Farm News
Barn And Sanctuary Rennovations Update!
By
Jun 18, 2009, 19:12

After a long, cold winter, Happy Trails was left with quite a variety of much-needed repairs at the sanctuary, one of the most important and overwhelming one being the flooring, stalls and roof of the large animal barn. We also needed to finish the interior of the new Happy Trails office, new driveway, fencing repairs and a host of other projects as well.

The 84' long barn aisle is now more easily managable with the beautiful new concrete floor!

Thanks to the kindness and generosity of our dedicated supporters, we are in the midst of accomplishing all the rennovation projects that we set out to do!

To begin this enormous project, during the week of April 13th we began sending out the majority of the rescued horses who currently resided at Happy Trails to approved, temporary foster homes. Our plan was to basically keep our day-to-day routine going, but to shut down major operations so that we could concentrate on our many repairs and facility projects. The week after we began our extensive project, the mass horse rescue in Deerfield took place, and our all-volunteer staff spent every waking minute for the following two weeks at the Portage County Fairgrounds dealing with the special needs of the 15 rescued horses. This took up a great deal of our time and attention, putting our repairs a few weeks behind schedule.

To date, we have successfully had a concrete aisleway poured in the 84' long horse barn aisle, as well as cements pads created at the front and back of the barn.

Click here for a photo gallery of the barn repairs.

Tons and tons of dirt and gravel were hauled in, and giant piles of each created some interesting landscaping in front of the big barn while our project was in the works. The stalls were filled with bank run and topped off with crushed gravel to bring them up to the level of the new cement. Cailtin Doherty ran the tamper while Leah Franchi and Jason Wolbolt raked the stall floors as smooth as possible. Then the new base of each horse stall was covered with heavy-duty black horse mats. We got a really good deal on these at Cashman's in Columbus. Happy Trails volunteers cut the mats precisely so that they fit together perfectly in our 12x12 stalls.

The old stall gates were replaced with new metal-frame gates with solid wood bottoms, and they easily slide on a channel high above the stalls. The metal frames were specially fabricated by Rob Willard, Happy Trails Board Member and Russ Fisher, Happy Trails Co-founder and Board Member. Each stall has two new water buckets and a new corner feeder bucket, thanks to a very generous donation from Horseman's Pride!

The roofing material that had partially blown off the horse barn in the bitter winter winds was repaired thanks to long-time die-hard Happy Trails volunteer, Alex Hale.

An old park bench that was donated to the sanctuary was in need of new boards and a face-lift. Alex also jumped in and

Alex Hale takes a break on the bench that he rennovated.

took the bench home for rehabitation and recovery. The bench he brought back didn't look like the same piece of furniture. It now proudly sets in the midst of the grassy yard, awaiting some tired soul to plop down and enjoy the sights and sounds of animals around it!

The enclosing of the feed room is started, but will probably take a while yet to finish. Our goal is have the feed room be temperature controlled to help with the storage of animal medications and to keep feeds fresh and away from predators and rodents.

The area behind the horse barn was cleared of the dead trees, and Jebbi Boye and Anselmo the farm pigs promptly moved in as soon as hog panels were put in place. A small shelter will do for their summer cottage. There is a lovely little swampy area that the pigs absolutely adore, so we'd better not even think of filling it in simply for being an eye sore. We have to remember that what is one man's trash is another pig's treasure! The two rapidly growing farm pigs now have a summer yard, complete with downed trees to push around, the giant mud waller that we jokingly refer to as "the swamp", and tons of mounds of dirt to dig through and move all over creation. It's truly a pig paradise, though it may not look very appealing to folks who enjoy wearing clean clothes and not having mud splashed in their hair!

Certified electrician, Tom Doolittle, volunteers his time to help wire the the new Happy Trails office! Tom, you da man!

The Happy Trails office had a shell, but that was it! The interior was desperately in need of new electrical wiring and finishing. Enter Tom Doolitte, volunteer extraordinaire, who volunteered his time as a licensed electrician to helped by installing the wiring for the new office. I can't tell you how thrilled we were when Tom offered to help out with this project! We are now ready for drywall, which is in the works and hopefully will be started (and finished!) before we know it!

The outside of the new office, as well as several of the other

Eli Benshoff, professional painter, helps coat the Happy Trails barns, shelters and new office in "Wild Horse" brown!

animal shelters, were sealed with a coat of Happy Trails green and brown by professional painter Eli Benshoff. Always happy and willing to help out, Eli worked very diligently painting until every last drop was in just the right place. Many thanks to Elizabeth Benshoff, Eli's daughter, who is a shining example of a teen interested in bettering her community. Elizabeth not only coordinates projects for Happy Trails, but she gets her family, friends and school involved too!

Still To Come:  We still need to cut up and remove the dead trees that are now downed and pushed into a pile behind the horse barn, and we still have plenty of landscaping to work on around the barn itself. There is also some fencing that needs replaced, and some other repairs that need addressed that are minor in comparison to what we have already accomplished.

Checking Out Our Progress:

To thank our many supporters who made our major repairs and rennovations possible, we are welcoming all those who have donated to what we affectionately call "The Barn Fund" to get a sneek-peek at what we have accomplished so far! To schedule time to join a Barn Fund Supporters Tour, call Sharon at 330-329-9727. Tour times are Sunday, June 21, Sunday June 28, SUnday July 5, and sunday July 12. Tours begin at 12:00 noon, 1:00pm, 2:00pm, 3:00pm and 4:00pm.