Less is More

I had a pretty laid-back day planned at the farmstead today.  I needed to get a pig waterer built, check the fence to make sure all poles are tied in and no gaps underneath, fix a swinging gate inside the barn, and remove the last wood from overhead a stall.

I walked around the property this morning and wondered where to start.  Well, I decided to start elsewhere!  I just hate the junk-iness of the barn area, so I figured I would use the beautiful weather this morning and knock out a few fences.  I could then do the planned items this afternoon and have a successful day!

It's funny how life works.

I first started with the little swinging gate inside the barn.  It's how a human enters the stalls without climbing over the walls.  Well, it has always been propped open, and I learned why.  It doesn't shut!  The hinges were installed too close to the wall, so the wood would bind when you tried to shut it.  But with pigs coming soon, it had to be secure!  So I removed the two hinges (extremely difficult), then moved the door out 1/4-inch and hung it back up.  A fairly straight-forward job.  The door swings freely and now shuts perfectly, too.  I just need a latch to make it stay shut.

Then I removed the last of the wood from the rafters inside the barn.  I found several good siding pieces today!  It's amazing just how much wood was stored in these rafters.  I would say I probably have a couple thousands dollars' worth.  I'll try to re-build some of the rotten parts of the barn using the old matching wood and then sell the rest.  But there is some really good pieces in there.

The last stall with barn wood hanging in the rafters.

There was so much weight up there again!!!

So much weight has been lifted off those rafters!  I do feel bad for my barn cat, though.  Her catwalk has been taken away!  She used to appear in various locations above your head!  Now she can't do that.  I might have to put a board up just for her.  She used it daily!

The stalls are so clean now!  A view from the hayloft.

I never would have imagined this much wood was stored in the rafters when I began.  It just kept coming...and coming...and coming.  The barn can breathe again!

After the removal of the wood, I decided to clear out the hayloft.  The loft is just a mess of old hay.  Some of it is rotten, some of it is broken, some of it has been wet and is rotting out the supporting boards below it.  The hayloft window is wide open, and obviously rain gets in.  So the boards are spongy in the middle.  Again, this wasn't on the list for today, but I just want a clean barn!  I backed my truck up inside the barn and just heaved the bales down.  So easy!  I then just jumped on the bales in the back of my truck.  Too fun.

Where the water comes in.

The rotten old hay.

I just heaved bales down into my truck from the hayloft.  Super simple.

Now what to do with them?!

The rest of the rotten hay.  I'll have to pitch-fork this down in the truck.  I plan to rebuild something up here, though, as Callie is losing her bed!  I will probably add 10 bales of straw up here.

I didn't know where to go with the hay?!

I then headed outside to remove fence.  The east side of the barn is just a mess.  I mean, a mess.  It's several years of various additions, and it just looks terrible.  Lots of iron gates, homemade fences, broken concrete, and more.  I just want it gone!  So I started to take down the fences over there.  It wasn't really on the list, but I want a little bit of clean-up here!

I started with the fence up by the machine shed.  The boards were pretty rotten, and the hog panel fence (welded together) just ripped right off the wood.  Of course, steeples went flying, but the fence is down.  It gives the yard such a wide-open feel.  And when you are up at the house, you have an unrestricted view to the south now.

The old hog panel gate before.

The old panel before.

And After!  Open up that yard!

Looks better already.

The view to the south is now unrestricted through here from the house.

It's the simple things in life, folks!  LESS IS MORE!!!

What else could I find?!

Where to begin.  The view as you pull around the back of the property.  Yuck.

I then moved to the VERY odd fence southeast of the barn.  It's such a weird set-up.  The swinging gate is hog panel welded onto round metal pipe.  The fence itself is hog panel welded to more pipe, creating one long, continuous piece probably 40 feet long.  It's impossible to put into a pick-up without first cutting it.  Kind of annoying!  And then the end of the fence is a homemade wooden structure extremely well-built and tall.

This section is just gross.  I won't miss it one bit!

IT ALL HAS TO GO.

The 40-foot long hog panel welded to steel tubing and then the homemade wooden fence.  What a mess!

It serves no purpose.  Time to take it down!

Slowly coming down.

All from one fence.

So I started taking it apart.  Cutting baling wire, untwisting baling wire, rocking the wooden posts, pulling out T-posts, and then using a drill to remove the RIDICULOUS amount of stainless steel screws in the wood.  I would imagine probably close to 100 screws were holding the wooden fence together.  It's sturdy but just not needed!  Overkill, if you ask me.  The wood is mostly good, though, so I plan to keep that for other projects (some will actually probably be used in shoring up the barn).

