Before and After...close to finished, but not quite!

Well, folks, it's raining cats and dogs, so the barn isn't being worked on this weekend. But I am so excited by the progress that has been made, so I think it's time for some Before and After Pictures!

Here is the section of the barn that will be used for winter hay storage - when we first went out to begin cleaning, this is what it looked like:

The floor was just straw and particle board, and it was storage for lawn tools and wasp nests! But now? It's all cleaned out (no more wasp nests, thank goodness), and it has a nice, solid floor, just waiting for hay!

Now, right next door to this section is the part of the barn where the sheep will be able to come inside out of the weather if they wish, as well as where their hay, mineral, and salt feeders will be. When we first started working on it, we thought we were just dealing with straw on the floor...but we were dealing with layers and layers of straw, manure, and rotted particle board:

But after numerous tarp-fulls of crap being hauled out, like these:

we are now down to solid dirt!

So...what is left to do?  Well, the feeder has to be modified to help the sheep eat cleanly -
right now it looks like this:

My Dear Husband will be adding mesh to the front of it so that the sheep have to pull hay out of the holes in the mesh. He will also be adding a trough underneath to catch the hay and keep it off the floor. Then he will be rigging a 2x4 next to it for the mineral and salt feeders to hang.

As far as the flooring goes, we're going to level it with rocks and gravel, spread gravel over the entire thing, then add clean straw to the top. After the enormous amount of work it took to clean out this part of the barn, I am actually looking forward to cleaning out their straw once per year, like Lee does for her sheep - it's going to seem like a picnic!

The gaps and holes in the walls will be patched...we'll scrape the old paint from the exterior and repaint it a beautiful red with white trim...I'd also like to paint the interior as well to help seal the wood a bit better. Gravel and paving stones will need to be put down underneath the water spigot, which is right outside their feeding/shelter section, and then their new trough can be set up (I just got it from Amazon yesterday!)!

Now, far be it from me to leap joyfully in the air, demonstrating how EXCITED I am to be getting so much work finished and to only be a little over a month away from bringing home Black Velvet, Mikey, and Panda Bear! So, because I am such a calm, sedate type of person, I will let our dog, Black Beary, leap joyfully for me instead!