Mark has been saying he needs a new computer and I got an e-mail ad from Walmart with a really nice laptop for a REALLY good price so I went ahead and ordered it - except my bank is under the impression that only criminals buy from Walmart online, apparently. They stopped the charge and sent me an e-mail about their "fraud protection." I was FURIOUS! I gave them a call BEFORE I calmed down, but once I got done shouting at them, we finally came to an agreement of sorts -- the next time they have their doubts, they will CALL me to ask if it's my charge instead of refusing the charge. And I gave them the info on our upcoming trip, so we'll see how that goes. Anyway, they proceeded to process the charge for Mark's computer.
Now if that computer just gets here before we leave, we'll be all set. If it doesn't, well . . . he'll just have to use my pink one on the trip I guess. :=) Not a big deal, though. He just wanted the computer mostly so he wouldn't have to use his work computer for his personal stuff since their main office has access to everything on their network. Privacy is a fine thing.
Then this evening I started looking for a carpenter. I've been hearing newscasts all week saying this year's hurricane season will be particularly bad, and then Mark sent me that weather report earlier today about that possible tropical depression already, and I decided I better get busy and get those doors I bought to use for shutters on the front windows installed "just in case." So I've got someone coming out to give me a price for installing them. I have to say, though, that I've looked for hinges heavy enough to support those things (they weigh a good 100 lbs each) and the best price I could find was about $75 EACH . . . for a HINGE! . . . times 8 of them is $600 JUST for hinges! Good grief! I'm hoping this guy can get something at a wholesale price somewhere, but I have a feeling the fee he's going want to charge is NOT going to make me happy. But -- we'll see. Can't hurt to ask. He's coming by on Saturday.
There's a guy from a window company coming out on Saturday, too. We were going to screen the wrap-around porch on the front of the barn, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought it would be a better idea to put in windows and close the porch in entirely instead of screening it. That way we can use a dehumidifier out there and that will make it possible to store anything at all we need to store there -- tack, unopened feed, whatever. Once I started looking around at all the "stuff" I have all over the house and in my truck and over at Al's barn that needs to go out to the barn, it was pretty obvious that a 10 X 12 tack room just wasn't going to be enough space. That porch will add another 224 sq ft of space (8 X 28) -- VERY helpful. If I still need more space, we can always close in the rest of that porch -- another 8 X 10 area. But I think enclosing the front area will be plenty. I plan to use that 8 X 10 open area of the porch as the mounting area - something like you see on therapeutic riding web sites like below.
The porch is already about a foot high, so we'll just add a platform on there another foot or two in height and build a little fence a couple feet out from the porch to keep the horse close to the platform. That way we can just walk up and sit down in the saddle instead of having to "climb" on. That SHOULD make it possible for us to ride for another 10 or 20 years, I'm hoping.
Mark and I talked about it and we've decided to close in a lot of the porch and just put a couple windows in. The end on the right in the picture will be inside Bug's paddock - not a good place for glass anyway. I guess we'll decide exactly where to put windows after I get prices from the window guy this weekend!
Poor Mark. You know initially he was just going to build a little three-sided run-in shelter. The barn and fencing have both come a looooong way since then, haven't they?
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