Two Rows and Three Corners Done!

Nephew Mike and I started work this morning around 10:00. We had sun and temps close to the 80s but it was still a pretty nice day. We got all the tools out, strung the water hose and begun laying the first wall. By around noon we had the first row of the north side laid. We took a quick break for lunch and we were back at it. We completed the second row of the north side around 3:00ish. We were going to do the next row but Mike came home and said he thought we should probably stop at two rows - made sense to give the wall a chance to dry and strenghen. We moved to the south east corner and worked on the corner. We got the corner done and decided to call it a day!

Handcrafted "Mini" barns

My nephews are very talented craftsmen and so when I asked them if they could build a mini barn I knew they would have no trouble creating one. My hope is to find a unique gift shop or shops in Independence or Galena to market them. Each barn is completely handcrafted with great detail. As you can see from the photos I have added these barns have doors that open, beam structures that can be seen by lifting the roof and each barn is made from oak.



Here are some photos as one barn was being crafted by Alex:

These barns are constructed with great care and precision. Each barn is personally signed for true authenticity. These barns are treasures that can be handed down as heirlooms.

Laying the Block for the Hog Barn

Mike ordered the block from King's and had set up a delivery time of 3:00 pm on Friday. I had arranged to take a couple of hours of vacation so that I could be here to meet the delivery trunk and tell them where to unload. I got home right at 3:00 and they had not arrived yet (or so I thought). At 3:20 I decided to call because no one had showed up. They told me they'd have to call me back because they were very busy and they would find out where the truck was. I decided to walk down to the garden and start picking the beans while I was waiting. I didn't hear the phone when they called back. They left a voicemail that said they had delivered the stuff at noon. And sure enough when I looked over by the piles of wood for the barn I saw the blocks. I was a little upset that I had wasted vacation time. As I inspected the piles I realized that they had put the palette with the mortar in the middle of the bricks. So this was going to require that two palettes get unloaded to be able to get to it. Yes, that was a little upsetting.
I crawled up on the palettes and covered the mortar because again there was rain in the forecast.
When Mike got home he went down to check the blocks and realized that they had only sent 5 corners not 15 like they were supposed to. No biggie I just needed to call them when they opened and have them bring me more...

We knew we were in for some more rain and possibly severe weather. When Mike let the dogs out to go potty before he went to bed he hollered at me to come out side and take some pictures of the clouds....

Around 8:00 pm last night the storm hit. We even got some hale. I was not very happy. I just can't believe the weather this summer. I am really worried about the barn- we have it covered but it is still getting moisture from the ground. I just pray to God that we will stop getting so much rain and heavy winds (at least until we get the barn up).

I got up bright and early so that I could call Kings. When I reached them at 8:00 am and explained what had happened they said they didn't deliver on Saturday. By now I'm starting to get a little upset. I explain that this project is only able to be worked on the week-ends and I need the corners TODAY. I can't remember the guys name, but he did find someone to deliver the blocks to me!

I still hadn't heard from nephew Mike so I tried calling him and got no answer. I tried again around 9:00. Still no answer so I called Mike L - he has to work the next two or three week-ends ( it's move out time at Kirkwood and everyone has to work alot of hours to get the apartments ready for the next group to move in) at Kirkwood and I wanted him to drive over to nephew Mike's shop (its' just down the road from Kirkwood) to see if he was there. Nephew Mike's phone doesn't get good reception at the shop and he doesn't always get his phone calls. So Mike went over there, called me back and said he wasn't there.

Kylie my grand niece had come over last night to spend the night and help out. Since we didn't know if nephew Mike was going to show up we decided to make Zucchini Bread. As we were mixing up the dough the delivery driver from King's called and said he would be at the house in a few minutes. I went out and helped him unload the blocks in the driveway. When we were done I tried to call nephew Mike again. I finally reached him- he had just gotten up! The storm that hit last night knocked out his power and his alarm clock never went off! He said he was on his way!

Nephew Mike arrived shortly after noon and we began the preparation for laying the block. Eventually the first blocks were laid....



Kylie was a big help today. She was our gofer today! Whenever we needed anything she would get it for us!

We had great weather today! We wrapped it up around 5:00 and will continue tomorrow!

