Well,this past week has been quite busy with not a lot of major things happening, but certainly lots of smaller ones.

This past Tuesday evening had Francis scouting out supplies at Home Depot in Ottawa. He phones home to say he had found a good deal on windows for the barn and would I go and pick them up-- please (They were 35% percent off). I said I didn't want to as I had just had a bath and climbed into jammies and my bed for evening. Then he says they have 7 in Pembroke and he could buy 3 in Ottawa and we would have 10 windows for the long side of the barn we are rebuilding-- but that at that price they could be sold by the time he came home on Friday so please, please would I go. So of I drove ( no,not in my jammies) to Home Depot to buy windows. Francis and the guy at HD say , "they're not heavy, just awkward"- yeah right! So I have help to get them in the truck at the store but had to unload them my self once I got home. Managed to get them all unloaded into the garage with no breakage- of me or the windows. I had to unload them as I worked the next day and didn't want them stolen off the back of the truck.

Thursday morning Marina and I went to bag wood shavings and bring them home to the barn. They will be the bedding for the horses. Marina's brother-in-law, Harry, has a  sawmill and we have bought lumber from him for the new support wall. He also planes wood, hence, the pile of shavings we raided. They are an excellent price! So off we go with our industrial size garbage bags and bag shavings.We get 8 bags on the back of the truck and head for home. As I pull out onto the highway, I tell Marina laughingly to watch for falling bags..........when we get home and are unloading them (also in the garage), we only have 7--- well maybe that is all we did??? So we decide to head back for another load......and what do we spy almost at the exact spot on the road where I said to watch for falling bags, but a big black garbage bag.- hmm do you suppose that is ours ?? So we load up 7 more bags and head home. We stop at the side of the road to check the other bag-- yep- it's ours! So I throw that one on the truck as well.

Francis got home on Friday and finished off Pippa's stall. The picture last week showed the front- now it has both sides.

Saturday morning Francis went around town gathering supplies- including bags of cement. He had a trailer full of wood from Harry's sawmill and proceeded to go up the lane to the barn..... well, he tried anyway. He got stuck with truck and trailer up to the axles (I was at work all day so there is no picture unfortunately, but I will take one of the huge ruts he has left).  He had to get the tractor and tow out first the truck and then the trailer. In the afternoon he drove up to a place in Quebec about 1 1/2 hrs away to buy his new toy-- a side-by-side vehicle! He figures it will be useful to drag /harrow the round pen footing and for me to lug things around outside. I told Marina that now Serge,  her husband, and Francis can come on trail rides with us-- we'll trailer our horses , and they can trailer the side-by -side and drive it!

Francis was so excited about his new purchase that he had to take me for a drive when I got home from work at 730- then he made me drive it too....
We have to find the vehicle a name now.....feel free to provide a name in the comments section!

new wet cement on the wall and floors

On Sunday Francis made cement and levelled off the stall floors. They had a  "dip" in the back and he wanted them level of course. I'm a little surprised that he did not place his name in the wet cement- I told him he should have like the previous builder put his. Oh well, there is time for that when he levels the floor for the new tack room. He also "repointed" the stone foundation walls in Raphi's stall. Pippa's stall floor had a hole repaired as well.

Francis surprised me on Sunday night telling me he had taken a holiday day and would be staying an extra day......

Barn viewed from the back- note the way the bottom
section is "leaning" outwards-- that is what we have to fix. This
is the wall that will have the 10 new windows put in it ( the ones
I dragged home from Home Depot this week)

We got a call on Monday morning to say the tamarack boards for the stall floors was ready so he went off to get that at Harry's while I stayed home and primed the angle iron that will be used to secure the wooden stall flooring. He managed to get the trailer up to the barn by driving across the lawn--- as there was no way to get up the lane through the massive ruts. I helped carry in the boards- boy they were heavy? I carried the "skinny" boards and Francis carried the big wide ones. His pile was much bigger than mine (oh well, at least I tried).  In the afternoon, Francis removed the old doors you can see hanging in the photo. We (not the royal we here- I really did help!) jacked up the beam above the door, inserted a new beam and side support posts. The old door beam was very bowed down, and it took two jacks to get it straight. The groaning of the old barn gave me the creeps- I was waiting for it to collapse, but of course, Francis knows what he is doing and hey presto it's done. Francis said that if I hadn't moved in a hundred years and was suddenly asked to change position, then I would groan too..... he does have a valid point.........I groan now! He covered it all with some of the old original boards so it blends in and looks "old" -- can't tell we even replaced it really.

The doorway into the barn used to have a centre support post which makes it awkward for carrying in things and bringing in the horses, so we wanted to put in a stronger beam that would allow the centre post to be taken out. The day ended with a gaping hole where there used to be two doors, covered by a tarp until next weekend. He is building me Dutch doors for the barn and he ran out of time-- but he will start those this coming weekend. I am thinking of making the door handles out of some of the old horseshoes I painted---we'll see if it can work.Also plan to have screens made for the top section of the Dutch doors so the top door can be left open on summer evenings.

"new " doorway from the inside 

"old" doorway- doors falling to bits and support post
in the middle

You can now see a cement pad just outside the

door- Before that was all covered up with grass and mud. Eventually, I hope to have a rubber mat at the entrance and also in the entire alleyway that you see on the inside leading to the stalls.

"new" doorway from the outside- yes, there is still
a little "bow" in the old beam that you see but it is
drastically better!

the new beam ready for cutting

This is the angle iron I was painting in the garage in the morning. I primed it and tomorrow I will paint it and it will be ready for the floors by the weekend.

Well, I really have nothing more to add for this week. I am writing this while Francis is driving back to Ottawa. Just think, next Tuesday the barn will have occupants-- we plan to bring the horses home on the 26th. Next weekend will be very busy getting everything ready and making everything safe for the new tenants--- I do so hope they will love their new home.... I will definitely take a video of their arrival and post to here. And maybe even a picture of them inside their new home...............so until next week