Our fabulous big barn is filling up. Slowly but surely, the amount of horse equipment is taking up more and more space. So we decided that a horse-drawn tool shed is needed!
The frame is nearly all up, and the shed is taking shape. How exciting, we can start thinking about all the space we will have in the big barn soon - and what to fill it up with!
We didn't bother with an all concrete floor for the shed. Concrete-filled car tyres again for each upright, similar to underneath our house - and it works fine. I've started pulling out the brambles and leveling the uneven floor by carting in broken stone with Henry.
There'll be plenty of room for the two carts, the various ploughs and harrows, the wooden sled, the potato harvester - and hopefully our little rowing boat as well, although that definitely is not and will never be horse-drawn...

Just as well we went out yesterday to start a logging job in the Mealagh valley, as it is pouring buckets today!
We had a good half-day session yesterday, hauling two felled trees off a field, and will be back for more soon.
The first tree was so entangled with the other one that, even after it had been cut all the way, it did not fall. So Henry had a go at trying to pull it down - and it moved, but wouldn't come down. So, a bit more work with the chain saw was necessary. Soon, it was lying in the field, in nice 6ft lenght, all ready for Henry, who hauled it out of the field and into the farm yard just 30m down the road.

We've just come back before the bad weather arrived - from one of our first cart rides with Winnie! She's settled into pulling the cart very quickly and soon got bored going round and round the field. So we started short trips on the road last week - and she is doing a great job!
She has always been more lively than Henry, keeping an eye out for anything scary in the hedge, and she definitely needs more practice with heavy traffic on bigger roads before setting off with the cart on these. But provided that I keep an ear out for anything big approaching on our small back road, ready to jump off to stand at her head, she has managed fine with normal car traffic so far, just like when we are out riding.
Soon, she'll reach a point where she wont fit into the shafts comfortably any longer, due to her foal belly, but even these few weeks of practice will set us up well for returning to cart work later in summer.