Then and Now

This week's challenge was "then and now", try to get a photo from the past and recreate the scene now.  I had fun with this one, it is good to go back and look through all these photos now and then.  I have accumulated rather a lot of them ever since someone gave me a digital camera and freed me of the guilt and hassle of film.

I tend to expect rather a lot out of myself on any given day, usually too much.  I often end up feeling like I never get anything done because I am not living up to my own ridiculous expectations.  It was good to stop and look and realize that in the last four years, I have gotten rather a lot done.  In truth, this post could have turned into a real monster since I have taken thousands of photos in recent years.  I extensively documented my mother-of-all-DIY projects and I could have posted a hundred "then and now" photos.  Instead, I limited things to a few representative shots. 

6/19/2008 Not quite yet the official owner of 20 acres of abandoned and neglected farm land.  An ocean of weeds with nothing else on it...

Today.  I didn't get the angel quite right, but you get the idea...

12/18/2008 I swore I wouldn't build in the winter only to be forced into it by idiot excavators and circumstance...

Today.  I tried to get the donkeys to pose for me in front of the barn, but had to settle for them nudging me on from behind....

7/29/09  My knees still hurt just thinking about this job...

8-12-09 I was really surprised when I saw the date on this photo.  This was a difficult, backbreaking, almost overwhelming job that still looms large in my memory (and sore joints) yet the dates say it was done in two weeks.  I am glad I did it, but I don't ever, EVER want to lay another hardwood floor.

1/22/09

Today.  For all it was over my head and up in the air, this white pine was soooo much easier than the floor.  I also had a very good friend show up (with scaffolding!) to help.  This ceiling went up in a day and a half.

Through all of this, there have been lots of other changes as well.  The horses I had got old while I wasn't looking.  One of them died suddenly and tragically of severe, acute colic that could not be treated.  The other is now retired and lives with a friend.   I went horse shopping and remembered exactly why I hate trying to find a new horse.  I rescued, and found a good home for, a pair of badly abused draft ponies.  I bought two horses and resold one of them because we weren't a good match.  I found the horse I had been searching for for many years only to have her critically injured by another rescued horse.  I met a man I thought I might spend my life with, but that was not to be.  I bought a donkey and remembered why I do all this.

My saving grace through all has been that some things do stay the same, at least for a while...  

and some changes bring pure joy into the world....

Consolations and new plans

What's to be done when you find out that your baby donkey is going to be having a baby and there isn't any way to "fix" it?  Buy her a bag of treats and a new toy of course...

 "Hmmm, chewy, uhmmm"

 "Nom, nom, nom, very chewy"...

The other thing to do, is to start planning the nursery.  Do you see my machinery shed with the old, yellow jeep (which has quite a history I'll have tell you about sometime) in the background?  Well, I spent most of Christmas building the half-wall around it...

I didn't make the wall go all the way up because I don't want to block all of my barn windows.  I hate dark, dreary barns; I want light and air.  However, this is the windward side of the barn so it has to be covered (especially since the wind is so strong here that I could probably power most of NY if I started raising windmills instead of unplanned donkey babies).  I am going to build windows for the open spaces. I am trying to decide between using plexiglass or clear vinyl.  I think the vinyl would be easiest and safest but, I am not sure it can handle the wind.  In the summer, I will cover the open spaces with shade screens and it should be quite a nice donkey solarium. 

All I'll need then is a place for the old jeep, the lawn mower, ladders and other stuff that really doesn't want to live outside.  Housing for all of that stuff along with firewood is in the works...

But, winter finally showed up with a vengeance and carpentry will probably have to be put on hold.  In the meantime, I guess I'll just go give Emma another cookie.  Cookies cure everything right?

A DIY project (part 1)

Its that time of year.  The time when I scramble around winterizing and trying to get as many projects finished as possible before we all get buried in snow.  I decided this year to add an insulted, heated water trough to the barn for the girls.  I wanted something safe, easy to clean and inside the barn out of the ferocious wind that we get here.  I decided to go with a 16 gallon water tub with a built in heater element (that little donkeys cannot play with).  To cut down on electric usage I plug the heater into a heavy duty timer so that the heater only runs about 15 minutes every hour or so.  To cut this time down even more and keep the water warmer I decided to build an insulated box around the water tub.

Step1. Make sure your trusty companion has a comfy spot.

 Step 2. Assemble the ingredients

 (Always beware of willing yet inept helpers)

 

 Step 3.  Cut all the pieces to the desired length, 26" boards and 16" corner posts in this case.  (Note the inept helpers relegated to the peanut gallery in the background)

Step 4.  Begin assembly (I use serrated-tipped star-drive screws for everything.  With these screws, a cordless drill and a circular saw you can build anything) 

 (Don't forget to leave a space for the electrical cord)

To be continued as soon as I acquire the rest of the ingredients....

No, you can't have the car tonight

I have been doing some work on my barn, trying to finish the siding.  This is all part of my Mother-Of-All-DIY-Projects that began in 2008 when I bought a piece of land and decided to build a house and a barn by myself.  That is a long story for another day, suffice it to say that my house and my barn are mostly finished.  Still, in the past few weeks I have been trying to finally get the battens on my barn, which is why it is sporting candystripes lately.

In order to work on one of the walls, I had to move a riding lawn mower out of its normal position under the shed roof of the barn.  Since I like to give my horses ample opporuntily to learn about potentially scary stuff in a safe and comfortable environment, I simply pushed the mower into the area in front of the barn and let Emma and Tessa give it a thorough going over.  Beyond a few nose-prints on the mower, what could it hurt?  

Well, a while later, I returned my attention to the mower.  I was amused to notice that the entire mower was covered with slightly muddy nose-prints.  I remained amused right up to the moment that I tried to start the thing.  My thoughts from that point went something like this:

Oh no, where's the key
OH NO, Emma has the key
OH NO, EMMA HAS THE KEY!

You really don't want to know the exact words going through my head at this point.  I was just beginning to think about how I might be able to get Emma to Cornell for emergency key removal when I spotted a shiny glint on the ground.  Thank God, there it was.  The whole thing was somewhat bent and the plastic bit on the end showed distinct donkey teeth-marks.  

Note to Self (and any other donkey owners or prospective owners):  One's donkey can not be trusted with the keys to the family car, or lawn mower, or tractor, wheel barrow, hammer, clothing, tools, etc, etc, etc,....

In fact, one's donkey cannot be trusted with anything that she can get into her mouth no matter how remote the possibility may seem.  One's donkey simply cannot be trusted.