The 54 acres we recently acquired was originally part of the farm we bought in 2005. One interesting feature of the parcel is the fully graded road beginning at the horse barns and extending all the way down to Little Creek from there, it continues yet narrows to a 50′ wide strip to Green Level Road. I suspect this road was to be the original access road for the farm before plans changed (i.e., the original owners second divorce). In any case, it’s quite a solid road even after a decade of neglect. Last year I pushed out all of the 10 year old trees dotting the center of the road. After a day of trimming high branches it will be quite a nice trail to the bottomland, and I can see two potential new trails; one along a hollow and another up a gradual slope, both of which would eventually meet up with an old logging road on top of the ridge.

After a hard day’s work with a tractor, a shovel and tons of river rock, the setting sun is a welcome arrival. Good night!

I further refined our 32×18 pet barn plan. I wanted to post this for friends and family to see!

Using Punch! Home Design Platinum I designed our future small animal barn. Nancy and I went through several revisions before coming up with this flexible plan. The entire structure is 32′ x 18′ and although it will be a barn, its exterior will resemble a cottage. On the left side there is an 8′ x 18′ room that will have huge bay window style openings. The openings will be enclosed by poultry wire mesh and the room itself will be a play and grooming area. Inside the structure on the bottom left is an 8′ x 6′ enclosed chicken coop (not shown is the people door for the room nor the open air coop that extends into the playroom). On the south wall (top) there is a people door at the center, along with a dutch door to the left and right. Each dutch door will be enclosed by an 8′ x 6′ gated fenced pen. Chloe wants to have a lamb, and Moira wants a pig. They’ve already named them, even though they don’t yet exist, so I’m trying to hustle to get this project started I’ve already talked over the plans with Tom from Pine Creek Structures and he’s going to have a quote back to me by Monday.

Here is a basic rendered view of the cottage style barn:

It’s got a 5:12 pitch although I’m still going to try to talk Nancy into an 8:12 pitch. It would make a more attractive structure. Nancy doesn’t want a hulking structure to look at, but I’m partial to the 8:12 pitches of old New England barns. Still, I’ll settle for 5:12. Either way it will make a mighty fine small animal barn!

My paddock entrance footing project is on hold until next week. The goal is to finish grading inside the paddocks and then drop about 4″ of crushed limestone up to 50′ into each 1.5 acre paddock. It’s there that our horses spend up to 90% of their time while they’re outdoors, which destroys sod in short order. So the goal is to create a crushed limestone footing to replace the bare clay that currently exists. Horses love to roll on crushed limestone sand. Ideally, in wet conditions they will be rolling on crushed limestone, rather than red clay It’s a drag when you have to clean a horse for 30 minutes just to ride for 60

I’ve been turning my attention lately to our existing barns and making some improvements. When we took possession of the farm in ‘05, the south side of the indoor arena had a mish mash of sliding window panel PVC. I’ve replaced the right two PVC with opaque material to reduce the glare on the south side of the indoor arena. Next week I’ll be replacing the the PVC on the other two panels. There are about 14 other similar 8×8′ sliding panels though they will all remain translucent white to maximize ambient light in the indoor and reduce the need for the overhead HID lights during the day. These panels are a really nice addition to an indoor arena. During warmer weather they can be slid open to bring the outdoors indoors, which is a pleasant experience.

The metal T-111 siding on this side of the barn has had the stuffing beat out of it by what looks like a drunken tractor driver. It almost looks like someone at some point dropped round bales against the siding, hard and fast enough for them to push up against the T-111 and bow it in. None of the wood behind the T-111 is damaged, but it just doesn’t look very good. I also hate this color T-111. Tan colored T-111 is not a proper barn color, in my opinion. Of course, replacing 10,000 square feet of T-111 is not high on my list of priorities! For now, I’ll be placing about 4″ of drainage rock along all of the barn walls, to prevent clay soil from splattering on the wall during rainy weather. And then I’ll pressure wash the lower 6′ of T-111. That should do the trick.

I snapped some photos during a Gator ride over our new land today. The only open section is this +/- 8 acres of bottomland, which will be quite nice for horses should we decide to use it. The rest is a nice mix of various hardwoods and evergreens, albeit a very deliberate mix. Clearly, like our existing forested acreage, this was forest meant for harvest. Perhaps in forty years I’ll have introduced a more substantial number of native trees. We’ll see!

Okay, everyone ooooh and aahhhhh over the first ever stretch of four rail fence I’ve ever built! I finished my first 50 linear feet of four rail fence today. It replaces the 50 feet of old fence I tore out to make room for the gravel trucks and the delivery of the run-in. One of my bigger goals for this year is replacing at least 2,000′ of ancient woven wire fence with four rail fence. Building this 50 feet of fence was a quick job, although during the course of construction I thought of a few ways to make construction go even quicker and more consistently.

The style of four rail fence I’ve settled on uses 5 to 6″ CCA round posts, eight feet in length. I can get them from my local Southern States for just over $9 a post. I cut the tops at a 45 degree angle (using my recip. saw with a very aggressive 9″ blade) to help prevent ponding of water on the top of the post. The rails are 5/4×6x8 top choice ACQ pine, bought from Lowes. The top rail is higher than tradition dictates. I’ve decided on a top rail height of 56″ – because horses are taller than cattle – Warmbloods in particular. Spacing between each rail is +/- 8.5″.

We’re going to be solid-staining the fence, but we haven’t decided on a color yet. I like the traditional brown stain but I’m generally a non-conformist and I tend to follow the beat of my own drummer, so I may very well go for an unusual but attractive color. We’ll see.

The run-in project is “done”. “Done” is in quotes because nothing on a farm is ever Done. If something gets Done then that should ring alarm bells. But if it’s “Done” then you can rest easy In this case, the tack room needs some finish work in the form of a completed wall rather than a half wall with an open grill above. That’s a project for next week. Until then, I’ll wallow in the euphoria one feels when getting something “done” even if it’s not really, well, done

As you can see, the quality of workmanship is top notch. If you live within 500 or so miles of Pennsylvania and you’re in the market for a run-in shed (or a garden shed, a potting shed, a storage barn, etc), look no further than Pine Creek Structures. You’ll get a quality Amish-built structure delivered to your location. Prices aren’t rock bottom but the price relative to the quality simply cannot be beat. We paid less than $10,000 for a 12×32 run-in shed with an 8′ x 12′ tack room. Features include an oak kick wall, quality pine board and batten siding, a solid locking tack room door, 30-year architectural shingles, and a cupola. We opted for the Manheim Gray stain and Weatherwood shingles. We’re very pleased with our Pine Creek Structures shed and plan on using Pine Creek for two site-built structures. They build shops, garages and barns to your specifications, on site! With all due respect to local contractors, it’s hard to pass up the opportunity to watch a busload of Amish journeymen show up on your farm and build a workshop. In one day. In one day!

When we bought our horse farm in 2005, we started with 38 acres. In 2006, we bought 36 more acres for a total of 74. This year, after taking possession of another adjoining parcel, we now proudly own 128 acres!

Don’t get me wrong, I love human neighbors. Just not in my backyard. The neighbors in my backyard today, including the deer, groundhogs, coyotes, hawks, and all of the other flora and fauna… they need as much forested land as they can get. And now there is another 40 or so forested acres that won’t be turning into eight backyards anytime soon. The price wasn’t cheap, but it was worth every penny, and it will also support another couple miles of horse trail, which will be of benefit to the farm over the long term.