I was able to get all of that fence down, but I just don't know what to do with it!  It's a mess of mess!

The fence is down.  Now what to do with it?!

I had a basement contractor from Helitech come out at 12:15 this afternoon.  I showed him the 153-year-old basement, and he tooks LOTS of pictures and measurements.  He didn't really have a game-plan for me, or at least didn't feel confident enough to tell me in person.  He said with the brick foundation he would have to talk to his senior engineer.  It all sounds expensive.  He did say one option might be to build a foundation inside of the current foundation...but that seems a bit odd.  I've never heard of that before!

I am expecting to get a $25,000 bid from these guys!  But I don't know.

I took down more fence, but my body was starting to feel it, so I broke for lunch a little after 2:00.

The east side of the barn is just a mess.  I am taking it all down!

Starting with this massive fence.

You can hardly tell I did anything!  So much more to do!

So many screws in these boards!

Looking down outside from the hayloft.  Just a messy area.

I will probably tear all of this down, too.  And sell it.  It's geared towards a cattle operation.

 

I have big dreams for this barn!  I might as well get everything out of the way that is hiding it!

After the little break, I came back to start cleaning up what I had started this morning!  I took the old bales to the pasture and threw them on the telephone poles to see if they would start a fire.  It looked like it was trying to actually burn the wood!  So I threw more bales on...and more...and more.  I just fed the fire!  And wouldn't you know it, the wood started to take.

Using the very old hay from the loft to light the telephone poles.  It worked!

That's when I received a phone call about a rental property appointment scheduled for tomorrow.  I had booked it this morning, but she called and said a guy was free NOW.  If I could head over to the house, he could get it knocked out today.  Aghhhh!!!  Well, it would keep the tenant happy and free up all day tomorrow, so I said ok.

So I left the inferno and headed for town.  I stopped at Menard's to pick up sealant for the pig waterer and latches for the pig door.  But the entire period pulled me away from the property for 2 1/2 hours.  Ugh.  A prime 2 1/2 hours.

By choosing "fun" projects to do in addition to my normal projects, I actually didn't get around to my normal projects.  I still had a waterer to build, a waterer to seal, a gate to secure, and a fence to inspect.  Agh!

Mom and Dad had already asked to pitch in, and I gladly took them up on their offer!  But all was not well!  Rain had started to move in (lots of little thunderstorms), and it never relented.  So the hay was wet in the back of my truck (I left the pasture in  a jiffy to meet the guy), the fire was being rained on, and the pasture was turning into a muddy mess.  Prime conditions for working outside, right?!

Well, the plan was simple:

1.  Inspect the fence.  Tie wire as needed.  Place concrete blocks at base as needed.
2.  Fill in the massive hole from the telephone pole Dad and removed.
3.  Install latch on pig door.
4.  Seal water nipple on waterer.
5.  Secure swinging gates by tightening nuts on one and baling wire on another (until it settles in).

And we were able to get all of those accomplished!  At the end of the night, Dad helped me load the livestock rack into the truck, and we called it a night.

I have a very special appointment tomorrow to make this all come to life!!!  My niece and I are driving a half-hour to pick up 15 piggies in the morning!!!  All of this hard work is going to be put to the test!  I am so excited both for my niece and for the whole process of raising a pig from a little guy to a fat guy.

I seriously still have no idea what I am doing, but that is half of the fun.  You just learn as you go.  I REALLY hope our fence is secure (my biggest worry), but we will know in short order!  I am to pick up my niece at 9:00 A.M. and then the piggies around 10:00 A.M.

I really don't know what to expect.  All I know is I have Durocs and Duroc crosses.  The litters were born in January and February.  Because of that, I am actually expecting some little porkers already!  Maybe 40-50 pounds instead of 30-35.  But I just hope that they are fun.  I don't know if they will be red or spotted or striped or really anything!  But the sellers are offering them to us at $15 each.  That's simply amazing.

So a 7-year-old gets to see her first piggies tomorrow.  How exciting is this?!

(And, of course, the next several days are supposed to be cold and RAINY!!!  Two inches of rain is forecast this weekend.  I couldn't have planned this any worse!  The pasture is going to be a mud pit.  But I guess that is just perfect for pigs).

Here's to hoping we did some things right!