Rambling on and on and on about farming, food and astronomy. Astronomy? Yep. Farming and astronomy go together like garlic and basil, tomatoes and peppers, ice cream and bacon.

4th October 2011

Photo with 8 notes

we finally finished cleaning up around the old chicken coop. Don’t have an updated photo of it, but now everything has been cleaned away from around it; the old scrap pile, ancient asparagus, all the brush, everything. This has allowed us to get a good look at the place and get inside of it and start cleaning out the inside. What a mess! We’ve been finding about 50 years worth of miscellaneous garbage in there. Old broken chairs, a few old doors, broken parts from equipment that disappeared ages ago, a couple of old antennas, empty paint cans and just plain trash. Apparently it was used as the farm’s garbage dump for some time. It’s pile waist deep with trash. As we’ve been cleaning the interior out, we’ve been evaluating the structure, and what we’ve found is disappointing. We had hoped we could use the building with a minimum amount of work, but that is not the case. The concrete floor is pretty much gone. It’s been entirely undermined by generations of woodchucks and chipmunks making their dens under it. The foundation is ruined as well.as for the wooden structure, it looked all right at first, but as we cleared up the brush we discovered that all of the boards and studs are rotten at ground level. So once we finish cleaning out the interior, it’s going to have to come down. I think we can salvage a lot of lumber off the old building. only the bottom foot or so of the exterior boards and wall studs are rotten. The boards could be re-used for patching up the main barn or machine shed if we decide to do that, or at least sold. There seems to be a market for old barn boards for crafts and making ‘rustic’ looking accessories. As for the main barn, I have a contractor coming out next week and we’re going to go over the building and see what, if anything, can be done about it. Steve thinks the barn is fine, that it just needs to have some walls and posts replaced. I am not so optimistic, though. Every time I go in that barn I see more serious problems. Not only are there issues with the main support beams that run down the center of the barn and the exterior wall, but on the weekend I noticed problems with the old stone, interior wall, which used to be the exterior wall of the barn before the addition was put up back in the early 50s. I’d like to save the barn, but the decision is going to have to be an economic one. On the plus side, I was playing with the new rotary tiller again, and it works beautifully. The field we’re taking over has been in alfalfa for something like 5 years, and the soil is badly compacted from years of running huge choppers, semi tractors and haybines on it. I feared that the tiller wouldn’t make a dent in it, but I was wrong. It digs in beautifully, and after two passes, the soil is worked down to a depth of about 8 or 9 inches. Once we get our composting up and running, this is going to be great for working organic material into the soil! The neighbors are intensely curious about what’s going on! Everyone seemed to be under the impression that we were cleaning the place up in preparation for selling it. When they find out that we’re going to start vegetable and fruit production on a few acres and perhaps gradually expand in coming years with free range poultry, and perhaps adding goats, we get some interesting looks. Some people thing we’re nuts, but most people have been very encouraging. Our activities out there have also sparked something of a bidding war as the local farms think we may be getting ready to sell or do something with the property. The local “megafarms” seem to be desperate for additional land. We’re already under contract to rent to the same renter who has had the place since my father was still alive. When we did the contract, we got pretty much top dollar, at least locally. So it was with some surprise that i fielded a phone call over the weekend from another farmer offering me almost double that rate for 2013. Plus they also want to rent the house and buildings. Keeps life interesting

we finally finished cleaning up around the old chicken coop. Don’t have an updated photo of it, but now everything has been cleaned away from around it; the old scrap pile, ancient asparagus, all the brush, everything. This has allowed us to get a good look at the place and get inside of it and start cleaning out the inside.

What a mess! We’ve been finding about 50 years worth of miscellaneous garbage in there. Old broken chairs, a few old doors, broken parts from equipment that disappeared ages ago, a couple of old antennas, empty paint cans and just plain trash. Apparently it was used as the farm’s garbage dump for some time. It’s pile waist deep with trash.

As we’ve been cleaning the interior out, we’ve been evaluating the structure, and what we’ve found is disappointing. We had hoped we could use the building with a minimum amount of work, but that is not the case. The concrete floor is pretty much gone. It’s been entirely undermined by generations of woodchucks and chipmunks making their dens under it. The foundation is ruined as well.as for the wooden structure, it looked all right at first, but as we cleared up the brush we discovered that all of the boards and studs are rotten at ground level.

So once we finish cleaning out the interior, it’s going to have to come down. I think we can salvage a lot of lumber off the old building. only the bottom foot or so of the exterior boards and wall studs are rotten. The boards could be re-used for patching up the main barn or machine shed if we decide to do that, or at least sold. There seems to be a market for old barn boards for crafts and making ‘rustic’ looking accessories.

As for the main barn, I have a contractor coming out next week and we’re going to go over the building and see what, if anything, can be done about it. Steve thinks the barn is fine, that it just needs to have some walls and posts replaced. I am not so optimistic, though. Every time I go in that barn I see more serious problems. Not only are there issues with the main support beams that run down the center of the barn and the exterior wall, but on the weekend I noticed problems with the old stone, interior wall, which used to be the exterior wall of the barn before the addition was put up back in the early 50s. I’d like to save the barn, but the decision is going to have to be an economic one.

On the plus side, I was playing with the new rotary tiller again, and it works beautifully. The field we’re taking over has been in alfalfa for something like 5 years, and the soil is badly compacted from years of running huge choppers, semi tractors and haybines on it. I feared that the tiller wouldn’t make a dent in it, but I was wrong. It digs in beautifully, and after two passes, the soil is worked down to a depth of about 8 or 9 inches. Once we get our composting up and running, this is going to be great for working organic material into the soil!

The neighbors are intensely curious about what’s going on! Everyone seemed to be under the impression that we were cleaning the place up in preparation for selling it. When they find out that we’re going to start vegetable and fruit production on a few acres and perhaps gradually expand in coming years with free range poultry, and perhaps adding goats, we get some interesting looks. Some people thing we’re nuts, but most people have been very encouraging.

Our activities out there have also sparked something of a bidding war as the local farms think we may be getting ready to sell or do something with the property. The local “megafarms” seem to be desperate for additional land. We’re already under contract to rent to the same renter who has had the place since my father was still alive. When we did the contract, we got pretty much top dollar, at least locally. So it was with some surprise that i fielded a phone call over the weekend from another farmer offering me almost double that rate for 2013. Plus they also want to rent the house and buildings.

Keeps life interesting

Tagged: farmagricultureold buildings

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  1. krippner posted this