Winter is over!

HUGE thanks to everybody who came out to help with our spring cleaning today.  I am amazed by and hugely appreciative of the great turnout and all the hard work everybody did!

First one out was Amy, who fed and turned out before anybody else arrived!  She also spent several hours yesterday helping me strip the barn so it'd be ready for today's challenge.  Woohoo!

Rebecca was the next to arrive, super early as always :)   She and I started gutting stalls as the first task, which she continued at superwoman speed while I went and taught Rowan her lesson.  When Jennifer, Katlyn and Steph arrived they joined in and the barn was empty in record time.

Creating our new jumps

By the time Rowan was done riding, all the troops had arrived!  Olivia, Rowan and Selena took on panting duties (thanks to Susan for the paint and Mieke for the materials!)  Thanks to them we now have lots of fun new jumps :)   A brick wall, a toy chest (don't think it was intended to be such, but that's what it looks like to me), a zig-zag pattern, and coolest of all by far - a caterpillar!   So much fun!

A couple more of these sessions and our stadium ring will be a work of art!

While they were painting, Bryn was building!   Despite my many interruptions and requests for his skills elsewhere, he still pulled it off and we now have an exciting new xc jump!!!!  Woohoo :)   Now all we need is for the ground to dry up a little bit and we're set.  Fun pre-entry sized cabin.  Can't wait for Lexi to try it!  hahaha

Cabin XC Jump built by Bryn

Once the stalls were clear, Susan hooked up the pressure sprayer and went to work.  She tackled the entire barn on her own!  And it looks sooooooo much better now!  And when the sprayer needed a break, she doubled as photographer :)   Look for pics on FB whenever she sends them to me *g*    Also in the barn, Jennifer tackled the tack room, cleaning off all the lockers, decobwebbing, and cleaning the excessive number of picture frames.  Steph and Rebecca with some technical assistance from Bryn fixed the stall mats that had come up -- a no-fun job that they did a great job of, laughing all the while.   And while this was going on, mum single-handedly took on the viewing lounge and windows before going to procure lunch for all :)

Emptying the stalls

Outside several different missions were being tackled.  Dad, Darrell and Jeff were armed with chainsaws and spent all day taking care of the trees that came down in the ice storm -- chopping up and removing dead branches and checking the fences.  They got a TON accomplished!

Chelsea, Danielle and Katlyn took charge of relocating jumps and setting a course.  I drove the tractor for them, but they did all the work packing all the jumps up and then unloading them and deciding what to do with them in the sandring.  The course looks great and I'm really looking forward to riding it!   Ummmm hmmmm have I mentioned my horse isn't actually broke yet?  Nbd; I'm sure she can do it *g*

Setting the course in the sandring

Jennifer, Rebecca and Steph all finished up what they were working on inside and moved on to tackle outdoor jobs.  Jen made a good dent in cleaning up the hay outside the paddocks -- hopefully will let the grass grow there now!   Rebecca hauled all the school grooming gear outside and cleaned and sorted all the brushes and boxes.  Stephy meanwhile set up the floats for the outside waters -- I need some more washers, but once I have those my horses will be soooo happy because they'll be able to be out at night again.  And so will I :)

We had a short pizza lunch break and then everybody continued at it!  Those tackling the bigger jobs went right back to them while some of the shorter jobs were finished and all those people picked up new ones!  Lucy arrived and joined in, helping Steph roll blankets for the blanket lady to come pick up.  Victoria joined in as it was time to put it all back together again -- many many loads of shavings delivered.  Hay, grain and water to all the stalls, horses brought in, and a ton of sweeping!  Clean up the work area outside and the day was finally complete!

Reloading the stalls :)

And I?  I got to run around and do little bits of everything :)  Drive the tractor, turn on the fence, hold the board, dig dirt out of the mats (until Stephy, unfortunately minus Wolverine claws, took over.  I think the hanger made a reasonable substitute though.  Maybe you had to be there :), turn the water on, realize that was a very bad idea, turn the water off, clean the name signs, check on the horses who were none to sure about chainsaws.  Of course the hot chestnut TB couldn't care less.  The old schoolmaster otoh...  Sheesh.  Spent an exorbitant amount of time fighting with hoses both inside and out, but I have high hopes that now all I need is those washers and we'll be good to go.  Search for paint brushes (didn't find any other than the ones I already knew about), painter's tape (that I had!), duct tape (also had -- doesn't work so well on wet surfaces though), need a screwdriver - no not *that* type, the other kind!   Buckets, washers, screws, nails, broom (where *did* the other good broom end up?), shovels, hoses, electrical cord, lamp, and on and on.  It seems there's a lot of stuff we have that's location is hidden in my brain *g*   Since Stephy can read my mind, she can mostly find it too with very little discussion, but for everybody else it's easier if I just go get whatever it is.

I eventually won this battle!

Overall it was an amazing day.  I'm forever grateful to all of you for coming out and helping and being involved!  You're awesome :)