A shed...

There is a farm near here that the owner wants everything torn down. It has a couple nice sheds and a barn. One of the sheds is a small grainery. My neighbor (different one)remembers when it was moved onto the place. He even helped move it there. It's been here for about 25 years. It's on skids and my neighbor thinks it will be able to be towed off the place. As soon as it is dry - or frozen without snow - he may want to hook up to it with his tractor and try to move it. It ought to be fun!

I already have gotten some of the tin and lunber from the other sheds. I have only been able to work from the ground and for only an hour in the mornings and an hour in the afternoons, but there is , at least, a LITTLE progress! My BIL is planning to come out next week to help a bit. I figure, if we get it down to ground level, then it will be workable.
All-in-all, it should yield some good material for us both.

I also can't wait until I can empty the shed (and put the stuff in the barn) so I can turn it into a chicken house. While the one I have is ok, I need one that will hold both the "free rangers" and some broilers/fryers that we want to get. Spring is coming, and I want to be ready!

My wife made some chocolate brownie/cake thingies yesterday. They were WONDEFUL! Too bad they are gone.....

Starting to turn cold....

Yesterday, it was 77° here in SE Nebraska. Today it warmed to 54° before the cold front went through (about 9:00 am) and cooled us down to 40° on the heals of a northwest wind. After a low near 30° tonight, tomorrow is supposed to have a high about 40°. I don't mind the cold, but don't care for the wind! We MIGHT even have some light snow tomorrow - nothing major, just heavy flurries.

I have been busy trying to get things "buttoned up" on the barn. I managed to scrounge a "garage" door for the front, but it doesn't have rollers or track. I'll keep searching for those parts, but in the mean time, I used heavy plastic to cover the door. I can roll it up if I need to use the door. It will be inconvienient for awhile, but it is better then an open hole!

I am nearing completion of the barn, and there are several individuals that helped a lot before and during the construction of it. Some helped with "hands on" work, others provided "techical help", and others helped with materials. I'll probably forget to mention a few, but I'll try not to. I appologize in advance if you were left off of the list.

My wife Deb
My sister Kathy M.
Neighbors: Frankie F.
Dave S
Ron T.
Joe S.
Irwin T.
Dan and Sheila S.
Steve at Aspen Acres Construction
Bill B.
Don M.
Larry O.
Harold B.
Dan B.
Jeff M.
Robin T.
Mark T.
Laura S.
And a HOST of others that allowed me to scrounge stuff from their fence rows!

I still need more rocks, even though I have been getting some here and there for a month or so. One of these days, I'll have a nice driveway to the barn and other places.

We have our third deer in the freezer so we SHOULD have meat for the winter. It's always nice when people give you free food!

Catch up, Part ONE....

Well - this summer has been an eventful one. We are in the finishing stages of building the barn from 95% salvage materials. All of the tin came from variuos sheds around this county - none more then 10 miles away. I bought "scissor trysses" in 2001 at a mobile home factory that was having a "going out of business" action. I paid 14¢ for each "half-truss". I have used a lot of them around here. My chicken house, tractor shedPorch and even kitchen, have these trusses in them. The only things we have bought for the barn are the 2x4 nailers, plywood, 4 2x6s, and some 2x6's for windows. I even scrounged the sashes and hinges for the windows!
A neighbor gave us a 13x15 roll-up garage door for the front, but I still need the track.
I will probably have to make do with a tarp until I get all the parts.
My sister has been a huge help. We would have gotten the barn project completed without her, but not nearly as soon.
The last week to 10 days have been consumed by doing dirt work around the back and to the side of the barn. I ALMOST have it done, but there is a little left to do.
The worst part, for me, anyway, is the "finish" work. I need to get things "buttoned up" a little better before snowfall. I don't work very fast, but, with help, I will get it done.
I posted a few days ago about finding some rocks for the driveway to the barn. Today, I got another call about some more that were laying in a pasture near here. These are EXACTLY like I need - fist sized ones. They will fill the bill just perfectly. Now, when the barn is done, then we can get back to building fence!

I have also been trying to collect fence materials. I have a pretty good sized stack of woven wire (I can always use more!)
As I am always on the lookout for things to use and recycle to something else - I was more then happy to take a couple of old freezers that were being thrown away. They will work nicely in the barn to store feed and other things in. I was also able to find 2 small "bachelor" refrigerators to use as storage. I am also on the lookout for more metal shelving to go along with the one set I found recently.

Here's a tip: save (or collect) the crisper drawers from old refrigerators to use as storage. The plastic ones work, but the metal ones are more durable.

Poles

Sometime ago (10-12 years), my brother had started a project with the local Boy Scouts to build a log cabin on this farm. They built the floor and made it about half way up the walls with the poles. Here lately, I have been gathering materials for a barn and have figured these poles will work great in the walls of it. I decided to get them moved over the hill to where my barn is going to be. All of the poles are at least 20' long but are "notched" on both ends like the old fashioned log cabins. Luckily, they were only fastened with spikes at the notchings, so they came apart real easy. We used a chainsaw to cut next to the noches, leaving an intact pole. All of the poles are now at least 15' long, without the notches. It was a simple task of wrapping a chain around them, one at a time, and dragging them out.

