Fixing Things

This week has been mini-construction project week. Carrie cooked dinner Monday night and then fell asleep. I decided to put together the filing cabinet to show my appreciation.

You know someone's tired when they can sleep through power tools.

Step 1 with any job is get organized and figure out what you're doing.

Step 2 here is clear out the distractions.

Sometimes, the distractions will clear themselves out!

As long as they clear themselves out enough...

...you can seal yourself off and get back to work!

I started the process on Monday, but Carrie worked to perfect it.

There were a few new objects assembled when I got home.

The piece de resistance was the laundry room. Carrie cut the ends off the old organizer to make it fit. Grandma's sworn it would work and with them visiting Carrie went ahead and did it.

She moved the new coat rack/bench and reorganized the cat area, too.

The interior work was a surprise, but Carrie gave me a heads up about some of her outdoor escapades!

She took a mattock and trenched out Lake Wannagutter.

I'm always impressed by Carrie's drive when she sets her mind to something. I do wish she'd do it in moderation sometimes, because I want her to heal!

The (literal) biggest change around the property is the "outhouse." Carrie spent most of the day Wednesday assembling a 375 lbs shed from Home Depot (It was almost a 450 lbs shed from Lowe's but they flaked out on delivery).

Carrie put some furniture and a composting toilet inside, so our barn now has a changing room and facilities. 

Grandma and Grandpa came up after the Hallow-storm. I came home to find Grandpa had been doing construction in the garage.

All this construction has grown our trash & recycling pile! We're going to need to do another dump run.

Nick came by to give us a quote for putting up a gate on the boarder's side. At the moment, horses have to go in and out through stalls. This has become more important, because we have our first boarder! That will be a separate post later.

Nick was the guy who seemed the most competent and trustworthy from the last contractor crew. We went 0.25 for 2 hiring people to build the barn. The electrician, Jason, was professional and he's had to come back here and there to help fix bits that were overlooked. Nick may be doing some odds and ends, as well.

We have three other projects in the works. If it was up to me, I'd put the whole thing on hold and let it marinate a while, but we're charging on ahead.

Project #1: The guys who bought the truck are coming back early November to put in a front walkway (They'll be paid with the money they paid!).

Project #2: A pole-barn is going to be put up for hay. They hope is they will fix the driveway the last contractor screwed up.

How did he screw it up?

Instead of tamping down the dirt properly they poured gravel on top so that we have quicksand for cars. It's hard to convey depth in a picture, but...

Here's how far my foot disappears into the tire track. Loki went for a swim in a puddle a delivery truck left.

Speaking of deliveries, Project #3 is Gardner Grandma's garden. She had compost delivered and was planning on spending the night early next week to break ground.

She's really looking forward to her new canvas. She gets a lot of joy out of the process. 

It's not construction, but Carrie arranged the arena on Saturday. I schlepped all of the stuff down and she came up with the master plan. 

Carrie took pictures and updated a profile online for the barn. We're finally ready to advertise!. We still need to put the sign up somewhere, but hopefully we'll be in maintenance mode one of these days.