We're Almost There!!

Monday, July 13th

I am happy to report that except for the roof, the stalls are done! We've had a couple of runs of musical rooms, but other than that the girls have settled into their new quarters nicely.

Pictured on the left are Lady and Rina in their new rooms. Looking good girls!! :o)








Rickey found some nice gate latches (not that we use them very often, but you never know) and then added a 2x4 across each of the dividers to keep greedy little noses out of other people's buckets at mealtimes. Thank you again EFA (Etsy for Animals) for helping to make the Girls' new stalls a reality!

The next inSTALLment (shelter for The Girls)

July 10th
Well we've been both rained out and pooped out for several days running, but we finally managed to get a bit more work done on the stalls last night. Taya must have missed poking around all of the cool tools, because she was all over everything. Here she is helping Rickey to measure for a gate...



With Taya's invaluable assistance, Rickey managed to get all of the gates built yesterday and Lady graciously agreed to come down and inspect each one individually. Wasn't that nice of her? :o)


Of course it wasn't long before everybody was down the hill checking out the new digs...


We left the stalls open for the girls to wander in and out of and help them get used to the idea of dining in a new spot. Now all we need is a roof (we're still waiting to hear from the guy in Eufala - I'm praying like crazy that he'll donate most of what we need :o) See you next time, and thanks for reading this far!

July 1st

We missed a couple days of working on the stalls due to rain (and although Tuesday night was rain-free, we were all just too pooped to do anything but sit around and stare at each other :o)

Tonight we decided to put the dividers in between the stalls. We used 2x6's for these, not only for overall added stability, but also because any squabbling that takes place usually happens between the stalls (you know, "nah-nah" fights).



It would seem that Taya was feeling a bit guilty over sending Evinrude to supervise the other night; she was all over everywhere today...


I think she was a bit disappointed that there was no auger involved in today's work, but she did inspect the post hole diggers most carefully (I explained they were a low-tech relative to her favorite toy :o)

We managed to get all of the dividers put up tonight - it's coming right along. Next up will be the gates, hopefully followed by a metal roof (we still have not heard back from the building place yet, but I am ever hopeful) . I stood on my tippytoes to try to get you a decent photo of tonight's work:


It's looking good, isn't it?? Thanks so much for reading this post (see you next time :o)

Update: The Third InSTALLment...

We got a little bit more done today (nothing terribly exciting, mind you) after we put some more hay in the pasture. Cassandra decided to roll in this afternoon, instead of riding in her usual place on the back of the farm truck :o) Champ appeared to be somewhat confused by this.









The girls did not come down to supervise
our work this evening, but instead sent a duly designated representative (photo right*).

Taya did come down once to check on our progress (and make sure their appointee was fulfilling his duties). But since her favorite toy, the auger, was not there she left :o)


* I'm not quite sure what this little guy's fascination was, but he stayed perched on the fence wire for a good hour while we worked and actually turned and looked at me when I took his picture - isn't he cute? Oh, and just in case you're wondering about his name, it's from the Walt Disney movie, "The Rescuers".








We put stainless steel plates inside and out to splice the individual of 2x4's together down the sides; we had a little trouble with one or two of them because the wood was slightly warped (grrr).


Rickey pulled them together as close as he could using a scrap piece of 2x4. We'll leave them that way for a bit and wet the wood to pull them even closer.



That's all for now - thanks for staying with us all the way to "the end" :o)

June 29th
The horrible pun in the title is compliments of Meghann at Little Studio Jewels (I told her I was going to borrow it; awful though it may be :o)

We managed to "box it all in" last night before we ran out of daylight - methinks we're getting warmer...we may even finish this project in time for Christmas. Okay, perhaps that was just a tad sarcastic (but it already feels like we've been working on this for a month, although I know good and well we haven't).


We made a run of three boards all the way down each side. The ends as well as the sections between the stalls will be made using 2x6's for extra stability, but we used 2x4's to run the outside length. This helps us to keep the cost down (I'm not quite sure why, but the pressure treated 2x6's are close to twice the price of a 2x4).





When we've finished putting it all up, we will take down that section of electric fence (you can just see it in the photo above, left)

Our favorite "building inspector" returned, but since there was no auger involved in today's labor she quickly lost interest. She decided she would snack and supervise instead.







Here's the other end of the stalls (photo: above left). The photo on the above right shows the new stalls in conjunction with the training/demonstration area, which is located directly next to the stalls. We left some space between the two, so people would be able to walk down the length of the stalls and see the horses.

All in all, I think it's turning out rather well (of course I don't think we'll win any prizes for beauty, but it works for us! :o) Oh, and thanks for reading this far...