Barn Upgrades

 We've been working sporadically on the inside of the barn all summer.  Sometimes many hours in a week, sometimes very few, depending on the weather, DH's work schedule, previous commitments for summer weekends (or weeks), and family needs.  

Way back in early July, shortly after the Poetess arrived in Michigan, I ordered the stall front kits.  They shipped amazingly fast, like three or four days later, and were here less than a week after I ordered them.  Phenomenal!  I ordered the plain Jane stall fronts in black, no drop down doors (previous experience with them was 'meh, not necessary') or feed openings (also previous experience only much more biased in the negative).

stall front grills, unboxed and waiting for installation

Meanwhile, back before that, before I had even seen pictures of Poetess and or thought about buying her, DH and I had done a (very) little work on the stall floors for the two stalls on the East side of the barn.  Mainly, we had taken down high spots in the clay, filled in low spots, and made sure it was fairly level and about five inches below the height we want our finished floors.

Stall floor prep

Four of those inches were going to be filled with gravel, for better drainage.  So DH ordered a load of gravel (23a with fines).

Hopefully enough gravel for all six stalls

And we began hauling it into the two stalls we'd prepped.  That was a pain.  It was hot, the gravel was heavy, where we needed to dump it was hard to reach with our (newer bigger) tractor without running over and squashing too much of the hayfield.  Most of what we put in those two stalls ended up being hauled by hand, in the wheelbarrow, by DH.  Not a fun job, and it was one that took a long break between start and finish.

Late July

Second week of August

It was a job that really could have been done in one day, had we had the right equipment (and were younger) and the weather was cooler.  But, we got it filled, screed, and tamped.

Mid August

Ready for stall mats.

The plan is to put stall mats on top of that, but I'm having trouble finding the ones I want. They used to be sold by just about all the farm stores around.  This summer as I've been looking, I can only find ones that are smooth on one side (definitely not good as the top side) and have large raised 'buttons' on the other (previous experience with this style at barns I've worked at is that it's a pain in the ass to clean--wet/peed on sawdust packs between the buttons).  So we haven't purchased stall mats yet as I'm hoping to find, within driving distance or with affordable shipping, mats with the correct textured top surface.

Since I don't have mats yet, and I wanted walls up before mats are installed (don't want the walls on the mats, makes fixing/replacing the mats difficult if they shift or tear), we instead installed the kick boards to cover the steel barn walls, and then built the stall fronts.  

DH also put in the divider wall between the two stalls, custom made to my wishes (patterned after divider walls in one barn I worked at).  I didn't get a picture, but it's solid wood about the first 4 feet, then 2"x6" boards with 1.5" wooden spacers between them (placed at each end and in the center) for the next 3ish feet.  The spacers are for light, ventilation, and a less boxed in feel for the horses (and to save money over buying grills for the dividing walls).

Oh my!  It's starting to finally look like a real horse barn!

I would like to stain and seal the wood before any horses move in.  So that's next on my personal to-do list for this project.  Meanwhile, DH is going to run the wires and install outlets, light switches, and lights.