Reddish

We've finally finished painting the barn!!!  

Steve's dad started us with one full side painted in the red but I realized the custom base we went with made it a bit too bright.  The second coat is the less vibrant red and I like it so much better.

The trim was the hardest part of course since we tried to tape to get straight lines but I always end up going back over the mishaps with a small brush for touch ups.  Steve had to do the high areas on the ends of the barn since I hate getting too high on a ladder.

I did the majority of the lower surfaces and trim...section by section.

Steve also fixed the stall doors that had really chewed up wood and it looks fantastic.

Here's the shed row side all painted red and awaiting the trim work.  It seems we had to wait a long time between painting days because of weather or temperature so it felt forever to get this completed.

I also painted the two gates attached to the barn.  One stays open most of the time to let the horses come and go and therefore the white X faces outwards with a neat effect.

I like the pop of the white trim!  Above you can see the left door doesn't have trim below the door.  We'll cut a piece of wood at some point and match it to the other door.

For now I am so pleased to finally have this task done and hope the paint holds up for a while.  Of course we already have smudges of dirt where the ponies rubbed some body part on the edges....LOL.  It's a barn, it's gonna have dirt!  I will have to buy some more of those nubbin scratchers and place them near their favorite spots!

It's so great finally having a major task complete and we can move on to yet more projects we have on the list!

Barn Lighting

Daylight savings time end means it gets really dark at 5:30pm and I, not being able to see in the dark need lights in order to feed my horses.  The southside of barn where we've added the new fencing is now the feeding area directly out of the feed room.  

We added a new light on one end of the barn to light up this area and also to continue lighting in the direction of our run in shed where there are hay bags for an addtional feeding location.

Also right by the feed room there is a new light shining down towards the door.  My interior lights work great and the new location for the switches work perfectly.  

Steve still has to work on the south side of the barn where the stalls are to rewire the lights for the stalls which are switched on via the tack room.  Then there is a new location on the outside of the barn for a switch that will turn on the aisle lights and barn yard light.  Our barn will be well lit for any needed illumination!  I could even work one of the horses at night if I need to!  

And as you can see the barn is getting painted.  Steve's dad worked on the southside of the barn while we were on vacation in Australia.  We had to buy more paint so the next two days with the warmer temperatures means I'll be out there adding a second coat and starting on unpainted sections.  I'm loving how it's looking so far.  The sunset lighting in the above pictures sure makes it glow!  LOL

New fencing section

Steve and I have been busy as usual.  I've spent time finishing up my Scuba diving certification in prep for our trip in October to Australia.  Before the trip we wanted to get a new section of fencing put up to change where the horses are fed now that the only door you can use for the feed room is the big door.

Steve staked out what he calls the "whoop-de-do" like what we have on the other side of the barn.  It's basically a human fence pass through.

Steve's new auger makes the job of digging post holes so much easier!!!

He also make sure that the fence posts didn't slope therefore you have a place to rest your beer when you are working out in the yard!  LOL.

We got a new 14 foot gate placed (eventually wanted to get another in the back so you can enter with a truck and trailer through the back to deliver hay etc.)

Then of course the posts had to be cut to the fence size, they were just a little too tall.

I started working on painting the doors to the hay room....we'll eventually have the entire barn painted but that's a lot of paint and time.  Luckily I have a father in law who likes painting and stayed here while we were down under!

So the rest of the post is just pictures since as I write this we have to head out and finish up installing some barn lights and doing some wiring.

I played with a silly filter on my camera here.

Complete fencing!

Lastly we had to run the electric fence connection to another area of the electric fence so we rented a trencher to do that job.  The picture is of Steve but I'm the bad ass who did the job mostly!  Hear me roar!  More to come!

Barn doors

Our hay room barns doors were falling apart and since we rearranged the hay room so we can stack the hay completely against the one wall I'll be accessing the room from these doors instead of inside the barn aisle.  We needed new sturdy doors that would function for this.

The most easily accessible picture I have of the old doors is this photo of me moving a planted water trough to our front side yard.  Love my tractor!

Steve is the man and got all the supplies he needed and went to work.  He made them so lovely!  We'll be figuring out better steps than my improptu blocks that happened to be lying around the property.  It's always one step at a time.

