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Equine Kingdom Riding Academy Progress

CONTINUED FROM Equine Kingdom Riding Academy Progress Page 2

(November 10, 2010 through March 5, 2011) 



On May 13, 2010, Sally A. Nolte purchased a 7.5 acre piece of property located at . This farm will be come their dream farm, given lots of time, TLC, and money!

SCROLL DOWN FOR PICTURES AND PROGRESS REPORTS!!!!

DAY 303 OF WORK - 5/20/2011 - Friday
Put another wheelbarrow of dirt into the flooded stall.

Made two more pallets for the hay barn.

Sprayed another 2 gallons of Pasture Pro on the weeds - the stuff I sprayed yesterday is already vERy wilted and nearly dead! Today I got the entire back stretch of the pasture path sprayed, ifniished spraying the end pasture, and sprayed a bunch o
DAY 302 OF WORK - 5/19/2011 - Thursday
Sprayed with Pasture Pro: the long strip on the side of the pastures, the entire barnyard, both sides of the riding arena, about 1/3 of the back pasture, from the riding arena pasture gate down to the 14' gate by the pastures and all the way over to the round pen, plus almost the entire far left pasture.


Built pallets to put in the hay barn for hay storage, and moved pallets & mattresses around so the hay has nice places to sit.


Painted a bunch more round pen panels silver!

Planted the Tea Olive Tree in the middle of the garden.


Planted/landscaped two red delicious apple trees, two golden delicious apple trees, four plum trees, a japanese pencil tree, and a boxwood shrub. They look wonderful!


Got a two truckloads of manure hauled away, and four wheelbarrow loads of compost pulled out of the pile for use in planting stuff.


Watered all the veggies & fruit trees and shrubs

Placed all the rest of the trees/shrubs where we plan to plant them!

DAY 301 OF WORK - 5/18/2011 -Wednesday
Took Mystique to Red Letter Farm to get her some professional training.


Picked up feed and fly traps at Southern States.

Fixed the electrical stuff in the hay barn so now all the lights/plugs work.

Scraped up all the dirt from around the concrete around the pool garden and put it in the pool.

Put a nice brick border all the way around the garden.
DAY 300 OF WORK - 5/17/2011 - Tuesday

Dumped all the topsoil on the pool garden and spread it all out nicely.

Put an ad on Craigslist for free manure to hopefully get rid of some of it - it's piling up a lot.

Killed lots of flies - with a swatter, and hung up new fly strips.
DAY 299 OF WORK  - 5/16/2011 - Monday
Took down the floodlight that doesn't work from the front of the barn.

Refilled grain bins, swept tack room, raked the barn aisle.

Pulled buttercups.
DAY 298 OF WORK- 5/14/2011 - Saturday

Took the horse and did a fundraiser/benefit for Isla's Inspiration, a Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

Cleaned up around the farm.
DAY 297 OF WORK - 5/13/2011 - Friday

OUR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! We bought our farm one year ago this day!


Went and picked up 20 bags of black mulch and 50 bags of topsoil, plus some little starter vegetables to plant.


Cleaned up around the farm.

Pulled lots more buttercups.

Got a bunch of the round pen panels painted silver to make it look much nicer!

DAY 296 OF WORK - 5/12/2011 - Thursday
Got another load of shavings delivered and shovelled into the shavings shed. What a lot of work!


Got the pool filled in with dirt! Yay! Now we can finally turn it into a little garden.


Got the dry lot pasture's bottom half smoothed out - it was a mess from the tractor work and the tree work that got done, and there were lumps and hills and pits everywhere. Now It's nice and smooth.


Got the path around the pastures smoothed out - same story as the pasture, there was a huge ditch and a huge tree-hole that got filled in, and everything smoothed out.


Filled in/smoothed the huge ruts where the tractor got stuck in the mud back when the fence was being put in last month.

Got an area in front of the fence scraped all the grass away, leaving dirt so we can landscape.

Pulled up another wheelbarrow's worth of buttercups from the field - the area from the pasture gate to the arena is cleared, as is half of one of the big pastures. Sadly, there are hundreds of thousands left to go.
DAY 295 OF WORK - 5/11/2011 - Wednesday
Painted all the new tin put up on the hay barn.


