Status report

Poor Mark -- he is working his butt off right up until the last possible moment.  Right now (Sunday noon) they are putting up the divider between Duke and Lizzie's stall,

Standing in Lizzie's stall looking out one of Duke's doors.  (The divider will run from that 4 X 4 on the left.)

after which they will be putting up the railing at the side of the open porch facing Duke's paddock. 

On the open porch looking into Duke's paddock.

That's going to be "it" until he comes home again, I think.  The plumbing isn't run into the divider walls yet so the plywood is only up on one side -- Duke's side since he has a tendency to back ALL the way up as far as he can to poo in his stall over at Al's.  I HOPE he will go outside to poo once he's here since he's not locked in, but just in case . . .

Standing in Ladybug's stall looking toward the center hall

And the solid side of the other divider faces Bug's stall since she's the one who is always kicking the wall.  I HOPE since the divider is too tall for her to see over here (as opposed to the short ones between Al's stalls) that she will be less likely to do that, but who knows.  Anyway, I'm sure they're fine for now and they can finish building them and - I hope - put the polyethylene on there NEXT time Mark is home.

At least the porch area has been framed in at this point so it won't take too long to add the cement board siding on the outside and the plywood on the inside of that - after which it will be possible to add a dehumidifier.

Barn with porch framed in and windows installed

Enclosed barn porch looking toward closed in end (by Bug's paddock)

As for me, I've been trying to straighten up the house this weekend and in the process have been piling all the stuff that needs to go out to the barn when it's done in the corner of the living room by the fireplace since we never use that space in the summer anyway.  Well -- Boo does . . . or at least he used to.  But as you can see below, he has decided that it is no longer a good place to lay with all that "stuff" looming over him, so he's headed for his bed on the other end of the room. 

Barn "stuff" piled at the end of the living room (Boo objecting)

And that's not even everything.  There's only one saddle there.  Duke's is still over at Al's and two others are in a box in the garage and one more in the closet in the office!  And I think there are a couple bags of stuff in our bedroom closet as well.  I know that looks like one heck of a lot of stuff, but my plans for the tack rooms are going to make everything organized and accessible.  Can't wait!   (And I'm sure Mark can't either.  He'll be very happy to have a "regular" house again . . . eventually.)

Another view of the barn "stuff" including that cool solid wood hat that Cass gave me last month.  (I LOVE that thing!)

Of course I won't be putting it out there right away.  I'm not taking anything out to the barn until the place is closed in and at least dehumidified and preferably air conditioned.  In the meantime, I'm planning to fill their feed containers IN THE KITCHEN . . . IN THE AIR CONDITIONING!   We are at the point right now where the moment you open a door and step outside glasses steam up and you can't see a darned thing for 10 minutes.  Hot, hot, HOT!

So now I'm off to the grocery to pick up some more drinks.  Obviously, this heat causes everyone to go through DOZENS of cans and bottles every day.  So I need to resupply Mark and Jerry and get some drinks for later when we'll be having friends over this afternoon - thankfully Janet and Mike.  It's a fine thing that they're people who won't be horrified by all the horse stuff all over the place right now!