This month I have been building, yes, seriously, me, out there, driving a tilling gasoline engine machine, raking the dirt flat, rolling the dirt to compact it, covering the track and dressage arena with heavy duty weed cloth put down with 1000 staples minimum.  Trust me that cloth is going no where.  I had help tilling.  Michael brought his big Ford pick up to get the two machines and we did this all in 4 hours, returning the machines in the minimum rental time.  Los Angeles had had 5 days of rain – straight, no breaks, down pouring for days.  I waited two days and attacked this pasture.

I ordered 8  times 90 cubic feet of red crushed granite to cover the track.  I hired help to wheel barrel all this rock out.  

Good thing, because when I rented a $20  a day truck, rather than pay $300 for curbside delivery of the astro turf, I was grateful for assistance to manage the astro turf out to the back pasture.

And the Gazebo, that was special work.  Two days of scraping gunk off the wood frame left inside of the metal gazebo for weight against the winds that go through the Valley.  Great idea this was, by the by because another metal gazebo in the backyard closer to the house was lifted and bent by the wind during this last month.  I spent two days taking nails and screws out of our Gazebo before it could be sanded.  

I hired help to put in a fence to keep Fred, our resident Land Tortoise dinosaur, in the back pasture, and allowing carts to be brought in easily through a six foot gate.

It has all come together, and I must say I am very happy with the space.

If you look in the left corner when I walk up to the gate, you will see Ollie, my dog, who loves hanging out in this pasture.