Barn rennovation

I showed a picture a month of ago of a barn we are rennovating. The first half of the crumbling foundation was removed and now a new concrete wall has been poured and a framed wall built on top to support the northside. This barn is attached on the east side of the Rilco Rafter barn. This barn is a post fram barn and is in dire need of work. This barn would be considered by most to be unworthy of the money required to restore.




The bottom picture shows the second phase of installing the new foundation. This was rather ambitious, for we tore out over half of the old foundation on the Rilco Rafter barn and a good part of the post form barn. The footing is poured and is awaiting the concrete walls to be poured.

The barn is supported by jacks and temporary posts. Up in the loft, three cables are installed to tie the rafters together so they do not spread on the bottom. I drilled holes in the concrete floor and tied cables to the wood plate at the bottom of the roofline to a pin inserted in the hole in the concrete.


We have not had any severe winds with the wall out, but the building has shifted a little while being suspended by the jacks. Hopefully the walls will be poured so that we can get the building supported on the new foundation.

The post form barn is going to take a lot of work to straighten. The west side of the wall has settled about six inches, causing the barn to lean to the west about the same amount. The top picture shows the east side of the structure and gives you an idea of how out of plumb the building is.

The heat and humidity have retreated to the south. We have had a nice string of warm days in the 70's and lows in low 50's. Nearly everything in the garden is ready for harvesting. Tomatoes are still being produced and my butternut squash vines are alive and produce some nice looking squash.

I was really pleased with the potatoe crop this year. I dug one row of red pontiacs and gleaned over a 5 gallon pail full of very nice sized potatoes. With the tomatoes we are making juice and salso. You couldn't knock the smile off my face with a 2x4 as we begin harvesting apples, pears, and plums from our fruit trees. Rachel has been making applie pies for the past couple weeks and last evening we made some apple jelly and some apple sauce. There is not a more tasty treats that fresh, warm apple sauce. Or maybe the applie pie with a hefty pile of vanilla ice cream! We are harvesting Macintosh apples now, but soon we will be dealing with a lot of Golden Delicious.

The chickens have yet to be sampled, but this shall not be the case for long!