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This page is for the curious (and just plain nosy) that ask "did you really do all that yourselves?"
The answer is YES, and surprisingly we did it all in a span of about 7 months. Would we do it again? NOT LIKELY!!!! But we are extremely proud of the fact that it was our own hands that built Ryerse Glen Farm literally from the ground up, and because of that we have an enormous sense of pride in our farm.
The pictures are presented in a somewhat chronological order and focus on the horse aspect of our farm, if we get enough requests we may do something similar for the house.
This first picture was taken WAAAY back in June of 1998, Ryerse Glen Farm at that point hadn't even been thought of! The property wasn't nearly as bushy and wild as it got in 2004 when we first started clearing out all the sumac (EVIL things those trees are!) and locust & hawthorn trees.
May of 2004. This is where the barn now sits. There is a pile of branches and trees just to the right of the picture, those were removed (BY HAND!!) from the barn site.
May of 2004. This is where the paddocks are now located. Our hayfield is the dirt patch seen at the back behind the trees.
A view in May of 2004 from what is now the back of the barn towards the house, driveway and roundpen. All the little brown piles in the picture are trees and bushes that were removed and then burned, we had ALOT of fires!!!
A view from where the barn now is, to the one large paddock.
This is the beginning of the barn. In September 2004, the topsoil in the barn area was stripped, and loads of crushed concrete were brought in to for the base upon which the barn would sit. Crushed concrete, GREAT stuff!!! This is a view from the back of the barn.
On April 26 of 2005 the actual construction began. Massive holes were dug for the support posts of the barn. They were filled with cement to form a base for the posts, and then sonotubes were dropped into the holes and filled with cement.
The main Ryerse Glen Farm construction crew included, Adam & Charlotte, Adam's father Grant, Charlotte's father Gary, and on numerous occaisions Charlotte's Grandfather Ed!
Once all the messy cement work was over with (for the time being) the barn shell started to take shape with LOTS of nailing!!!
By May 7, Trusses were ready to go up. The original four of the work crew couldn't handle the trusses by themselves, so Mitch - a co-worker of Adam's, Jody - one of the neighbours, Adam's cousin Mike and two of Adam's brothers - Aaron & Ryan, came out for the weekend to help lift up the trusses (by hand) and get them stabilized in place. The last 8 trusses were lifted in place by a crane because there was no mre room to swing them up by hand.
The Typar wrap went up rather quickly and easily on the barn with the help of Jody. And while we were doing that, Gary was busily fitting in the windows into the frames that he had so painstakingly made for them!
The boards, for the board and batten siding, went up next. Charlotte was able to do most of that herself, with the help of Grant.
The steel roof was put up by Adam, Charlotte & Ryan under the knowledgeable supervision and assistance from Charlotte's incredible cousins Dave and Don
Once the roof was on, and the boards for the sides were up, A whole bunch of 3/4" clear stone was brought in to serve as the base for the floors in the barn. After the stone was laid, right at the beginning of July, we had to get the hay inside. It got moved around a little bit once inside the barn because we were pouring the cement floors inside as well.
At the beginning of August, we had a barn staining party. Adam and Charlotte, along with Gary, Marlene (Adam's mother) and Paula (Charlotte's mother) went to town with paint brushes (YES paint brushes) and in a matter of about 3 hours, the five them had the ENTIRE barn stained (outside walls). It really changed the appearance of the barn once the stain was added.
Once the cement floors were in place, the insulation went up on the inside walls, followed by the inside wall boards. Then the stall mats were dragged in (literally!!) and put in place. Individual stall construction began. Charlotte pretty much handled that herself, as by this point the house was well under way as well.
The stalls were made from *recycled* material for the most part, no stall kits were used at all. The divider wall grills were handmade back in march by Charlotte & Adam and then just had to be put in place when the rest of the wall was built.
The insdide tackroom wall and inside back wall were built next, this all took place during the earlier part of August.
By September, all the stalls were complete, all the interior walls were complete, and the only thing left to do was the interior ceiling (which was a royal pain in the *&^).
At this point the plumbing had been completed in the tack room, and all the wiring for the electrical had been run, and things were finally ready for the finishing touches.
By the end of September the barn was TOTALLY DONE & fully operational as far as hydro and plumbing went.
The Fencing was started at about the same time as the barn, time was spent divided between working on the fencing, sheds and the barn.
The whole process of building Ryerse Glen Farm was a feat of time management!!
The Fence started with planning, measuring and then flagging where all the posts would go with lovely hot pink flags. The fence got a good start before the major construction of the barn began.
April 12 the lumber for the fence arrived, it took up an entire flat-bed transport truck. The skid steer had a little bit of difficulty lifting the heavy skids of freshly milled wood off of the truck. When the truck driver found out that all the wood he had brought was just for a fence he was astounded.
The poor little post hole auger was put to work on April 13, little did it realize that it was in for an incredibly long summer of digging holes. With Grant manning the tractor, and Charlotte guiding the auger the first of around eight hundred holes was dug. Many shear pins later, the poor abused auger was finally allowed to rest, that is, until Charlotte decides some other area on the farm needs some fence!
This shot was taken from the barn roof in June, by August the fencing was complete, or rather, Charlotte ran out of fencing material to keep putting up fences with!
The outdoor sandring was a large part of the fencing that was done. The topsoil was stripped and the underlaying soil was compacted and graded. THEN the fence was put up around the perimeter of the ring.
Many, MANY truckloads of sand were brought in and dumped in what is now the sandring. The sand was then spread out with the bulldozer. The outdoor sandring has proven to be a true all-weather riding ring, it drains beautifully after even the heaviest rains, leaving the footing quite nice for riding.
