Pasture and Barn Clearing

Today started off on a much slower note...I think Pa and I were both pleased with that.  I had a rental property snafu, so I had to meet an appliance repairman at that unit at 8:30 A.M.  He had me all fixed up in about 75 minutes.  I was out $125 but happy!  Hope the refrigerator works!  (And if it's a success, it saves me nearly $1300 on a new one).  The thermostat had gone bad.

After the repair, I headed out to Dad's house at 10:00 this morning, and we geared ourselves up for a slower day.  With the forecast calling for over 60 degrees, I invited my nieces out for their first visit.  Well, they showed up right behind us, and that meant all work was called off!  The girls were in exploratory mode and just had to check out EVERY building.  From the barn to the corn crib to the machine shed to the extra garage to the house to the upstairs of the house to the storm cellar to...to...to...it was so fun.  And, of course, with this many buildings, we just HAD to play hide-and-seek.  The only location off-limits by themselves was the hayloft.  We explored it together...and with hands always around them!  They drift so easily!  The rotten and crooked hay certainly didn't help.

Seriously, a child's playground.  So.Much.Fun.

Here is to hoping for years and years of good memories.

The icing on the cake was that my sister brought out their little dog, too.  And you want to talk about fun?!  That dog had the time of his life!!!  He just ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran...and ate cat poop (which he later threw up).  Such a fun day.

We broke for lunch around noon.  Definitely no work completed yet, and it was perfect.

After lunch, Dad and I headed back to the property with really only one goal:  pick up pig feed.  I had ordered 1000 pounds yesterday, and I was to pick it up today.  Well, once back out at the property, we just couldn't not work.  So we started to tackle the junk in the pasture.  The items remaining are really huge and hard to handle.  An old cast-iron cattle crossing, massive stones, and large pieces of concrete.

First we removed a large and VERY heavy wooden gate.  It had probably 65-75 stainless steel screws in it.  But with two drills, we made quick work of getting it dismantled.  The wood and screws are still in great shape, so I will be keeping both of those. 

We decided to try our hand at the cattle crossing.  I tried to budge it.  Nope.  I was able to pull out the broken pieces of pipe, and they were HEAVY as individual pieces!  There was no way we could get this thing out!

The old cattle-crossing stuck on stuck.

"Grab your truck."  Dad recommended tying a chain to it and trying to drag it out.  I was game.  We tried at first, and we didn't budge!  My tires spun in the mud.  But the next time I "got a running start" and just never let off the gas.  I dragged that thing all through the pasture and out past the barn and into the drive!  I figured if I would stop I wouldn't get it to budge again!  But it was out of the pasture!!!  A HUGE success!

Woo hoo!

I kept on the gas and wouldn't stop until I was clear of the pasture!

The unbelievably heavy cattle-crossing.  We would later find out it's cast-iron.

Where the old cattle-crossing used to be!  Gone!

We also pulled out a massive piece of tin that was folded over itself enough times to make four layers.  And it was HEAVY, too!!!  And hard to handle.  But we worked tirelessly and wouldn't give up!  The next half hour had us using creativity, muscles, and strategic truck maneuvering to load all of the pieces into the truck.

Everywhere you turn, you find more of a mess!

The large mess of tin we pulled up from the pasture.  Look how tall it is!  HUGE!

Yes, that's right.  SOMEHOW Dad and I managed to get that cattle crossing into the truck.  I really don't know how we did it.  We decided that we would go ahead and recycle the scrap metal rather than wait on a guy that was supposed to come a few days ago...and then today.  I had offered him this metal.  Well, you snooze, you lose.

On the drive into town, I asked Dad how much he thought we had in the back.  He guessed 500 pounds.  I guessed 750.

All loaded up and ready to head to the scrap yard.

The ol' girl was weighted down a little bit!

Well, after the weigh-in and the unloading, we weighed ourselves again and found out that we had cleared 1265 pounds of metal from the pasture!!!  WOW!!!  And the recycling company gave me $97.65 for my junk!  A win-win!  Of course, Dad and I celebrated with a trip to Dairy Queen.

