Breyer, Barns, & Books

Lots of bits and pieces to share today!

Breyer

First, Breyer made an announcement yesterday acknowledging the issues their shipping department is having. Here's that announcement from Breyer's Facebook page.

It's a good beginning and I think it was wise that Breyer do so, but my experience has been that the problem is bigger and has more facets than what they are addressing in this email. (Remember my Christmas Blanket Debacle post?) Yes, shipping is a problem, but so have been other things, too,  in CCG.

Another concern I have is the Customer Service department. No doubt they are buried in emails and phone calls; I get that. But it isn't much of a confidence builder when the automated response to your email comes back tagged as SPAM!

You start wondering if your email really was received and read. (I mentioned in the post about the blanket debacle that I emailed Breyer about having received a blanket that I had not ordered or paid for and asking how to return it. Crickets. That blanket is still here.)

Regardless, kudos to Breyer for updating collectors on the situation - they've taken some heat and gotten some snark for their efforts, but I think it is a step in the right direction and hope that that continues. It never, ever hurts to communicate and keep people in the loop. Thanks, Breyer.

Two more guest horses were announced via the BreyerFest blog, both of them  returning guests. 

HD Darkness (he's 27 years old!) will be in attendance and Breyer will have a limited number of models of him for sale on site. (I really like this mold.)

Buckeye will be back, too, although no models will be available of him.

Barns

I love barns in all their variety. (I'm talking the old wooden ones, not the metal pole barns.) This little info sheet about various barn types crossed my social media feed yesterday so I took a screen shot of it. I do not have the original source; it was just shared by a woman in a group.

Farmyard Palace Barn? Hmmm, quite the description! Around here our barns are related most closely to the Western Prairie Barn, the Dutch Gambrel Roof Barn, and the Pioneer Barn with a few Round Barns added to the mix.

Tim has the beautiful new barn with its indoor arena, stalls, lounge, office, and tack room, but I have always chosen the old barn as the place I most like to be when I am out there. 

Abby, Sultanna, and Diablo thundering out of the old barn to come get some peppermints.

There is just something about the wood creaking as the wind gusts against it, the hay mow overhead with its fragrance drifting down, and the gentle snorts, stomps, and chuffs as the horses take shelter from the heat and the cold.

Books

Pony Pal Mila and her mama invited me to read a book with them. "There's a horse in it named 'Butter', Grammy!" (Guess why. Just try. LOL)

The photo I sent Mila and Vanessa to let them know that I'd gotten the book and could begin reading.

The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley is a really good book and one that I would've included in my classroom library were I still teaching. 

In an interesting coincidence, Emily texted Teacher Daughter Lisa and me a day later and asked if we had any book recommendations for Pony Pals Julie, Kate, and Susan. Easy peasy - at the end of their two years with me (I taught a multiage class of 4th and 5th graders) the outgoing students always created a list for the incoming 4th graders of their recommendations of Children's Classics to read.

I opened my teaching files and pulled out one of them and emailed it to her. (This list does have a book I removed from the suggestions due to the author's use of the F-word.)

There is nothing like hearing a child giggle aloud at their desk as they read and you know that they have just seen through Tom Sawyer's ruse to get his friends to paint that fence for him! (Oh, the fond memories of reading books with kids!)

So, if you are interested in a variety of good literature that both adults and children will enjoy, there you go!

Bye! (Hah! Couldn't resist adding in that fourth letter B!)

The Repairs Continue

We have had unseasonably warm weather here in Indiana while Tim continues the extensive repairs to the old barn. 

It's a huge project and he is doing it by himself. But already the roofline is straightening out as he fixes and levels the foundation.

The entrances to the stalls are barricaded and the paddock is closed to the horses as an added measure to keep nosy horses safe while he works.

I'm staying away from it, too, although I have poked my head in occasionally to take a peek. (I guess that makes me nosy, haha!)

One of the holes the groundhogs dug that undermined the foundation so badly.

I'm glad Tim was able to purchase the old barn and farmhouse - now that it is his, he can do those badly needed repairs. And clearly those repairs are going to take a while and winter is fast approaching.

There is a loafing shed in the nursery paddock and then the new barn near the water trough, so even if the task isn't completed before the snow flies, the horses still have options for shelter this winter.

Fall is lingering, but temperatures are expected to drop to more normal numbers this coming week. We've got lots of hay put up and the two other barns - the horses will be fine regardless of how those repairs progress. 

Update: Old Barn Repairs & More

 Tim continues the work on the old barn. He is replacing the foundation (did I tell you he is doing all the work by himself?) and shoring up supports inside.

He got two huge jacks and lifted up the barn to redo the foundation.

You can see how the barn had begun leaning in this picture.

He is also reconfiguring the space inside

and took down the wooden wall between the two box stalls and put in a gate. Now we can open that space up if need be.

Now that the blue barn and its pasture have been sold, Tim is fencing the lane between the paddock behind the new barn and the southeast paddock.

He's removed some of the fencing on the southeast paddock

and is recycling it as fencing for the lane 

as well as replacing the fencing between the new barn paddock and the agribusiness.

And while he is at it, he's replacing a few posts

gotten our hay supply in for the winter,

and is clearing dead wood out of the northwest pasture. 

It sure is looking nice and I'm glad that, while repairs and changes are being done, it will still be the old barn with its old-age charm when he is done.

