It's almost time!!!

Here is the update since it's been a while. Officially the horses are scheduled to come home Wednesday, 5/26... yes, a WEEK! EEK! I'm excited but I'm semi-terrified. Ice is 21 years old and was a trooper in his day hauling from show to show without batting an eyelash. In the past month he lost his best friend and buddy for the past 13-14 years, Dooley. Rest in peace big guy. :( Ice has been very worked up since he's been gone and just now has stopped calling and screaming bloody murder in his pasture alone. I'm worried about how he's going to take the move. He despises the minis at my mom's house, but he is comfortable with them around. Lily is just shy of a year and has been off of her farm twice last year for a show. I have only been able to visit her a handful of times since I bought her since she's quite a ways away. She lives outside 24/7 and has only been in a stall twice in her life at those shows. I have NO idea what to expect from her. She was so quiet the majority of the times I went to visit her, but last time she was a little pistol!

On top of all of this, neither of them have been on grass. Well, Ice has a teeny bit that he picks at, but no real grazing. Lily was in a pasture with some growing, but she got moved to a different pasture, so I guess I'm not really sure which one she's in now. I was told there's grass, but it's not lush, so for safety's sake I imagine it's like Ice's... looks green but not a lot of substance. So... for fear of founder and colic on not only spring grass but moving to a new home I'm going to cautiously wean onto the grass.

As of right now the fence itself is 100% done! Well, aside from the OBNOXIOUSLY loud Parmak charger. Never again will I buy one. It's so loud that I fear the horses might go insane (or in Ice's case even more insane).

Things left to do:

Thursday:
Roundup the second half of the fence line
Neighbor's coming to grade out some dirt we have left

Friday:
Buy shavings, cubes, and grain (and a can for the grain)
Clean up giant pile of wood and sheet metal/barn siding that's been sitting in the pasture for ages :)
Scream like a giant wuss when snakes and mice crawl out from under it- the two moles I already covered almost made me pee my pants.

Saturday:
Put up corral panels for pasture
Sunday:
Fill in small dip in the electrical trench that sunk

Build SOME sort of box around charger to try and quiet it some!

...and I'm sure there's more I'm missing somewhere...

Pony pics

Here are a few pics of my pony cleaned up thanks to Heather (and courtesy of her facebook page- hope you don't mind!)  :)  She's the one with the red halter.

The inside is done! well... for now

Pics of the inside! It is almost completed with the exception of cleaning and hanging buckets! Well, obviously it's not DONE, but enough to get the horses home. You can see the insulation on some of the walls still and those still need the boards on top of them, but no horses have access to that. Eventually we want to go ALLLLL the way to the top with the boards. That would be gorgeous. It's not the tidiest, but it will work. We only built two stalls out and will work on the third after they're home. Eventually we will smooth out the stonedust that's in there... we just ran out of time like with everything else! :)

I can't remember if I posted a pic of our lights up, but here's one:

I am in love with my stain and varnish. So pretty.

Before leveling:

Tada!

The doors aren't at light as they look. They're not varnished though and the way the light was coming in they look a lot lighter. They're really only a little bit lighter.

Above: the stupid manufacturer apparently didn't take into account that the plate/hook that the latch has to go through needs to be bigger so they can all line up. Duh... If you line them all up nice and pretty then you can't open and close the latch!

Whenever I have time and actually care I'll paint the bolts black so they don't stick out.

Almost there!!!

The fencing should be finished Friday. I'm not honestly stoked with it, but it's safe and it will work. The inside of the barn is looking gorgeous! I put a second coat of semi-gloss spar varnish on and it made ALL the difference. The first one wasn't very shiny and just looked a little blah. The second one definitely has shine to it. To get the 2 ponies home we "just" need to hook up the electric fence, block in the overhang since we didn't fence it in (I want it solid so it's more of a shelter), and clean up around the pasture. This involves sinking a post in the rock from the barn pad though. Aside from that, that's all they'll need to live outside. Depending on how much grass they have right now, I'm going to try and find some cheap corral panels to make little paddocks to keep them off of the rich grass. My big guy will definitely need it when he comes a little bit later! He hasn't been on actual grass in about 10 years.

Inside the barn we still need to level and install mats, hang up the doors, aaaand build out a third stall. Yikes! :) Ice will be waiting to come home until the inside is done since he might keel over and die if he had to actually live outside. Lily is outside 24/7 now and I believe Buddha is outside all of the time but to eat so I think he'll be ok. Fingers crossed it gets done!!

Effingham Field Boots for Sale- $65

Just thought I'd post this here in case anyone might see these and need them!

They're size 6 reg. ladies Effingham field boots. I squeezed my legs in them a couple of years ago and realized that they'd never fit... then gained 30 pounds so they'll definitely NEVER fit. Post a reply or send me an email to dmalbone@gmail.com.

We almost have fences!

Just a teeny teeny little preview. :)

I think Buddha and Lily will be coming home by the end of the month. I will let them settle in for a little bit and then bring Ice home shortly after. ALMOST THERE....

Fences today!

The fence guys are supposed to be here today so cross your fingers! I'll try and grab some pics along the way. I always feel like the crazy lady though taking pictures of people working on barn stuff.

On a related fencing note, we finally bought our charger. I WANTED a Stafix kickass one, but it was no longer in the budget. I was then going to get the strongest Parmak one there was (the Rangemaster I think it is?) buuuut I couldn't justify it for that price for our little pastures. :D We only have about a wimpy mile or so of fencing so I told myself to get the smallest of the Parmaks- the Fieldmaster. I went on Jeffers to order it and lo and behold the Mark 7 (in between the Fieldmaster and Rangemaster) was on sale! I got it for 84.99 plus a $10 off coupon so $74.99. Still had to pay shipping, but it ended up being a great deal regardless. We will eventually be adding more fences (don't tell Justin- we have to spring these things on them slowly) so it will be able to handle much more.