Time To Go - Used Gas Mask For Sale

Once again, another job change was in order. Just like many seemingly perfect jobs in the past, this too had evolved  to a point where no improvements will be made until I'm gone, and they see what I actaully had to deal with.

I worked every morning in a horse barn, only they aren't horses I'm tending to. It's 10 [10'x10'] stalls long with a 10' wide isle in the middle and 10 more stalls on the other side, but 5 of those are being used as feed/equipment rooms. So there's basically 15 stalls. I won't say what the animals are, but they are 200lbs and about the size of a small pony, so lets call em ponies. These ponies are herd animals, and must be in groups of at least 3. A few like people, but most don't.
I'd been there every day for 3 years, and they only had 17 critters when I started.
This lady expected to breed and sell them. She hadn't sold one, and in fact purchased more, plus all the  breeding, they  now have 45 - 17 of which are full grown males.

The previous summer [with 10 less ponies], the lady was bothered by the pools of urine standing in the stalls, so she called in some excavation people, and I over heard her talking.
First though, I must say that the isles are cement, and the stalls are layered with gravel, then clay, then rubber mats. Horse people would put down wood shavings, or other absorbant material, and then shovel up the dirty material, and replace as needed.  Plus horses are let out during the day, and a lot of their potty occurs outside.
This lady lets her critters roam in and out freely, only closing them in at night. Because they only potty where they feel safe, guess where that is? Yes, they come in from the fields to drink and go potty, and then they go back outside.  Anyway, she had pulled up the rubber mats and dumped sand in. We rake the poop out of the sand twice a day. I am the morning person, and there is an afternoon person. Since it's impossible to remove the potty without removing any sand [a constant source of contention by her hubby who thinks we're scooping up too much sand], the sand eventually gets lower, and lower, and more packed down, and then they dump in more sand. It was obvious to me when the sand at the outside walls was a foot higher than the sand in the middle, that, ya know, that whole apple falling downhill theory musta passed her by. Hence the pools of urine staring at her.

OK, so she was talking to the excavation guys: "We have a drainage problem.  This used to be a horse barn, and they had these rubber matts down, so when the horses pee, it just drains in the cracks. [yeah, that's really what she thought - can you imagine?] It must have been fine for the horses, but we have many more per stall, and we need better drainage."

Now, like some of you, I am wondering just where she thinks the pee is supposed to drain to?

Well these guys came later and dug out all the old sand and clay, and put down new gravel, and new sand. The lady and her hubby were very pleased at the result, especially since they thought of it all by themselves. Remember that's the same brain that thinks horse pee can/will/did adequitely drain through cracks between rubber matts.

So it smelled better,  but by the following spring, all those baby boys became 1 year olds, and had to be moved out of the mom's and baby's section, and into the boys section.

The weather got kinda cold up here, and they closed all the windows. So when I walked in [I'm always the first to arrive] I'm hit by a wall of amonia. I can't even describe it, but lemme try. How about 8 cats in a 10'x10'  room closed in with their litter box? Now go into that room and work out for 2 hours.

I can't open the doors until it gets light outside, because there are coyotes in them there woods, that would love to make a nice breakfast of these critters. I tried to come later, but if I come any later than a certain hour, I won't get done in time to go to my next job.

Noticing the fumes  when she came in [about an hour after I get there] she suggested that I should use one of those dust masks from home depot for 'the smell' I told her those masks aren't for amonia.
After a couple of hours of research, I printed out some solutions for amonia in horse barns, and gave them to her, but she continued to defy the laws of logic and chemistry.

I got this sinus infection, that started the first day they closed those windows, and she must heard me coughing, so she suggested I turn the fans on when I come in, and I did. Her hubby came in and turned them off [He's a cheap ass - but more about him later] saying it was using too much electricty.
She suggested the dust mask again.
I wanna say "Lady, it ain't about smell, its fumes, ya know like the chemical amonia in the air?"
and if it ain't good for me, it probably ain't good for the critters either. 45 animals in 15 stalls is too dam many and there's no drainage happening through sand.  That pee ain't goin to china, ya know. Even if the liquid did some how drain away, there is still the little matter of the amonia left behind!

Knowing I couldn't fix her, I gotta save me, so I googled a mask rated for amonia. Found one at Tractor Supply Co. It cost me $50. The lady didn't want me wearing it in her barn. I quit.

Anyone want a slightly used gas mask?