Our Projects Page

~ Welcome to Epic Farms ~
WooHoo Winter! Brrrr :o)

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Boy oh boy, do we have work to do!

(and Man oh MAN, do we need help doing it :o)

Would you like to help us with any of these projects? If you'd like to designate a donation to any of the projects on this page, simply state which project when you donate. We'll be tickled with whatever help you're able to give us - honest! :o)

Ladies first! See blurb (on far right) about the situation with the Girls' stalls; we're now under construction!

The auger we bought from a friend awhile back was a lifesaver! We sure could have used it when we were working on the training area :oP

We opted to recycle the metal frames and give them some added reinforcement. We ditched the tarps and are planning on a lightweight metal roof (that hopefully will NOT blow away...yay!)

You see that we had plenty of "help", right? (Actually, this is our "Oversight Committee" :o)

We sometimes pretend to be all that by telling everyone we drive a Suburban ~ sometimes it's funny...

...and sometimes it's not.

Good thing Rickey's handy with duct tape, bandaids, and maybe a couple of rubber bands...
Of course a decent used tractor was on the list right after the barn was roofed (heavy sigh).

Yes, believe it or not this 1960 garden tractor is indeed a Suburban :o) It was not running at all when it was donated; what's that phrase again? One man's trash is another man's treasure? Well, okay you got me - not exactly a treasure, but hey it runs most of the time - plus, it was pretty much this or the wheelbarrow (hmmmm... :o)

Check out our handy-dandy inclement weather attachment designed by Maxwell House :o)

Erosion has become a huge problem in the past couple of years. So much soil has washed away that the roots are above the ground, making it easier for the wind to blow them over.

In addition to the trash washing down from the top of the hill, we are starting to lose areas of grass where the soil has completely eroded underneath it. This is easily fixable with "the right stuff": dirt (see our emergency donation below) and a tractor (above pictures... obviously at the moment, we're kinda stuck).

We had a well-meaning friend bring us some free dirt, but I can't say I was too keen on all of the rocks that came along with it...

* UPDATED JUNE 2009 *

Blown away Part II (Sudden storm + High Winds = Bella's roof went poof!)

Seriously soggy to blown away...

Not long after the torrential rains that almost washed us away, came even more rain. This time with winds that almost blew us away! It took out Rina & Taya's roof, anyway. Sheesh!

EROSION continues to be a huge problem for us; the recent storms have wreaked havoc on our pastures...

The stalls are flooded; when we are able to purchase dirt these need to be built back up to prevent this from happening again.

Still under construction is a small training/petting area that will be used for demonstrations and picture taking. Not sure how long this will take as we are working with the materials we already have and doing it the hard way...manually - ugh.

Need Exercise? For an intense upper body workout (just shy of a hospital visit) I highly recommend these post hole diggers - pictured below. With Rickey now working 7 days a week, Cassandra and I are getting to have all the fun...NOT! :oP

We've finally gotten the bridge moved (and wasn't that just fun?) The tires had been very well buried and were kind of a nightmare to dig up and relocate - all 8 of 'em). Of course I was the one that buried them the first time, so it's always nice to know you did a good job....sigh

Ta-Da! and man am I glad THAT's over...well, the bulk of it anyway - whew! :oP

The top rail has been run all the way around, and a "baseboard" run at the bottom to try to keep the erosion problem OUT of the training area. Now we just have to fill in the "middle".

We've put in the people gate in and the space to the left will be our picture place for visitors ~ Cassandra is going to make a special wooden sign for it :o)

*We got the second gate built and installed ~ this one goes to the bridge and will be opened and closed from horseback (that's the plan, anyway :o)

We're focusing hard on the positives and working with what we have. So we decided to start working on our sign!

I printed out the letters and traced them on to the wood, then it was Cassandra's turn.

Here she goes...

So where does the money go? Here is a bare bones list of repeat offenders (um, recurring expenses :o) to give you an idea:

~ Equine Pedicures (hoof trimming) costs $150 every 6-8 weeks
~ Feed costs run between $250-$350/month
~ Hay averages $200-$300/month
~ Worm Paste averages $100 every 6 to 8 weeks

Just those 4 basics add up to quite a bit of expense (and there's plenty more where that came from! :o)
(It's all for a good cause though, right?...
You know; warm fuzzies!)

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

PLUS - To add REAL visitors and fully implement our programs (not the friends and family we are currently practicing on :o) we will need to purchase liability insurance, to the tune of about $800 - $1,000 per year (ouch!)

Our barely begun barn; um, I guess you could say it has a sun roof or maybe it's a moon roof...and hey ~ it's definitely open and airy, right?

This was Phase One of the barn. We were going to do the Moo Crew's stalls first, then the girls. We began with roughing out the stalls, but before we even got to the roofing part of the program, Rickey lost his job of 11+ years (well now THAT wasn't exactly helpful, was it?)

After several months of searching he has (thankfully) found another job; but a 7 day work week and a drastic pay cut have postponed this project indefinitely.

This last picture was pretty entertaining; I'd intended to get a shot of Rina in her room but I guess Taya didn't want to be left out. When I lifted the camera up, Taya shot in the door, scooted around Rina and then stood there trying to look all shy and demure (ha, I don't think so, Miss Priss :o)

*Did you know there was a lumber fairy? We didn't either, but he paid us a visit last week... which means, we just might be able to get a little more work done on the barn after all. Yay!