A Barn Raising. Part Seven.

It's been a while since I've updated the blog on our progress with the barn and a lot has happened since then.

 We have a roof!

 And Walls!

 Lots of Walls! We're bulding more and more walls every day!

We're even building doors!

It's all so exciting! We're hoping to have the whole thing finished by the end of the year! I'll be sure to keep updating about our progress!

A Barn Raising. Part 6.

The Barn

Uncle Steve returned to us this past Sunday and we are all greatly relieved. Carter was unable to come because he got a job (from what I understand it involves bug catching for science.) He is greatly missed by all (especially when something heavy needs lifting down at the barn. lol) Uncle Steve, Dad and Jack have made great progress and the barn is really taking shape. We now have a hay loft floor, the first section of the ridge board and a couple of the second tier of rafters. It's so exciting to see it all come together!



The loft floor from below



It's a long way down



Hard at work



The floor



A precarious position



They inspect their work



Quite literally, The End.

A Barn Raising. Part Five.

I'm not even going to say anything about missing a several days of posting. Let's all just accept that things like that are going to happen and move on. Uncle Steve and Carter left several days ago to go back home. But don't panic! They are coming back sometime after October 15th. The barn has all of its posts, lower rafters, etc. but before we can move on (put the upper rafters and the roof on) we need scaffolding. If you happen to have some scaffolding that isn't being used or know someone who does please let me know. So, besides that there isn't much else to be said about the barn for now, but be prepared for a barrage of barn related posts in the near future. Did I happen to mention that I am SO EXCITED ABOUT HAVING A BARN THAT I JUST MIGHT EXPLODE!?! No? Well, I am and now you know.

A Barn Raising. Part Four.

So, yeah, I missed another day of posting, but yesterday was busy. Even though I didn't have too much hands-on work with the barn because I babysat my nieces and nephew. I did, however, get to go down there and be amazed. It really is starting to look like a barn, especially since they started putting rafters up! It may sound like this whole thing has just been smooth sailing, but yesterday and today haven't been without excitement. We realized a couple of mistakes and are doing our best to either fix them or cope with them. The most popular phrases have been, "It's just a barn," meaning that whatever happens will be okay because it's just a barn and "Put a nail in it!" meaning hurry up and do something because it'll never be perfect. So far, I think it's a rather fine piece of construction despite it's flaws and I'm ready to have it finished! I can picture it all already! Although that doesn't really mean much because I've been able to picture it since we poured the concrete. Now it just seems so close and real! I can't wait! I think we're planning to paint it "Barn Red" with white trim in the classic barn style. I have already started designing the interior and planning how to keep it clean and as close to bug-free as possible.

A Barn Raising. Part Three.

After lots of hard work and humor the posts are up. Both of the building inspectors came out yesterday and they admitted that they didn't know anything about building a barn. One inspector said they were using S.W.A.G. (Scientific Wild Burro Guesses). They had come mainly to inspect the post holes. We had painstakingly dug all 16 holes to a 3 foot depth to match the requirements. The inspectors walked over and looked at a couple of the holes and said something to the effect of, "Looks about right," without even measuring! So, with that ordeal thankfully behind us, we continued.  Little did dad know that all of the posts would be in the holes before he got home from work. He called us in a little bit of a panic about it all and mom let him think that we hadn't gotten anything done. Boy, was surprised when he pulled up the driveway! Uncle Steve and my cousin, Carter, had put all of the posts in the holes. After dad got home and got over his shock, we squared up the posts and cemented about half of them in. Today, we've been working on getting the rest of them done. Apart from the roof, walls and doors we've got ourselves a barn already. That's the glass-one-quarter-full view for you.

A Barn Raising. Part Two.

I forgot to post yesterday because we were pretty busy. Early in the day I cleaned house so that it would be ready for our company. While I was doing that mom, dad and Jack measured and marked where the holes should be. Later, my uncle and cousin arrived and that's when we really started working. Dad and Jack dug holes with the two-man auger and my cousin and I cleaned the holes out with post hole diggers. So, needless to say, my shoulders are sore. Today the building inspector is coming to inspect the holes and after that we're going to put the posts up. I think that today the barn might really start looking like a barn.

A Barn Raising. Part One.

I'm not quite sure how many parts this will have because this is a huge undertaking. We really started building the barn three years ago when we had the concrete pad poured, but we haven't done much since then. Yesterday is when we really made progress. We had lumber and dirt delivered and we had a bobcat come and make the surrounding ground level with the concrete. Today, while dad and Jack cut out places in the concrete to put the posts in, the rest of our family watched. While we weren't watching we were doing odd jobs like turning the hose on and off, bringing lemon ade to the workers, opening and closing gates, and fetching tools. Tomorrow my uncle and cousin are coming. Hopefully the work will go faster. On the scedule for tommorrow we have: digging post holes and having fun!