Guess it all depends on the climate in your area and the temperament of your horses. Then do the best with what you have close by to keep costs down while making a safe and decent looking building. If you have the space and are building/modifying you can add a paddock area outside the stall (attached) so the horses can go outside also (sand is a good option for footing)which will make apple picking easier and work wonders in preventing the atmosphere for developing bad habits. Our horses have this and would rather stay outside than under roof. We feed inside for obvious reasons, but they spend 90% of their time outside regardless of the weather. Keep in mind that they are not kittens or parakeets and you aren't doing them any favors by shutting them off from the elements. A horse isn't going to freeze to death because it has a concrete block wall and a concrete floor or is in an unheated building. Electric fenceing is your best friend (just make sure you have a good/safe charger (don't overlook the solars). If a horse is cribbing or chewing the top of a divider, a strand of electric will work wonders. If your dirt floor doesn't drain the way you think it should and you can't afford to raise the whole thing etc, etc, dig a ditch and lay some flex pipe in some gravel, cover it and be happy. You can extend the ditch a few meters away from the building and end the pipe in a sump that you've dug, filled with rocks/gravel and covered in extreme conditions. And don't forget toys be it a ball hanging from the ceiling or a basketball on the floor (could mean the difference in a happy horse with a clear head or a wood chewing weaver/pacer). Don't overlook the importance of your compfort and convenience either (physical, mental, and financial) horses tend to loose their glamour and end up neglected with habits that make them all but worthless when the owner spends more time cleaning than enjoying and eats macoroni and cheese with a backache. My 2 cents. Enjoy, Dave

* Posted by coconut-nj (My Page) on Sat, May 30, 09 at 11:27 Sally, anywhere that has alot of British imports would probably have it. I was checking out who had it online the other day and while you might not want 6 bottles of it.. smiles... Amazon has 6 bottles for $27.05. It's free shipping too. Most places sell it for between five and six or up to eight dollars, so that's a great price. They say they're 15 oz bottles. Maybe somebody else would want to go in on it with you?? I've always heard of it described as a mayo with more vinegar and also with a mustard taste. Sounds good. Smiles. My DW used it when she used to travel to the UK all the time for buisness. Surprised she didn't bring any back. I have a head of savoy cabbage so I'm going to make my easy 'stuffed' cabbage casserole that I described above. It makes it so easy and quick which is just what we want on a Saturday night. Steam the cabbage briefly, layer it with dirty rice, pour some tomato juice mixed with onion and garlic powder between layers and on top and bake for about 40 minutes. I'll see if I can manage to take a picture. I seem to be terrible at that. The camera is always in the other room and it's a kind of big house and by the time I'm done cooking I'm not walking very well. LOL.. We will see. Oh btw, I always make two dishes of this because Christy gets burnt out on "red" since I always have something made with red sauce around I make her a version with just some broth on it. I do stuffed peppers for her the same way. No red. I do love the red on it but prefer tomato juice since it's nice and light although I'll just water down tomato sauce or puree with chicken stock/broth, if I don't have any handy.

Waking up my thread again: I visited a nursery a couple of hours south of me today and they had all the quart pots on sale for $ 1. That included ground covers. So I got several kinds to try for different areas. The 2 I got for possibly this area between the stepping stones have very small leaves, are very short, and would look appropriately in scale : Veronica Repens. (Flowers white or blue. Tags and signs conflicted.) Scotch Moss. Sagina subulata ( I had tried the golden version in a different area and that never made it through the winter. I saw on signs today that that is hardy to Zone 5 (I am Zone 5); whereas the plain green is hardy to Zone 3 to 4). So I got the plain green one. Given both the SLOPE for the upper part, and the LOW area that floods when it rains, which would you suggest? Has anyone tried either of these in a similar application? Thanks.

Eli, Welcome to Texas. Sorry your first experience here with a lawn contractor has not been a better one. Take-all root rot (TARR) hit our Dallas neighborhood and much of north Texas especially hard again last year which might explain the poor condition of your original St. Augustine lawn. There is no timely rehabbing of large areas destroyed by this disease, so you likely would have had to plug, patch, or resod with new St. Augustine anyway if you hadn't decided to switch to Zoysia. TARR thrives in the high pH of our soil and tap water, so application of an iron & soil acidifier is one common measure to subdue it where it has been a problem. Am guessing that may have been a motive for your installer's "iron" treatment - if so, that's a good thing. Tilling is not essential if the surface and slope are good and the soil is not seriously compacted. We over sodded St Augustine with 'Pallisade' Zoysia last spring that had last been tilled and leveled in 2012. Major difference is we did kill the existing turf first. Suspect you'll get some return, especially around the edges and gaps. Though should stand out and be fairly easy to deal with, but a pain and legit knock against the installer for not offering herbicide treatment. Know some folks decline anyway over objections to using glyphosate (or similar) and the added time/cost for alternatives of running a sod cutter or solarization probably don't fit well in most bids. Agree with dchall on not worrying about the lack of top growth as long as it is putting down healthy roots. Ours took a couple months getting roots established even in the spring before starting to show much top growth and it's now shutting down for the winter. Sounds like they got yours in early enough to endure our typical freezes, but you'll probably not see much change until spring. It's commonly recommended that sod be laid in an overlapping pattern like brickwork (or staggered). Looks like your seams are lined up down the slope of your front yard - am I seeing that right in the photo? If so, should still be fine in time - just may be a bit harder to keep the gaps filled if there is much rain before they're grown over. Though it's a clear amateur or careless mistake for a professional sod installer to make.... in addition to those abnormally large gaps. We're really happy with the switch to Zoysia and imagine your 'Zeon' will look great early next summer with your continued care. edit - had "checkerboard" where I meant "staggered". The symmetry of brickwork is not important, it's avoiding straight uninterrupted seams running down the slope of the yard.