Aflac

Any one who knows me know that I have a great big heart when it comes to animals. And strays pull even harder at my heart strings. So when I got a call about a stray duck I was instantly ready to take action.



Well this is how Mike and I adopted Aflac.....







It was Thursday July 2nd, and I was at work when I heard my phone ring, but I couldn't answer it. I heard the familiar beeps when someone leaves a message but I was too busy to answer it until I was getting into the elevator to leave work. As I am riding the elevator down to the escape route I listen to my message. It's from our local vet. The message says that I need to call him because Dakota's duck is running amuck- that's the gist anyway! So I call him back and tell him that Dakota hasn't been living in Center Point for a least a month, but I'd check with him or Heather and see if they had gotten a duck that I wasn't aware of and I'd let him know what I found out. I hung up from the vet and called Heather. She said they did not have a duck but about two weeks ago a duck did show up at the apartments. So I called Doc back and let him know what I had found out.

Well, nw my curiosity was getting the better of me, so I decided that I'd stop by the apartments and see if I could find this duck. Doc told me that one of the neighbors was complaining about the duck and that's how he found about it because he is "animal control" for Center Point.

I got to Center Point, drove to the apartments where Dakota had lived, and stopped at the neighbors house (they were sitting on their deck). I didn't see the duck at first, then they pointed him/her out. They already had a name for the duck "Aflac". I spent the next half hour trying to get Aflac to come up to me. I got pretty close with the help of some bread that the neighbors had given me. I ran out of time and told them that I would be back within the next couple of days to get Aflac. They even said that they would set out a dog kennel and see if they could capture Aflac. ..

I left with the agreement that I would be back on Saturday to retrieve Affie. Well, the next day was Friday and Mike and I had planned to go riding but instead decided we better rescue Affie. So we set up a temporary pen and drove up to the apartments to get Affie. A cage had been set out for him but Affie was no where near it! He or she (we still don’t know the sex). Affie was in some scrubs. We ended up catching him/her with a net, packed him in the cage and loaded him in the truck to go to his new home.

Mike and I got him in his new pen and Mike went up to the local grain elevator and bought some cracked corn for Affie to eat. We soon found out that he likes dog food better than corn!

Affie’s pen is connected to the kennel that Shadow and Cheyenne share. At first the dogs barked and barked at Affie. It didn’t take long before they all got used to each other and now they don’t pay any attention to each other!


We’ve now had Affie for a couple of weeks. We rescued him on July 3rd, 2009. We are now trying to decide what we should do with Affie. I have a couple of people who are interested in taking Affie. My former boss’ son has 6 ducks and they said that they could take one more! I’m just not sure he will be welcomed by all those ducks. And then Lynn from the Livery Stable said that she would take Affie. She has one chicken left on the farm and she thinks they would be great friends. Then there is the selfish part of me who says I want to keep Affie and maybe I should just get another duck….. more to come.

July 17th- We started a fire in our wood burning fireplace because it was cold in the house! Tonight could break the records!

July 18th- We got the footings for my barn poured today! We rented a buggy in case the cement truck wasn't able to get to the barn and it was a good thing because he pulled in and it looked like it was going to be okay and then he hit a spot that was really soft and he sunk. The good thing was that when we unloaded the cement he was able to back right out! Thank God!



I had gone into the house to check on the pizza I had put in for our lunch and when I went back down to the check on how far Mike and Mike had come on the footings, Asia wanted to come. I wasn't paying any attention to her and I happened to look over at her as she was walking on the footings! We decided to leave her "signature" prints.



Next week end we start doing the block work! It's onward and upward!

Delays Due To Rain

When I woke up to thunder and lightening this morning I knew we would not be pouring footings for my barn on Saturday...



Here are some photos of my barn....

Down to the bents! These beams are hand crafted with pegs or better known as mortise and tenon a lost art.

I was thrilled to find this treasure, but alas when the barn was delivered it was broken. Orva is having it repaired.

The Hog Barn

I have wanted a barn for a very long time. As a child I grew up playing in the barn where my family still lives. I remember fondly the hot summer days making forts out of the hay that had been stacked for feeding the farm animals. And how I loved taking the baby kittens and dressing them in doll clothes! The kittens would clearly let me know when they'd had enough of being "my babies" by meowing loudly and scratching the heck out of me!

