THE REST OF THE STORY: Terri

Tobias and I built our first shedrow together nearly twenty years ago. That little barn was basically many nails held together by a few boards. Us being merely beautiful and not rich, we dumpster dove and glommed from our friends until we had enough to put a roof over our magnificent mares. We've put in a lot of trail miles between us since then. In the ensuing years, my life-style - my horse life - has evolved and changed and grown and changed again. I mentioned earlier that to cut costs we are re-building a free shed. A few things that you should all know: Firstly - never ever spend two or three grand on one of these portable buildings. They are held together by staples mostly, and come apart very easily. Especially when your spouse says, "hold this and don't move" and then you become distracted. Next, as you dismantle what is left, mark every piece that you take off in some sort of order. That way when you begin to put it back together you can have wonderfully intense discussions about which is your right and which is your left and is THIS number six piece or is this number nine? And finally, remember that with any good project you will always have pieces left over. Tra.

I don't know about ya'll but I get a huge amount of satisfaction out of reusing, remaking and repairing. Especially since we bought foreclosure acreage. We are saving for a new roof so with other needs to make the farm usable we are becoming extremely thrifty. I just unpacked the last of my barn items that were stored in my horse trailer - I'm ready to ride! But didn't have any good place to store stuff so I found a free portable building on Craig's list. When we got there to pick it up, we found it was in worse shape than advertised so instead of loading the whole thing on the trailer, we had to take it apart, bring it home and put it back together like a big puzzle - with new wood in some places. We worked all day yesterday and this morning Big went down to start the rafters. Now, early morning life on my farm is a bit more casual than is probably proper. When I wake I generally pull on whatever is convenient and then wander out in the dark with my coffee to get the girls fed. This morning, it happened to be fluorescent red flannel pants with huge snowflakes. And my lime green Happy Trails tee-shirt. Big was out getting ready to put up the rafters so I wandered down there with my cuppa to oversee the job and he asked me to "hold this". So tee-shirt stretched tight and free as the breeze, flannels drooping too, with arms overhead, I support a rafter while he goes to find the measuring tape. Hello, Mr.Telephone Man.