Barn Project

It started out as a simple chore to muck the barn stall after moving Angel back outside.  It seemed to grow and grow until it took 3 days and both tractors, but I'm almost finished.  I did muck the stall, moved almost everything outside so I could rake and sweep, and added this gate to the end nearest the runaround so I can have the doors open for breezes when there are livestock in the runaround.  You can see from the lawn chair I took an occasional break and stayed well hydrated despite the 90+ degree heat.

 It's something I've wanted to do for a long time, just never got around to it.  It's pretty simple actually and although it's still just wired in place it will be easy to weld up. The hinge will be to the right in the lower shot, and the gate will swing all the way back to be against the barn door when it's closed.  

I've wanted to make better use of the runaround and plan to move the round pen out to the pasture across the lane.  It's not completely accurate but if you envision it as a square, then divide the square into 4 smaller squares, the barn is in the lower RH quadrant, the round pen in the upper RH quadrant, and this scene looks out onto the lower LH quadrant.  It's been so rocky I had to be very careful with the lawn mower, and there were several individual rocks and a mound or pile that were too high to use even the shredder. So I started picking up rocks...

After 8 loads like this I'm almost finished.  I'm sure the big pile was the remains of the old rock granary that burned when I was a little kid.  Many of them have straight and square edges, like they've been worked.  They must have just dug a hole and thrown most of it in there after the fire.  This will make the lower LH and upper RH quadrants pretty smooth and grazeable.  The upper LH is a rocky, mesquite-filled jungle that will be a project for another day.

Life is good.  Come on down and carry rocks with me.