You Want Them Painted What Color???

When I first decided to start blogging I worried that I would run out of things to write about. Much about our daily life here is pretty routine and how many pictures of grazing horses can you possibly ask people to look at? However I seem to keep coming up with new things to complain, err - I mean blog, about on a regular basis.

My dad has this thing about everything on the farm matching. I'm not suggesting that is a bad thing, in fact I agree with him. But it is easy to suggest all these things when you aren't the one doing the work! My mom, bless her, would never suggest something so insane as painting a bunch of run-in sheds . . . . . WHITE! Could you possibly pick a more impractical color for sheds in the middle of horse fields that get used as scratching posts on a regular basis?? However all the houses, barns and structures on the farm are all white with a red roof. So my dad has been on this kick about getting the sheds painted.

Jason likes to spend as much time messing around with the ladders as he does painting

It is a long way up to the top

Every time he would bring it up I would just do the smile and nod thing and then carry on with my day. But he got to the point where he wasn't letting it go. I complained to Jason at great length about this, and he in turn did the old smile and nod routine right back at me! I'm not suggesting my dad has bad taste, in fact the farm is gorgeous and his vision for the property is mostly why. But I have so many other things that I could spend time and money on then painting a bunch of sheds - especially painting them white!

Fully primed and partially painted

So in all of my spare time (yeah, laugh with me, spare time on a farm??) I have been priming and painting sheds. Yep, every single one of the sheds has to be gone over twice, first with primer and then with paint. The worst part is it all has to be done with a brush. The sheds are all board and batten, so even using a roller with a really heavy nap you still can't get the entire surface covered so it has to be painted on with a brush. I like to pretend I am training for the "Karate Kid" with the whole wax on/wax off thing. There was a part where he had to paint that was part of his karate training, right? Since I haven't seen the movie in 20 years or so I can't remember exactly.

The good news is Carlos has been available to help again. He has done far more of the priming and painting than Jason and I have. If it were up to just us the first shed would still be about half primed.

Carlos hard at work

The other reason we are so lucky that Carlos had time to help with this project is because I don't "do" ladders. In addition to my fear of snakes, I also dislike ladders. I have a little step ladder I use around the barn which is fine, and I'll go a few rungs up a ladder, but I'm not going to be holding a paint can in one hand and a brush in another while the ladder leans against a shed and I'm hanging off the side painting. Nope, not going to happen!

Yes I realize my clothes are disgustingly dirty. I work on a farm every day! Now those clothes are not only dirty but covered in paint.

Trying to look happy, not pulling it off all that well!

I do my share of priming and painting while standing on the ground and I let Carlos and Jason handle all of the work from the ladders. I don't remember exactly how tall the sheds are, but especially at their peaks they are quite tall, and I'm thankful that Carlos and Jason will climb up and down the ladders. I made the offer in more than one post that people are welcome to stop by and put in a day of work with their chain saw. I now extend the offer to put in a day of painting if you are so inclined!

One completely painted run-in shed; and many more to go!

Yes Dad, I am grudgingly saying, in public on the world wide web, that the white shed looks quite nice in the background. I doubt the horses care though. One coat of Thompson's Water Seal would have worked fine for me, and it could have been sprayed on. Apollo and Leo are our horse models for this picture.