Framing

 Hard to believe it's only been two weeks of activity - Day 14 is the day framing has begun!  The backfilling isn't finished, but he's been picking away at it.  It was a little bit of a shock to walk into the dining room and see this out the window:

I was very excited to see this happening; the contractor setting up for a little framing work.

And at the end of the day, the wall was framed.  You can see (barely; it was late!) the garage door, the "man door", and the window.  

I was late taking photos today because I was occupied with setting up a solar night light in Flea's stall.  I've put up the barrier wall between the stall and the run in for the winter, and closed up the little front window.  This makes that a very dark area, and I think the mules are hesitant to go in there because they don't have a good sight line in case of danger.  The stall has been open for nearly 3 weeks now and they hardly ever go in it.  I'm hoping adding a little light might encourage them to use this stall, as it's the most closed in, insulated part of the barn.  

I purchased a hanging solar light from Amazon.  I'm really impressed with how bright it was after only charging for about 6 hours on a cloudy day.  It has a dimming option, which is perfect.  When I'm done inside, I can turn down the brightness with the included remote so it's a softer light.  The mules don't need full on bright light, and this feature was the key reason I chose this setup.  I put the solar panel on the outside and ran the cord through the window, then hung the lamp part from the ceiling.  There's also an option for how long you want it to stay on, and I chose the longest duration.  It should shut off automatically in the early hours after midnight and re-charge during the day.  I'm so impressed with this lamp that I may buy a few more to have on hand for the back yard.  For now, it's a help to have it inside until I have my power back.