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Friday, March 25, 2011

The Barn Demolition...

This is a super duper long post full of pictures.
Just warning ya.
As I have told you before, we are/were tearing down the old barn behind our house.


Several years ago, when the hub's grandparents lived in this house, they raised hogs in that barn.
It has since served as a cattle barn for us. Then a storage shed.
Brad has attempted to "fix it up" a time or two, but finally decided it was more work than it was worth.

So on Wednesday, I looked out my kitchen window and saw this...
Our local electrician/plumber/jack-of-all-trades standing on the edge of the backhoe bucket.
He sure has a lot of trust in my FIL, who I cut off in the pic....sorry Tom!


We wanted to save the beams because, apparently, there is a big market for old barn beams.
Brad stood on the edge of the backhoe bucket, once again, huge amounts of trust are placed in my FIL's hands, and sawed the beams....

Tearing down a barn takes a lot of brainstorming...


But don't worry, B has it all figured out. She is going to drive the tractor straight into the side of the barn and it will come crumbling to the ground....like magic!



OK, she decided the tractor wouldn't work so she is now going to use the skid loader....
"B, don't you dare run over your mother. I gave birth to you. Remember? 14 hours of labor. Remember that?"



I guess the skid loader won't work either.
Now she has decided the backhoe will work best!...





Whew I'm glad she forgot that altogether. She decided that Brad and Dillon have strategized and she handed it over to them.
First you hook the chain to the beam inside the barn.
Then hook the other end of the chain to the back of the tractor...






Then you pull forward and wait for the beam to fall and hope that the barn will follow...
No such luck!






Tuff can hardly handle the excitement...


















The barn didn't fall, but the beam that did is picked up by the skid loader and loaded on a wagon...
"Hey hubs, watch out for the Kubota! I love that thing like my left leg."
Just kidding, he was a mile from it.































































"Wow Dillon, you are so strong. You can pull a tractor!"...















"Oh never mind...it was in reverse. You had me convinced there for a minute!"...
















Another beam down and the old barn is still standing...

















The last beam that Brad was able to pull out and the barn was STILL standing...
I think they pulled 4 beams and it was still standing.

















The roof started to bow a little bit...



















Something exciting better happen or this little girl is going to explode.....




















Finally, Brad pushed on the side of the old barn with the backhoe...





















and it came crumbling down...






















"Whoo Hoo."

I was doing my little celebratory dance and then...





















the bat started chasing me!
Here it is...


Once the barn fell down Tom said, "Oh look, a bat."
It was injured so Brad started to step on it to take it out of its misery and Tom said, "No wait. B come here and look at this bat." She was very intrigued.
Then all of a sudden it came back to life and I started screaming.
Lesson learned...don't scream in a bat's presence. It will think you are one of them and start chasing you.
I was hysterical and ran around in circles...as B likes to tell everyone.
At some point, it fell to the ground and died. Poor bat!;0/























"Hey Mister, do you have a license to drive that thing?"...

























Burn baby burn....



















































































Some lady stopped on the road and got out of her car talking on her cell phone.
I thought she was calling the fire department, but they didn't show up so, maybe she was just being curious...




























































The next day the cleanup process continued.
Feed Man John stopped in(the guy in the red hat)...
He comes once a week to talk to the guys and see how the cattle are doing, if they have any questions and if they need to order any feed.






























He brought mints like he always does...
































and that makes for two happy campers...

































The next step was to dig a big hole to bury what did not burn...


































A Safety Manager paid us a visit...



































That is him in the black North Face vest...




































I think he might be lecturing Brad about this big hole and how he needs to put up caution tape and all that good jazz...
Just kidding. That is our friend Dylan. While we didn't get fined or anything, he did warn us that caution tape may be a wise thing to invest in.




































Most of the concrete was hauled away...






































The dirt was leveled...
And the Old Barn Project is now complete.






































Our view before...








































and after...
I've got wide open spaces!
Who sings that song?
A little trivia question for you!
Now I can see what goes on at the cattle barn and toolshed from my yard!
That makes me jump for joy! Hopefully there aren't any bats around!
Happy Friday friends!!









































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