Hung up all the tools on the outside of the hay barn.


Spread 25 lbs of oats throughout the pasture with the alfalfa and fescue in it.

Painted one 12' gate.


Oiled the entire rest of one long side of the new board fencing!


Pulled up two full wheelbarrows' worth of buttercups out of the field, and got the entire barnyard cleared of buttercups and various weeds.

Started working on getting the electrical stuff fixed/run in the hay barn so there is light in the leanto as well.
DAY 294 OF WORK - 5/10/2011 - Tuesday
Put another post in the ground for the front wall, concreted it and got it attached the rafters.

Put tin up the rest of the way around the leanto.

Clenaed up every bit of the boxes and buckets of stuff we had sitting in the sheds and tack rooms, sorted everything, and got everything nice and clean and organized.


Hung a bunch more stuff up on the lean-to walls.


Took piles of trash and an old table out to the road to be picked up for trash tomorrow.

Took the canopy, folding tables, and a bunch of instruction manuals up to the house.

Removed the rest of the dividing wall inbetween the old shed storage space and the hay barn.


Moved the fertilizer, seeds, paint, and grain into the storage lean-to instead of in the hay barn taking up space.

Put a pallet in the middle of the shed and stacked the grain on it for storage.


Put boards up on the old storage space and closed it in for extra hay storage.


Put an 8' gate up on the lean-to opening.

Put dog agility stuff in the big cleared area to put together and practice with the dogs.


Stacked up all the wood that was in the truck yesterday out by the firewood at the front of the house.

Cleaned everything out of the new tack room, the stalls in the new barn, and the old tack room and put it in the new lean-to.

Put shavings in Enoch's stall.

Went to Lowes & got more roofing nails, nails and screws, a bolt for the trailer hitch, and a light for the lean-to.
DAY 293 OF WORK - 5/9/2011 - Monday
Cleaned out the 8' shed section - threw trash out, cleaned out junk, sorted stuff.


Put almost all the electric fence materials in one bin, neatly. Rolled up wire, got rid of junk, sorted everything out nicely.

Fixed the red wheelbarrow's handle that has been broken for a few months now.

Put the back wall up on the hay barn lean-to, and two pieces of tin on the sides.


Removed the plywood wall - the divider between hay barn and shed - and used it as the inside wall for the new lean-to shed. We are expanding the hay barn another 8' and just using the lean-to for storage.


Cleaned junk out of the hay barn - including a table, which is going out in the trash.

Started sorting the scrap wood pile. Throwing all the firewood-sized pieces in the truck to put up at the house, and all the longer pieces are going in another pile to sort, decide what we want to keep, and cut the rest up for firewood for the winter.


You can see the ground and the tree trunk again!

Came across our first ever poisonous snake out here! I was throwing wood in the truck bed and heard a noise and looked down to see a copperhead slithering under the pile of wood. I brilliantly ran and got a shovel and chopped its little head off.


Went to Burlington and checked out the area we're doing a fundraiser for Isla's Inspiration, doing pony rides, on Saturday May 14th. Also went to a mechanic shop and picked up about 60 gallons of oil to treat the fences with.


Hung up a bunch of stuff in the new shed/leanto, moved a bunch of stuff in.

Got all the t-posts from the pasture (from the previous riding arena) and all the posts from behind the barn and put them in the shed.

Ordered shavings, did some hay-searching to try to find good prices.

DAY 292 OF WORK - 5/8/2011 - Sunday
Got almost the entire roof put up on the lean-to! it looks great!


Put together a large plastic bin for storing stuff in down at the riding arena. Cleaned out all the old bins and got everything neatly organized in the new one.

Got fill-in plants and stuff to fix the broken wheelbarrow, and a pin to fix the trailer hitch, at Lowes.

Went to Southern States to get a gate but they were closed early.
DAY 291 OF WORK - 5/7/2011 - Saturday
Put up all the rafters on the new lean-to today, plus the bottom stringer, and all the purlins for the roof! It's all ready to put the tin up!
DAY 290 OF WORK - 5/6/2011 - Friday
Picked up materials at Lowes to build a 16'x12' lean-to on the side of the hay barn for extra storage.

