Our Life On The Hill

barn clean up progress

Jerry has been hard at work on cleaning up after the barn tear down.  He also had to take out the foundations that the barn and corn crib sat on.  

It makes me so sad to see those buildings gone.  I can't believe it's been almost a year now since the tornado hit and took the corn crib out.  Even though the barn was ruined in March, we didn't get the structure down until December, so we could still look at it. It looks so weird to me to see that empty space now.  The silo looks so sad standing all alone.   We'll get used to it I suppose.  

   

Tearing out the corn crib foundation

 

.......to be continued
   

bye bye barn

Jerry was working hard trying to get the barn down before his knee surgery.  It's such a huge job and he's doing it all alone.  Here are a few pictures of it when it still somewhat looked like a barn.  

 

He finished the rest of this on Dec. 19th.  He had his knee surgery on Dec. 21st and still can't put any weight on his knee, so the clean up will just have to wait until he heals.  It's so strange looking without the barn.  I really miss it.   

             

Taking the barn down

As you know, we were hit by an EF1 tornado last March.  It took down our corn crib and ruined our barn.  I'm so sad about it and it's going to look so weird without it.  Jerry is taking it down himself and he is keeping most of the wood.  We plan on building a garage and he wants to use a lot of the wood for that.  We sold the siding, which was in really bad shape, to a couple that put it in their new bar.  I'm glad it was able to be used.  We need to go to that bar sometime to see what it looks like.  

This barn was built in 1920.  We always loved it, and it was one of the draws to our place when we were looking at this house.  We both wanted a farm with an old barn.  Now, we don't have one.  Jerry would like to tear one down and then put it back up here someday.  We have many other projects to finish before we do that, but at least we are thinking about it.  

You can see before pictures of the barn by going to the barn or tornado categories.  

Here is how it's looked lately with Jerry working on it. 

 

 

All the way at the top of the barn (this gives me the chills)

Jerry was ready to take down the east wall of the barn.  He had the kids pulling a rope that was hooked to the barn. 

 

My cousin's daughter, Paige, was at our house, so she was able to help and watch this part of the barn come down. 

So, the kids weren't bringing it down, so we brought the truck in. Jerry pulled it down. 

Here it goes...

The barn survived the move

Our little garage/shed/barn was heavily damaged from the tornado in March.  It was the only building that had a chance of being saved.  We decided to try to move it to another location so we could use it for a horse barn.  If it didn't survive the move, we could at least say that we tried. 

 

There were moments that I thought it wasn't going to make it, but it did survive.  I am so excited about that!  It looks great in it's new location and we will re roof it and replace the siding. 

 

Jacking the barn up

 

 

 

 

Ashton helping out with his mower

 

 

On the rack and ready to move

 

The move

 

This is the moment that I thought it might fall off the rack.  

 

Fixed and on the move again

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goodbye to the barn

Jerry has started to tackle taking down the barn.  It was built in 1920 and we planned on starting it's restoration this spring.  He had worked on the inside over the winter and had just stacked up the siding that he was going to use on the outside right before the tornado hit. 

The tornado did too much damage to the barn for it to be saved, and the years of neglect from the previous owners didn't help it either.  The years of manure took it's toll on the poles. 

Here is the barn before Jerry started taking the siding off.

 

 

 

You can see the split that goes up the post and also how the nails are pulling out of the post on the angle brace.

I love the inside of the barn and will really miss it.  

 

  

  

  

The barn siding starting to come down