Barn Expansion - Mostly Completed

This Saturday at 7 am we started working feverishly to finish up our barn expansion project.  Last Saturday we put up a lean-to on the north side.  This Saturday our goal was to finish up the lean-to on the south side.  As the photo below evidences, there is a very good reason we are putting up additional roof area!  It is a mud-fest back by the barn.  Yes, we will move some additional dirt in to lift the elevation a little bit, but the roof expansion will help as well.

Inside the barn it is nice and dry, but just one square inch outside and you are immediately in ankle deep mud.  The goats absolutely hate walking in the water and mud and the cows literally have to be dragged out after milking.  Tricia actually fell into the mud Saturday morning as her boots got stuck in the mud and she stepped out of them.

We took our measurements and made out cuts and quickly put the header and rafters up.  With the experience gained last Saturday, we were moving faster and more efficiently this week. 

By noon we had the tin fastened down on the roof and the cows were already checking out the new construction.

We were almost done.  Believe it our not, my calculations were off by one sheet on tin.  I'll have to get one more sheet of tin in order to finish it up.  It is kind of disappointing to not be "really" finished, but we're close enough.

We still have a few "punch list" items. The tin is all used material that came off of an old combine shed at the farm.  The tin has nail holes where it was fastened to the other barn.  I will need to get some caulk and patch all of the nail holes so that we don't have a leaky roof when it rains.

Here is a profile shot of the new, improved barn.  As you can see, we doubled up on our square footage under roof.  This will make the animals happy during rainy, cold weather as they'll be able to take shelter.  We can put up temporary walls, if we wish and store hay or other items in the new areas.

We're ecstatic to have this project completed.  As soon as we get a few days without rain, we will get a load or two of dirt moved in to build up the area around the barn.  The extended roof on either side of the barn has made it considerably darker inside the barn and as we only have 3 light bulb fixtures currently, we may have to look at additional lighting. 

"I compare myself to a good barn. You can have a good barn, and if you paint it, it looks a little better. But if you take the paint off, it's still a good barn."-Dolly Parton

The Fall Garden is Planted

4 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 5 ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce.  Jeremiah 29:4-5

It all started in the Garden, didn't it.  God is a gardener!  In Genesis 2:8 He planted a garden in the East and put the Man He created in it.  God communed with Adam in the garden and He would walk with Adam in the cool of the evening and fellowship with him there.  I think God meant for us to be in the garden and perhaps that's why I feel so at home there.

Gardening isn't always easy, though.  Growing conditions aren't always optimal, with it being too dry or too wet, with pests and critters, poor germination, crop failure, etc.  For instance, October is normally our driest month.  Not this year!  October was wet and so far, so is November.  On October 27th, in a brief lapse to the rain, we harvested the sweet potatoes, worked up the soil with a garden fork and hoe, and pulled up 8 rows and planted.  I am about a month and a half later than when I normally put the garden in.  This bothered me at first, but with the weather conditions, there was nothing differently I could have done.  You make the best of it and keep moving forward.

We have four varieties of carrots, kale, three varieties of beets, six varieties of lettuce, mustard greens, celery, cilantro, radishes, bok choy, parsley, three varieties of cabbage, two varieties of broccoli, three varieties of cauliflower and sugar snap peas.  I'll plant spinach a little later.

A couple days after planting, the skies opened up and it has rained every single day.  I walked out tonight with a flashlight to check on the progress as it has been too dark to assess the situation.  Did all the rain negatively affect the garden?  Well, the cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower are very happy.
Many of the other seeds have germinated, but I'll know more this weekend when it is daylight and I can better inspect things.

I know for certain that I'll have to replant carrots.  We have cats.  Outdoor cats.  Upon opening up the soil, the garden looks like a fun thing to dig in.  The cats promptly dug up a row and a half of carrots.  I am learning patience.  My first inclination is to dig a big hole and turn the cats into fertilizer for the garden, but the cats are pets and that would not endear me to my cat-loving family.  Sooo... I'm working on putting fencing up around the garden that will prohibit the cats from entering the garden.

I'm looking forward to tending the garden over the next four months, weeding and then eating the fresh produce that we grow.  There is nothing quite like picking sugar snap peas right off the vine and eating them while standing in the garden, enjoying the sweet taste and beautiful view.

