Busy Little Beaver- or How Francis Spent the Winter

Anyone who has met Francis knows how "driven" he is LOL....he always has to be busy doing things,or alternatively building things. Its what he calls relaxing. Not for him to sit and watch the Super Bowl, read a book or anything else that involves sitting for extended periods. He loves to create. And create he certainly did over the winter. The weekends saw him puttsing  ( not sure if that is really a word but if not I just made it up because it really does suit) about in his workshop. 

The workshop was once the old piggery and I think I mentioned previously how he restored it a couple of years ago- repaired the some beams, the roof, laid down pavers for the floor. Well, this fall/winter he put in an old wood stove and built some cupboards an a work bench. It is now worthy of the term "man cave"! He has an old recliner chair in front of the woodstove and thanks to me it has a radio ( yes, that was his Christmas present).

Well, if a man has a workshop he needs to build things right? So what to build? I hadn't come up with the locker idea yet so we looked further afield to find him "projects". Marina and I decided we would like cavalletti to use with the horses this coming summer.. ( for non- horsey people they are poles with wooden x's attached to the ends). You can use them to train horses to improve their rhythm and also to jump. ( PS the x's are necessary so if/when the horse hits the poles  with his hooves they don't roll and change position- the positioning is precise and not willy-nilly but can be altered depending on the exercise). So no sooner have I said I would like some, they appear. Rather like the story with the Elves and the Shoemaker LOL- you get the material and lay it out in the workshop and hey presto the next day you have cavaletti! By the way, Francis does put on an Elf hat at Christmas so the analogy really does suit :) ( If I can find the picture of him in his elfin hat I will post it)
So  here are the cavalletti:
As soon as these were built, the owner of the stable I am currently boarding at asked if he would make her some, and again hey presto, one weekend later another 10 cavalletti were completed.These he charged for as they were not "labours of love" as are the ones he made for me.

So, now what? He's bored again.... so the stable owner says hey would you be interested in building me horse jumps? He says sure ( Although he has no idea of what  a horse jump looks like!). So we spend one evening perusing the internet to find a design which we sent to the owner for approval. That kept him busy for 3 full weekends and this is the result of his labours:

The picture does not do justice to the detailed workmanship that went into these. All the supports are "counter sunk" into the upright pieces, everything is glued and bolted ( not screwed), all the ends are routered ( or had fancy grooves made along the edges and made to "look pretty")and angled so water won't stay on the slats. All cut sections were treated with preservative. He made a total of 24 of these- 12 left and 12 right. 

So then, he gets asked- " Could you make me some fancy ones like this?" ( the owner sent us a picture of what she wanted).... and in two days ( the next weekend) he had these completed:

The picture the owner had sent had a flower basket hanging from a hook-- so Francis even included that for one of them when he delivered them ( he found some plastic flowers lying about and hung them in the hook so she got the full effect of what she had asked for). Again, the details are amazing- he drilled holes along the bottom groove where the lattice sits so water won't collect in it.... He built two of these so 4 sections plus the lattice plank to hang on the jump standards.

So although he hasn't been working in our barn, he has been a very busy little beaver all winter long..chasing away the winter blues.. and also keeping occupied on the weekends that I work 12 hr shifts..

Sorry if the post was boring, but thank you for reading- and hope you share my awe at what can be accomplished with focus and imagination.....