Chronicles of the Long Shot Farm

Barn

Barn and Barnyard Clean-Up

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Now that Jens and Grace decided to have their wedding in our barn, we stepped up the cleaning process!!!  Spent Saturday cleaning out the last few large items and moved them upstairs (this included the large stainless steel milk tanks, our huge feedbox and all our food grade 55 gallon drums). 
We got a quote for cementing the barn floor last week as well as instructions on what to prepare prior to having the cement delivered.  Jens. Lars and Jeff  also worked on installing the drainage pipes, and our load of gravel got delivered as well.  
While the “boys” were working on the barn, Tina and Grace planted the first batch of 300+ tulip bulbs around the barnyard fence.  Once that was done, Grace started to paint the fence, taking advantage of rather warm weather.

Ditch Digging

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We rented a jackhammer over the weekend, to break through the concrete and dig below the barn foundation for putting in drainage pipes and water lines.  Luckily Jens came over to help as well – he and Jeff took turns running the jackhammer, while Tina and Lars dug away the loose dirt.  It really did not take as long as we had thought – got it all done before the weather turned ugly again.

Filling in the Barn Floor and Setting Posts

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rock pile after 70 loads were taken
On days that the weather was warm enough to melt some of the gravel, Lars and Tina filled up wheelbarrel loads of gravel and carted it into the barn – where Jeff distributed it and tamped it down.  We are over half way done – and so far pushed 70 wheelbarrel loads (yes, we counted!!!).



barn floor with 70 loads dumped

Once the back third was gavel filled and leveled (we used our handy laser level to make sure it stayed even), we mixed up some cement and poured two slabs (into a form which Jeff had build), as bases for setting new support beams.

 While the concrete hardened, we started jacking up the barn some more to get the cross beams level.  We had borrowed two barn jacks from one of Jeff’s friends, and eased up on the cross beam a little bit each day for about 1 week, until it was level – we had to move it up nearly 2.5 inches at the far end, about 1 inch in the middle. 
We used some of the old (Beford) barn beams we still had left over, cut them the right length and set them in, next to the old beams.  To get these in, we had to jack the crossbeam even higher, until we could slide the new support beams in, and then lower the jack until the new beams were able to support the barn.  It felt a bit like playing JENGA, as the old beams toppled. We set 6 new posts so far, for the back third of the barn, and it looks great!




Digging Out the Barn Floor

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It took four wagon loads of old straw, hay and crusted manure to get the barn floor down to the hard dirt level.  We had to use the small rototiller to dig out the very last layer (and this was only for one third of the barn floor, as the rest of the floor is cement). 
The four wagon loads were spread on the garden – which means we not only had to shovel the stuff onto the wagon, but shovel it back off as well.
 
Lars had two snow days in a row and he worked hard at it – but had some fun too!
We had ordered 15 ton of gravel, which was delivered earlier this week – and now the hard part starts:  spreading the gravel in the barn with a wheelbarrow and help from a laser level.  What fun!

Cleaning the Barn (and Skating)

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Ever since the Christmas break, we’ve been working on cleaning out the bottom of the barn.  Not just shoveling out manure remnants, and carting ancient garbage, hardened cement bags, baler twine and rusted fencing materials, but also disassembling the milking stanchions, horse boxes, feeding troughs and various gates.  Over the weekend, we had someone come in with a trailer to haul all the metal away – he had to come back with a second, larger trailer, because he did not expect us to have so much junk – after all, the barn is not that big.  We even found a full sized, rusted shopping cart, not to mention all the rusted feed carts, chains and useless hardware pieces.  We started yet another burning pile for all the rotten boards and feed sacks and added nicely to the compost pile with the old bedding material.




worked around our stainless steel tanks and wine racks

After all the trash was out of the barn, the tearing down of the partitions and reclaiming the lumber (mostly solid oak – just had to get the nails out) was relatively fast.  We now have open space, except of course for the load-bearing posts.  Two thirds of the barn floor is cemented – but not evenly, as there had been a milking set up – so the floor has three levels, like steps.  The last third had been horse boxes, and had about 1 foot of tramped down bedding and straw in them.  That section has to be dug out some, and then cemented – but first we have to lay out where the water and drain pipes have to be positioned before we can even think about cement.

We had some fun the last few weekends skating on the pond.  It got a little more challenging after the ice got covered with snow – we had to shovel a skating area and also a large loop for skating laps (which is a lot more fun in cold weather than running on snow covered fields).  The only challenge was that the ice on the pond is rather bumpy, with holes ever so often, which makes skating a bit more challenging – but still, so much fun 🙂