I'm Proud to be an American

I got off work today and raced to the polls, making it there right at 6 pm.  With the new time change, it is already getting dark.  I don't like this new time - at all.  But that's enough griping and complaining.  I am so thankful for freedom.  I am so proud to be an American where each person's vote counts.  Each person, regardless of how rich or poor, if they live in a rural area or urban area, no matter their skin color, religion, creed, or sex, if they are meat eaters or vegetarians, if they cheer for LSU or Alabama, each person's vote counts.  Each American citizen gets one vote and has the opportunity to exercise their civic duty in order to make their voice heard on issues that mean something to them.  It astounds me that there are some that don't exercise this privilege.

At our little polling place in the country, they pull the fire trucks out of the barn and open the local volunteer fire department to the public for polling.

The ladies working the precinct are always so friendly.  They have ziploc bags of homemade cookies laid out on the table and a big magnalite pot of something that smelled really good cooking on the stove.  I asked them how voter turnout was and they said it was HUGE.  That is a good thing.  They directed me into one of the four voting booths and I pulled the curtain behind me and cast my vote.

What a blessing it is to be an American!  As I think back in Bible times, the Israelites didn't have a say in their governance while they were in bondage under Egyptian rule.  In Jesus' time they didn't have a real voice as the Romans or corrupt Jewish rulers ruled over them.  But we have a voice and when our side wins or our side loses, there is a peaceful transition of power.  There are not military coups or overthrows of government in the middle of the night.  We don't live in some banana republic.  This weekend we'll celebrate veteran's day and will be able to honor those who served our country, preserving our right to vote, among others.  I am thankful for their service.

Win or lose, the sun will rise in the eastern sky and we'll wake up and go to work in the morning, come home in the evening and sit around the supper table, holding hands with family members and give thanks for our food, our family and for the opportunity to live in the greatest country in the world.  Does our country have problems?  Sure.  Are we perfect?  Of course not.  Freedom is a blessing though, and I'm proud to be an American!

Halfway Finished With the Barn Expansion

We began construction around 9 am after getting the materials from the farm.  With the 4x4 support posts already up on both sides, we elected to begin on the north side of the barn.  We measured a little over 7 feet at the bottom and ran a string and level and screwed the 2x4 header across the 2x4s.  This allows a slope, but not quite at the angle of the existing roof of the barn.

We measured our 2x4s for the rafters a little over 10 feet and we cut a notch to allow it to fit over the header.  After making on pattern, we used it to cut the remaining 11 rafters.

Once all the rafters were up, we nailed runners across the rafters that will serve as the base for securing the tin to the roof.  Russ & I climbed on the roof with drills and screws with rubber gaskets and screwed the tin to the runners.

We overlapped the tin, ensuring that the peaks and valleys of the tin lined up perfectly.  Once the runners and the tin were on, the building became very sturdy.

The weather vane, with it's boastful rooster, sits atop the barn, letting us know from which direction the wind was blowing.

By mid to late afternoon, we were finished with the southern side of the barn.  This will give more shade and protection from the weather.

It completely changes the profile of the barn.

This Saturday, if the Good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise, we'll begin (and hopefully finish) the expansion on the north side of the barn as well.  We're pleased with the way it turned out.

Gathering Materials for the Barn Expansion

We're building an expansion to our barn, adding two "lean-to's" on either side.  Last week we showed how we put the four 4x4's on either side of the barn that will serve as the supports to hold up the roof extension.  Saturday was the day that we circled on the calendar to get things started.  I woke up at first light and drove to the farm in Oberlin to gather the building materials that Dad had offered to me for the project.

I like things with sentimental value and/or things with a story.  Here is a story (or two) about the raw materials we're using for the barn:  The wood we'll be using for framing up the roof is from a very tall and straight pine tree that was struck by lightning many years ago at Mom & Dad's house where I grew up.  The 5 acre property had numerous pine trees.  My brother and I had a Honda Z50 mini bike that we would ride.  We had a game where we'd throw pine cones at each other and try to knock each other off the mini bike.  Crazy, I know.  These weren't the pine cones that are open, but the ones that are tight and hard.  One time I knocked Kristian off the mini bike with a pine cone and he picked up a pine knot and knocked me over the head with it and knocked me out.  Who knows?  This pine lumber could very well be from the same tree!  Now when people ask me what's wrong with me, I can say I've been hit in the head...  At least I have an excuse!

Back to the story: Dad called a gentleman who was our crop duster pilot.  He also had a portable sawmill and cut up logs on the side.  He came and cut the tree into 2x4s and we stacked and dried it.  The lumber sat for years in the shop.  We're now going to use 58 of the 2x4s to construct the barn lean-to.

