Barn Rafters

The weather forecast looked good for the next three days.  I refreshed Janna on how to feed the goats, the horse and the cows.  I loaded up some rafter materials and the rest of the cedar fence posts that have been piled up next to the driveway for the last couple of months, and I loaded up a little camping gear.  I thought I could get away, get some work done on the Kanosh barn, camp out and just enjoy the farm.

After a long day of loading up, driving, unloading and getting started on the roof framing, I was rewarded with about 60 seconds of a beautiful wave of golden light.  The afternoon had become a little cloudy, which was good, I was boiling. Then as the sun was going down it descended below the clouds and washed the landscape with horizontal rays of golden sunlight.  The picture does not capture the serenity of the moment.

The end of the first day, the ridge is up, the main rafters are figured out and I am dead.

Due to over exertion the previous day, I was moving rather slowly the morning of the second day of my relaxing / working trip to Kanosh.  I decided to do something a little less physical than hefting 2x10 rafters up the 10 foot ladder to the catwalk which will eventually be the loft floor.  So I got on the Yanmar and rototilled the future corn patch.

I found lots of ancient artifacts.

After tilling the garden area, I set a few gopher traps, sprayed some of the weeds around the new trees and then I got back to the barn.  Janna had called and said that Kevin was thinking  he may be able to come down again for the day on Saturday.  So I got the rafters over the room side of the barn figured out and cut most all of the rafters, getting them all ready to be lifted up and installed.  I was hoping Kevin would come and save my life.

Luckily Kevin showed up bright and early Saturday morning.

By Saturday afternoon it is looking less like a green wooden post version of Stonehenge and more like a barn.

The barn, the garden and some little blossoms on the apricot tree.  I am sure the blossoms are much too early to survive.

Overall, not too relaxing, but I was able to get rid of some itchiness to get more done at the RNR.

Back to R-N-R

After a few months off for the winter, we finally got back to do a little work at the farm. We brought the little Yanmar to the farm to help with driveway preparations.

But, it works best for giving rides.

We got some nice cinder gravel from the local area to use as our driveway. We tried using both tractors for spreading the cinder gravel, but a good old rake seem to work the best.

Kevin came down from SLC to give us a hand.  We were able to get a little work done on the barn. We quit a little early though, the 40 mph wind wore us out. If you look close, you can see a heavy 2 inch wide nylon strap blowing sideways from the wind.

Boer Herd

The beginning of the R-N-R purebred Boer goat herd.
Left to Right:
Jet (Our registered but very young buck) - Traditional color.
Frenchie - Brown
498 / Blaze - Traditional
296  / Star - Traditional
497 / Brownie - Brown
PJ06 / Zelma  - Paint
Patch - Traditional

Starting the Barn or Cabarn (Cabin/Barn)

The day before Thanksgiving we were at the farm cleaning and buttoning things up for the winter.  Before we left we laid out for the barn, just in case the weather held out.

I guess we got bored during Thanksgiving. The Saturday following we got up early and hustled back to the farm to get started.

We worked untill after dark to get the first four (12 foot) posts set.

The next weekend we did not work due to bad weather.  I made a few trips during the two weeks and got the next eight holes dug.  I also changed my strategy and poured the concrete in the holes prior to setting the posts.  They were just too heavy to work with, as shown above.  On one of my hole digging trips I took some nice snow pics, I will post some of those soon.

Saturday Dec. 10th we returned to set 8 more (16 foot) posts.

It takes a lot of tamping when trying to backfill and compact 8 four foot deep holes.

I came back on Monday (12/12/11) to finish backfilling and compacting around the post, plum and line and brace everything off for the winter.

Misc. Pics.

It didn't come out very good in the photo but the fall colors on the mountains were beautiful.  The clouds are nice though.  The picture is from the back of the city lot looking south over what we call the front 8 acre pasture.  The 1000 lb. bails are from the 4 feet tall rye grass that was there.

A little Horn Toad

This could be Grandma Joan

It seems like every evening is a beautiful sunset.

More pretty clouds.

I need to get one of these.

Wrapping Up The Bridge

The concrete was previously stained, now rolling on the sealer.

Placing the road base material for the ramps.  In the future I will cover the base with a more decorative fractured rock.  I don't think the word decorative is used very often in the farming community.

                                                                         With the front ramp compete, we can now perform the first drive on test of the bridge and complete the back ramp.

Installing the curbs.  I decided to use treated 2x6 vs 6x6 so that the curbs would follow the curve or camber of the bridge.

Water & Trees

Before any more work could be done to the bridge, the concrete needed to cure for approx. one month.  This allowed me to get to our main focus and goal from the beginning which was to get some trees planted.  We love trees and we all know how long they take to grow.  But like all projects, there is always something that needs to be done first.  To plant tree we need water.  Agonizing a little over cost and future plans, I decided to run a 2 inch water line (vs a 1 in.) from the city water meter up the length of the lot.  This will allow me in the future to continue the water line all the way to near the back of the property (nearly 1000 ft.) with out loosing to much flow/pressure.  Thus, fulfilling any culinary water needs that may be needed in other locations of the property. 

The property to the west has what we might call some visual history, so we decided to plant some evergreens (Austrian Pine) along that property line.

We also added some poplars (Siouxland Cottonwood) with the evergreens for variety and they grow faster.

 

The overall plan includes a tree lined drive, so we got started on that with Shadmaster Honeylocust and Skyline Honeylocust alternated with Autumn Purple Ash.

Not pictured, we planted some fruit trees.  A Liberty Apple, Mormon Apricot, Lapins Cherry and Satsumc Plum.  Also planted were Globe Willows, Weeping Willows, Cottonwoods and a Autumn Blaze Maple.  Total trees planted in the fall of 2011 (54).