Laying the Groundwork

First, it was one week. Then, the next. After that, Monday. Maybe Tuesday? No, no. It'll be Friday. Definitely, Friday. Friday at 8 AM. Carrie wanted barn chores done early to make sure we were ready for the contractors to spread gravel dust.

8 AM on Friday I was already outside working and the contractor never showed. 

Carrie called and 9:30 AM was the new time. 

When that deadline came and passed, noon was the next promise.

The contractor showed up just before 1 PM. I took a picture as I was wrapping up office hours for my lunch break.

I went outside to say, "Hello," and didn't hear Carrie's scream. I did see the lean-to move.

The operator backed up with the boom arms too high. They hit post supporting the lean-to. Carrie had been yelling to stop, but he didn't hear over the engine.

It pulled the support beams up. They never came out of the ground, but the ground said, "They moved!" 

The lean-to seemed okay, but it was a bit of a shock to see that half of the structure move. Carrie nearly had a panic attack. She's been worried about the quality of the barn construction since or first contractor debacle. Jason reinforced the lean-tos when he pointed out they weren't up to code.

You can bet the contractors went defensive. Carrie was upset they didn't apologize for the accident or say anything other than "It looks fine" I took pictures of everything, just in case. 

There wasn't much to do except keep on going. If the barn falls down in the next few weeks, the contractors will hear from us about it. We aren't planning to contact them in the future otherwise.

And my lunch break turned into a manual labor break. I needed to keep Carrie calm and from overexerting herself. The bobcat dropped off gravel dust in Maddie's stall....

...and I spread it.

It's work, but a lot less work than carrying it over by wheelbarrow and then spreading it!

The second load got dropped off while I was helping. Carrie talked to them about what she wanted where.

Which gave me a moment to photograph the horses. Carrie put the boys in the arena, so they wouldn't panic in their stalls.

She said they ran around like banshees for a while.

Magic took a break to try and eat some fake flowers, at one point.

But what the boys really wanted the machinery gone and peace restored.

The girls had to stay inside. Maddie was in the far stall since the bobcat had to drive through her lot to reach them. They weren't happy whenever they could hear it right on the other side! Carrie spent half the time inside with them monitoring.

Which left me to the spreading.

After 45 minutes or so, Shane realized he was alone in the house. 

I was glad, because I thought he'd like to watch the machinery in action. 

Carrie wasn't in a happy place by that time and it was better to send him inside to play than to give her a new variable to stress about.

Thankfully, I only had to spread under the lean-tos and the shed. The skid steer was able to do all of the spreading around the feeders on it's own.

It wasn't perfectly level, but Carrie had a plan that didn't involve more sweat on my back.

I was a little worried about the tracks the bobcat left behind, but Carrie said that wasn't a problem.

Like I mentioned earlier, Carrie had a plan.

Shane saw what was going on and ran out to hop in for the ride!

Carrie tore around the dry lots near full speed.

She could've gone slower and had a tighter turn radius, but I think she was having fun and working off some steam.

The track damage smoothed right over.

We brought the idiot boys in and then Carrie and Shane went out to clear up the arena.

They had fun zipping around...

...while I moved large objects and picked up the hay she'd thrown to keep the boys busy!

We got done in time for me to reach my next meeting. Luckily, there was no staff meeting. I rushed back in at 3:30 PM to start the meeting....and then realized it didn't actually start until 3:45 PM! 

Just another day around here! We should be set on gravel dust for another year.