Horse Side Cleaning

We have mucked out the horse side of the barn. It was quite a chore. Daniel and I worked about 2-3 hours a day for 7 days. There was no reason to hurry through the job. Dust, and heavy lifting, pitchforks, shovels and wheelbarrows.

My arms, and shoulders can only take so much at a time.

After we moved the feeding trough, (I am saving it to use in some creative fashion... somewhere. Ideas anyone?), the Pine Car Race Track (to Jess and Granella Thompson's barn :) Thank you!), tables, and other junk, it was time to remove the straw and manure.


My hard working partner, and the muscles of the the job. Daniel, 15 year old, cheerful, and generally willing worker.



Our tools. Shovels of all kinds, pitchforks (2 sizes), rakes, broom, a reasonable wheelbarrow, and "The Monster" wheelbarrow. The Monster is heavy empty, very heavy. Put a load in it and ....it is impossible to keep under control. The first day we worked Daniel lost The Monster over the ditch bank. He had the fun of retrieving it in typical 15 year old boy fashion. Tie a rope on it and drag it up with the pickup. The advantage of the monster is it's indestructible. After that experience we used a very long and heavy piece of lumber as a wheelbarrow stop.

We broke a wheelbarrow ( the reasonable one) during this project, and a rake, and......

Once we got the fluffy straw off the top, some area had more of it than others, it was hard pack layers of dried manure and straw. Some more decomposed than others. We loved it when it came up in large chunks, it was rewarding, and challenging to see if you could get the whole chunk, no matter how big, to the wheelbarrow without breaking it. Some of the chunks were 3 feet square(or bigger). The pile Daniel is standing on came from one of the seven stalls.


This picture shows how deep we dug in some places. When we got to rocks or soil we figured we had gone far enough.
















How it looked when we hauled the last wheelbarrow load out.









Now it is time for hosing down the walls, ceilings, stalls & window frames to get the cobwebs, bird nests, dust, and manure.












Preston and Daniel replacing one of the many broken windows in the barn this last winter. It gives you a feel (shiver) for the cobwebs.



And now..... nice and "clean"









The initial cleaning is complete. We still want to pressure wash and finish vacuuming with my new Wet/Dry Shop-Vac.

It isn't perfect , but definitely an improvement.














It looks like when the water dries up I need to do some raking of stuff that floated to the surface during the hose down.



We are discussing what to do on the horse side. Do we put down wood chips, rock, pour concrete or build a wood floor. Preston is leaning heavily toward building a floor.