New Life for the Old Barn

For years Tim has been using the old barn and its pastures under an arrangement with an elderly couple who live in the old farmhouse. The man passed away several years ago and his widow has remained in the farmhouse. A few weeks ago she sold the property to Tim.

The pin indicates the old farmhouse and the old barn is circled. (Go here to see a satellite tour of all the property.)

Tim is generously letting her stay there until she can no longer live alone, and then he plans to pull the house down.

Now that Tim owns the old barn, he is renovating it.

Two of the four stalls were full of junk. He's removed all of that and hauled it away.

He's taken down some of the old partitions between the four stalls.

Although this cobbled together wall, so like those that can be found in other very old barns, is still in place. (I'm kind of glad - I love the charm of an old barn!)

Using a Bobcat, Tim's removed several layers of footing and is redoing the foundation.

And he is redoing the interior supports that hold the hay mow in place. 

Years ago, someone put metal sheeting on the east side of the barn. I don't know if he will keep that or not.

The old barn has quite a history. Originally built on another farm, it was moved to its current site in the 1940s. Sometime after 1970, an addition to the old barn on the west side caught fire. The addition burned down, but firefighters were able save the original barn although it suffered some damage. (A blog post that shows the scorched parts of the old barn can be found here.)

The old barn is my favorite spot to visit Abby and the herd, and I can't wait to see it rejuvenated. 

Progress on the Old Barn

Tim continues to work on repairing and cleaning up the interior of the old barn. I though you might enjoying seeing some photos of the progress he's made.

I love old barns, and have become very attached to this one. (I like it better than the new barn.)

These are the north doors to the old barn and they slide apart to open. The area is all cleaned out and open now, and Tim has been working in those two stalls you can see on the left. 

One (with the red extension cord hanging on it) was a former tack room that was also used for storage by the elderly couple who live in the old farmhouse on the property. 

The smaller stall (with the wooden latch) has had mowers and machinery stored in it. That's all cleaned out now.

It looks a lot better than it did! I'm not sure, but I think that that is an old hay feeder leaning against the wall.

Across the aisle is another box stall that has yet to be cleaned out and made usable.

Looking in the opposite direction and back to the two box stalls that the horses use is one of my favorite spots - I've spent a lot of time standing by that little wooden gate and visiting with Abby and the herd. It's cool in the summer and warm in the winter. 

The box stall Abby, Trouble, and Hokey are currently using when they feel like coming inside.

When I was a girl and dreaming of the barn I'd like to have, that perfect barn with all the amenities, I never, ever gave a thought to having an old wooden barn. Now? It's one of my favorite places to be.

Spring Cleanup

Anne Field recently wrote a blog post on how, when you begin cleaning, suddenly you see all kinds of things that need to be cleaned. She's absolutely right, and that happens whether you are at home or at the barn. Tim is doing spring cleanup out at the barn right now - he's removed some trees and brush and has had a big burn pile going at the edge of the hay field.

He is also planning to do some remodeling in the old barn - pulling broken boards and other burnables out of it and tossing them on the burn pile. There are two huge box stalls in there plus two smaller ones. The small ones had a lot of old wood stored in them, and he is removing all that and planning on making them usable.

It was a beautiful day and I wanted to get some photos of Abby but she kept following me around. I'd walk away a bit, turn to snap the photo, and there she'd be - coming right to me. (Not that I mind - I find it endearing when she does that.)

Finally she decided to nibble on some grass a bit and I was able to step back and take those pictures. She's still got a lot of her winter coat on her, but it is shedding out and soon she will be sleek and shiny again. (If she quits rolling in every mud puddle she can find, that is.)

Spring cleanup around a horse farm is actually a never ending, year round job - grass, bushes, and weeds grow, horses knock down boards, pipes freeze, snow (and manure) needs shoveling, and so on. I've been boarding with Tim for nine years, and I am grateful for the excellent job he does in that constant battle.

Still Standing

Tim is out of town for a few days (he and Loni have a new granddaughter!) and I am in charge of the barn while he is gone. I love it when that happens. While I no longer want to have my horse at home in my own barn, I am always glad to have the opportunity to take over for a few days.

During Sunday afternoon's visit, I walked around checking the fences and gates to be sure everything was secure for the horses. Abby was in a following mood. She tagged along with me, something she frequently does. She walks when I walk and stops when I stop, no lead rope needed. I love that about my mare. This time Sultanna tagged along, too. (I felt like the pied piper!)

Tim had told me that he'd gotten an additional 300 bales put into the old barn's hay mow, so I went into one of the stalls and looked up the ladder and into the mow. For whatever reason, the light was just right, and I could see the scorch marks on the boards from when the old barn had caught fire years and years ago.

These are boards that run from the roof and form the walls of the loft and then come down over one of the entrances to the stalls. The floor of the mow is that newer board in the upper left hand corner. It is supporting the mow's floorboards - you can barely make them out on top of it.

More fire damage to the boards of the hay mow.

I don't worry too much about another fire in the barn but I am aware that it could happen. Since Tim and I both prefer that our horses roam freely, they would be able to get out of the barn if there were a problem. There are two homes on the property, the agribusiness next door, and several other horse properties bordering the place, so help would be available quickly. Having said that, it is sobering to see the evidence that the barn did catch fire once.

Believe it or not, I actually worry more about wind. We get some pretty strong winds in this part of Indiana, and lots of tornadoes, and the old barn does creak and pop when it blows hard. 

But despite the fire and the winds and tornadoes, the old barn still stands. I'm glad - it is one of my favorite places to be with my girl.