I was fortunate that my helper (my sister) isn't real familiar with the operations of a farm tractor - she was the "ground man" for the operation! It wasn't fun work, but she stuck to it! We've got about half of them over the hill, and all the rest are pulled out.

A neighbor is coming over some time in the near future to thin out some trees near a fence line. Some of them are Black Walnut trees, but they need thinned. The ones I am cutting are about 6" in diameter and 50' tall. They will never grow much more and will also hinder the growth of the nearby trees. I am going to keep a couple of these "poles" also - for use inside the barn.

Apparently I was wrong....

The beautiful (if not HOT) weather we have been having lead me to post in the last entry, that Spring was here! True, the pastures are greening up, flowers are blooming, and we HAD nice temperatures. Only problem - those durn Canadians sent us some of thier Arctic Air again! The lows for the past couple of nights have been in the low 20's and highs in the upper 30's, or low 40's. We even have some light snow in the forecast! Oh well, it will be July in a couple of months, and we will be complaining about the heat....

I did manage to scrounge up a few more pallets in the past few days. I brought home 97 more. I was also given more tin last week! I am still a few sheets short for what I need, but I am REAL close. I have had a material list for the barn I want to build for quite some time. I am gradually filling it.

We also had a funeral this past week. It was for a neighbor lady who used to baby sit my brothers/sister/and I when we were little. My brother has been over-seeing her and her affairs for the past several years that she has been unable to do it herself. The Bible tells us to take care of widows and orphans. He and his wife did a good job of it.

Parts for the 46 Chevy are slowly coming together. When the weather turns nice again, I hope to get back at trying to get her to run.

One of theses days.....

Something to stop the wind!

I managed to install most of the tin on the sides of the goat barn today! I used what I brought home last Sunday from the shed on a neighbor's place. I wish I would have had 4 more pieces - I would replace 4 sheets I already had up! They didn't match very well and it would look better if it did! Maybe later.......

I also talked to another neighbor who had a barn fire earlier in the year. He wants me to "finish the job" started by the fire, and tear down the building. I still have to take a look, but it is only about 5 miles from here, so I should be able to get over there soon.

So far the cost of my goat barn is up to $35 now - I had to buy some screws! This amount SHOULD be the final tally, though - I SHOULDN'T have to buy anything else!

Time to catch up!

It's been a few days since I last posted! I have been busy trying to get a few things done on the new "barn" for the goats. I now have it partioned into three areas - one for hay, one for milking and one for just a place for the goats to get out of the weather. In between time, I have been fencing and helping the neighbor stack firewood onto pallets. He will take these pallets to another man who has 4 teenagers put it into the bags you see out front of convienience stores. He usually does 30-40 cord a year, but this year he is only doing 14. He's 72 years old so he wants to slow down a bit!

We have been averaging 16 eggs a day from our hens, so tonight I made a LARGE dish of Custard! My wife hates the stuff, so I guess I'll have to "suffer" through it! We have deviled eggs and homemade Angelfood cake a lot! Our dogs are even starting to get tired of scrambled eggs! We give eggs to our friends and neighbors, also. At any given time, there are about 7 dozen in our fridge, so we eat a lot of them! I did manage to tear down the goat pen I had in my tractor shed today. Maybe tomorrow I will get it cleaned out and the tractor back in! The goats are happy to be out in a pasture, though! I'm hoping to at least double the amout of pasture I have fenced off by the Fall. I need to go out into the woods and cut fence posts. More work to do!

Hot!

It was a HOT one today! It's WAY to early to have 88 degrees in Southeast Nebraska! The winds were blowing at about 15 miles per hour, so it was not a good day to be putting tin on a shed roof! I decided to sit down on the ground and cut the pieces to size, and install them in the morning when it is cooler. I did manage to bring home an old chest freezer from a neighbor. It is an old one that has been sitting out beside his shop for 15 years or so. It doesn't work, but I will use it for storing bags of feed, like chick starter, when we aren't using it.

I decided that, since it was so hot, I would work inside the shed. I "planted" a post (really a 6" diameter tree, with the bark still on) and used a large pallet to form a wall. It made a nice 12' x 9' room that I will use for hay storage. I'm building this on a budget and, so far, I am still under $20 for a 26 x 15 shed! I also had to pay for a meaningless "zoning permit" ($25) before I could start. Kinda bad - I have more into a piece of paper, then I have in the building!

I have two more poles (trees) to put in and then partition walls will go up. I will then have a 12' x 9' hay room, a 12' x 8' milk room, and a 12' x 9' "goat room". Not really a HUGE place, but it's a start!