Building a farm: Part 5

The Demo

So much of the property was consumed by junk. Another element we underestimated. The inner hoarder in me actually kind of liked the prospect of repurposing some of it. Maybe we could use the old broodmare barn as an owner’s barn. The old corrals can be painted and look like new. All these thrifty little ideas. But the reality is/was that it was almost all junk.

Irish Oaks was built in the ‘80’s (although the property itself has much older roots in the Valley Center community) and it shows. The lack of care and maintenance on the property was apparent to us, despite our rosy outlook on everything. What I failed to understand was how expensive the demo work would be.

The list to remove (over a year):

• The hodgepodge of old fencing and there was a lot... some of it solid steel bars that the demo and fencing guys had never seen before. RIP thousands of sawzall blades.

• The broodmare barn… A solid cinderblock structure with 9 10’x10’ stalls, an apartment, and in-and-out corrals.

• 2 motorized walkers

• Roundpen

• Starting gate (we debated keeping this one)

• Miscellaneous sheds

• Multiple grain silos and water towers

• The interior of the vet’s office and bathrooms

• Outdoor washracks and asphalt

• Greenhouse

• Gazebo

• Chicken coop 

• Outdoor kitchen (and the rats that lived there)

• Hundreds of nicknacks and little angel baby statues (and one problematic jockey statue that we don’t need to go into)

Add to the list an assortment of dead or dying trees to be removed and trimmed back. We’ve had more dumpsters come and go than I can count. Now it’s a point of pride to have small dumpsters emptied once each week, rather than an industrial size container being filled up with trash every few days.