But not before we made a half-hour trip to pick up the pig feed!!!  It was a great day to drive through the country.  We were actually on roads that I never travel down anymore.  A couple of the roads I probably hadn't seen in over a decade.  So much so that I was dismayed to find out the a country highway that used to pass through a decent-sized town was now a four-lane highway around the town.

It saddens my soul.  The lifeblood of these towns is re-directed around the town for the sake of speed, and people wonder why their town restaurant closes down, as does the gas station, as does the...everything.  Seriously, without getting all sentimental, that little drive kinda killed my soul a little.  I had such good memories of driving through that town.  Now I and thousands of others never will again.

Oh, America.

Well, I was happy to find that the pig feed store was a beautiful trip back to the good ol' part of America.  A small town, a little run-down shed, and a homemade sign.  A beautiful farm girl behind the counter, and a nice little shop of feed for every animal.  Seriously, a very fun store.  So country.

They already had my order ready to go.  I walked around the store, talked with the girl as long as I could, then finally loaded up the 1000 pounds of feed.  We drove it back to the pasture, loaded it into the pig feeder one-by-one in the wind (carry glasses next time!), and then Dad called it a night.

1000 pounds of feed loaded onto the truck.

I stayed behind to clean up some more of the barn.  I had originally wanted to build some fence panels above the lower walls of the stalls, but tonight took a different direction.  I decided to clear out more of the barn wood from the rafters.  There is some GOOD wood up there still!!!  Huge pieces from the original home most likely (from the 1860's).  I see the massive oaks that are notched out like the pieces I have for the foundation of my home.  It's awesome to see the notches and learn about old architecture.

And these things are HEAVY.

These oak pieces are set into notches in the wood.  Part of the foundation of the house.  Also these are hand-cut!

These notched pieces rest on the outer sill of my house and hold the bottom floor up.

The large oak pieces.  Notice the various notches.  These are foundation pieces for a house.

But every time I pulled another piece down, the barn just started taking on a new shape.  This barn has a very "lofty" feel to it when it's clear.  Of course, my problem is that I am taking the wood out of the rafters but stacking it inside the barn still.  It's taking up so much room AND taking away from the open feel of the barn!  I will probably have to move all of the barn wood to the machine shed and "file" it for selling.  I mean, there is some money in there!  The wood is so heavy!

Before...random gates tied together with baling wire.

After!  The barn feels so much HIGHER (loftier?) with the wood out of the rafters.

The good news is the wood is out of the rafters!  The bad news is my barn has been taken over!

Of course, I couldn't leave the stuff laying out in the pasture, so I ended the night with loading up the two fences that were laying out.  I took the gate up to the barn and placed the other one on the burn pile.

The two large fences are now out of the pasture, too.

So all that is left in the pasture is telephone poles (I plan to burn), large landscaping stones (I listed these for FREE on a site tonight and have had a tremendous response already in just 10 minutes!), a burn pile with unknown items inside it (I plan to rake it out and roll a magnet over it to pick up the metal), and a mess of concrete (that will be a tough sell).

So much complete.  So much to do.  This pasture was a catch-all.

I feel like so much has been cleared...and yet so much remains!

I am giving these away for free!

A burn pile of who knows what.  I pulled a lot of metal pieces out of here today for the scrap yard.  I'm sure there are plenty more.

But from what we started with last week, what a change!!!

Looking from the middle of the pasture to the south.  It's a muddy mess...with a burn pile.  C'mon, grass!  Don't disappoint me now!

The south edge of the pasture.  I guess there is hope!  This looks encouraging.

Tomorrow I'll have to test out the pig waterer and build some fencing panels over the stalls.  I might move up the piggie day to Friday instead of Saturday!  How exciting!!!

ANOTHER GREAT DAY!!!  I don't always feel like we're making progress, but I know we are.  It's just that there is so much to do!!!

Little by little...