Wow- what a project! Our initial projected completion date of November 2020 was pushed back again and again after hitting SOOO many road blocks (mainly with the concrete guy) and then a long winter and a brutal mud season… BUT IT’S DONE!
This was the biggest hole we’ve ever had to dig and there was an enormous amount of learning along the way. The laser and the excavator certainly earned their keep!
The foundation contains literal TONS of concrete and rebar- 6 feet in the ground, 8 foot spread footers for the piers, and a full frost wall around the perimeter. Bring on all of the weather because this thing isn’t going anywhere.
Once the foundation was complete and Osgood was able to get here (mud was the biggest hinderance at this point!) the building went up in one quick month! First, all of the piers, then the bracing, purlins and roof struts, then the walls with 5 foot translucent panels on the top and finally the roof! Again, bring on all of the weather because we’ll be dry inside!
Next was lighting- we did this part ourselves as well (or, I should say Justin did it). Justin hung 550 feet of conduit, 222 wire ends stripped, 80 clamps, 72 wire connectors, 34 couplers, 21 gang boxes and 1 happy wife! We now have 5 LED lights down both sides of the arena and it is amazing how many lumens those babies emit!
The final step was footing. We got the excavator in there to dig up a few boulders that were remaining from the back filling then there was a lot of driving backwards with the backblade to even everything out. After that there were a couple truckloads of sand delivered and more backblading to distribute it.
All of this means that we are READY TO RIDE AND WE ARE OPEN FOR LESSONS! No more cancellations due to construction, no more cancellations due to snow, or rain, or storms, no more concerns over mud and poor footing! I am so excited and beyond grateful to open back up and to get more people riding!!!