Of course now I need to get them painted and paint the entire barn, we have the paint just the time and not really hot weather is our preference.  This will give me motivation.  We still have to fix a few of the lighting switches so that they make sense for how we are arranging things and then we will install a fence near the new hay door to expand the wormhole area for the horses.  It will give them more space when they aren't in the pastures.

Ponies are doing well, haven't ridden in a few weeks.  Been working on a scuba certification and then also went to the beach to relax for a few days.

So hot and humid

Since its been so hot and humid I've ridden very infrequently.  Mainly hosing off the horses and working on projects or just staying cool myself.

Chance is always so itchy and sweaty, would love to find a shampoo or topical spray that can help with that.  At least the boy is flexible and can reach the itchy parts.  He's also a good drinker!

Hope you all don't mind the short post, did this on the phone since I really wanted to get something up!  Fall is coming soon I hope!

Trailer maintenance

My trailer was parked by the barn for the past nearly two years since moving here....has it really been that long?  In that time gunk has grown on the paint and simply made the trailer very dingy.  I didn't know how much until I moved the trailer away from the barn where it received more full sunlight on both sides.  I took the power washer out and began working on the trailer.  WOW.  You've got to be kidding me!  Many shades of ick came off the trailer.

I have some more work to do on it, the interior got scratched up in the move and a lot of paint is peeling so I'll need to power wash that, sand some and repaint some areas.  You have to do this with older trailers anyways but my plan will be to freshen it up and then get a good cover for it.  I should have done that to start with but after moving and all the stuff that goes with that it was far from my mind!  We are continually doing work around the place or just maintenance but at least it's slowly settling down.  Ponies are happy and I've taken some more lessons on Dani but lately it's been sporadic with rain and my schedule.  

Tree Frogs and Water Troughs

While working on the barn wiring Steve and I have noticed that we hear a really load trilling sounds sometimes.  I've identified the call to a tree frog called Copes Gray Tree Frog.  Lo and behold one evening we heard the sound not up in the barn roofing but near the water trough.  There there were two tree frogs handing out on the rim!  So cute! 

I knew that there was a build up of gunk in the troughs even though I scrubbed them and refilled them weekly.  It builds up so fast and sometimes no amount of scrubbing work will reduce that thick layer bio-film.  I would only scrap the surface with my scrub brush, it was frustrating.  

So I took out our power washer and spent a hot day powering through all that gunk; soaking myself in the process but I didn't mind.  It working like a charm.  I'll still scrub every week but will most likely have to do a deep cleaning on a more regular basis.  I've also gotten some apple cider vinegar to add to the tanks again so help reduce the rate of growth; I'm only adding a cup per filling and we'll see how that goes.

The scum builds up pretty fast with the heat and humidity but at least the power washer makes the trough look almost new.  I'm sure the horses don't care either way as long as the water is clean and fresh but come on....frogs were starting to like it so they were well overdue for a good cleaning.  Yuck...so embarrassed to post this!

Just look at it now, brand spanking new and shiny looking!  The frogs have since moved on but water beetles continually like to inhabit the trough within a day or so.  Luckily I've yet to see mosquito larvae so my weekly dump and scrubbing prevents that issue.  A power washer is such a great investment.  I've got another power washer post coming up!

Rewiring the Barn

 Steve and I recently did some work in the barn.  Our hay room was always awkward to stack hay since I used the small human door to enter and feed from, as you see in the picture below.  Because the doors are across from each other, and we load the hay from the big doors we've always had difficulty trying to stack the hay while leaving a space by the small door for my feed bins and supplies.  Now we can load in hay from the big doors and have the human door stay closed while we stack the bales flush against a full wall.  We moved several light switches and sockets to that side of the hay room as well.

Our barn had all the switches to the lights in the hay room, meaning when I entered the tack room I had to go to the hay room to flip the switch.  Steve rewired all the switched and moved the boxes to more appropriate locations.  We now have the inner barn lights, stall lights and tack room switches in the tack room.  The exterior lighting and the hay room light can all be turned on from the hay room.  The next step will be to build a fence on that side of the barn to increase the wormhole (paddock area) into that space and feed the horses from there instead in the stall.  It doesn't matter where I feed them I just need to have the door I get the food and hay from be near their hay stations so that will work.

