Looking over my wishlists, they got a bit too muddled over at Amazon.com so I’ve started one dedicated to horse books and dvds. They can be viewed if you like. It gives a window into what I’m looking at 
I am thinking of getting Horse Agility and Hempfling’s book next. Looking at the Horse Agility Table of Contents, 1/2 the book is pretty simplistic for me but I think it will have some very good material overall and be an idea starter.
This is now my third trip to the new place. Husband and I walked the property, examined the barn and discussed the changes we would make.
The pasture is too small so I have scaled back the idea of buying another horse for now, whether mini- or trail riding horse. I will expand the back fenceline of the current pasture and clear off some brush and down a few of the skinnier trees. It is about what I want to do price-wise in fencing so I will not put in a permanent fence across the front where more grass is available. Instead I’ll use portable electric where I can set up temporary grazing and can take with me when our year lease ends.
Instead of building an adjoining paddock off the barn, I’m going to use fence panels that I can move with us at the end of the lease.
Literally, right around the corner is a guided trail riding outfit. I am going to check with them and find out what their rates are and start taking guided trail rides on rental horses that are probably deadcalm. I haven’t been in the saddle for a year and haven’t ridden on a regular basis for 3. That needs to change immediately.
We discussed the stalls and instead of making a new one, I’m going to use the existing stalls but increase the doorways from 3′ to 4′ and put a pipe gate in front (from stall to barn aisle). One of the stalls will be increased to a 10×20 for Z and the other will remain a 10×10 for Pandora. I’ll put in stall mats that will come with me but put in a bed of fine gravel first as an underlayment.
The barn, the stalls, driveway and the front of the house needs a dumpload of gravel.
In regards to the house, we need to Kilz the ceiling of every room where water damage happened (this was part of our sweat equity agreement with the landlord), sweep off the roof and clean the gutters. Some of the doors stick on opening so will get those sanded off a bit for cleaner closing.
We will need to get a landline as no cell phones work on the property and the Internet is going to be outrageous in terms of cost.
Overall, I’m still happy with the house. The tack room remains huge even after putting in four huge shelf units (three more to go). It looks like all the horse, camping, and Holiday items will fit inside and the gardening/tools in the alley alongside the exterior tack room wall. The other house we looked at did not have a garage or any storage like this we could have used and even though we are downsizing we have a LOT of stuff!
Our bedroom will be large enough for our Kingsize bed and a sidetable with lamp, but I will need to get an upright chest of drawers for the wall. The closets are a bit small so off season clothes will need to be stored away.
The bedroom next to ours, will be divided: 2/3rds become daughter’s art room (bookshelves, storage shelves, and desk) and the other 1/3rd is going to be storage for us (i.e. craft supplies, home decor items remaining packed, off season clothes, kitchen stockpiles).
Daughter will get a smaller bedroom that directly opens into her own bathroom with shower (and laundry is contained there too).
The landlord ended up giving us her huge modular couch which turns out to be a fold out bed (gives son someplace to sleep when he is in town). It also has fold down arms to hold drinks while you watch tv. This is located in a room with French doors out to the deck.
On the down side, the Fridge died and the landlord said she would not replace. We have an emergency fridge for now, but that means a bit of a setback on the financial front.
One thing that continues to amaze me is how cool it is in temps around the house. Husband has yet to turn on the AC and here I’ve had it on now for a month. I hope this bodes well for our utilties however, I have to figure out what we will do in winter when we lose electricity (and it will happen), there is no gas or solar backup, and the water pump in the well is powered by electric?
Right here, right now
there is no other place I wanna be
Right here, right now,
watching the world wake up from history
Right Here, Right Now song
Right now life is about alot of huge changes.
Son is graduating high school in two weeks. That’s the end of a huge era of parenting let me tell you. Not that I still won’t be a parent of course, but it means no more parent-teacher conferences, no more fundraising events, and a lot more autonomy and self responsibility on his part. Naturally, I still have a14 year old daughter so I’ll still have this stuff, it’s just less stuff.
With sending out announcements, family issues (we’ll call my family the Jones and husband’s the Smiths) have started to emerge (which I had fully expected). Balancing my family is bit like juggling porcupines. Sometimes I’m in the mood to toss them up in the air and sometimes it’s just too much damn trouble.
