Chapter 157...Cutting The Barn Wood

Just a quick story about some things we do around our property.  As you know we have been trying to clean out the barn.  First we had to get rid of the bales of hay in the loft, next we took out the extra lumber and finally we can clean up the ground.

But first a another cool view from our front door:

And:

OK...time to start working.  We brought all of the tobacco poles and extra old lumber up from the barn and stacked it on our driveway.  Since we have no use for it, building wise, we will cut it up and use it to burn.  I know some of you think that is crazy but whenever Mike and I wait around for people to come and take things they don't show up fast enough, lol.  Basically...you snooze you lose.


Mike uses the back of the trailer as a cutting table:

Uh oh...while Mike is doing that I notice that we have bees flying all around us.  They are carpenter bees.  I researched them and found some interesting information about them.  First the males don't have stingers...at least that is good:)  The females can sting but they very rarely do unless they are highly threatened.  The carpenter bee drill holes into wood to rear their young.  They like untreated wood best.  Once the holes are drilled, which are an almost perfect 1/2 inch round circle, they drill in about one inch and then turn right and drill some more.  They create tunnels in your wood.  In the winter they will live in those holes.  "They mate in the spring and set about to clean out and enlarge the old tunnels or to excavate new ones as brood chambers for their young. Each chamber is provisioned with a portion of "bee bread", a mixture of pollen and regurgitated nectar, which serves as food for the larvae. An egg is deposited on the food supply and each chamber is sealed off."
About Carpenter Bees

Anyway I found that interesting...although I am not happy about the holes they drill: 

OK...back to the cutting.  We have a another system:)  I stack the wood on each side of the trailer.  Mike goes back and forth between the sides and cuts the wood:

Nice clean cuts of wood ready to be stacked:

Mike stacking some of the wood:

Almost done with our pile:

Mike cleans up:

Back to the barn.  We still have a lot of loose hay on the ground:

We take some garbage bags up top and get to work.  Mike starts stuffing the bags:

18 bags full and that will be good for future seeding jobs:

Mike cleaned up the rest of the barn and blew it out with the blower:

Next we clean up and clear out the back building.  Now that we have the top of the barn cleaned out we can store some odd ball items down there and make more room in our storage container:

First load going down the the barn:

Mike is in heaven.  He has a whole big shelf to spread out his things:):

And on a last note.  The carpenter bees were just the beginning of the problem.  Since the bees add nectar and food to the holes other birds want to eat what is in the holes.  Unfortunately we have a big woodpecker that wants that nectar.  Not good.  We really have to fill all the holes before our whole post falls apart:

That's all for now.  We have just been doing the normal routine maintenance around the property.  Most of our time is spent working on the store:)

Have a wonderful day and I will write again soon:)

Chapter 155...The Shingle Roof

The time has come to put the shingles on.  The morning starts out rainy so Mike and I went to town to pick up more roofing nails.  We have a Bostich Nail Gun and found a generic brand of roofing nails that fit our gun:)  I love when we get a deal.


BTW, if anyone is having trouble posting to my blog a friend of mine told me what you should do.  From Jaxson:)

"Just pick 'anonymous' type your message then I sign my name at the end of it. That way you don't have to go through all the registering on the other choices or use your FB account."

Later that day the skies clear up.  Mike and I decide to start the shingles.


Mike starts out by nailing the starter strip on:

After the strip is on we can start with the shingles.  We start with the very first row and work our way backwards and to the ridge of the roof.  Once we get a few rows on, Mike and I can turn around and work our way up:

I'm lining up and laying out the shingles for Mike to nail:

Almost to the top of the back side of the roof:

Working on the other side.  We work on about 6 rows at a time:

Woo hoo.  It only took us 2 1/2 hours to get the back of the roof done:)

Tomorrow is another day and we will start fresh on the front half of the roof.


Mike starts again with the starter strip:

The starter strip is on and we are ready for the shingles:

Mike starts with the first shingles at the far end:

Again...working on about 6 rows at a time and working our way up to the ridge:

The last of the regular rows of shingles.  This side took us another 2 1/2 hours.  Not bad:

Now for the part that will slow us down.  We need to cut shingles down for both sides of the ridge and then we also need to cut the ridge cap pieces.  I start cutting the long lengths, which by the way are much easier to cut when they are warmed by the sun:):

Mike nailing on the strips that I cut up:

After the ridge line is done on both sides Mike and I work on cutting the shingles for the ridge caps.  I cut the squares out and Mike cuts the angles:

Mike setting the ridge caps lined up:

Our nice cuts for the ridge caps:

Ah....the last shingle going on the roof:

Mike walking the ridge to make sure everything looks good:

Yay...the roof is done and no more high ladder work:)

LOL...Mike told me that we were never doing another roof...that was 3 roofs ago...Hmm!!!

This is the first real mess we made.  Usually Mike and I have a very clean work site but not today, lol:

And:

Lucky for us our neighbor started a big burn pile and we can clean up:

We load all the debris on to the trailer and take it to the burn pile next door:

That's how we clean up in the country:)


I hope you all enjoyed this story and I will write again very soon.  Have a wonderful week:)

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.