Dug holes in the ground for the posts for the lean-to and concreted the posts in for support.


Got the top stringer put on the hay barn and the metal bracket type thingies put on the top of it to attach the rafters to.

Got the bottom stringer marked where it will go and cut off the top of the posts that were too tall.


Replaced an entire section of fence boards that accidentally got painted silver, and we couldn't get the color to return to normal. It was in a very conspicuous place, so we felt the need to replace them.

Put the last set of dividers up in the new barn between the stalls where the hay was stored.

Hammered all the pointy end of the nails in the new barn down so the horses can't get scratched.

Replaced fly strips in the barn.
DAY 289 OF WORK - 5/5/2011 - Thursday
Picked up a huge wheelbarrow full of garbage and trash from the large open area between our two driveways (not where the horses' pastures are).

Poured what's left of the alfalfa seed and the ryegrass & fescue seed into empty buckets to store them, which is a lot easier than keeping them around in the bags!

Oiled a LOT more fence boards.


One 14' gate, two 12' gates, and two 6' gates got painted today.

Put all the fence posts, scattered around, in one pile by the last stack of fence boards.


Stacked all the scattered fence boards in one pile.

Gathered up all the stickers (board separator sticks) and put them in one consolidated pile inbetween some of the trees.

Sorted through and stacked up all the extra boards left over from building the barns into a nice, neat pile stacked up vertically instead of spread all over the place.

Picked up all the board ends and such from the barnyard where we've been cutting fence boards.

Picked up a bunch of trash from the farm and riding arena, stuff that's just sitting around or been unearthed as we work on the farm.

Touched up a strip of blue paint on the picnic tables that I missed the other day.
DAY 288 OF WORK - 5/4/2011 - Wednesday
Painted fences with oil.

Started the landscaping - started getting the sod dug up so we can put some bushes in.

DAY 287 OF WORK - 5/3/2011 - Tuesday
Fertilized the last two long pastures with 17-17-17.

Planted fescue & oats in the last long pasture.

Overseeded with fescue and ryegrass on the path, barnyard, and out in the big pasture by the riding arena & round pen.


Finished painting the side of the new barn, so they're all completely done now!!


Painted the new barn tack room step gray, and the step in the main barn to the tack room gray.


Oiled a bunch more fence boards - the back side of the long dry pasture, part of the backside of the next pasture, and part of the opposite long side of the long pasture.

Picked up a wheelbarrow full of sticks and junk from the pastures, mainly the long dry lot pasture.

Picked up manure out of both small paddocks, and all but a little bit in the big dry pasture.

Picked up sticks from the barnyard, and picked up all the manure from the barnyard.

Put dressage letters up in the riding arena!

Dragged the arena because it's supposed to rain tonight.

Pulled weeds out of the riding arena.
DAY 286 OF WORK - 5/2/2011 - Monday
Painted both picnic tables blue!

Finished painting all the arena fence posts - the riding arena is DONE!!!!!!!!


Painted over half of the last side of the new barn (gray), top to bottom.

Put shavings in Prissy's stall.

Finished painting the barnyard fence blue, where we had run out of paint earlier.

DAY 285 OF WORK - 4/30/2011 - Saturday
Put up all the battens on the eaves on the last side of the barn! All ready to paint!

Fixed the brakes on the truck - replaced the brake lines.

Mowed the grass in the front yard, side yards, dog lot, and around the fence by the barn.

Went to Southern States & picked up 4 bags of Equine Senior, 3 bags of alfalfa cubes, 2 mineral blocks, and one bag of rice bran.

 Two 6' gates and one 8' gate got painted silver.


Refilled supplements for horses for the next 2 weeks.
DAY 284 OF WORK - 4/29/2011 - Friday
Put up all the battens on the last side of the new barn!

Painted another end of the riding arena posts.

Oiled a bunch of fence boards in the long pasture where the horses are turned out.

Moved the big water trough into the big pasture, and the smaller one into the smaller paddock.

Brakes on the truck failed, so no horse show tomorrow - have to fix the truck now. :/

One 12' gate got painted silver.
DAY 283 OF WORK - 4/28/2011 - Thursday
Finished the bucket of blue paint on the back sides of the riding arena fence boards. Painted one long side and half the back side of fence posts gray.


