.. I am off to get some more rest now.  I will post some more pictures tomorrow!

Portable Pony

Yep.. It is true.. I know have a portable pony.

I am the proud, proud owner of a Morgan built Horse Trailer.

The trailer is a beauty, and when it is delivered tomorrow I will snap my own pics to share!

Why is it being delivered???  Well.. our lovely 1971 GMC pickup is not equipped to tow such a beautiful new trailer.. we don't have the electronic brakes or the proper plug yet, so the nice people we bought the horse trailer from are going to deliver it.  (She wants to see my arena anyway)

I feel a little bad about this purchase and I will explain why.  Then please tell me if I am crazy to feel bad, or if it is truly okay and I should not feel horrible.

The trailer was posted for sale this past Monday on our meetup groups message board.  I saw the message, looked at the pictures and called MacGyver.  I pleaded  asked him if we could go and look at it.  To my surprise, he agreed.  I emailed the seller (who is a member of our group), and proceeded to make an appointment with her for the following evening (last night).  She did tell me she had someone who wanted to buy the trailer but had offered her less than she really wanted to take and had to get a loan.  I then told her we had cash in hand and that I was very interested.  She agreed to let us come last night.  Well, obviously I bought the trailer.  The reason I feel bad, is the other person is also a member of our group, and was so excited about the trailer, and I kind of swooped in on it.  She did arrange a loan, and got the money, but would not be able to do anything until Saturday. 

Is this one of those.. first come first served situations?  Would any of you stepped aside, since someone you knew and liked very much wanted it as much as you?  I have been wanting a trailer like this for 4 years, and I cannot be more excited about this trailer.. but I still feel kind of bad. 

I also feel  bad, because after I went to do the trailer deal, I met a couple of horse friends for dinner and drinks.  One of these is my former trainer/good friend.. and another Dressage Trainer.. and good friend..
I gushed about the trailer.. and they seemed very happy for me.. and after the other trainer/friend left.. I was left with my former trainer/friend.  We were leaving and she was telling me about their really scary financial stuff, and I felt horrible for gushing about my new trailer that was all paid for, and is so fancy  compared to hers.  I left feeling like a bit of a heel..


Thoughts???

Some random Pictures and things from Last year

So everyone is doing these wrap up posts about 2009... and I realized.. there is one key thing I have never shared about last year.   The reason this is key, is that it shaped where I am today.. with the horse, and the barn and arena at home.  It is something my husband actually was excited about... what happened when I came home from World Cup in Vegas last year.....

This is a picture of me and the fabulous ladies I went to World Cup last year with.  I have the really really white legs..lol

World Cup in Vegas was an amazing experience.  We watched every Dressage Session.. got our picture taken with Steffan Peters, watched the retirement of Brentina, enjoyed our VIP passes, Watched some of the Show Jumping before we left, We drank copious amounts of wine at the event with those VIP passes.. and more than a copious amount of Vodka Cranberry. We critiqued and enjoyed saying DRE-SSAGE to each other based on the foreign announcers pronunciation..(Still cracks us up). We shopped, ate, shopped some more.. It is a MECCA for horse crazy people to shop. A couple of the ladies we were with shopped Anky.. and I got me some of these Durberry Boots that I had been dreaming about...

And my new Sabre Bridle in COB size.. Darn small headed Morgans..( from my FABULOUS saddle maker.. Bourne.  She is the BEST and I still love my Saddle I bought from her.. You can check them out HERE.

and I got one of these: (it is one of my most prized things from World Cup)  I cried during the retirement ceremony of Brentina  it is okay.. most everyone did.  I was in the third row.. It was incredible!

I will have to find some time and dig out the photos I have.  They ended up on a hard drive in my old laptop.  I just have to do the tedious work of transferring photos off of that onto my other external drive.

It was such a great trip in many ways.. I went with some great ladies, we had fun, and I also came to a realization that trip. (This is the part my hubby was happy about)
I decided to call it quits with my trainer after that trip.  she was with me on that trip.  I finally came to the realization that it was more important to me to have her as my friend than to have her as my trainer.

Has anyone else dealt with that?  Had to terminate a business relationship in order to salvage the friendship?  She doesn't read this blog that I know of.. but I will keep the details to myself at this time.

I am getting ready to find another trainer (for me.. and for Beau) and hopefully I can find one that will come to my little arena and teach me Dressage.. not someone else's interpretation of dressage.  I was with my trainer for three years.  I love her dearly as my friend, but I need to get serious now.  I want to progress.. I want to put the work in but I want someone who will be my teacher and who has the credentials I am looking to achieve.  I would like to make it to first or second level on this horse.. after that.. we shall see where we want to go.

Distractions

I love a good distraction.. and I also love shopping.

I have been wanting a certain large purchase for many years.  As in.. 4 to be exact.  Since I got Beau. 

I have been wanting my own horse trailer for some time.  But other things have always gotten in the way.. and  I have always had access to transportation when I needed it.. but any horse owner will tell you.. it is just not the same as having your own.

This last year, my MacGyver realized I would need one when Beau came home.. so I started looking.. and he had questions.. many questions.  Because of the way we are financially.. a horse trailer is NOT something that I can buy on credit.. NO financing.. so we have to be able to pay for it out of pocket.  Also.. I am a little picky.

I want a 2 horse slant load, matted, padded trailer with interior lights, a walk in dressing room, newer, that is shiny and has new brakes and bearings, good floor, and is very very safe!  Oh.. and for about 5k.. hahahahahahahahah... those deals are few and far between... and don't last long. 

So imagine my surprise when a gal on my meetup group listed her 2004 Morgan Built 2 horse slant with drop down feeder windows and all the bells and whistles???  I called my DH and asked him if we could go and get it.. look at it, and he agreed.  So tonight I am going to get my Horse Trailer... I can hardly contain myself.  I am so thrilled..

What is the catch??? I had to make a deal with MacGyver.. that I wouldn't ask him for another horse for at least a year...LOL.. that was an easy deal to make.. since he slipped up.  He has been saying NO MORE HORSES ever.. and now he just opened the door.. Silly Silly Husband..

I feel like the luckiest girl right now.. Barn, Covered Arena, and Horse Trailer.. WOWSER!  I just might be able to get out and trail ride this year.

Here are a couple of pics.. I sure hope I don't jinx this by posting!

Barn Progress

I don't have too much to report.. and the photo evidence is locked away in my camera.  One of these nights I will get them uploaded and added so that you can see what I try to explain here.

Last weekend, we started on the barn.  The original plan was to dismantle all of the salvageable wood, put it in neat piles and see what we had to work with.

MacGyver had another plan.  We had some sections of Deck that we had removed from the backyard and he had drug them down to the arena to dry.  When we tried to disassemble them, they protested quite a bit.  This led him to the idea of using the sections to build the walls of the tack room without taking them apart.

I was skeptical.. very skeptical.  He is, however a very smart man and incredibly handy.  It worked.  It is not the sleek look I was going for, however, it is very functional, very eco friendly as we are re using wood, and it is free.  Free is important to MacGyver.

It is a little more "rustic" looking that I wanted, but after some Bead Board and some cabinets, a couter top, and paint... a little furniture.. I think it will look very very nice. 

I will be sure to get those pictures up as soon as I can.