Mother Nature

Notice the MUD???? Disgusting!! The crew has worked better in the bitter cold than in the warm weather because the mud was frozen. This picture was taken the day after we got like 5 inches of rain. Rain and cold tend to get the work crews some home cooked treats... and they have eaten well since they've started. Cinnamon rolls, vegetable soup, cookies, you name it, they'll eat whatever I bring them!
Here (if you use your imagination) I will help you pick out the parts: The outermost wall you see is the east side of the long lean-to. It will house the tack room, cross tie areas, wash rack, large storage area, and the lounge. The posts at the end (they do not have header boards up in this picture) are where the covered porch will be attached to the lounge. On the internal side of the 22' wide lean-to is the main building with a 70x135 indoor and 12 stalls at the end.
The lounge has become Chad's "baby", and will entertain not only horse folks but hunters and tree farm customers and will be a place for our very popular impromptu gatherings of all those traveling Geneva roads. It will be the the addition to our house that is not attached to the house!


These two pictures were taken Monday morning. They started putting the roof metal on, cool huh? There was a crew of 13 guys there that day and they really had hoped to make a lot of progress. Unfortunately, Mother Nature stepped in and slowed the progress and then stopped it completely! The winds were picking up Monday morning and then the snow started falling. In case you are wondering, you cannot get a man to walk on a metal roof in the snow no matter what home-cooked treats you offer him. Oh man! it was sad to see the progress stop. It has not started back up yet either, because this is what followed the snow:

On top of the 2 inches of snow that fell, we have 1/4 to 3/4 inch of ice on everything, including the frame of the barn. While it may be pretty to look at, it is no fun for anyone with 2 legs or 4 legs to be outside in it. Schools will be closed tomorrow for the 3rd day in a row because some roads are still impassable. The sun was out this morning and melted some of the ice but not enough. Barn progress is at a stand-still until the ice is gone. We lost power for 14 hours because of tree limbs falling on power lines. It will be in the 40s tomorrow but rain and snow is forecasted for Friday, Sunday and Monday. Arghhh!!

To all of my wonderful and patient students out there......continue being wonderful and patient, will you please? 2008 will be great... as long as we wait, and wait, and wait. Sorry!! It will all be worth it and existence of the new, albeit incomplete, barn is because you all are so wonderful!! Thanks.