Hay Barn Progress

If you were on Facebook yesterday, you may have noticed the constant updates. What can I say, I was excited! Finally making progress on the hay barn. Last weekend we put the purlins up on the east side but were itching to put up the sheeting. We put up the first row of purlins on the west side and went to town putting up the sheeting.

Too bad the new sheeting makes the rest of the barn look super dumpy but that's on my radar to fix. It's just time and money that's required at this point. The biggest hurdle we had to face was taking out the vents at the top. We don't need them and they are the reason the barn leaks, sort of. This is the original cedar roof and it hasnt' been touched in the 48 years or so since it was built. I'm guessing 80 years but it could be more. Our house has dates were it was remodeled in the 40s so I'm guessing the buildings went up in the 40s as well.


The dogs kept us company for most of the day.

Farley wasn't as impressed with the goings on and tried to hang out in the shade. I swear that if Penny could climb a ladder, she would have been up on the roof "helping" as well.

This is the view from the west. We had to do some cleanup work Saturday to get to the barn. Trees had grown up between the windmill and the hay barn. Much to Bo's dismay, we took his itching tree. Those trees aren't supposed to be there. We'd cut them all down about 9 years ago but they all came back. It's a never ending battle. Can't get trees to grow where you want them but can't keep the trees out of where you don't.

So apparently I can't figure out how to upload pictures in order. This was the view Sunday early afternoon. We were both itching to get the sheeting on. There's a learning curve with Ondura and there's some finer points we didn't know about. But for the most part, the sheeting went up easy. I saw that because *I* wasn't the point putting in the nails and trying to reach across the sheeting (which is about 4 feet wide.)

With the new roof on, it does make the rest of the barn look crappy. But we'll work on it. My biggest concern was the roof. Like the saying "No hoof, no horse" the same goes with buildings. "No roof, no building". Not nearly as catchy but still the same.

Mike wants to get back up on the roof this week to put another sheet of Ondrua up. We ran out of screws for the purlins and the mosquitos came out promptly at 5pm last night so we lost about two hours worth of work. But there's still a hole from the vent that we'd like covered up. In case something happens and we cant' get back to this project until later this fall, we'd like things buttoned up as best as we can.

So that's where my focus has been and it's been a huge focus so sorry if I haven't been around. There's just too much to get done in a short amount of time. I'm in panic mode. I wish I would have started sooner but I guess it's better to simply start than wait for the perfect time. Because there will never be a perfect time to start.