Barn Dropping - Spring 2008
Timber, ravens, vintage sickle cutter...
This page blurs between
finishing of maple syrup and the
final prep to drop the barn.
Since the S15 truck was fucked
for lack of a better term, the electric buggy was hauled out of winter storage
to start moving shit out of the barn...
Many, many loads of steel, wood,
bicycles, more steel... in fact there was over a week of hauling just with this
buggy...
In the evenings I'm slowly
resurrecting the truck, rotor, plugs, oil, filter, even a new starter...
This job is a bit beyond of what
I can handle by myself, so a local fellow who's been at a number of barn
droppings but never done the whole thing from start to finish, "popped his
cherry" on this old barn.
Tons and tons of shit has been
moved, removed or just dumped into the basement to be burnt this fall.
Hydro disconnected, last fall
the water supply tanks and the like were re-located out of the barn to the
house.
Carved across 3 (three) planks
is the date June 22nd 1926.
Eighty two years and the building
is essentially still in very serviceable order. The primary motivation in
dropping the barn is due to roof damage, that is becoming a more common occurrence
over the last five years.
All our other buildings are
easily maintained or repaired, while the high gabled roof of the barn is just
too much.
The roof has started lifting and
there a 2 rotted spots in the floor.
At this point in time there is a
tremendous amount of timber that can be recovered and put to good use.
The "Journeyman Barn
dropper" gets the barn board and the floor, while I retain the roof,
joist's, strapping, tin and all structural timber and floor joists as
well.
This phase is mid to late April
and the weather is actually hot (like well over 25C) a very welcome change from
wind and snow.
At this point Dan is cutting the
beams at the level of the floor, and sort of nervously moving back and forth
checking and double checking as I'm ready with the mighty John Deere 1050 4WD
Turbo-Diesel to give her a gentle tug.
So maybe a little more than a
"gentle-tug", but over she came...
Co-incidentally, a friend was
out who happens to be a no-nonsense retired VP, who jumped right in climbing
ladders and throwing chains inside the old barn AFTER I had been tugging and
rocking the frame.
To the left is the aftermath.
I don't like it, but it had to
be done.
It's cold and windy so we call
it a day.
Here is Dan with one of the 3
baby ravens that fell out of it's nest.
If it looks like Dan is in pain,
than you have a keen sense of facial interpretation, at the young raven is
digging a talon or spur into Dan's hand and wrist.
Since the roof is mine, I
quickly decided to just buckle down and started to strip the tin.
In the center of the image to
the right is the raven's nest, for reference the nest is among 2 by 8's and 2 by
12's.
One one hand I felt completely
secure working away on the now twisted roof (even though parts of it are over 20
ft off the ground).
While on the other hand I can
see that over the course of a few days and much pounding and pulling of nails
that it has sagged and twisted even further.
Of 88 16ft 2X6's I'll be
surprised if I don't get 85.
Really the only hold-up to
laying down the roof is the God-Damn Ravens, one has been spotted flying about
with the mating pair, while the 2 others are venturing out of the nest and
hopping about from strap to strap on the open roof.
Finally plowed under the garden
again.
After a 2 year wait, finally I
have my Deering McCormack No.7 ground driven sickle cutter.
Originally found at a wrecking
yard, the previous owner (of the scrap yard) wouldn't part with it, so
immediately upon a change of ownership, I made a point of ensuring that I was
one of the new owners first customers.
That was last year, and I had to
wait for the ground to thaw or risk busting the cast iron wheels.
I have no idea how much work I
have ahead of me but I'm up for the challenge. (did I ever mention how Fucked
things look in the future?)