Busy day! . . .

Jerry is here tidying up the flower beds and pressure washing the horse mats that will go on top of the concrete that was poured around the barn.  (The horses don't like walking on concrete, given a choice.)

 

The mats will go on the concrete, but I think we will be using those grids to make a non-concrete parking area off the driveway.

Those cars next to the horse trailer are parked on the grass where the grids will probably go. 
Putting those grids down, the grass will grow up through them so you can't see them anymore,
and then you won't ever have to get out of a car into mud with them in place!

 

Those mats were stuck on top of the dirt for a year or two and ended up covered in mud. 
So now they need to be cleared off before sticking them on the cement.

Once Jerry pressure washed those mats, they looked just like they looked when we bought them! 

And while Jerry is dealing with that stuff, Blaze Zuvich (Zuvvich Construction) is here with his uncle putting up the roof along the far side of the barn to keep Shadow and Arthur's stalls as  dry and safe as Duke's stall is.

 

Blaze is incredibly very neat about everything -- now THAT's a fine thing!

 

 

 

Here's a view of the doors into Shadow's and Arthur's stalls before the new roof gets built.

Adding that roof on the right side will probably make the barn look a bit more balanced, too.

 

Here's a view of the new walkway taken from our office window.  VERY nice. 
Those openings through the walk are there to allow water to run out of the paddock,
through the walk, and out into the front yard instead of building up in the paddock.

While I was taking that picture, the horses came in to check things out and amazingly, Shadow now seems to be the predominant one.  SHE got to go eat the hay while Duke just stood and watched her!  Amazing!
I've never seen him allow ANYONE to eat instead of himself! . . . EVER!  Even when he was staying over at Al's with a dozen or more other horses!

So I moved that hay container out of that corner where only one horse could get to it
and put it over where they can all eat out of it.  Shadow decided to go into Duke's stall
to eat the hay there while Duke ate out of the outdoor container.  (Poor Arthur was
just standing off to the side waiting for one of them to move away so he could eat too.)

  

Arthur is very careful -- he doesn't rush in and eat with either of them
until he's SURE they aren't going to mind.  (Very wise for a little guy!)

 

And speaking of Shadow, she appears to be gaining weight in just the couple weeks since we got her!  MAJOR eater!

 

 

Shadow is such a pretty girl, huh?

She really does look wonderful.  But she obviously weighs a bit more already. 

Of course it took a while to get photos of her alone --
Arthur is moving along RIGHT next to her almost ALL the time!
(I think people who don't recognize a mule might think she has a baby!)

 

Of course, Duke is also part of the group -- just generally not RIGHT next to Shadow the way Arthur insists on being.

 

 

Okay.  So it's only about 10 AM.  I'll post more photos this evening once that roof goes up.  Oh - and the guy who's doing the roof said he would be glad to cut down those four huge trees over on Vickie and John's property, very close to the barn, so we wouldn't have to worry about them coming down on the fence and/or barn during hurricane season!  Hooray!  Once he decides on a price, I'll get hold of Vickie and John and see if they're happy about it.  For that matter, I think we would probably be glad to pay part of it as well -- I REALLY don't want to have to worry about yet another tree falling over during a storm!

 

Anyway - what a great weekend, huh?