Much Has Been Done!

Hopefully you remember this picture and all the concern over the condition of the south eastern corner. Well worry no longer, (I know it was a real concern to all my faithful readers).

 

 

 

 

 

So check out what it looks like now! Quite a difference huh? Just in case it's not obvious, the shadows in the top picture are where the walls are caving in, from the pressure of the dirt that was slowly moving them off the barn stone foundation. In the picture below, there are no shadows, showing that the walls are now pretty straight. And thus much more stable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And shown here below, is what the East side looks like now, after a day of gentle nudging with the Bobcat .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

compared to the big twist near the back in the picture below

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And this is the interior view, check out the shine on that floor, it's cement!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A significant improvement, over the picture below , don't you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

And I didn't collapse the entire structure while doing it, in spite of what Matt predicted!

The next trick is hanging the heavy old barn doors that were in the back of the open bay ( the red area in the top right of this picture) for enough years to have rotted about 6 inches off of one of them, but that works out pretty well for me, as they are now the heights I need them to be. Yes I'm hanging two different sized barn doors, but really, the hole is larger on the right anyway, and you never know when a couple inches will make a difference in what can get inside. Or get out after you build it just a scoatch too big! It happens, OK? It actually bothered me too much to make the doors different sizes in the final analysis, so I added some to the bottom of one and cut the other to the largest size I could support with semi solid wood. The don't look too bad, I haven't developed a locking mechanism yet, but I can chain them to the Bobcat in the bay and be pretty secure that nobody will just pull them open. Now I can finally bring my machinery down from Lake Street. Yea!

 

Now on to bigger issues, I don't know how long it has to be that it doesn't rain to be an official drought, but we got real close. The springs started to limp, rather than run, with just the barest trickle coming out. Now that we have all the goofy garden stuff around it seems a shame to allow it to die for want of water, but I couldn't find out who to to take the complaint to. The farmer next door, who has about a thousand acres and really works the system, came over to see if he was interested in cutting the fields that were traditionally harvested for hay. But everything had dried up, and they would make only "an inferior straw at best" according to him. After he explained what the cows want and what the situation was in my fields, and his as well, I have to agree with his assessment. WE NEED RAIN! Fortunately we had two days of gentle rain, which helped a lot, and another neighbor inquired, and is going to mow the fields for the hay. So I guess if we could stand a rainy day each week most every thing would be better, so I guess I have to quit enjoying all the sunny days and allow a rainy one every once in a while, I'd really prefer the rain happened at night anyway, then we could have sunny days and enough rain at night to keep everything growing but not interfere with the work I like to get done during the days, so I'm working on a away to arrange it. (Cloud machine control-Rain dance, not sure yet which will do the most good.)

Now to try to make watering easier I put together a little water buffalo, (for those of you who were not in the military it is a good size can on wheels that takes water where ever you pull it), out of an old 55 gal drum, and an axle and a section of well pipe that was laying next to the garage. I painted it after I determined it wasn't going to leak, a problem with grabbing something from the south forty and building things to fit it. I also made it easy to replace, even with something a little larger or differently shaped (I hope). Anyway it seems to work, so now we are working out a watering routine to take advantage of it.

There is a small problem, being as I was filling it from the spring water that supplies the little house, which is drying up as the drought continues. So it is another issue to consider, I haven't done anything with the hand dug well beside the little house, as it has a broken hand pump on it at present, but it presents another source to examine.

There are quite a few things to move and reposition around NADA farm. So it became necessary to construct something to help me move stuff with NADA tractor, ( the Cub Cadet Lawn mower), so I had to build a trailer. I wanted to make it as quickly and easily as possible so I scrounged up a packing crate, and a set of tires I bought last year, anticipating the need to build a couple "yardkarts" as we couldn't continue with the go kart racing Ryan was participating in. And of course I had a feeling I might be moving to an area with more acreage.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The side of the crate said it was reusable and don't destroy it, so I did and didn't.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The main problems are money and supplies, and of course I need a tractor, Or the 'T-word' as my dear wife refers to it. I have collected nearly a hundred dollars to date from the paypal button and some story telling my wife has been involved in, at this rate I'll have a tractor by the time I'm eighty, I'll still need one then I'm sure. Thanks to those who have contributed, I'm shocked to have that much with the small readership I thought I had, mostly my kids and their cousins, trying to find out what insanity I have launched upon the area recently. Anyway with a hundred dollars I can afford a tractor about this big, but I thought I'd show Tony's dollar, so he'd know I got it, long story...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am pretty well homebound this month due to other projects my wife has going and her imminent Knee surgery, bilateral knee replacement necessitated mostly by the plan of our insurance to start sending people to India or some such foreign butcher shops, to do work cheaper and good luck on the flight home, on drugs and bleeding, but that's a different page I guess. I'm just hoping she gets over hating me for the suggestion that she get it done now, in a couple months or less. I don't think the ' T-word ' will be much of an issue for the next month or so.

Man, are we happy out here!

 

The Chores, Fresh Air, Green Acres is for ME.