Saturday Project: The Barn (Winterizing Part I)

There is never a lack of projects to do on the farm. Sometimes, it can almost be overwhelming if I think about it too much, so I try not to :)

They say the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.

Personally, I'd rather work on the barn.

This is the barn back in February, when I first started on it.

There was rock everywhere. I had just set up the panels to see where the stalls would fit.

My landlord had cleaned out only the things he could sell or wanted to keep, and left a pile of junk in the corner for me to deal with. I can't complain too much, though, because he pretty much lets me do whatever I want with the place and he's working with me to try to buy it. Can't really complain about that--I can sure deal with a little junk in exchange for flexibility!

So I dug in, began removing all that rock one shovel-full at a time, lined the stalls and got things set up.

Through the summer I was able to put up 3 useable stalls, clean the rock out of about 2/3rds of the barn and set up a light and some fans. I was able to also get those storage sheds cleaned out and am currently using one for feed and the other for tack--really nice to have them right there and be able to keep the mice out of both!

Well, with winter right around the corner, it's time to get the barn finished and set up for not only the winter months, but also for spring show season.

First, taking down the fans and cleaning them before putting them in storage. How in the world do these things get so dirty?!?

Now it's time to clean. I clean out the stalls everyday when they're used, but I still had to clean the isle, wash down the stalls and clean the feed and water tubs, and do a little re-arranging.

You might notice way back that there is a stall missing a plywood liner. I rearranged that one huge stall into two smaller ones, so I'll need to get a sheet of plywood before putting a horse in there, but by doing this, I was able to eek out a total of 5 stalls in the barn AND keep my indoor grooming area!

This is the final stall left to complete. I need to rake up and remove all the rocks, put up plywood, set up the panels and a gate and put in the feed and water tubs. Easy peasy (sure)!

Next year I'll start in on replacing the panels with real stalls, but for now, due to my limited budget, these will have to do. The horses seem to like them, though, as they can see out and of course during the summer the air circulates really well. They are heavy-duty panels so if they get cast in them, they won't bust and cut them up.

Here is a finished stall (well, I need to put in a couple more bags of shavings and the water bucket, but it's at least all washed down and clean). This one is the smallest of all of the stalls as the rest are 10.5x14'. This one is 10.5x10'. This will be a great stall for fitting up a weanling but in the meantime Bambi, being the smallest one here, will call this stall hers....

Here is is, the barn all clean!

Now all I need are 4 sheets of plywood, 2 2x4's, 15 bags of shavings, 5 heated water buckets, 3 stall mats and 2 superheavy sheets of plywood (for the grooming area) and I'll be set. Well, except for electricity....

All in good time. All in good time.