Barn Poles

Richard and I spent the afternoon cementing in the four barn poles that make the east side of the new barn. It was very easy because we had spent some time making our holes just so, measuring their depth from a level line of lazer light and packing the bottoms so the pipe would be at just the right depth despite the unlevel surface we were working from. Richard is a Hawaiian fish & banana farmer on a drive-about. He found us through Help-Xchange. He has been helping on farms all his life so he knows how to turn a hand on the work to be done. He arrived just before Donna, Audrie, and Joyce left so Denise and I never had a chance to get lonely. His last xchange was on a farm in Ordway, Colorado, where he helped feed animals and build a carport.

The barn pole holes were work Donna and I did last week. We were just a little bit obsessive in finding the exact location for the holes, which we dug to 3 feet using the old red fence post digger. The ground is still pretty moist so it was easy. The obsession on hole location paid off today when Richard and I focused the lazer beam down the row to get them straight, since the wind was blowing hard enough to bend the string along the edge of the row. Only one hole had to be modified to pull things into perfect alignment.

We have the cross beams and perlins up over the center section of the barn. The perlins run along the top edge, tied together by heavy crossbeams, which will eventually hold the boards for a loft. The perlins and crossbeams are welded to tall poles that we put in when Ra and Shrek were here. That was quite a job. The pipes are 20 ft long thick-walled 4 inch wide galvanized stuff and so it was a major production to get them dropped into their 4ft deep holes.

This coming weekend will be dedicated to more barn building. We are trying to do everything we can using materials from the scrap yard and delaying the inevitable day when we have to ante up some cash at the sawmill.