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Farm progress pics

925 views 19 replies 16 participants last post by  Bret 
#1 ·
OK, so we finally closed on the new farm, notwithstanding the financial meltdown at the time.

Here are some progress pics since the closing in mid-October.
The horse barn before....


And after...


The small grain bin...which will store my bee supplies....




We've bush hogged the entire place. I've never seen so many cockleburr plants. We've also had a guy haul away 3 big truck and trailer loads of old metal junk....more to follow.

We've planted 12 fruit trees, blackberries, and blueberries.

Oh! My new house will be the old granary. Before....


And now....We really haven't done much with this-just cleaned out some of the metal junk, and cut the mulberry trees from around it. Hubby says the roof leaks! Ya THINK?!

There is a wonderfull view from the roof. We will keep the cupola, and make it a reading/viewing room with lots of windows.
We had the pasture baled, and will be pulling out and moving more fencelines.


We now have water in the barns, and hope to get power in in the next week. The horses love it there.

I will love it when we eventually get to move there. I only have one neighbor in a mile stretch.
 
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#7 ·
Welllll, the house......New Hubby has a house in IL.(we need to finish the second story he built)

He's working pretty steady on this new place though, and he's retired from the university now, so maybe a couple of years?

My job is going away the first of the year, so I'll be able to help more.

We were working in the horse barn a couple of weeks ago. New Hubby told me to put the electrical boxes where I wanted them. Sure! I can do that! So, I take my drill and hammer, and mount the boxes where I want them. Then, he pokes his head through the opening to the loft, and tells me to run the wire to them. ( all this time, he's putting in the new breaker box and running the circuit to the horse tank for my tank heater) I get kind of whiney about running the wire. I told him that I thought I'd mentioned that I'm NOT an electrician early on in our relationship. He confirmed that, but said nothing else. I came downstairs and ran another circuit with his able coaching, and ended up pretty proud of myself, lol.

We work well together.

There's another barn (an old farrowing house) that I want to develop as a sheep barn. It's probably 100'+ by 20'. The roof is shot. We'll be taking out the old roof next summer. I have 5 ewe lambs so far, so they'll need to be pretty prolific to fill that place up!


I think we'll have a standard staircase to the second floor, and maybe a spiral staircase to the cupola. We'll have a deck on the south and east side, or maybe a porch and a deck and hot tub on the second floor. Hubby already has the plans all sketched out. I love an engineer!

We were able to paint the roof on the horse barn, and screw down the loose spots before bad weather came. We put DD to work with the geocell on the holes up there. I've got 12 round bales stuffed in there, and we put metal on the west side where the siding was the worst.



We took the round pen up there, and are using it for a temporary chute to the barn for the horses. They can come and go as they please.
 
#8 ·
I just love watching old homesteads come back to life.
There is something so lonely about an old place rusting/rotting away.
Thanks for sharing your pictures, it's like watching a rebirth in progress.
 
#12 ·
I think that this is the biggest "project" either of us has ever undertaken. Phew!

Now, if I can get a POND dug. I've always wanted a pond. Heart Husband knows this, so I think it just might happen!

I found Rhododendrons 1/2 off at Home Depot a couple of weeks ago, so we planted them next to the big Quonset hut barn. We'll be pulling the light pole in the picture. It will look much better then. We also planted those spreading junipers, but they're hard to see in the picture. We planted holly bushes mid-way down the barn.


We can't really plant anything around the granary yet, since we'll be tramping around there working. I have found some Bittersweet vines growing there, and I hope to transplant them behind the Rhododendrons after I take out the Poison Ivy there.

We took a well-earned vacation last week, but will be hard at it until the ground freezes. We've got to move the eastern perimeter fence belonging to the pasture. I don't need 20 acres of pasture! Next year, 2/3 of the pasture will be in soybeans.

We've burned about 6 old hog houses, and have another barn to go--too far gone.


 
#14 ·
Thank you, RW,

One thing I have learned, is that Heart Husband can work me into the ground! I am impressed!

Jan,

Geocell is a brand of caulk. It's probably one of the best, and may just outlive me.....Oh well!

Hopefully, we'll get the fences moved that we want, and maybe jack up the west walls of the granary and get a roof on it. We've ordered new skylight panels for the quonset hut barn to replace the old rotted fiberglass ones. That will happen pretty quick.

Other than that, we'll just go with what we can get done in winter.

I DID buy a new coverall--one of those camo dealies. No wonder those hunters don't freeze. It beats my old Carhart to pieces for warmth! It won't outlast a Carhart, but I won't freeze, either!
 
#18 ·
Nice progress!!!!

Just as an FYI-

If you have anything that resembles old farm equipment, run an ad on craigslist. Old tractor enthusiasts are always looking for that kind of stuff!

Something that might be rusty steel junk to you, might be a wonderful plow for someone else to restore and use. I visit a tractor forum, and those guys love that stuff!

Even if you give it away: 1. You are helping someone. 2. You might be saving a piece of farm history. 3. You won't have to haul it yourself!

Clove
 
#19 ·
clovis,

I wish the junk were that good. The best junk there has been an old engine block to a car. All the good junk has been scavanged already.

LOL! We took an old fuel tank and stand up there for US to use. We put it behind the big barn on concrete. I got an email from the guy hauling the metal, that he'd laid it down, but didn't take it with the last load because he ran out of room. I told him NOT to take it! So now, we get to take the tractor and loader, and put it back up again. :rolleyes:

So even the stuff WE think is good, may look like junk to someone else.

There's an old couch and chair inside the big barn that I tried to give away to someone asking for furniture, but they said it was too far to travel, and I'm not carrying it to them! We try not to waste, but I'm pretty sure those items will end up on a hot fire.
 
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