One of 2018's goals was to build a pump house over our well head and tank. We'd bought the lumber and were ready to do it, but the rains came in December and it seemed to happen every weekend. So much for progress. If it wasn't raining the yard was too wet to work in. And if it was finally starting to dry up, it would rain again and you didn't want to work outside. Damn you El Nino!!!
So the calendar flipped over to January and did the rains subside? NO! After about 15 inches of rain between December and January there just isn't anywhere for the water to go. This past Saturday night (Feb 2) we had .50 inches of rain and we've got puddles in the yard like a hurricane had come through.
Despite the wet weather and squishy ground we've changed our plans, not because of the rain, but because our priorities changed. Our new plan is to clean out the last "unimproved" side of the little barn because our new "priority" is...CHICKENS and GUINEAS! (COMING IN LATE SPRING)!!!
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| Future chicken coop/run (right half) |
We decided the back corner of our small barn would be an optimum place for them. Even though it's on the SW corner of the barn, it is sheltered by a pine woods so half of it stays in the shade during the hot GA summers. At 20'x10' there is plenty of room for a coop and a run (when they're not free-ranging in the yard). With that idea in place we got to work building similar structure to the greenhouse, which meant it was time to...RAISE THE ROOF!
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| This never gets old! |
To start, all we had to do was clean out that part of the barn. Easier said than done.
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| A lifetime of stuff. Some ours, some Neta's Dad's, some from other family members. |
We backed the truck up to the barn and started clearing stuff out. Stuff that we could clearly label "junk" or unusable was taken to the dump. The rest was moved to a corner of the big barn or Neta cleaned it up and it will be re-purposed in some way.
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| After the cleaning. |
Once everything was removed it was time to take down the exterior wall.
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| These walls might keep chickens in, but they won't keep the predators out. |
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| The last piece falls courtesy of a sledgehammer and a chainsaw. |
Once the walls on the long side were down, it was time to jump on the tractor and scoop out the goat manure like we did for the area next to it where we park the tractor and lawn mower.
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| Decades of black/brown gold for the garden. |
With the manure (mostly) scooped out, it was time to start putting up posts to shore it all up, raise it up and provide structure for the future coop and run.
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| New posts on the back (right side). The front (temporarily propped up) still needs to be cleaned out. |
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| All of the posts are in and the roof is not only higher, but relatively straight and level. |
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| View from the front. The coop/run will be built on the back half. |
With the roof raised, more manure scooped out (and sorta leveled) and a (somewhat) blank slate to work with, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to put siding up on this side of the barn.
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| 3/4's of the barn now has siding. Time for painting. |
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| It's starting to look civilized. |
There is a set of shelves in the back half that we'll cannibalize to help build the coop. Our next step is to paint the siding, barn red of course, so we can continue our progress. We hope to have it all done, painting, coop building, fencing, etc. within a couple of months as we plan to get the chicks in April/May and the guineas in June.
We'll keep you posted!
