Fixing the corrals

Roberts big project this spring (well, one of the big projects on HIS list) has been to fix the corrals or at least get a large portion on them fixed. I can't argue that they desperately needed some love. This winter, between the wind and the snow, two sections completely fell over and broke off the posts. It looked pretty shabby and they were pretty much unusable.

This is a picture of the corrals last spring before any improvements. You can see the real obvious lean in the wind break on the right (that completely fell over this winter) and part of the fence right by the gate also fell over. There was junk, old board, weeds everywhere.

This is what Robert has gotten completed so far this year. It looks SO much nicer. It's all steel so it should last a lot longer (hopefully our lifetime!). The next project for the corrals then is the left side along the steep hill which is just going to be barb wire and steel posts for now and then the wooden pen in the back will probably transformed into a nice round pen for horses. He also has steel to side most of the barn and get it fixed up this year before it falls over too. Again, he has big plans to fix up the inside with nice horse stalls, wash rack, etc. but that will have to wait another year or 10.

Looking in the steel wind break...so much nicer than what was there. Again, this is just the beginning. Robert has all kinds of nice big plans to make it into more like a pole barn with a roof in the future. My job is to try to keep him on budget! Wish me luck!

At any rate I was excited to see that this project is almost finished so that I can get him started on some of MY projects such as fixing the yard (it got all tore up this winter due to Carter plugging up the septic tank), and some minor landscaping. This house and all the buildings down here all need so much love and attention that sometimes it's hard to know where to start (and even harder to know when to stop and get working on another project!). But, luckily Robert is very handy and can do so much of the repairs, maintenance, new projects, etc. himself. And even luckier, he likes to do this kind of stuff. He really seems to enjoy working on this place.