Put the horizontal board on the back side of the new barn so we can start putting battens up.

Raked out part of the manure pile nice and flat.

Picked up sticks and branches from the storm that blew things around last night.
DAY 282 OF WORK - 4/27/2011 - Wednesday
Painted the back sides of the riding arena fence boards most of the way around.
DAY 281 OF WORK - 4/26/2011 - Tuesday
Oiled the rest of the outside of the smallest paddock, and the entire inside of the boards.


Oiled another front section, the second long pasture, and three sections in the long dry lot pasture.


Painted the rest of the top board of the riding arena, plus the second board all the way around, and finished painting the other side of the short end of the riding arena, and partway around the back.


Picked up a wheelbarrow full of metal and trash and wood from one of the pastures.

Picked up a 45 gallon trash can full of wood, trash, and sticks from the cleared area where people park.

Put shavings in Jitterbug, Zelda, and Aislinn's stalls.
DAY 280 OF WORK - 4/25/2011 - Monday
Finished the last line of fence boards in the pastures!!! YEAH!!!


Oiled 2 lines of fence boards - the front of the first long dry lot pasture, and the front of the smallest dry lot pasture by the barn.


Spread alfalfa seed in ALL three of the long pastures that have been seeded with fescue and oats, and also all the way around the path around all of the long pastures.

Spread some white clover seed in one of the long pastures.

Pulled up huge piles of buttercup plants by the roots.

Painted the top board of the riding arena fence almost all the way around!

Put Prissy in the dog lot to "mow" the grass.

DAY 279 OF WORK - 4/24/2011 - Sunday (EASTER)
Pulled up huge piles of buttercups from the pastures and disposed of them.

Spread manure out in the longest, biggest dry lot pasture.

The Oats and fescue are coming up really nicely in the long pasture next to the dirt lot!


Fescue is coming up on the path all the way around the pastures, and is about an inch high there and on the hill on the back side of the second barn.


The grass on the riding arena hill & between the fences is about 4" tall now and growing very nicely.

DAY 278 OF WORK - 4/23/2011 - Saturday
Did major cleanup around the farm for the Easter Egg Hunt.

Cleaned all the manure out of the both small dry lots.

Hosted out FIRST annual Easter Egg Hunt, with lots of awesome prizes and candy!



Watered the plants.

Put shavings in Sebastian's stall, did major cleanout in all the stalls.
DAY 277 OF WORK - 4/22/2011 - Friday
Picked up a 50lb bag of alfalfa seed at Southern states, and a bag of white clover and red clover to seed the pastures with.

Picked up beet pulp, 3 huge salt blocks for the pastures, sunflower seeds. Put everything away in the hay barn/tack room.

Picked up 30 quarts of oil for the fences, got a bunch of food/fundraiser stuff at Sams.
DAY 276 OF WORK - 4/21/2011 - Thursday
Got a two-step platform built at the new tack room to make for easier access.

Built a feed box in the very last stall that was blocked with hay for a long time.

Got the latches put back on the doors of the barn so the upper doors stay back and the bottom ones can stay closed.


Got all the bricks from yesterday unloaded from the truck and stacked up nice and neatly.
DAY 275 OF WORK - 4/20/2011 - Wednesday
Went & bought/picked up 650 bricks for doing some landscaping work around the farm.


Watered all the trees/bushes.

Painted the rest of the end of the barn, and got all the battens put on the top and painted.


Picked up a 120' hose and two 4'x125' landscaping fabric at Sam's Club.

Finished the rest of the fence on the outside line and the back line of the fence.


Seeded the third long pasture with fescue & oats.
DAY 274 OF WORK - 4/19/2011 - Tuesday
Got the burn pile debris buried and out of sight.



Put the adhesive letters on the painted boards and found out they don't stick at ALL, so I'll have to come up with another idea for that. :/ maybe try adhesive of some sort.

Put up the rest of the boards along the front row of the pastures, and over halfway down the outside line of fencing.


Got another load of sand delivered and spread in the arena over the spots where the tractor tore up the corners and sides.

