Wordless Wednesday: Nate & His Children

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Cats on Tuesday: Zorro on the Roof

See Zoro? The black smudge on the barn joist?

The photos are too small in this blog. Click to open large in a new window or tab!

John is taking down the barn. It is unsafe and will be rebuilt. Here, you see that half of the barn is down. Zorro decided on this day that he had to investigate all of this and somehow he climbed on the roof. I have a series of photos here showing his adventures

Maybe Zorro can get down this way?

"Come get me down!" he hollers.

Ignored, Zorro ponders what to do next.

Zorro walked to the roof and found his way down!

Zorro eventually got down, but I don't know how!

Thank you for stopping by!

To visit other participants, visit Gattina

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Why The Barn Was Falling Down

John demonstrates how saturated the ground was under the barn. That was why it was collapsing and has to be demolished and re-built. Our friend, Arthur, is the man sitting on the barn. Ironman mimics John. You can also see Nate and a chicken. This was the first movie I made with the Olympus Tough 8000 camera and was playing with the functions on it but since I don't see well, I couldn't tell that it wasn't focused that well.

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Barn Roof

John takes the roof off.

Piece by piece, John (with help from us) is dismantling the barn. It is in very bad shape and will be rebuilt with both old and new materials. The back shed is gone and the area is cleaned out. By hand, John broke he concrete slab under the shed with a sledge hammer. The land was drained more with a new trench and another hidden stream bed was found. There's lots more demolition to do!.

John dismantles the barn roof.

Back shed is gone and drainage trench dug

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Hazy Landscape

The Duquette Barn

I took this photo of the Duquette Barn, down the road, from the top of the hill behind the house on Memorial Day. You should be able to see the Lowell Range of mountains in the far background, but smoke from the Quebec forest fires has made the view very hazy. You can also see the infernal power lines that ruin so many Vermont photographs. They seem to be in the way much more often here than anywhere else I have photographed. This old barn is slowly collapsing. We hope that it can be restored before it is gone forever.
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Barn Demolition

Barn shed roof after many winters of snow

 Our barn, as you have probably seen, needs to be rebuilt. But the back shed (above) couldn't be saved and had to be demolished before somebody (or some kitty or chicken) was hurt if it collapsed. On Memorial Day, John hopped on the tractor and knocked it down. This isn't as easy as it sounds. John saves all of the materials, and to demolish the shed safely, he had to take it down in small sections. It sat on a frost broken concrete slab and that had to be broken with a sledge hammer and buried. Finally, the land had to be cleared and drained properly. It was nasty work but it's done. Now we are slowly demolishing the barn itself.

And down it comes!

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Brush Hogging

John's been pretty busy. He has drained the water from around the barn as you can see above. I always thought that the water was from underground springs. It is, sort of. The brooks off of the mountain go underground before they reach the barn and then go underground because of the willows and alders that have grown wildly around the barn and the edge of the small field. John brush hogged the brush and the water began draining through his newly excavated ditches. He is recreating the natural flow of the brooks.

The brush in the photo above obscured the end of the shed at the end of the barn. John has brush hogged the entire barn and about a quarter mile of the right of way that goes up the mountain.

Technically, brush hogging means that you use a brush hog. But the tractor is best for this job because of the size of the brush. John hauls it to the far edge of the property. He got a burning permit from the fire warden and it took a whole day to burn the brush that he pulled in only two days. There is no snow pack now, so unfortunately John had to wait for a snowy, rainy day to burn. He had to stay with the fire the whole time in order to prevent a forest fire. It was a miserable day for him!

Below, John is clearing brush from the upper field. Our views of the field and the wildlife that visit it have been blocked by the willows. John left all of the beautiful tamarack trees, which we both love.

Below is a view from the bottom of the upper field to the barn.

And finally, the end of the barn is nearly entirely cleared. This part of the barn will be detached and rebuilt for a chicken coop that is weasel-proof.

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Glover Barn

Hinman Settler Road Photowalk Set on Flickr

Wordless Wednesday

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Photo Hunters: Another Beautiful Barn

When I take the dogs for a walk we go by my neighbor's beautiful barn. It's been over 100 posts since I participated in the Photo Hunt. Now that school has started again, I have to take the time to post and comment regularly.

Thank you for visiting.

Click PhotoHunt to view more participants.

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