Like I said, I have wanted to own a barn since I was a child! My nephew Mike was well aware of this fact and thanks to him I now own a barn (it still needs to be resurrected, but that's all that stands between me and my day dreaming of very soon sitting in my loft)!

Well... this is how I came by my barn....I got a call from my nephew Mike, he said that there was an advertisement for a barn in the Sunday paper. I was immediately intrigued. He gave me the number from the advertisement and I placed my call. I got voicemail. I was so disappointed. My husband (also Mike) could see how disappointed I was, so he also tried calling. He also had to leave a message. We continued on with our day.....

I was busy in the house when Mike came in and said that he had gotten a call from the guy saying that the barn was already taken. Oh bummer. Well, life goes on.

About a week later I got a voicemail on my phone (it was June 6th) (I remember the date because I just transferred to a new department at work). It was from Mike L (owner of the barn). He left me a message asking if I was still interested in the barn - now why he called me instead of Mike I'll never know- but it was great! I called him back on my lunch break and got the details. Apparently there were two barns on the property and after talking to him we determined that the smaller barn may be of interest to me. I found out where the barn was located and said that we would meet him there that night to take a look. I was beside myself when I got off the call with him and called my Mike to let him know what had transpired! We were both excited about the fact that that we may be buying a barn, but we had yet to see it. Needless to say it was very hard to concentrate at work the rest of the day!

As soon as I got off work we drove up to Manchester to take a look at the barn. We had no idea what it would look like or how much damage it might have endured over the years. We found the place by directions not an address. Mike L. had also told me we'd be at the right place if we found a pair of geese. As we pulled into the place we were pretty sure it was the right place, but knew for sure when the geese came out of no where to try and scare us away! I was immediately devoted to getting the barn! In many ways it reminded me of the barn I had played in as a child but in other ways it had its' own unique qualities that I just loved!

We had plenty of time to scout around the place while we waited for the owner to show up. We soon got used to the two geese who we found out were only trying to protect their eggs. In turn they began to ignore our presence once they found out that we weren't going to hurt them.

As previously stated I had learned from talking to the owner earlier in the day that he had another barn that was for sale on the same property. We explored this barn too. It is about 50' x 90' and is also in excellent condition. It had been used as a milk barn. I really enjoyed walking around in the barn and checking out the way it was put together. They don't make them like they used to!

Eventually the owner showed up and we started negotiating the price of my barn. We found out that Mike L had purchased the property and was planning on raising cattle at this location and wanted both barns taken down. He had negotiated a deal with some local Amish who were given the barns to do as they wished as long as they tore down and moved two pole barns to different locations on the property. The price they wanted for my barn was $5000.00 and that was torn down, pieces numbered, and delivered. We didn't spend too much time saying yes to the deal!

Mike L called Orva on his cell phone so that we could work out the details. It didn't take too long to work out the details with Orva (the Amish gentleman that we were going to be buying the barn from). Mike L wanted me to put things in writing, however, I soon realized that I was dealing with a bred of people who still hold old world values- their word means just as much as a signed piece of paper. I did hand write a "contract" and gave a check to the Mike L for half of the price of the barn as a down payment. Orva and I agreed we would work out the details of delivery when they got closer to tearing the barn down.

The month of June was pretty busy with planting my garden, etc. But I was getting a little anxious so I called Orva and he said that they would be starting to tear down the barn that week. With that said we needed to begin preparations for the reconstruction of my barn on our property! So hubby Mike and nephew Mike got a back hoe to dig the trench.

Well, with the trench dug we we needed to get the cement ordered. But then the rains started, and we had to delay the delivery of the barn until July 6th.

July 6th arrived and I got a call from Orva that they were on their way with the barn. It took them two trips to deliver the entire barn. The barn had finally arrived! Now the hard work begins. There were chances of rain the remainder of the week so Mike and I went into Cedar Rapids to get tarps to cover my barn.

We are hoping that the rain holds off so that we can get the cement delivered this Saturday- July 11 so that we can get the footings poured....