Roofing, real cowboys, and an easier pace

Wow, five days goes by fast. It is already Wednesday evening and the last time I posted any update was on Friday. The big projects are beginning to reach an end so now the little projects are taking over. This means somewhat easier days but still fairly long. Saturday was one of the last busy days of heavy lifting. Ken and I tackled the back of the barn with the hanging of a little more Hardy board. This project really wasn’t too bad minus the fact that we had to fashion some backing panels so we could secure the boards to the wall. We also finished last bit of trim boards to the hay barn when we realized that we were going to need to add some corner trim to finish it off. Those boards have been obtained, painted, and are ready for the barn. We will probably finish that off tomorrow which will pretty much finish the main barn and hay barn as far as big outside projects are concerned. Sunday began some slower more meticulous days at the barn. This is a huge relief because we have really put a ton of sweat equity into the facility up to this point. I had the great task of slinging poop from the poop pile to the pastures. This is not a bad process and isn’t nearly as gross as it sounds. Horses eat grass, grain, and hay so their poop is really pretty natural and only stinks at the initial drop. Speaking of little jobs that are now being done is the blue tape removal task. We have painted nearly every inch of the exterior of the barn so blue tape is everywhere. This isn’t a hard task but it means moving the ladder and getting all the tape from the nooks and crannies where the ladies put it to get that nice straight line. Monday wasn’t that hard of a day because we had some great help but damn it was hot. Monday morning at 7:30 I was on the tin roof of the barn to help repair the one major leak we had in the facility. It isn’t real high and the pitch isn’t that bad but for all those that know me know that I am not fond of heights, ladders, or roofs. Well, I tackled all three and spent most of the day on and off the roof to finish up the fix. We added 40 feet of flashing and some more Hardy board panels to block off the leak. Michelle and I had the realization that roofers just don’t make enough money. The funny about fixing a roof is that you don’t know if it worked until it rains. Since we had to wait for the afternoon rains we did some general maintenance things around the barn and got prepped for our light day we were going to have on Tuesday. The rains came and the roof worked pretty well. We found some small leaks not related to the repair but we now have a much drier barn area. After the rain I threw more poop and Michelle and her mom hung a new light out by the wash racks. We got home around 9:30 but that was okay because Tuesday was going to be our theoretical off day. Tuesday morning brought the normal feeding schedule but then it was time to load up the trailer and head to Mrs. Kathy’s for Brianna’s lessons. Yes, that is right she was going to have three lessons during the morning. The first started at 9 am and we finally pulled out of her barn around 1:30. During the time in between Michelle and I thought we would sit back and relax basking in the fact that we were off from our new normal tasks. Well, that lasted about 10 minutes and Mrs. Kathy asked if we could help her with a few projects. Being a good barn buddy you help each other out so of course we went to work. We took a fence off that two horses had run into and straightened it and then we tackled some waterers that had seen better days. After Brianna finished riding it was time to load up and bring Brianna’s new project back to the barn with us. We showed up with one horse and left with two horses. Brianna and Mrs. Kathy had made a deal with a little pony named Lady J. Mrs. Kathy wants her trained a little better and Brianna needs to work with a horse that isn’t so well trained. We stopped at Wendy’s to get a quick bite, we got it to go, and then got the horse and pony show back to our barn and got Lady J somewhat acclimated to her new surroundings. Brianna scurried off to spend some time with my mom and her two cousins. Michelle and I decided to spend the rest of our off day doing work for the barn just not at the barn so we headed to Home Depot to get some more pipe so that we could add another pasture waterer since we are turning our obstacle course into an alternative pasture. After getting done at the first stop we then landed at Tractor Supply to get the actual waterer and 40 gallon tub. Since Brianna was spending the night with my mom and her two cousins Michelle and I decided to have a romantic dinner at Fat Boy’s before heading back to the barn for the evening feedings. We were home before dark and just vegged at the house thinking that off days will never really be off days again. Today Michelle and I had the barn to ourselves, kind of. We took care of the morning feedings and then went and got some breakfast. I told you the projects were becoming smaller. We got back and immediately started working on the new waterer. We were slightly interrupted when Gramma Welch and Grampa Welch bought us out our lunch. They had prepared us some incredibly good tuna salad that we devoured and then headed back out. We did some pasture maintenance and then were interrupted by the farrier. It was time to get all the horses hooves done so we spent about 2 hours holding horses and talking with the farrier. He was really cool and still runs cattle and ropes in competition even though he is not a young guy. We got back to field maintenance when we were interrupted again with some more grandparents stopping by to drop off drinks for us. After this delay we got back to working on the pasture and then it was time for the evening feeding. When finished our peaceful day alone with some more interruptions. Michelle’s grandparents came out to the barn to have ice cream, yes we have lots of ice cream at our barn. My mom bought the kids out to see the horses and then they left and finally, Jim came by to show us a cool video. This was an awesome distraction. He bought us a DVD of an 80,000 dollar cutting horse doing its thing in competition. We spent about twenty minutes watching some different runs and even though I don’t know anything about horses I can tell you that that was an unbelievable horse. We finally shut the gate about 8:30 and headed to the house to wait on Brianna. Man, these slow days are really cool but they are still long. It is really exciting to be working on some other things and makes going to the barn fresh every day now.