Too barn exciting

V and I are looking into having a barn built. It'll have at least two stalls for horses, space for a tackroom/feedroom, space for a little workshop, and probably two open bays that we'll use as a garage. So far, the frontrunning company is www.countrycarpenters.com which has kits they sell and ship. Their barns are timber framed, mortise-tenon joinery, which I thought would be ridiculously and prohibitively expensive. But it turns out they're not all that much more expensive than we'd pay to have a barn framed out and built. Plus if we buy a kit we can "invite" (read: force to come) all our friends and family over for a barn raising. We'll feed them, and feed them well, but they'll have to work—hard—for it!

We're still wrestling with where exactly to put it, but more and more we're leaning toward putting it on the west end of the property, near where the sad existing garage is now. That way we can extend the driveway/parking pad to run up to the new garage/barn, and there's definitely room to create a little runout pen for the future ponees. For real turnout days we'll have to walk them down to the pasture, but at least with a runout they won't be stuck in their stalls all day long, plus we'll be able to regulate their grazing. Good for their health (especially with that lush spring grass...no foundering, please!!) and good for the pasture, because it won't get overgrazed quickly.