More progress...

Lots of progress today. Your reading and photo viewing is finally about to get more interesting! I pulled in the driveway to meet up to do our happy digging today for the wetlands stuff, and was wondering if I had the right house... the tree guys are here!!!! Love the tree guys. We found our tree guy about a month ago to cut down those white pines, and to "liberate" the roof and power lines of the house (unrealted to the barn). They did a great job, and Mike (tree guy) gave us a great quote to clear the trees from the barn area. We had planned on doing this ourselves, but came to our senses and decided a little help would be good, just this once. The wetlands guy came over, and it was a photo extravaganza. I'll post more later today too. Tree and property transformation to come in the next post..... It's awesome! These photos are of Jeremy digging with the John Deere 2305 backhoe, and the wetlands guy (actually the health department) measuring. The other photo is a preview of tree action.

anticipation

Monday, tomorrow should be big. Wetlands comes out, we dig, he says "not wet" we all smile and move on. The schooling show I judged today was quite fun. Met some nice new people, and got paid. I really enjoyed judging today, I hope to do it again. While I was watching horses all day, Jeremy was making progress on the property. We went on a walking tour of his progress tonight, and the top field is coming along nicely. Now, I'm exhausted and will spend what energy I have stressing in anticipation for tomorrow. Wetlands. And, hopefully the real barn plans will arrive. That means, permit filing!!! Oh, and I can't forget, tomorrow I also beg the planing and zoning person for a swift (immediate actually) approval of the barn plans. She's in her office tomorrow, I'll be there at 8:00 before I head to work. Photo of John Deere 2305 Backhoe in action to come tomorrow. Yes, I wore my pink John Deere hat for part of the morning while judging. Another lady with a John Deere hat came up to me, enthusiastically pointing to her hat (orange?). That was cool. Green tractor people are good. I took the camera today and 100% forgot to take a picture! So, this is a picturesque scene of the top field.

progress

We cut down two more trees today, stacked more firewood, and spread more wood chips. Yes, it was more John Deere 2305 and John Deere Gator TS action. Yes, it makes hard work in the poison ivy more fun if you have John Deere equipment, not really sure why, but it's true. Java has a fat knee that I'm cold hoseing. She is OK, happy as long as she is eating and knows that I love her. It's OK, remember, I acknowledge that we are co-dependent. Oh, I'll be judging my first schooling show tomorrow. I think it will be fun. Here's a photo of some of the wood that we have split and stacked. We have a log splitter attachment that runs off the PTO of the tractor that is a huge help. Stacking is a decent chore, zen like.

lucky

8-8-08 was good to me. wetlands is coming out on Monday to make us dig a hole in our nice grassy pasture to see if it is "wet" (remember he is from the wetlands department. Wet, probably not, rocky, yes. I'm thinking it will be a nice decisive meeting. And, more importantly, a good way to showcase the John Deere 2305 and it's handy backhoe attachment in action. More fees of course accompany this exercise, and as long at this wetlands process goes fast, I'm cool with it. And, it just brings me one step closer to Java's Barn!!! But, if she were to meet the wetlands guy, she would be pretty upfront with him and say "hey, look, I'm having to live on property separate from here in a boarding farm. I'm out at night and in case you haven't noticed because you are cozy and safe in your house, but I'm outside, in the lightning and thunder in the dark!! I'm a horse, not a bat, therefore not nocturnal. So the faster this barn is up, the faster i will be happy. So hurry up and approve this gig." Then she would sneeze, acting like it snuck up on her, and blow bits of dirt snot on his shirt, yes she has done this to me. Sometimes it is no mistake. She's the best.

paper in the form of fees and applications...

So, begging round 2 worked well yesterday. Everyone has been nice. The health department called me the same day I dropped off the plans, and zoning did too. I'm finding that encouraging. Turns out that I have to wait for the real plans to come in before filing. I had been advised (regretfully, but a builder that did NOT get the job) to hire a draftsman to draw my barn and use those plans to get the permits. That was a crock, and expensive, grrrr. But I happily handed two copies over to wetlands and the health department as an extra good gesture to get going. They thought the plans were too nice for them to keep, and I insisted, because I don't want to be reminded of the rip off show that was to get those plans done up. My "real" plans come from my builder (the one who got the job) on Tuesday. No time lost, zoning and health, and wetlands need to all hug, sign off, and collect a few more fees before the building department will take my application anyway. Heck, as long as everyone is nice, that's good. Oh, and I'm being extra extra extra nice. We'll finally hire an excavator by tomorrow morning, and that will seal the deal. Yes, I have called CBYD (call before you dig), and we will be diggin' soon! I would write something funny at this part, but I can't think of anything, I'm too anxious. The photo is of the last clean set of plans I have, drawn by a designer who draws houses, this is drawn a little more like a house than a barn. Excavators and the "other" builder folded their copies up into jigsaw puzzles and scribbled on them (I pretended to not care, hoping that their quotes would be so reasonable that it would not matter, but the ones that folded and scribbled were the most expensive and took the most time to get their prices to me). The folded up copies are out of my life now. The "other" plans will come next week. I have this one pretty copy left. I like this one.

