Update on saving the old barn, calving and other pics

Busy day today while we worked on the old barn. It is coming along well, despite all the unforeseen obstacles.



We had it ready to pour concrete Sat morning.



Here we just finished the stub wall between the stable and the feed room.



Out front looking in....



One fine looking entry way door....



Today we worked on the gutters, getting them to drain properly, since we raised that corner almost 4" the gutter had to be lowered, down spouting rerouted into the old cistern.



Just after 2pm a neighbor stopped by to let us know that one of my 8 first calf heifers was in labor. We waited a 1/2 hr. then went to check on her, later this evening I tagged a very nice heifer calf and we will name her Eclipse.



We checked her again later after 3pm, and found this guy watching over Eclipse and Mom, First one I have ever seen.



Got back to work some more on the barn in the evening and took my Grandson Jacob for a ride.
PS, that lift will take me to the ridge cap at waist high....first time I ever used one, was today.



So it was a hot muggy day but a great one, with a first time heifer and bald eagle sighting. almost done now for this year on the old barn, all that's left to do is reinstall the mangers and finish the sliding door brackets, latch, and a roller. Hope you all enjoyed the pics, I'll be back tomorrow night to ready any reply's.

Neat! Looks like a good barn. Ben

wonderful visit ,.., where are you ??

JD Farmer,

Great to see another old barn being saved.

Looks like you've got a great little helper.
(We will have our grandkids here Labor Day weekend.)

Like the new calf's name too.

I always enjoyed repairing old barns. I just found it satisficing. I know many just say to bulldoze them down but I almost never tear one down if it can be saved. I can usually modify it to where it can be used for some thing. Storage space under roof is always handy.

Your barn sure looks nice with the new work. The lifts sure make working at heights much easier. I have been renting them for the last 15 years or so. They make many jobs a one man deal.

Lots of work and good job! Ron Mn

Sounds like a great day! Awesome barn restoration
too!

Great post, liked everything about it. Definitely a good day for you all.

Old barn is coming along real nice. Only thing you
have to remember about old barns is, you are never
finished. I have a little beam to change later this
week, after the Amish sawmill gets it cut. It is fix
them , or watch them fall down. Bruce

Looks like some beautiful work on that barn. Can't agree with Bruce enough - old barns "need" to be saved!

great job!!!

Nice work! Those lifts are fantastic aren't they? Good lookin barn.

Good on you for saving the old one! When we bought our place the old barn had more support posts hanging than it had supporting. We think that it scared potential buyers away.

I like your work. The only thing missing in your pictures is a cat walking across the fresh cement. Nearly every cement pouring on this farm has tiger paws in it.

Beautiful barn, you'll get a lot of enjoyment out of it. Is that cedar for the new siding?

You deserve a pat on the back for saving another barn. I'm kind of a geography nut so I always appreciate knowing an approximate location where these things take place. (if you're OK with telling us)

Bruce that looks familiar and is not a pleasant task. Powder post beetles are into a bunch of beams under our mow.

To answer some of your questions: Finished up early for a meeting this afternoon. We also took the rental lift back.

We are located in SE Ohio at the very small town of Fulda, old German ancestry, my roots.
The siding is poplar that we harvested 2 years ago on the farm, then treated with used 29wt motor oil, still pretty clean stuff.
The door is made from sassafras that grew on my farm 3 miles away. We did run it thru a planer and edger to make it 3/4" thick.

As mentioned, the powder post beetles were very hard on this one too, that is why we had to replace those posts and one sill beam along the front end. We used treated lumber, as a result all posts and the beam were assembled in place starting on the inside pieces and adding to them, thereby preserving the mortise and tenion joints of the bracing and also where the posts set. Bottom of all the posts have a metal pin holding them onto the concrete piers.

So this will make the east end of the barn in fair shape now, and next spring we hope to start on the west end, replacing that sill from end to end, some of the post we think and just get it leveled up as it has settled along the lower side from where we stopped, with the new siding.
Meantime between now and winter we hope to get in the woods and harvest a few more poplar trees and some red oaks for flooring. I will hire in someone to saw them for us.

That west end siding is in terrible shape, we are planning to use steel on that end because it takes a beating from the wind and rain, then add in the afternoon sun.

So thanks for the comments and I'm gonna get a days rest before we go back to haying on Thursday.

It's nice to see some people see enough value to restore old
barns. It's a shame to see the old barns around me falling down.
In some cases a farmer buys the ground and removes everything,
barns, houses and lots of junk. They just want the farm ground.
They don't want to pay property taxes, repair buildings and being
a landlord. Can't really blame them.

we have replaced the roof on our barn with steel on the south side last summer the north side early this spring. we also added snow boards,gutters and down spouts to get water away from barn.
a few years ago we replaced the sill plate and siding on the north side under the barn ramp.
you need to keep after this stuff or soon you have no barn.
in the milk house there is a date for 1926. i' m thinking barn is 91 years old.
i know it has had dairy cows,hogs,sheep and now scotch highland cows.