We also bought another fan so each stall has it's own and Steve placed sockets near the fans and hardwired them into a switch in the tack room.  Now we don't have extension cords running up in the rafters to work the fan!  It's so nice!  I really wonder why the lights were wired that way in the first place.  I love walking into the tack room and switching on a light....feels so fancy!  LOL

The horses of course had to supervise while we worked, the photo above I call "Steve juxtaposed with pony butt"  Hahahahaha.  There is always something to work on around here!

Serene sunday

Serene Sunday

The splendor of spring...

Beer holders!!!!

Serene sunday

The tractor

We've been having fun with our new toy.  It mows well and if we need any front or back implaments we have the option!  We errected a portable garage  to put the tractor and our expanding arsenal of equipment.

Steve purchased it at Harbor Freight a local tool place.  We were able to get it up in a couple hours though we started late and it was very dark by the time we were done.  It felt like camping!

The only issue was about a week later we had a lot of wind and discovered that the anchors aren't that great.  The sign on the inside of this little shed states to remove the tarp everytime there is heavy rain or wind.  Um...yeah that would be a pain in the ass.

My husband was luckily home as the whole shed lifted up and began rolling towards the electric fencing that would have been destroyed and released our ponies.  So glad nothing bad happened but feel bad that I was at work while he struggled with the thing.  He disassembled it while fighting 30-40 mile an hour gusts!

So our tractor, aka Kevin (named after the minion) is in the garage and his car, who is often at the garage at the airport, will be outside for a bit.  We are currently pricing those metal carports that are guaranteed and secured better.  We'll probably get one with one full side as it will be up against our tool shed.  Steve has eventual plans for putting a large garage behind the barn that will store the tractor, our tool shed and then beer brewing stuff for his hobby (of course I will store soap making and bee stuff there too I'm sure!)  But that is many years in the future.

And just for some laughs here's this:

Serene Sunday

Spring trimming and Riding Lesson.

I'm getting my butt in gear and back in the saddle.  I've enlisted an instructor that my neighbor utilizes to train and ride her horses.  Erin is awesome!  My lesson was amazing and having not been on Dani in a while and being really rusty and nervous in the new location (just my neighbors arena) she was very calm, methodical and put me at ease.  I plan to take lessons every other week and hopefully get hubby on board with Chance.  I need to ride Chance some too.  

My lesson was mainly Erin trying to see where Dani and I are in our communication etc.  We trotted most of the lesson and I was worn out!  We did get pretty good work done with getting Dani to respond to slow downs, speed ups and turns.  She's no ballerina but she did quite good for being rusty herself.  Now that it's been a week I'm at a loss for more description of the lesson.  It's good to have someone push me some again and getting that trot done was great, I need to work on posting the correct diagonals though!  The plan is to eventually get this mare on the trails around here and for me to not be a woos about that.  I'm nervous and that's not a good thing to be when I need to support her!

As to Chance, I'm going to give the Australian saddle another try with a cushy pad I bought for the seat.  The problem I found on the first ride was the over girth that these saddles have and the location for stirrup attachment.  Not the best design in my opinion but people swear by them.  I'm going to give it a few more rides before I break down and get a western saddle for him.  Steve can ride in which ever one he desires.  I'll keep everyone posted.

So why does this post have pictures of Dani's feet?  Well spring time means trimming of the fetlocks.  My horses have both gone from goat beards and bell bottoms to a much more horse like clean cut look.  Always nice to have a good look at their heels before the mud starts up in the spring.  I have to be on the watch for scratches and the trimming helps.  

The spring clipping has led to excess hair that I just don't want to toss.  I think the birds will appreciate it.  Looking at the saucer I placed out for the birds I can't help but think about Donald Trump.  Hmm....hopefully there won't be an angry tweet from in the future....wait what am I saying.  LOL.  I've since picked up the hair and placed it in a cute barn shaped suet feeder, sans suet of course.  This way birds can pick it out and bring to their nests.  I need to get more bluebird houses and other critter houses for that matter but that's another story.