This photo is the front of the barn, and no, Java is not expected to open a double hung window with her hooves, there will be windows that open on hinges that the horses can put their heads out and enjoy their home. And, the ceiling is nice and high so she does not hit her head... she likes to "carry" her head extra high-- It's a princess thing.

Mackie

Mackie gets to have all the fun. Yes, this dog is awesome. He never lets a day go by without soaking up some goofy fun and love. Mackie and Java are going to have a blast together.... I hope.

Anyway, my trip to town hall today was not entirely pointless, I have to go back tomorrow morning, 8:00 am and see if I can get somewhere with the permit application. Begging worked reasonably well today, and tomorrow I'll continue. Maybe I should bring Mackie, he insists that everyone feel the love.

PS - yes, that looks like a barn behind Mackie, but that is our garage, and yes, those are some attachments for the John Deere 2305.

paperwork

I have to figure out how to get permits. The dining room table has turned into a paperwork command center in my attempt to organize this stuff. I'll be at town hall later begging for help. The town will happily and quickly approve the barn, the town will happily and quickly approve the barn, the town will happily and quickly approve the barn, the town will happily and quickly approve the barn....

java

Ok, so this photo is not perfectly recent, but it will do. It's a typical Java photo. Head about as high up as it will go, ears perked, and happy as a clam to be the center of attention. I would have taken a new photo of her today, but find that it is taking a lot of time to get this barn thing going. The foundation plans arrived today, we got our 3rd and final excavation quote today, blah blah blah, I hope to bring my application into town hall tomorrow. Java's OK, I tucked her in at her temporary home down the street (more of that later, yes, it is very interesting, I am SO looking forward to getting our own barn!), she has only one new cut on her, and she told me that she forgives me for taking so long to build the barn. Yes, we are codependent.

Koi Anyone?

So this place is pretty much all about Java (yes, I'll post some photos of her soon), but there is one part that is all Mackie - the pond. Mackie is a lab, and therefore loves to swim. We have a pretty cool pond on the property, and it turns out that there are a few koi in it. More like, LOTS O' KOI.

I know a couple of key things about koi: they eat a lot, and multiply. We feed them, they are happy. And lucky for Mackie, they like swimming with him.

fern path

One of my favorite spots on the property is what we call the fern path. After work yesterday we used the John Deere 2305 to spread wood chips that were left over from the removal of some hideous white pine trees that had to come down.

This path now smells like a fresh pine something, and I am looking forward to riding Java down this path. Mackie likes it too.

progress

We didn't feel like getting poison ivy this week, so we did not use the chainsaw for anything impressive (most of what is left to cut down is about 30% poison ivy). But we did clear out this spot that used to have many many many small annoying trees, ripped up their roots and then the latest attachment for the tractor, the "landscape rake" cleared the junk out of the way to create this inviting patch of "woods" for the horses to hang out in when they finally live here.

Hopefully Java will listen carefully when I explain to her that she should please not run into a tree. But since she will probably be careening around this big top field area like a kid in a candy store, bucking to her hearts content, she may not be taking notes.

Tractoring

Sunday: We are going to "tractor" and "gator" today. We are pretty enthusiastic owners of many things John Deere and I'll post photos of our progress that we make today. Hint: it will probably involve the chainsaw.

photos

The below photo (earlier post) is of Mackie (our fabulous lab) laying right about where the barn will go.

The above photos are of other regular views of the property, daily stuff... The soon to be fenced in pasture... Mackie supervising Jeremy on the tractor, Mackie retreiving enthusianstically, and Mackie resting up for tomorrow.

second entry, just the groundwork

Here are some photos to lay the groundwork for the fun stuff. And, also along the topic of groundwork, we are looking for some. Searching far and diligently for an excavator and someone to pour the foundation for the barn. Good news, it's August, it's a quiet month = bad news, it's August, no one wants to get on this particularly quickly for Java. BUT ITS FOR JAVA!! Dig dig dig, pour pour pour!!! We tell ourselves, and this can double duty as an affirmation: It will all work out. This is no doubt going to be very interesting. :) Java would love the drama.

did this really work

I think I just set up my/our blog. If so, this would be my first post.

This blog is about Java (my horse) and her barn that we are building at our house. It's a very big deal, and Java is no ordinary horse. She's my horse, and she's Java. I'm sure she considers me lucky to be her owner... and I am. So, we're building a barn for her, right here at home.

I'll get the barn plans tomorrow and will be able to post a photo, or some type of image that will resemble the barn. It is going to be great. Java is going to love it, and I'm going to freak out, it's going to be awesome!!!