May 19, 2012

All Work And No Play

It's not really like me to sit around and sigh for long when I can't ride my little project.  It's not as if there is ever a shortage of things that need tending to!

I always work very hard to make sure that I keep my BO's happy no matter where I am.  While Solo has become a very easy horse to take care of, Encore practically needs his own wait staff.  With five kinds of food, a wheedling plea for better hay, and constant adjustments to try and get back all the weight he dropped in the farm move, I want to simplify and contribute as much as I can to the farm.  I will bend over backwards and work all day long to make my boys' home the best it can be.

Feeding spreadsheet duct taped to bins on waterproof paper?  Check!
Supply my own shed for all my eventing crap so I take up zero barn space?  Check!
Prepare the next feeding myself whenever I am there so the next feeder has life easy?  Check!
Perform archaeological dig in shed, cleaning it, and add some gravel and stall mats to stabilize the floor?  Check!
SmartPak it up so there is no supplement scooping or buckets to fill up the shelves?  Check!
Cap all the t-posts?  Check!

I even go further.  Given that the boys are now on full pasture board and the pasture horses are fed via gator feed transpot, I provided colour coded buckets with their own labels thanks to SmartPak's ingenious covers (seriously an awesome invention)!  You can't tell in the picture, but yes, their names are embroidered in TFS powder blue.

 
 And while I liked my shed, divided neatly in half so I could imprison Solo and Encore could eat his dinner in peace, its open sides meant it only really provided shade at oh, noonish, and only was a rain shelter if the rain came straight down with no wind (pretty much never).  So while the BO had offered to enhance the shed construction when he had more funds in a few months, I decided to take an afternoon and give the boys some sunblock on their western wall.  The BO can consider it his early Christmas present. 

Of course, I had forgotten that sheets of treated plywood weigh 47,000 lbs, so everyone in Lowe's got to see me fall flat on my face when one dragged me over.  Oh, and also that lumber costs a gazillion dollars.  And I invented some pretty interesting rock climbing moves to get the top crossbeams up.  But I conquered it all myself except the two top sheets of plywood (yeah, you try it!) so I roped in one of the women who works at the barn (horsewomen are awesome and can do anything) to help me lift and screw in the top sheets and cover boards for the seams.  Four 4' x 8' sheets of plywood, four 2 x 4 x 10's, a box of super-magic treated lumber screws, and a lot of acrobatics and "magic words" later... 

Before.

After.  The prisoner entreats in futility.
 These horses better freaking love me.

10 comments:

  1. Nicely done on the shed project. Wrestling plywood is no fun - for the muscles or the wallet!

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  2. ahhh I know this kind of work all too well. I LOVE that you turning into a regular ole' farm girl! More power to you sista! You will so have freakish strength and those sheets of plywood will start to feel like they weight 4lbs. The pocket book though, that will suffer every damn time. And yes I am sure those boys do love you dearly!

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  4. No, cfs, it is not!

    Don't worry, Amy, there is no "turning into," I've always been this way. I am used to having no one to help me so I just do what needs to be done when I see it. I'm all surprised when people come up and help! I'm in charge of all our equipment at work and schlepping generators and ridiculous stuff everywhere. I'm used to being the strongest one on my team, but I just lost all my weight and muscle this winter from bad bad life stress. I have, however, just discovered the magic of tasty protein shakes.

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  5. Dang, girl, that's some nice work! Having hauled plywood around by myself, it's not a fun job to do alone.

    If you ever get bored color-coding your horses to their buckets and smartpaks, can you come to my house and do mine? Pretty please????

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  6. Poor Salem, he has bucket covers but sadly they are not monogrammed. How my little steed suffers!

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  7. Protein shakes ftw!

    I am duly impressed. I'm sure Solo is, too.

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  8. SB, you should try them. It's like all of a sudden you can focus on your work and never run out of energy. And I say it is good!!!

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