Last Friday’s red warning and storm Amy passed over us with thankfully very minimal damage.

A few bits of trees blown down, or really large branches blown off trees, if I’m honest, and a piece of flashing blown off from above a sliding door on a shed, which was over 50 years old and rotten anyway. That seems to be the most of it.

I have plenty of old sheds with questionable enough roofs on them, so every time I hear a storm mentioned my heart is in my mouth.

I’m always waiting to go over some morning and see a shed without a roof.

Each year I keep meaning to start replacing something. But when we get into the summer a bit of fencing, or draining or reseeding always seems like a more sensible way to spend money and the shed roofs are left for another while.

I’d say some of them are over 60 years old, so they definitely don’t owe the farm anything.

As with many things, money and time are the two limiting factors and until it really really needs to be done, it probably won’t get done.

The stables are the roofs that I am coming under pressure about.

Horses

My wife and daughters have decided that these old roofs are just not in an acceptable condition for their horses. They were always a bit rusty, but now there are some holes in the roofs as well, which means the beds are getting a bit wet.

Also, we now have three horses and only two stables.

The old shed that joins the stables is unused. It was originally built as a hen house, where my granny kept chickens many years ago.

There is about three feet of ivy that needs removing from the old roof before the it could be replaced and about three feet of 40-year-old composted chicken manure

So everyone, except me, because I’ll have to pay for it, is of the opinion that this old shed would make a great third stable.

One way or another, it’s looking like some renovations are going to have to take place.

Not a very enticing job, as there is about three feet of ivy that needs removing from the old roof before the it could be replaced and about three feet of 40-year-old composted chicken manure that needs removing from the floor. So I’m not quite sure when I’ll get around to that job.

After almost a year with no power in this particular yard, I have managed to run a new electric cable from the main yard, so once the electrician comes and hooks it up, at least they will have light in the stables this winter. That is of course if the next storm doesn’t blow the roof off.