Still Got My Fingers in the Dirt

     Well, I haven't done any blog posts here for the last 4 years, but I've still been gardening on the same old homestead.  I still have four hens who give us 2 or 3 eggs a day, four on a good day.  Enough for the family.  The garden is getting a good start.  We had asparagus from the garden and eggs for dinner today.  But the real reason I'm writing is the barn pictured in the blog header and below.

An old friend, soon a memory

     The original barn was built sometime between 1910 and 1940.  It has served well for almost 100 years, maybe a little more.  24 stanchions for dairy cows, 3 horse stalls and a hay mow big enough to handle them all.  Think of the barn dances they could have had before the first summer hay crop came in!  The barn now needs re-roofing, significant repairs and painting.  As I began to check on costs, I found them excessive. And I don't need a hay mow.
     New idea: (1) Tear the old barn down and put up a new building on the old foundation.  OR (2) Tear the haymow off the first floor and put a new roof over the old first floor.  OR (3).  Tear the old barn down and put just a roof over the old foundation.  As the concrete floor is 4 feet below the top of the poured concrete side walls, I would still have a peak height of over 9 feet even with a 4/12 pitch.  That's still a very useable building.

Options 1 and 2 Top drawing, Option 3 Bottom drawing

     I'm still in the process of looking for contractors.for demolition or deconstruction and for building  after the demo is complete.  If you are an interested contractor who works in Northern Minnesota, or have an idea about this project, feel free to contact me by email or phone or write a comment in the comments section below.

     I'm going to try to keep this blog active again at least once or twice a month.  Hope to have some garden and chicken pictures and a progress report on the barn in the next issue.  Keep your tools clean and your hands in the dirt.