Work, work, work . . .

Mark and I actually managed to clean out the stalls outselves for once!  More than TWENTY wagon loads, I might add.  (We lost count after a point!  Gee, I wonder why.)

Didn't think to take any pictures until we were close to done.  But here's Lizzie's stall after the first six wagonloads were taken out of that one.  Those corner piles were a good three feet high when we started -- and her stall wasn't nearly as bad as Arthur's!

Sure glad we have those grids on the stall floors.  No matter how much crap there is, it's STILL way easier to clean them up than it used to be at Al's place with dirt stall floors.  In fact, that grid is so good that we're going to try and find some sort of grid to put around the barn on the OUTSIDE.  (Look at that mud outside her door -- and that's on top of a rubber mat, too.)  So I ordered one case of grids from Amazon tonight.  It will cover a 4' X 25' space so we're going to try putting that down along that fence that Arthur is digging up after Mark gets a chance to re-grade that area.  (If it ever stops raining long enough for that dirt to dry out.) 

Anyway, now they all have nice tidy stalls again - and everyone seems really happy about that.

Arthur is very happy to have a clean stall --
but even happier to have Lizzie back in her stall next door.

And Lizzie is back in her now-clean stall - this was before we gave her more shavings.

And then there's Duke's stall that needed absolutely NO cleaning.  He is SO tidy ...

Maybe he keeps it tidy because he likes to spend so much time in there.  When he hears thunder, or sees someone pull into the driveway, or even when he gets tired and wants to sleep he runs up and goes into his stall.  Happy boy.

Okay - so now that the barn is clean again, we've been thinking of ALL the other projects we need to get done.  Check these out --

And these "house projects" don't even include all the MAJOR projects - like replacing the floors, changing out the countertops and backsplash, installing new wall ovens . . .  you get the picture.  There's ALWAYS more.



Putting in that window between Arthur and Lizzie is definitely number 1 on the "barn projects"!  He will be SO happy when he can actually see her.  And maybe - MAYBE - he'll stop racing up and down the fence line and he'll just stand there and stare at her.  Maybe.  We hope.



These aren't in any particular order - just stuff that has to be done.

Whew!  Just thinking about it to make these lists is exhausting me.  But David Behrens is not only doing the window shutters, he will also be removing the window seat and repainting the front porch.  And Buddy and Lisa will be bringing a guy who will be working here on the weekends, I think.  So between the two of them, maybe we can actually get all this stuff done!  Hooray!!