An On-going Project

When we built our barn, we went about it all wrong.  Don't get me wrong.  We LOVE our barn.  It's just that we didn't start things off right.  We didn't do our homework.  We decided where we wanted our barn and just began construction - without building up the level of the ground.  When you start with a poor foundation, well, trouble follows...

We noticed early on that we placed our barn in the lowest part of our property.  That's okay if you build up the area with dirt PRIOR to building.  Especially in the fall and winter, if rains fall, you have mud and lots of it.  This creates problems when your milk cows and goats have to walk through the muck and mire every single day.  The holes get bigger and deeper.  You can actually see that the cows DREAD walking through the muddy gauntlet. When you go to milk them, mud has splattered all over their bags, legs, and tail.  What a mess!

The north side of the barn is only slightly better, due to the fact that the walkway is spread out.  The whole area needs to be built up six inches or more with dirt.  If this can be done while leaving drainage for the rains, our barn can be rescued and both animal and human will be happier.

A couple of weeks ago I had 3 loads of dirt delivered to the house.  This isn't top soil.  It is mostly clay that will settle and form a hard base - a solid foundation that should have been done prior to the barn construction.  Better late than never, I guess.  The dirt was $90 per load.  Two loads were delivered right in front of the garden gate.

And a third pile was dropped about 30 feet away to the north and east.

Now the really labor intensive part of the job commences.  Since it is way too muddy to drive any sort of tractor or truck to the back, we'll have to move the dirt by hand.  We used a Gorilla Cart, which is simply a big wagon with big rubber tires and a dump bed.  We shovel loads of dirt into the wagon and pull it to the back and dump.  Then we repeat the process.  And again.  And again.  The progress is slow, but it is still progress.  We watch as the level around the north side of the barn rises.  (Compare the photo below to the second photo in this post.)  The cows and goats help to pack the dirt down.

If we could go back in time, we would have moved soil in from the beginning.  Speaking of going back in time, this post reminded me of another time we ordered loads of dirt.  The photo below was taken almost 11 years ago.  I ordered some topsoil to build up the level of the garden at the time and our boys discovered (as I did 40 years ago) that one of the best things in the world is a pile of dirt.  You can play king of the mountain!

King Russ watches as Benjamin rolls down the mountain.

You can dig tunnels, play with tractors and cars, and of course, wrestle and relish victory over your vanquished "foes."

"It's good to be da king!"

You can dig foxholes or pretend your pile of dirt is a volcano.  There's just no end to the fun that you can have with a pile of dirt!

Except 18 years later, our pile of dirt doesn't seem like it is as much fun as Russ' and Benjamin's pile of dirt!