Farm Work Day

We designated this weekend as a farm clean-up weekend. The first thing on the list was to repair the pallet mini shelter that we constructed about 2 and a half years ago. It has fared very well actually, but we needed to put a new tarp on the roof, thanks to two of the barn cats Abbott and Cosmo. The two cats like the shelter so much, that their kneading on the roof they have caused holes which over the past two years, managed to cause leaks. The roof is a thin tarp, thin plastic sheeting, and coroplast (put the structural material).

The first thing on the list was to repair the leaking roof, which meant we had to peel back the layers of the roof and we put a thick heavy-duty tarp between the coroplast and the 4 mils plastic sheeting. That was fastened to the roof structure with a thin strip of molding and with the help of my brad gun, I placed a brad every few inches. Next up was to replace two pallets that the one mini has loved to rub her butt on. And if you know anything about horses, even miniature horses, they can quickly damage if not destroy something if they rub on it too much.

Once we replaced these two pallets and used 3″ screws to put it all together, we also needed to replace the door and reinforce it. We added some more 3″ screws in places that needed them and we were done. Next up was installing 4×4 posts that will allow us to connect two 20’x20’x20′ sun shade sail canopies. With that done, it was time to clean up the field in general and do some trimming of weeds.

Not this weekend, but during a future weekend, we will be dividing the field into two fields. We have had several cases of founder this year and actually, my daughter’s horse died after her coffin bone actually punched through her hoof wall. In fact, many veterinarians are claiming that the founder is on the rise in 2022. To help combat it where we board our horses, we are making a much larger dry lot than what we currently have (approx 30’x30′). The plan is to install a new fence, which will divide the field into two. The upper half will have little to no grass, and the lower field will have grass and we will put them on that lot at night.