Cupolas, Horse Barns and Electricity

As you can see from the picture below, Melissa won out and our run-in sheds will have cupolas on them. I thought the horse weather vane was a nice touch; something we'll repeat every time we add a cupola, I'm sure. I'm also pretty sure that the addition of cupolas negates the lowered maintenance that I was looking forward to with steel buildings. Oh well. All that's left to do now is get some lumber and fill in the builder's mistake by making the kick rail solid.

I actually really like the horse weather vane !

Our next project is building a useable small barn. Because our new farm is a full mile long, and is in the shape of a relatively narrow rectangle, convenience dictates that we will be building several small barns rather than one big one. Because most of our horses live outside most of the time, having several small barns each with a feed prep area will save us a lot of steps when feeding every day. Several small barns will also make farrier day a dream in comparison to what we have now, especially if we locate the winter sacrifice paddocks adjacent to the barn as we plan to do.

Doesn't my bride look happy to have her picture taken ? :)

Another cupola shot, obviously from the rear this time.

Since they seem to be popular among certain members of our readership, I will end today's post with a farm maintenance story followed by a PSA. Yesterday turned into quite a day for a whole variety of reasons. Among them was that I now know what it feels like to be the ground for 120V household AC electricity. As you might imagine, this wasn't very much fun !

I was fooling in the breaker box when I unthinkingly leaned over and braced myself on a metal water pipe. This would have been okay except that the contractor who wired this particular breaker box grounded everything out to the water line rather than bringing it back to neutral (as he ought to have done) and/or taking it to a grounding rod outside. This STILL would have ended okay except that a short had developed in the breaker box (which was what I was looking for) and because nothing was properly grounded, the breaker didn't trip until I became the ground ! I know there's been a lot of folks who've thought I needed shock therapy over the years, but I don't think they had quite this much amperage in mind ! At least I hope they didn't ! :) Fortunately, the problem was easily remedied once I knew what the matter was and the breaker box in question is now wired and grounded safely.

One of the things I miss about living in open country is being able to really see the sky. Our new farm is more open than our current location, affording me the opportunity to "see" again.

PSA for the day is make sure to check that everything is wired and grounded correctly BEFORE fooling with electricity. Or, if your name is Melissa and your husband's name is Jason, it'd probably pay to make sure the life insurance policies are fully paid up ! :)


Hope everyone has a great Monday !

Snappy, Spike and O'Reilly hanging out in the shed

Lily and MyLight
Chili enjoying a nice roll

Sebastian, Asterik and Winston

Elfin and Homer trotting through the pasture; I like how Elfin's mane and forelock are blowing with the wind

Hemi, Chance, Homer, Elfin and Thomas

Leo and Levendi

Lightening, Teddy, Clay and Slinky

Norman, Cinnamon, Sky and Lexi hanging out under the trees

Snappy, O'Reilly and Teddy