More winter prep - shelter, barn, generator...

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We are trying to do everything we can think of to get ready for our first winter at the new place.  Vincent has been up quite a bit helping Chris and myself on a variety of projects.  I have included a few of them below, but there are so many more and I'll try to update when I have some time.

Also, I am going to try and take a series of before and after pictures soon.  The photos we first shared of the property when we visited it for the first time are still on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauley/sets/72157622751363450/), amazingly enough we are coming up on our first year anniversary of these pictures.  So I thought it would be good to try and show those same views as they look today.  Hopefully I can get to that soon.

Until then, enjoy these shots from my cell phone.  You can click on the pictures to see them a little bigger.

Trudy, one of the outdoor cats, standing at the opening to the main barn.  Vincent and Chris put a whole bunch of rock down in the barn to level things out and then put down these great 4x6' rubber mats.  Really makes cleanup a lot easier, cleans up the look and the rock raises things up a bit for winter rain....

Annie and Splash are standing near the new winter shelter that is being put in their paddock. This is a 24x12' building, metal outside walls, will never have to repaint and will have a metal roof for them as well.  Should be very cozy for them to stay out of the rain inside of this.

Closer shot, there is a door on the side so we can go in and out, we will continue the fencing up to the shelter once they are done to enclose it in.  There is a half wall on the one side so they can look out, the other half will be their "doorway"

The back....

This is looking at the inside.  Will have to fill in more rock and we'll be putting rubber mats down in here as well.  I also have some electrical work to do to light it up like Las Vegas baby...

And finally the generator.  All the wiring is pretty much done at this point so we're ready to go.  The cord on the front runs around the back of the generator to the next picture.  Battery start, just turn the key and go.  And it's portable so I can use it around the property.

This is where the generator plugs into the house...

And this shows the new transfer switch on the right.  A few key circuits I'll need to keep working when the power goes out and to keep food cool were moved to the transfer switch on the right.  When the power goes out, you start the generator up and then flip the switch, those circuits now have power!