The farm has a barn...
The current barn was constructed in 1966, at least according to the date etched in concrete outside the door. It came into being roughly the same time I did. This is not the property's first barn, however. According to the story, the current barn was built to replace a barn that burned down. According to some deeper story I might have heard somewhere, there was some illicit smoking involved...
You can just make out the barn in this old photo. I've got to admit, I think it is much prettier than its replacement. But that's just me.
The current barn was constructed in 1966, at least according to the date etched in concrete outside the door. It came into being roughly the same time I did. This is not the property's first barn, however. According to the story, the current barn was built to replace a barn that burned down. According to some deeper story I might have heard somewhere, there was some illicit smoking involved...
You can just make out the barn in this old photo. I've got to admit, I think it is much prettier than its replacement. But that's just me.
Some "before"s of the "new" barn. Laugh not at the "new"--remember it's the same age as me. I think I've held up slightly better:
As we posted before, we had done some cleaning up when we hosted a wedding there (remember?). There was still a LOT to do after that, not least of which was repairing the roof, which you can see in the photos above, is really a loose term for what sat on top of the barn. If you're very clever, you'll see lots of windows stacked up there; I'll write another post about when and how that happened.
When we were finally able, we decided to get a quote on the roof repair. Here's the funny part of that story: the upper doors were long gone from the barn and the pigeons (oh the pigeons!!) had taken up residence. It wasn't any use boarding up the doors (we tried) if the roof still had huge holes. We got to the "one bird poop pile too far" point, and that's what made me call the roofing people for a quote. That, and the rotting floor that Nate's leg went through one day, but let's not dwell on THAT memory...
So, the roofers came and put a new metal roof on the whole thing. "Go big or quit," remember? My kitchen budget shrank that day. Significantly.
It turns out that the purlins were rotting. (You can look it up, I'll wait.... or just tell you that these are the cross pieces that block between the rafters and hold up roof sections. Now you have a fun party fact).
A heavy snow, which we ended up not having this winter, but which would eventually come, would have collapsed at least part of the roof.
When we were finally able, we decided to get a quote on the roof repair. Here's the funny part of that story: the upper doors were long gone from the barn and the pigeons (oh the pigeons!!) had taken up residence. It wasn't any use boarding up the doors (we tried) if the roof still had huge holes. We got to the "one bird poop pile too far" point, and that's what made me call the roofing people for a quote. That, and the rotting floor that Nate's leg went through one day, but let's not dwell on THAT memory...
So, the roofers came and put a new metal roof on the whole thing. "Go big or quit," remember? My kitchen budget shrank that day. Significantly.
It turns out that the purlins were rotting. (You can look it up, I'll wait.... or just tell you that these are the cross pieces that block between the rafters and hold up roof sections. Now you have a fun party fact).
A heavy snow, which we ended up not having this winter, but which would eventually come, would have collapsed at least part of the roof.
So, because we can't seem to find the photos we know we have of those rotten pieces of wood, here is an anxiety-inducing photo of guys on ladders Nate doesn't even want to think about:
And the finished roof! There had been concern at the beginning that there might have to be a horizontal seam about halfway up, because they were unsure they could bend it to the curve of this roof. But they did it, and there is no seam. I do miss the "windows," though, because it is now VERY dark up in there. We were very pleased about that. Now, we just have to work on the rest of the barn. Sometime. When they add the 8th day to each week... or when we don't have day jobs any more.
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