Over the last 4-6 weeks I have been helping my oldest Grand daughter and her husband get their farm ready for livestock and winter. They have the house in really nice shape outside and the inside done up to where they can easily put the fine touches on it this winter. Anyway we cleaning out all the old broken up concrete floors in the livestock sheds and hay barn/machinery shed.
The main barn has the lamented roof rafters. They started at the top of an eight foot concrete wall. Then the hay mow was flat with that. Well this makes that lower part have limited uses on today's farm. So we tore out the hay loft and all the internal structure. We had an structural engineer design a truss system to support the lamented roof but having a higher clear span. What we ended up with is a taper in about 4 feet from the sides then up to about 14 feet and then fairly flat across to the taper on the other side. Was able to use a lot of the lumber out of the old loft. We knocked off the concrete feed curbs and poured the old gutters full with concrete. Not shop floor smooth but darn good for round bales or big square bale storage. Nice 32 ft. by 80 foot hay storage. This took us all of July and Aug. working evenings and rainy days.
After Labor day we where able to start on the livestock sheds. The concrete was so old and soft I was able to rip it all out with my skid steer. Almost no rebar and not very thick. Leveled some gravel on the old base. We then poured 12 ft. wide slabs the length of the sheds. My power screed only will reach 12 ft. I had 10-12 old wire corn cribs and we used them for the rebar/mesh. We would setup and pour starting out around 3;30 PM ( That is when My grand daughter and her husband could get home from work) We would have it poured by 5 pm. Float it off by dark. Then the next evening we would tear out the forms and move them over 12 ft. for the next slab. Pour the next day. We averaged three pours each week for the last two weeks. We used just over 100 yards of concrete start to finish.
When we got done they have a 30x80 open fronted cattle shed that faces south off the hay barn. Plus a 32x40 machine shed. Both with new floors. We did run water lines into the cattle shed.
This week was fence, sorting pen and chute building. My son rounded up a bunch of good railroad ties for the sorting/holding pen. We got all the fence done earlier in the week. We did the pen and chute today. Finished up right at dark.
I am proud of how the family worked together to get things started for my Grand Daughter. I am really proud of My Grand daughter and her husband. They saved up for 3 years before getting married. They had a simple wedding. The did not go on a honeymoon. They took a week off and worked on the house so they could move into it at the end of that week. All the materials we used in the barns and sheds was paid for with their savings. They are going to us their over time and saving to finish the house over the next year or so. So hopefully they will have a remodeled house and good usable barns/sheds without anymore debt than their mortgage was when they bought the farm.
Next week they will move HER cows over to the farm. She has twenty brood cows of her own. She started building her "herd" when she was 13 and in 4H. Even when she was in the service she sent home money to my Son to pickup more cows as she saved up for them. They will make it all work.
There are a lot of good hard working younger people in the country today. You just do not heard about them. It does not grab headlines like the screw ups do.
The main barn has the lamented roof rafters. They started at the top of an eight foot concrete wall. Then the hay mow was flat with that. Well this makes that lower part have limited uses on today's farm. So we tore out the hay loft and all the internal structure. We had an structural engineer design a truss system to support the lamented roof but having a higher clear span. What we ended up with is a taper in about 4 feet from the sides then up to about 14 feet and then fairly flat across to the taper on the other side. Was able to use a lot of the lumber out of the old loft. We knocked off the concrete feed curbs and poured the old gutters full with concrete. Not shop floor smooth but darn good for round bales or big square bale storage. Nice 32 ft. by 80 foot hay storage. This took us all of July and Aug. working evenings and rainy days.
After Labor day we where able to start on the livestock sheds. The concrete was so old and soft I was able to rip it all out with my skid steer. Almost no rebar and not very thick. Leveled some gravel on the old base. We then poured 12 ft. wide slabs the length of the sheds. My power screed only will reach 12 ft. I had 10-12 old wire corn cribs and we used them for the rebar/mesh. We would setup and pour starting out around 3;30 PM ( That is when My grand daughter and her husband could get home from work) We would have it poured by 5 pm. Float it off by dark. Then the next evening we would tear out the forms and move them over 12 ft. for the next slab. Pour the next day. We averaged three pours each week for the last two weeks. We used just over 100 yards of concrete start to finish.
When we got done they have a 30x80 open fronted cattle shed that faces south off the hay barn. Plus a 32x40 machine shed. Both with new floors. We did run water lines into the cattle shed.
This week was fence, sorting pen and chute building. My son rounded up a bunch of good railroad ties for the sorting/holding pen. We got all the fence done earlier in the week. We did the pen and chute today. Finished up right at dark.
I am proud of how the family worked together to get things started for my Grand Daughter. I am really proud of My Grand daughter and her husband. They saved up for 3 years before getting married. They had a simple wedding. The did not go on a honeymoon. They took a week off and worked on the house so they could move into it at the end of that week. All the materials we used in the barns and sheds was paid for with their savings. They are going to us their over time and saving to finish the house over the next year or so. So hopefully they will have a remodeled house and good usable barns/sheds without anymore debt than their mortgage was when they bought the farm.
Next week they will move HER cows over to the farm. She has twenty brood cows of her own. She started building her "herd" when she was 13 and in 4H. Even when she was in the service she sent home money to my Son to pickup more cows as she saved up for them. They will make it all work.
There are a lot of good hard working younger people in the country today. You just do not heard about them. It does not grab headlines like the screw ups do.