This weekend I’m going to MO alone to stay with husband. We’ll discuss land improvements, and the barn as well as number crunching for adding pasture. Since we reduced our lease to one year I want to keep our investment to a minimum however, adding pasture is going to be a must as pony is already munching us down on the one fenced pasture.
OK move out is slated for Memorial Day Weekend; the weekend before is the blowout garage sale. I want to have all our personal stuff as well as any furniture we are taking loaded and gone to MO by that time. Pony is already in MO but it looks like cats, dogs, and ZZ won’t move until Memorial Day.
I’ve rented out one of our bedrooms for the summer to a College Senior who needs a place to stay for his summer internship. He moves in the second weekend in June and that money will be used to put in the new hardwood floor downstairs. This gets us a huge step forward to selling the house next summer 2013.
Sept. 1 we will either re-rent the smaller bedroom or rent out the master bedroom suite depending upon where we stand on the house improvements.
If I’m not around much or reporting on horse matters, it’s just because I’m busier then a one arm paper hanger!
Let’s talk serious, for the entrapment, we’re gonna ask you for 4 big ones $4,000 for that, but we are having a special this week on proton charging, and storage of the beast, so we are gonna ask for $1,000.
~ Dr. Peter Venkman, Ghostbusters
When I was boarding one horse, my life was very simple. I put her in a full care, higher priced facility and she was taken care of. That was until she developed Cushings and I had to go to self care board due to barn staff not understanding how to care for a Special Needs horse.
We moved to a sound facility where the male BO (women BO’s are typically nosy hysterics) acually limited the amount of horses on the facility, where he mowed and fertilized his fields, kept fence intact (even if it was wire and t-posts) and had a nice barn with tack room. However, this property was 40 minutes away with no riding arena and feeding a special needs horse for three years, twice a day, started to wear me down.
I made the decision to move closer (two miles from my home) so I could care for her better. That is when trouble started…. The close-in barn was falling down and we had a verbal agreement on fixing it up for greatly reduced rent. I had four horses and if I put them in a full care facility, paying board would be more then my house payment so at the time I thought this was a Godsend!
The naive mistake I made was not getting this in writing. Three months in he tripled our board due to our improvements. I learned a valuable lesson – trust no one, especially in the horse industry.
From there we bounced around a bit trying to find a close in place which I could afford to pay for four horses. That’s how we ended up at the Hell Barn. The two Monsters were notorious cheapskates. They wanted a million dollar facility with absolutely no investment.
This meant, in order to do my job, I ended up buying feed tubs, storage bins, muck buckets, muck rakes and a slew of small stuff (that racked up my investment) just so I and my part time worker could feed and muck 20 stalls when horses were 24/7 stalled during days of flooding that happened on a regular basis. This time I kept receipts and labeled my belongings.
When we moved – and Charbydis accused us of being thieves (and he would call the police) we told him to inspect the TWO FLATBED LOADS of materials (!!) and find anything that was his. He couldn’t come up with one damn thing the Monsters had bought. Although, Syclla later told the horse community I had STOLEN THE TOWEL DISPENSER FROM THE BATHROOM!! Too bad for her that I also kept THAT receipt for my tax purposes! ROFLMAO!
At FR, I did improve the run-in off the barn. I put it all in writing with emails that I kept. Materials such as the gravel, the railroad ties, and the fencing we would not remove but they were a minimal investment that made my horses’ lives more comfortable. The attached hay racks, stall mats, gates and gate latches I would remove. Looking back the only thing I would change is putting in portable fence panels so I could remove them also.
The reality is that if you own more then one horse you will need to make compromises to keep their board affordable and to keep them close to you. I live in a major metropolitian city where keeping a horse within 30 minutes of my home is hard to do. Countryside is being taken up with real estate development and I can think of three major stables that have folded in the time I’ve lived here (14 years) whose land was sold off to build houses.
The only thing I regret is not being smarter about it in the beginning. Here are my tips if you have to become a renter:
Try to invest in portable items you can take with you. For example, buy portable fence panels over installing fence. Buckets, water troughs, portable electric fence, etc…
Get everything in writing. At the very least send off an email and get a reply. Store that back (either electronically or in paper form). If you use texts to communicate be aware that texts get wiped off your phone past a certain date so print those out too. Since my current barn owner never gives me a board receipt, I text her that board has been left and where and she texts back she got it – that is confirmation that would hold up in court.
