Wow. I’m not sure what we got ourselves into but once it’s done it’s going to be INCREDIBLE.
The indoor arena was ordered back in July and we pushed it to the back of our minds until I got a call to schedule delivery. Holy crap, it’s actually happening. When the truck arrived it took everything to pick our jaws up off the ground and make any forward movement. This thing is huge. A full flatbed pulled in front of our driveway with 25′ steel beams, pallets on top of pallets, literally, and a very unhelpful and unenthusiastic driver.
This truck dwarfed our tractor. We managed to unload all of the pallets but were really scratching our heads when it came to those massive steel beams. All I can say is good neighbors make a world of a difference! Last minute we called our neighbor Bill Heino (Heino & Son Logging, though they also do site work- they moved mountains of dirt to make our current riding arena for us last spring!). He came over about an hour after we started unloading the pallets and helped us come up with a plan. We ended up bringing the flatbed with the remainder of the load to his property where we unloaded everything else with this ridiculously massive front end loader.
All morning and into the afternoon we were consumed with getting our arena off that flatbed. There were several challenges and a ton of problem solving but we got there. I’m sure that won’t be the last of the challenges either. This is going to be one hell of a feat to put up but it will be amazing once it’s done. We just have to remember to step back and be thankful for everything we have. Just last year we were riding up on a flat-ish spot on the grassy hill. Already I have a fantastic sand riding arena. And next year an indoor.
Check back to watch the progress. By the end of this we’ll have a 65’x120′ indoor arena! For now it will continue to taunt me from the other end of our outdoor.
