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Sunday, September 26, 2010

Barn Demo Progress Report

We had another great weekend tearing down, or should I say cleaning up the old collapsed barn.  CAT took a vacation day during the week to go pick up our last load of cedar rails for our fence, so this enabled us to have two full days at the barn, one of which included our favorite cheap labour (our son).  I have to say that this type of work, outside in the fresh air, removing nails out of board after board and piling them in the trailer, is so great for your sense of well being (although a bit hard on the body I admit). 

CAT cutting down the trees around the last section of barn

We started the day on Saturday by removing the trees around the last sections of collapsed roof. Once the trees were gone I was able to take a pic of that section that shows a few trees holding up not only the side of the old barn but also the roof.  Very scary. 

A view of the underside of roof section being held up by trees.

CAT, yet again, went right at the metal roof which is very difficult to get off in spite of the age of the barn. You can see the pile of boards at the end of the roof line which are my job to move to the trailer and de-nail and also the one piece of metal roof which I should be moving to the metal pile. (I was just taking a little photo op break)

CAT removing pieces of metal roofing

This is what the site looked like by the end of Saturday.  It was just CAT and I on Saturday so we were happy with what we managed to do.

The site at the end of Saturday

And this is what the site looked like by the end of Sunday. You can now see the neighbour's farm in the background and everything from that side of the barn is on the ground except for a small section of the roof which we have to piece down because it is caught on the tree underneath. I'm not sure if you can see it from these photos but there was one section of post and beam on the right that was on quite a lean there and we now have that ground level which has made a huge difference visually and also for safety.  I can't wait to get out there next weekend to do more. I'm an addict. I'm also showing a pic of our beam pile which is growing steadily. These are big beams that are too long to fit in the trailer.  Stay tuned for more updates.  I hope these barn posts aren't getting too repetitive for you all.  I welcome any comments in the comment section.

The site at the end of Sunday

Our ever expanding post and beam pile waiting for the logging truck to come pick it up

4 comments:

  1. What a job this is. And it's an excellent record for you all too. I was looking back through some of my early photos and had forgotten how much things have changed. I'm guessing it will be the same for you too.

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  2. Thanks Leigh, It is a big job but worth it (and really enjoyable actually) . The barn that we are cleaning up ran between the two log barns and was quite large. We had hoped initially to take the other log barn (it's a beauty) that you see in the background of the photos but it is so big we didn't want to commit to it as well and figured we would start by cutting our teeth on the clean up of the collapsed barn and our little log barn. Depending on how the rest of this part goes we may try for it as well if it is not taken by anyone else in the meanwhile. There was another man interested in it I think, but we have not seen him at all. I honestly had never given any thought to blogging before I discovered your blog but you are so correct, even now I go back and look at our first pics of the barn project to monitor how far we've come and the best part is that friends and family can tune in as well (although nobody seems brave enough to make comments save for you lol...I know they are out there though)

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  3. I love that you are doing this blog Vicki, it is so great to be able to follow along with all the progress you guys are making. It is going to be such a beautiful spot when everything is done, it will be well worth the wait!!
    Charlotte

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  4. Thank you Charlotte for your kind words and also for posting a comment. It is much appreciated. We are having lots of fun and enjoying the ride so far. Sometimes I want to rush things but all in good time I guess. Patience is a virtue. Thanks again Char.

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