Grass is growing profusely on the areas we planted to keep the riding arena from eroding - mostly rye grass, but the fescue is coming up slowly. It's coming up a little bit in the barnyard, and on the back hill of the new barn, and also starting to come up on the 14' path going around all of the pastures. It looks like a slightly fuzzy green carpet!
DAY 273 OF WORK - 4/18/2011 - Monday

Raked out manure pile nice and flat.

Painted the front & open side of the new barn, and finished the back side of the barn.


Put Z's on the six remaining stall doors on the new barn.

Put a toy up in Sebastian's stall - it's supposed to help keep him from cribbing.


Measured/cut/painted boards to put vinyl dressage letters on for the riding arena.


Knocked off the backs of all the screws on the new barn doors.

Got 131 bales of hay delivered & stacked in the hay barn.


Put shavings in Enoch, Aislinn, & Mystique's stalls.


DAY 272 OF WORK - 4/15/2011 - Friday
Painted Blue on the new barn.

Put all the battens up on the front side of the new barn.

Organized riding arena & dragged it with the harrow in prep for rain/bad weather on Saturday/Sunday.

Put a board up by Enoch's stall to make the wall look nicer.
DAY 271 OF WORK - 4/14/2011 - Thursday
Painted half of the side of the new barn blue.

Picked up 1 wheelbarrow full of sticks from the pasture.

Raked out the manure/compost pile nice and flat.

Moved all the hay bales out of the wet stall and into the dry stall. Cleaned up/threw away all the hay on the bottom of the wet stall that was there to keep the hay bales dry.

Put barrier boards up by Prissy, Mystique, and Aislinn's stalls so they can't drop grain down inbetween the stalls.


Fixed all the crossties that have been messed up by horses pulling on them.

Cleaned out/organized all the riding arena bins - Now there is one for helmets, one for boots, one for half chaps and gloves, and one for games.

Put up the riding crop holders on the riding arena fence.

Finished the jump we made a while ago - added 2x4s to it so that the jump cups will fit properly.

Cut the snowflakes down from the ceiling, and the other twine pieces.

Replaced the bits on Mystique, Merlin, and River's bridles.

Dewormed Merlin and Sebastian.

Put battens on the new barn on the front, inbetween the corner and the tack room door.

Sold a hackamore/bridle and got a bunch of free samples of dog/cat/horse food from a local supplier.

Moved pile of dirt by drain, and shoveled dirt out of the rain trench  in front of the barn.

Put up the last 12' gate, and the last 6' gate.

Stapled fence wire in place where the horses have broken parts of the fence, and put new insulators up as well.
Set up a fundraister for the riding arena - drinks and snacks for sale!


DAY 270 OF WORK - 4/13/2011 - Wednesday
Painted the whole back side of the main barn blue! It looks really cool!


Got the battens on the side of the new barn finished!

Unpacked/put away stuff that came in the mail - saddle pads, saddlebags, bits, dewormer.

Labelled all dewormers for the horses for the rest of the year.

Cleaned up tack room, refilled feed bins.

Picked up 6 bags of Triple 10 grain.

Rearranged the riding arena, lunged Mystique over jumps, set up arena for lessons tomorrow.
Moved the summer camp sign out by the road back a few feet and moved it over.

Picked up Fruit trees and landscaping bushes at Walmart!!
DAY 269 OF WORK - 4/12/2011 - Tuesday
Put up the top row of pasture boards and the bottom row of boards up - now all that remains is the long side of the third pasture.


Put up more battens on the end of the barn.

Picked up a whole bunch of sticks and trash from the pastures where the ground and trees have been torn up.
DAY 268 OF WORK - 4/11/2011 - Monday
Put "Z"s on 8 stall doors on the new barn, all four stalls top and bottom are done.


Put up a 12' gate in the pasture.

Did about 1/4 of the end of the barn in battens.
DAY 267 OF WORK - 4/9/2011 - Saturday
Took horses and 8 students to a show.




Painted Aislinn & Zelda's stalls with oil to prevent them from chewing on boards.

DAY 266 OF WORK - 4/8/2011 - Friday
Worked on putting up the fence boards on the second long pasture.


Put up 2 6' gates on the pastures.

