“Fort Man” is Nearly Complete

I’m learning that men never outgrow their dream of building the ultimate fort. For the past month my husband has been spending all of his time up at our new pole barn making one corner of it into a tack room, but it’s really a 47 year-old boy’s fort.

Now that the construction of the tack room is finished, he’s been cleaning house,  filling it up with tack, calving and vet supplies, and organizing  everything. He and a friend put in a couple of windows, insulated the tack room walls, moved in the gnarly looking couch from my husband’s bachelor days, put up one of our kids’ old loft beds, installed countertops leftover from our kitchen remodeling back in’04, and built some heavy duty shelving:

OOOHH…

 AAAHHH…

The saddle rack was strategically placed in a corner and will eventually hold everybody’s most-used saddles, and horshoe tack hooks are in the the process of being welded.

 

The most essential item; the beer fridge, is in place waiting to be filled and used along with a microwave, space heater, and coffee pot we pulled out of storage.

 None of this would be possible without my contribution to shed some light on his project, though. For Christmas I lit up my husband’s world, fort, cave, domain, whatever, and arranged to have my electrician brother equip the new man digs with outlets (one outlet per pole and out of a cow’s reach), lights, and outside lights that can be controlled with a switch (a must, since I like to see the stars in the summer sans orange yard lights) and light switches at both ends of the barn.

 

The gates are getting installed

the head catch is in place

and waiting to get completed with more gates

 

Equipment is at the ready (calf puller)

Straw will be put in each pen and then it’s just a matter of filling the place up with cows needing protection from the elements while they calve.

 

I keep teasing my husband that giving him electricity and lights was probably a mistake. Now that the tack room is all finished and he’s got it “furnished” I may never see him again until he runs out of clean underwear. He and our son both gave the tack room a test run and slept in it one night. They’re both looking forward to staying there during calving season.

I think our cows will enjoy a nice cozy stay in our new barn. I know my husband sure does.