Now we'll also use corrugated tin for the barn lean-to roof.  At the farm we had an old pole barn that we called the "Combine Shed."  We stored the combines under the shed to keep them out of the weather.  As hot as it ever got during the summer months, for some reason, it always was cool and shady under that barn.  Over the years, hurricanes and thunderstorms ravaged the old shed.  It has fallen and its remaining structure is hidden behind the tall grass below.

Many sheets of tin from that barn, however, were stacked up.  I'll be using that tin for the roof.  The tin has many holes where it was nailed up to the rafters of the combine shed, but I'll patch them with caulk and it'll work just fine.  I worked as fast as I could Saturday morning and loaded the old cattle trailer with lumber and tin and made my way back home to begin the work.  A carpenter was meeting me to begin construction.

We had perfect weather to begin this construction project and I'll tell you about it tomorrow.

Things Couldn't be More Different...

In the mornings I wake up early and commute 42 miles to work.  Sometimes, depending on traffic, the drive only takes me 40 minutes.  Other times it may take me an hour and 40 minutes.  The commute is actually a peaceful time for me as I usually quickly catch the news on the radio while I drink my coffee and then I turn off the radio and pray.  Before I know it, I'm turning into the parking lot at work.  I work with some good people and we provide a good service in keeping the cogs in the wheels of industry turning.

I was thinking the other day about how the view at work couldn't be more different than the view I have at home.  The sounds couldn't be more different either.  From time to time, we'll hear loud hissing sounds and see huge flares, like you see in the photo below.  We always joke that they just burned off more in the flare stack in value than we'll ever make in 10 lifetimes.  Black smoke will billow out and we'll hear announcements over a loudspeaker that we cannot understand.  We wonder if we should run as fast as we can.

Then at the end of the day, I hop in my car and drive back home, moving from an industrial area into a pastoral one.  The hissing sounds, flares, black smoke, and warnings are replaced by the gentle cackling of hens as they make their way to their evening roosts, the bleating of goats and lowing of cows.  Instead of looking at chemical plants, I look at real plants in our vegetable garden.  The sun sets and the light show put on in the western sky is far better than a flare stack.

I'm truly thankful to God for clean, country living.

Starting our Barn Expansion

We didn't exactly plan out the location of our barn in wise fashion when we built it ten years ago.  We didn't consider elevation and as you might imagine, we happened to build it on the lowest part of the property.  When it rains (and it rains a lot here), the mud is ankle deep and it is an absolute pain to walk out to the barn.  You can tell the cows are not happy about it either.  Goats don't like to get their feet wet, so you can be sure they hate all the mud around the barn. 

We are going to attack this problem in two ways.  First, we are going to build a 12 foot roof extension off of each side of our barn.  This will give 12 additional feet on either side of the barn for the cows, goats and chickens to get out of the weather.  We milk IN our barn and like to keep it clean.  We don't like to leave animals inside the barn after milking as they are NOT good housekeepers.

We are going to put four 4 x 4's exactly 10 feet out to allow for a 2 foot overhang.  The first thing you want to do is ensure that your building will be square.  We verified this by using the 3, 4, 5 method.  This method is used to find a 90 degree angle and is based off of the Pythagorean Theorem.  This simply states that if you create a triangle by measuring 3 feet out and 4 feet down, when you connect the long side of the triangle and is measures exactly 5 feet, you have a right angle.  ( I should have paid better attention in Geometry class!)

Therefore, we got stakes, string, and a tape measure and staked out where the posts are going to go.  Tricia helped me (as my strong point is NOT math) and we got things squared up and marked.  We marked where the corner posts will go as well as the ones in the middle.

Although I am not a math whiz, I am a PhD. In this case that stands for "post hole digger."  I began digging with the post hole digger until they were buried 2 feet deep in the ground.  My neighbor showed me once how to use a Sharpie and tape measure to put markings on the post hole digger so that you don't have to stop and put your tape measure down the hole to see how deep you are.  This a a good 'hack' that saves lots of time.

It didn't take long.  Once the posts were in the ground, I used a level to make sure it was true and then put cement in the hole to anchor it.  One by one, we got them done.

The real tricky part is keeping the posts true until the cement dries.  Cows love to scratch on posts and I didn't want them to scratch against the posts and knock them all out of whack.  We remedied this by locking the corral and leading the cows in one at a time.  By baby-sitting them like this, they don't have an opportunity to get into mischief.

Now that the posts are in on both sides of the barn, it is time to move forward to the next step.  That step is fastening a header to the barn.  That header will support the rafters.  We may be on hold, though, as more rain is forecast for tomorrow.    We will keep you posted on progress.