Seeded the second long pasture with fescue & oats all the way down.





DAY 265 OF WORK - 4/7/2011 - Thursday
Put boards up on the front & part of the side of the next long pasture.


"Oiled" the rest of the medium paddock, and some of the boards on the other paddock.

Seeded The top & left long side of the "trail" path that goes around all the pastures. Also fertilized it all and fertilized the barnyard.

Painted a bunch of the top rail of the riding arena fence. Not entirely sure if we'll have enough paint to do it all in blue, so kinda waiting to do the bottom rail until we see how far it goes.


Nailed in all the boards on the riding arena fence that still needed to be done, as well as all the rest of the boards on the other paddocks/pastures.

Moved the summer camp sign panels back farther from the road.
DAY 264 OF WORK - 4/6/2011 - Wednesday
Picked up fallen sticks & debris from the storm. A tornado passed through really close to here!
DAY 263 OF WORK - 4/5/2011 - Tuesday
Picked up sticks.

It rained horrendously so pretty much the only thing we did was cleanup in the barn.
DAY 262 OF WORK - 4/4/2011 - Monday
Got painting done on the barn. Cleaned up barnyard & storage stalls.

Got 2 loads of manure hauled away, and sold a lot of the poles & scrap wood out there.
Day 262 OF WORK - 4/2/2011 - Saturday
Painted the barnyard fence blue.


Painted the back of the barn doors blue.

Painted 7 sections of fence boards in the paddock with oil to keep the horses from chewing on them.


Painted the sign out by the road blue/gray.
DAY 261 OF WORK - 4/1/2011 - Friday
Painted the rest of the inside of the barn - gray stall frames, blue doors, and blue stall divider bars. very pretty!


Cleaned out the storage stalls in the new barn and got them all straightened up, Moved hay bales around, cleaned up the tool shed, picked up sticks, moved the picnic tables to a better place. Raked the barn, cleaned stalls, put new shavings in, swept the tack room/feed room.


Put the 12' gate up.
DAY 260 OF WORK - 3/31/2011 - Thursday
Dreary day, cleaned, picked up party supplies for the weekend.

Painted most of the rest of the inside of the barn - stall frames, batten/stall dividers, etc.
DAY 259 OF WORK - 3/30/2011 - Wednesday
Rained most of the day again, so we just cleaned the barn and took care of the horses. My parents are coming to visit this weekend, so we want things to look nice when they get here so we've been doing a lot of extra cleaning.
DAY 258 OF WORK - 3/29/2011 - Tuesday
Finished boarding in the entire large pasture that we've finished the posts for. Hung the 6' gate up.


Painted a bunch of the battens in the barn, the stall divider bars.

DAY 257 OF WORK - 3/28/2011 - Monday
Organized tools and the barn, cleaned, etc. Rainy Monday.
DAY 256 OF WORK - 3/27/2011 - Sunday
Picked up almost 2000 pounds of grain, stored it in the shed, etc
Rained most of the day, so mostly did cleaning/caring for horses.

DAY 255 OF WORK - 3/26/2011 - Saturday
Painted the stall dividers on the front of Prissy's stall. Got three stalls' worth of framing painted. Almost done the inside of the barn!

Burned the brush in the pool, and also got the pile out in the pasture started, finally!


Picked up sticks for HOURS - cleaned up a large area up by the house that got all the woods cleared out, and picked up a ton of sticks from the pasture to throw in the brush pile to burn.

Chris smoothed over a bunch of the ground where the tractor tore the ground up.

Dragged the riding arena with the harrow and got it all smoothed out.


Pulled a bunch of roots out of the ground and put them in the burn pile.

Replaced the manure fork head with a new one.

Refilled grain buckets. Got two more grain bins, filled them, put them in the feed room. Moved everything around in the feed room and tack room.


Dug a trench along the front of the barn so water can't get into the stalls. 
DAY 254 OF WORK - 3/25/2011 - Friday
Got a long line of fence posts put in. Tractor got stuck big-time and had to be pulled out.



Manure got taken away by the truckload today!



 
DAY 253 OF WORK - 3/24/2011 - Thursday
Got another line of fence posts driven in, all the way along the front of the pasture.

