Chapter 150...Cleaning Out The Hayloft...Ah Choo!!! And A Big Snake

Mike has been driving me crazy about the barn since we told the cow people this will be their last year here.  Every few days we have been stopping at the barn to see how much hay is left.  The cow people have been taking out hay each time they come but there is still a lot.  Last sunday when the kids came for breakfast they offered to help.  Well who would say no to help like that, lol?

Going down to the barn:

The hayloft opening from inside:

The stairs going up to the loft and all the tobacco poles on the left:

Big decisions.  Mike is up top and he will throw the hay bales down to someone.  Nicole (Mike's daughter) and Aj (her son) are checking out the situation:

We got it figured out.  AJ and I went to the bottom of the barn to stack the bales in one of the stalls.  Mike, Nicole and Ella work up top.  Mike throws a bale down to Nicole and she rolls it out the hayloft opening so AJ and I can pick up the bales and stack them in an empty stall.  I think Nicole really got into it:).  Every time she got to the opening she yelled down to AJ and I "Clear"  I told her later she would be yelling "clear" in her sleep. Ella does her best to help out but the hay bales are almost as big as her.

Surprisingly enough we didn't see any little critters running around in the barn.  That is a very good thing because if Nicole saw one mouse she would have been out of that barn never to go back, lol.


We all did great.  AJ stuck with me and did a really good job even though I know he paid for it with his allergies. We stacked about 75 bales of hay:

Thanks guys.  Now Mike can stop talking about the hay bales in the barn, lol.


The next time Mike and I go down to the hayloft it's to clean it up.  There are a couple of bales that broke open and we need to restring them:

We are going to start at the high part and work our way down.  There is a lot of loose hay and lumber around the barn.  This is where it is going to get very dusty.  Mike starts raking the hay off the floor so we can see what is under there:

We really didn't find many signs of animals living there but we did find some raccoon poop.  Mike told me it was raccoon and since I have never seen raccoon poop I had to look it up.  Yup...that's what it was, lol.
Raccoon Poop



We get the top part clear and get to a stack of wood by the wall:

Looking "up" to our house from the barn:

There are big thin logs across the beams in the barn.  Mike starts cutting them down:

We open up the old door at the top of the barn and throw the wood out the door.  This will be much easier than hauling the wood down the stairs.  The top floor is now clear.  Mike closing up the door after we finish round one:

The stack of wood outside:

Mike loading it onto the trailer:

We get back up top and unload it onto the driveway.  The next day we go back down to the barn and do it again.  Throwing the wood out the door:

Finished with all the extra wood in the barn and loaded up again:

Unloading the second batch onto the stack from the day before:

Nice free wood:)

After all the dusty barn work Mike and I had to use a product we have been using for years.  It really does help with sinuses.  Sinus Rinse



Just the other day Mike and I came back home and stopped to feed the fish.  Mike went to get the fish food out of the barn and he yells at me to "come over."  I walk over to see what he wants and I almost step on this:

What a cool snake.  But since I don't know anything about snakes I give him a lot of room while I take pictures:

He slithers through one of the cracks on the barn:

And coming out on the inside:

Almost camouflaged:

Well...I thought he was pretty cool even if I don't know what he was.

Now that we have the wood on the driveway we will have to cut it up into smaller pieces so we can burn it next winter.  We built another log rack and started with the nicest pieces of wood from the barn:

That's all for now.  Right now it is raining again and we are itching to work on the store.  Sadly it is not looking good for today.  I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will write again soon.

Chapter 148...Cutting Wood And A Little Bit Of This And That

Good morning!!!  It's time for Mike and I to clean up our back hill and at the same time get wood for next winter.  I love when one job equals two:)  We will be able to get wood from our back hill for a very long time without cutting a single tree down.


First a few pictures of the Mike and Lisa world.

Here are the baby calves...so cute:)

We also got a call from our camping/Ohio friends.  They will be coming for lunch so Mike and I want to get cleaned up for them:)  We start at the top of the drive and work our way down.  Mike uses the blower while I use a flat shovel to clean up our driveway.

Moving right along.  It is much easier to clean since the cows can't go on it.

Fast forward a couple of days:) and Mike digs a hole in our front yard.  Since we put the solar panels in the back and close to where my old clothesline was we had to move the clothesline:

We saved the old concrete block that used to hold my clothesline in place.  We will try to reuse it.  Mike stomps it into the hole:

And tamps it down on the edges with our trusty metal bar. 

Mike gets the clothes line in.  It will be so much nicer having it closer to the house:)

Now it's time for the fun stuff.  We didn't cut enough wood last year so we want to get a good start for next year.  We have a ton of wood all over the property that is already down.  It just needs to be cut and hauled to our racks.  Sometimes that is the hard part.  Luckily the hill behind our house is pretty easy to get to.


Our goal today is to cut one big tree.  Mike starts at the top of it:

Moving up the tree towards the trunk:

While Mike uses the chainsaw to cut I start throwing/rolling the logs down the hill.  The bigger ones make it almost to the back fence while the smaller ones take a few throws before they get to the bottom.  It's a mess:

I am getting the logs closer to the back yard.  On a side note....Mike and I are easily entertained, lol.  We will watch some of the bigger logs roll to see where they will end up.  Usually right before the bottom the logs will turn away from my garden..but not always...Ugh!!

Mike making his way to the trunk.  This is a big tree:

Almost all cleaned up for the day.  Oops looks like one log hit my garden:

Thankfully I didn't have plants growing in that section yet:)

The next day we get ready to tackle a new tree.  Before we start I put boards behind my garden to protect it from flying logs.

The logs from yesterday:

Mike starting on a larger tree which is up higher than the last tree:

There I am throwing logs down the hill:

Mike keeps cutting:

We are doing good.  I have to use the pry bar to help lift the tree so Mike can cut the logs.  We move up the tree together to get the logs cut.  Once a few get cut we take a break from that and start throwing the logs down the hill:

This time we were higher up and the logs were bigger so they rolled much faster which was not a good thing for my garden.  Mike finishing with the cutting:

My poor garden.  Looks like the boards didn't help:

We did get quite a bit of wood though so that is good:)

The boards didn't work:

We are done on the back hill.  Now it's time to clean up and Niki can help:

Mike and I get the log splitter out and set it up.  I will split the logs while Mike hauls the split logs down to the wood rack in front of the house.  His first trip down he lost the load of logs.  Guess he will have to strap them on tighter:)

Mike loading the logs onto our rack:

We got the front rack full and have no place to put the rest of the logs.  Time to build a new rack.  We are using two 4x4 posts on the ground to hold the logs and we will use a 4x4 post on each end standing up to keep the logs on the rack.  Mike is making sure our vertical post is level:

Me using the post hole diggers for the second post:

Mike doing the finishing touches while Niki watches:)

The princess needs some shade:

We thought it would be easier to use the trailer for all the newly split logs.  It's pretty full:

Yay...the wood is split and the trailer is empty:

We filled the trailer again and added to the rack.  It is almost full.  Not bad for a couple of days work:)

This brings up almost us to date on what we have gotten done at the house.  Mike and I have been doing what we can this year but it doesn't seem like we are getting much done.  It's still all good as long as we keep moving forward and accomplishing things.

I hope you enjoyed this story and I will write again soon.