A certain tool has not yet arrived so we cannot put our new stall up but we have been doing a lot of work on the ground.Yesterday we finished the foreground area.
I had already tried my best to make the area as level as possible, but it is sloped, so we had to buy flexible geotiles this time. I was nervous they would be slippery, but the horse is enjoying walking on them so far.
We took a long drive out to Numbrecht to our favorite farm supply, Haas Pferdesport. They are the ones who sold us the Tposts, electric fencing stuff, and all of our current geotiles.
They are a family business, and old Mr. Haas is who we deal with on all transactions. I was surprised last Christmas when he sent us a lovely box of 3 bottles of Haas wine.
So this year I brought him pumpkin muffins for our big order. (Consider yourselves lucky if you can buy pumpkin in a can, I had to do this from scratch and it was not simple!)
He ate a muffin and promply handed me another bottle of his wine, how nice!My husband did a really good job with the math - how many square meters of geotiles we need, and if that many will fit into a Prius. We also bought 5 more stall mats because the new stall is bigger.
They all fit!
Barely.
He put in the first row that evening and I had to keep walking across every individual tile over and over so he could see where we needed more gravel underneath. He called it my catwalk and asked me to do more stylish turns at the end: )
Snapping the pieces together...
The next morning, almost all in...
A close up - we have them in the upside down position for more traction. These are intended to be used as a base layer under riding arenas, in winter paddocks, and walkways. Who doesn't hate mud? I love being able to go feed my horse in my slippers and not worry about getting dirty.
Looking good.
And this is the last we'll be seeing of them. Time to fill in all those squares.
Our gravel was a bit too large but the smaller bits worked and we scraped away the larger stones. You can never have too much gravel on a horse property, and I am so happy to finally have my own gravel area. 
First thing this morning I ran out to look and called for my man - look at this, what has happened here?
My man explained what I could have guessed. The water doesn't drain as fast from the tiles with plastic bases, even though the plastic bases have drainage holes (you can see in the closeup photo). So you get this nice chessboard pattern. If you look closely you can see tracks from Baasha's bedding where he walked across them in the night.Tomorrow the plan is to start building, if we get that tool. *hoping*
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9 comments:
Wow that's nice! I could use those on my walkway to the barn...hmmmm.
Your use of the geotiles has always interested me. How much do they cost (if I may ask)? Say, compared to the stall mats (since the monetary systems won't be comparable)...
Nice work, both of you! Hope the tool comes today, I'm anxious to see Baasha in his new home.
We have to wait (at least) another year for geotiles, there's just not enough $$$ here this year. So I'm very jealous.
On the other hand, I can get LOTS of gravel at the gravel-yard (run by a mostly-female crew, including the boss!) really close to home and very cheap. So you can be very jealous of that, if you want.
WV: verses
nice word for the music teacher's wife! ;-)
It's fascinating watching how much work you are going through to build a good environment.Looks great.
FV, Evensong, they are 12Euros per square meter (around 15 bucks). We ordered 15 square meters. The stall mats are a little over a meter each and cost 37Euros (45$) each.
It is very nice to hear the words "If I may ask" because I've been asked so often here what things cost (our house, our car) and they never say, "If I may ask" and to me that makes all the difference.
Oh, THE TOOL CAME!!!!!!!! Building is ON for tomorrow!
Aarene, I would be very jealous of your big truck loads of gravel from Storms except you hadn't mentioned a price, hehee: )Don't tell me!!!
I am also jealous of your tractor and the kids who help, but mostly the tractor.
G, thank you! I always dreamed of having my own little farm, hence the name Endlich Hof, and I always hoped that we could have a mud-free environment. We do have some muddy spots down by the ponds but we don't SINK in mud like back home in Seattle.
Oh wow,I love that checker pattern! You place is looking so fantastic! I have got to make a trip out there. Your muffins look so delicious : )
That looks so cool! they would be awesome in areas here where mud just never seems to go away!
Cool!
One of my gates (one that I rarely use, unfortunately) has chain link embedded in the sand under the gate. I *think* it's for mud control, and I'm very interested to see how well it works. I wouldn't want my horse to walk over it, but it might work well for people areas.
Did the tool arrive?
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