Grass is starting to come up!


Started putting boards along the back fenceline.


Picked up sticks.

Painted the rest of the eaves on the end of the barn.

Painted tack room doors.


DAY 252 OF WORK - 3/23/2011 - Wednesday
Got fly strips put up all over the barn and in all the stalls and tack rooms.

Painted part of the last section of eaves on the end of the main barn.



Put stall plates back up, and Prissy's special stall sign, and the thermometer. 

Picked up junk from the riding arena - river sand comes straight from the river, and is full of junk like sticks, rocks, trash, straws, cans, and all manner of other things. I keep a bucket down at the arena to put it all in as it turns up.
DAY 251 OF WORK - 3/22/2011 - Tuesday
Put a cross brace piece on all 7 of the stall doors in the main barn, and painted them all bright blue to match the outside doors. Painted all the rest of the walls in the main barn gray to match the outside walls.
 

Got the other small paddock put in, and the boards put up and the gate put in.


Fixed two gates on the main fence line that didn't hang quite properly.

Painted the hose holders, water pump, etc.

Hung up the inspirational posters and pictures, and the marker board and clock.


Put heated water buckets away, refilled grain cans. 
DAY 250 OF WORK - 3/21/2011 - Monday
Got two 14' gates put up, and a 12' gate into one of the pastures. Got the ENTIRE dividing fence line put up today! Now the horses can't get into the riding arena pasture and run up and down the dirt slope and mess it up (trust me, this is a game to them!)


Took down and cleaned out all the heated water buckets and set them out in the tack room to dry. Replaced with regular buckets and refilled all waters.

Put shavings in Prissy's stall.

Put one entire bag of fertilizer over the area from the fence to the riding arena, and down both sides where grass seed got put. Watered everything that 400' of hose could reach, which was everything but the very back corner of the riding arena.

Painted the rest of the front of the barn (gray), and painted the window sash/frame and front tack room door blue, and finished painting the two back barn doors blue.


Took down all the horses' blankets, shook out/folded them, and stored them in the new tack room.


Cleaned the new tack room, put tools away, swept, moved saddles and such around.

Two truckloads of manure got hauled away.
DAY 249 OF WORK - 3/20/2011 - Sunday
Painted the rest of the front barn door and most of the back two doors, except what I couldn't reach with the step stool.

DAY 248 OF WORK - 3/19/2011 - Saturday
Got the rest of the battens on the main barn finished, and cut the corner of the barn off and got a new set of corner battens put on.



Put 2 sections of battens on the new barn!


Painted all three hay barn gates, both riding arena gates, the main pasture gate, and the barnyard gate silver, and all the chains too!




Painted the rest of the front of the lower half of the barn, and about half of the top eaves.


Raked out the manure pile and the manure in the paddock.

Cleaned the tack room, raked/swept, dusted, etc.

Moved the little rubber stall mat pieces into the hay barn in the corner.

Painted half of the front barn door blue - it looks amazing!
 
DAY 247 OF WORK - 3/18/2011 - Friday
Got 2 more buckets of paint - one for the riding arena fence, and another blue one for the barn doors and such.

 Painted all the lower half of the front of the main barn.


Painted the entire hay barn!


Finished cleaning/grading Mystique's stall and got stall mats put in!

Vet came and did shots, coggins, and teeth floating for 5 of the horses.


Chris tore another tree out, and smoothed out the big ugly dirt pile in the pasture, and tore up 6 stumps so we'll be able to put the other fence lines in!!
DAY 246 OF WORK - 3/17/2011 - Thursday
Finished the rest of the boards on the riding arena fence! We still have to go back and put some of the nails in, but the important thing is that the fence is COMPLETELY up!!


Put in a small pasture by the barn for the horses - a paddock, really, only big enough for two horses at a time. But it's something! and it's all board fencing!


Junier & Jody got another entire row of fence posts put in - apparently, this row was harder than all the other ones have been so far.


Went to Southern States and got TWELVE gates for the farm - 2 14' gates to close of the big fence, 4 12' gates for pasture access, 4 6' gates for HORSE pasture access, and 2 8' gates for the other small pasture up by the barn. Also got 2 bags of oats to plant for temporary grass in the pasture.

