Since we moved to Tulip Hill in 1998, we have slowly but surely been turning our modest acreage into a farm. To that end, we've cleared land for pasture, put up thousands of feet of fencing, and have built a number of multipurpose outbuildings. The first building, was our "goat" run-in. It soon was overtaken with our two stall barn with tack room and feed room on either end. That then morphed into 4 stalls. We built a small chicken coop. Then the chicken coop became the garden shed and we added a larger coop to the south side of the Barn.

We morphed the "goat run-in" into a square bale storage barn and added another small run-in to it's eastern side. Then the 40 by 40 barn went up and the workshop took over a third of it. Then a 4 stall foaling shed went up next to the square bale barn. Then a 50 by 16 barn went up where we store up to 60 round bales at a time.

Lastly, (and I mean it this time) we began work on a 30 by 15 run-in to give our little charges shelter when they are pastured over in MBM (Mike's Big Meadow)

This page will chronicle some of the process.

 

 

 

 

 

First we had Jamie Stalling grade a pad for us in the meadow.

Then Mike went and got some lumber....

(Instant Barn....just add labor)

Then Mike went to work and dug 4 foot deep holes and planted a post with 160 pounds of concrete under and around each one. We don't generally get hurricanes this far north and inland, but just in case........

Once the posts are all in it's time to get the level reference......... but we don't have a transit or a laser level that will work in bright sunshine......

Water levels have been used for longer than anyone has been alive, and they are every bit as accurate as the high dollar surveying instruments, they just take a little longer.

Barn building is hot, sweaty and HARD WORK!!!! (and it makes my glasses sit crooked)

It's starting to look like something might actually get built down there......

Then on Mike's 50th birthday, he built some more........

And the trusses were laid on the plates.............. Of course, they work better when they are "peak-side-up".......

 

And by the end of the weekend the framing was finished............

A pine bough on the peak when framing is complete is an old tradition that symbolizes the life of the building and honors the wood from which it was built.

Then suddenly, in what was not quite the middle of the night, steel siding began to grow...

when the trim goes on, I'll still have to finish the interior kick boards.

Trimmed out...