Right now we have the agreement at the CCamp property that I will be leaving gates behind but saddle racks and hay feeders attached to the barn will be removed when we leave. This is important to get in writing because, by LAW, anything you attach to a structure becomes the landlords property unless designated and agreed to otherwise.
Label everything that you bring on the property. That includes buckets, fence panels, water troughs, tack, fence panels etc… Snap a photo with your cell phone and then email it to yourself describing the number of items, color or whatever. If you are claiming these for a business expense (which I did) then you will also be keeping receipts.
When buying used, print off your own receipt. If I buy something off CL that I plan on confirming ownership (i.e. for taxes), I print off the initial ad and have the seller sign the paper. It’s not classy perhaps, but it gives some verification of what you bought, for how much and when.
Take before and after photos. Especially if you are staying long term, take these photos to prove you improved the property and expect to see your deposit returned. If improving the property, with the landlord’s written permission, keep reciepts to prove what you did and get your deposit and items returned.
Have it clearly outlined who will do what in managing the property. This includes fertilization, mowing, fence and gate maintenance, pest control, driveway maintenance etc….
Get a Rig – truck and trailer – so you can move IMMEDIATELY. I can’t tell you how many times that I’ve given notice and then suddenly the nice BO becomes a First Rate Bitch. They see a loss of income and get furious at you! It has nothing to do with you personally… it’s all about their lack of planning and thinking they would have your money coming in every month.
Now, here’s some stuff I need within the next 90 days for the CCamp:
Look into gravel – the driveway, area around the front of the house, and the barn needs it.
Fence Charger (used from CL), electric tape and plastic temporary t-posts for Z’s barn pasture.
2 portable fence panels (used from CL) – extends pony’s paddock to the size we were wanting to build.
Pony’s stall ~ stall mats (Tractor Supply recycled) and stall gate (which will remain).
Western saddle rack.
Stall U-channels (possibility if we build the two bigger stalls)
http://www.ag-co.com/horse-stalls/individual-stall-components/46-1-2-h-u-channel/
http://www.countrymfgstore.com/7ftgawach.html
Landowner has alot of wood and supplies already in the barn so I think we can recycle a lot from what is already there.
Flat bed trailer- we’ve been moving so much stuff and I’ll need it for when I buy the lawn mower, gate panels and stallmats. Also, for winter hay, square bales.
Chainsaw – our current one is a small electric one which is great for taking off small branches on felled trees. For this property, we will need a bigger, gas powered one to fell a few more, bigger trees.
Leaf blower (gas powered) and weed whacker (gas powered) ~ the ones we have now are electric and obviously won’t work on a huge property.
Lawn mower (riding) – our current, surbuban lawn mower is electric and a push mower. Since the acreage is small a riding lawn mower as opposed to a tractor and brushhog should do just fine for this property.
Dryer (110 v) for the house as our dryer won’t work.
When I initially saw the pipe fencing photos, my expectations of the barn were very high. Unfortunately, the stalls are pretty depressing and the pipe fencing is on the wrong side of the barn! You can’t see the horses on that side from the house and they are lined up where there are no stalls. The tack room though is huge and since the location doesn’t have a garage that is rather important when it comes to storage.
From the photos I also thought the front pasture was much bigger then it really is. With all that in mind, and changing the two year lease to one year, I’m re-thinking my plans.
Here’s the harsh reality of money– we’ve invested in other people’s barns before: putting up fencing, gates, hay feeders, even built a tack room at one place! and each time we got screwed. Each time the landlord saw the improvements and said, “Wow! That looks great! Now you can pay a higher board!” This, after we got no discount or credit for the material investment we put into the place.
This is why I have little interest in helping anyone improve their property only for me to take one for the team. I’m sick and tired of it so you can be guaranteed that this “team player” won’t be bending over any more … any improvements I make will be those I can take with me or the bare minimum as to what I can do to get the place functional.
With that in mind, I’ve decided to leave the four 10×10 stalls as is. The property is too small to have as many horses as I had planned so why expand these stalls? I will be redoing their stall fronts though and opening up a door from barn to pasture.
For example, Husband came way through for me and put up a paddock using the available free standing panels to make pony a paddock attached to the one open stall (10 x 10). So we won’t be putting in the paddock after all!
I feel soooo much better now about pony!
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