Started cleaning out Mystique's stall so we can finally put stall mats in it! 

Put a gate up on the small pasture so we could turn horses out.
DAY 245 OF WORK - 3/16/2011 - Wednesday
Got one short side, the rest of one long side, and most of the other short end of the riding arena boards put up - and part of the other long side. It looks wonderful!


Put both gates up on the riding arena.


Moved all the riding arena jumps, equipment, bins, barrels, poles, and cones back into the riding arena!

One little pasture's worth of fence posts got put in, and the end posts for the long fence to split the pastures in half.


Picked up a bunch of rocks and sticks from the riding arena. 

Seeded  the slanted side of the riding arena and all the areas of the pasture near that, that got torn up from the riding arena reconstruction.
DAY 244 OF WORK - 3/15/2011 - Tuesday
Got Merlin and Sebastian, our two new horses, delivered today! They settled right in just fine. We even rode them in the evening, and they were great! Turned them out with the other horses in the evening, and they got chased around and shunned, which isn't any different than normal.


Got almost the rest of the battens on the top of the end of the barn put on.

Put up fence boards for about half of one long side  of the riding arena! It looks amazing!


Got the last long side of the riding arena fence posts put in.


Seeded the area between the riding arena fence and the neighbors' fence with rye grass.
DAY 243 OF WORK - 3/14/2011 - Monday
Got the rest of the long side of the barn painted today. Put shavings in Aislinn, River, Enoch, and Zelda's stalls, and also in the two new horses' stalls. We purchased two new horses for Equine Kingdom today! Merlin and Spock are our new additions, and they will arrive tomorrow afternoon to settle in! We can hardly wait! We bought them from Virginia, so most of the evening was spent on that particular excursion.

One short side and one long side of the riding arena got completed today! it looks amazing! They are doing a wonderful job!


DAY 242 OF WORK - 3/13/2011 - Sunday
No rest for the weary! Spent all afternoon teaching lessons, the a lot of the night researching horses to purchase - we are looking to add another horse the lesson program! Cleaned up the riding arena and barn, and got several truckloads of manure taken away. Picked up a blank sign to decorate to put out at the road so people will know they can come get manure.
DAY 241 OF WORK - 3/12/2011 - Saturday
Painted one long side of the barn, one short end, and about half of another end! It looks amazing! It's also going to be the most difficult and time-consuming barn to do, since it's the largest. Taught LOTS of lessons and a birthday party.

DAY 240 OF WORK - 3/11/2011 - Friday
Picked up sticks from the storm. Taught lots of lessons.

Got poles, pressure treated boards, and other stuff at Lowes to make jumps. Unloaded all that.

Got another truckload of fence boards delivered from Harvey and got them all stacked up neatly.
DAY 239 OF WORK - 3/10/2011 - Thursday
Rained all day, so mostly not much got done.

However, we DID get all the paint we need for the farm!
Got 6 5-gallon containers of gray barn/fence paint for the barns, 1 5-gallon container of blue paint for the doors, 1  5-gallon container of ALUMINUM paint, silver, to paint the gates from red to silver, and 12 1-gallon paint cans of all different colors, to paint jumps and poles with!
DAY 238 OF WORK - 3/9/2011 - Wednesday
Got cleanup around the farm done.

Got inspection for the barn truck done, and sold the rest of the tin.

All 4 corners of the riding arena got put in - measured out, squared up, etc.
DAY 237 OF WORK - 3/8/2011 - Tuesday
Tractor got delivered to put the posts in tomorrow for the riding arena!


went to work for Harvey today and brought home 21 16' boards for the fences.

Seeded most of the barnyard with grass seed.

Picked up a huge wheelbarrow full of sticks from the pasture.

Sold the jetskis and 11 sheets of tin.
DAY 236 OF WORK - 3/7/2011 - Monday
Built a nice wooden wing jump! It looks fantastic!


Raked out the manure pile nice and flat.

Finished the lighting in the new barn! All the electrical is done!
DAY 235 OF WORK - 3/6/2011 - Sunday
Got the temporary riding arena fence put up so we can still ride, until the real fence gets put in.