BARN! and NEW PORCH!

[thistlebloom]

We solved that problem with my horses shelter that had metal siding, by screwing 4x8 plywood sheets to the inside walls. It goes all the way to the ground so no worries about a horse getting a foot hung up, or a leg going through if kicking out.

 

[Nyboy]

Do horses really roll over in there sleep? That sounds so cute.

 

[catjac1975]

Russell, Timmy and Richard worked on the barn last weekend, we have FOUR! yep, FOUR rafters up now. Today, DH and I went to Lowes and ordered 2"x6"x20' lumber 29 of them, and 65 sheets of OSB plywood. 15 of the OSB plywood sheets will go on the sheep shed. It will be delivered tomorrow. We also went to another place and ordered roofing metal, it will be ready on Friday and we will go pick it up.

Russell and Timmy will be back this weekend and they have the whole week off. I have visions of a complete roof going up!

This picture doesn't show the rafters, but it shows progress from the last pictures I posted.

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I have no idea how it got sideways, it was right side up in my computer. The tin is what we put up to keep the dirt from washing out when we had another crazy storm. It worked and only a little dirt washed out, but DH scooped it up with the tractor and put it back.

Room for LOTS of animals!

 

[catjac1975]

The contractor came back and installed the screens. We still need to finish staining the outside and the deck inside. The screens look dark from the outside, but on the inside looking out, it barely makes a difference.

AAARRRGGHHH!! What is going on? My pictures are right side up in my computer and upload here sideways. And I don't know how to turn them right side up. GRRRR...... that aggravates me.

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What is that material on the lower part -the railing area?

 

[catjac1975]

Do horses really roll over in there sleep? That sounds so cute.

Horses usually sleep standing up. Mine some times lay flat out in the sun. I sometimes go and make noise because they sometimes look DEAD! The do roll to scratch their backs and it looks silly and cute. A horse can twist a gut when they roll which they do if they are in pain with colic. I don't think an ordinary back scratching roll can hurt them.

 

[baymule]

What is that material on the lower part -the railing area?

The railing area? You mean the steps? If so, it's treated 2x6's. Or do you mean the solid wall under the screens? That is T-111 plywood siding. Did I answer your question?

 

[catjac1975]

The railing area? You mean the steps? If so, it's treated 2x6's. Or do you mean the solid wall under the screens? That is T-111 plywood siding. Did I answer your question?

Wall under the screens. I like the look.

 

[canesisters]

It looks wonderful!!!
You are going to be so happy with all this new space.

 

[baymule]

Wall under the screens. I like the look.

T-111 comes in 4'x8' sheets, it is a plywood. I once had a 2 story house covered in T-111 and painted it. The old paint was peeling off, so we wire brushed every bit of it, rolled it and cut the grooves with a brush. The original paint was sprayed on and sprayed paint doesn't do a good job on T-111.

 

[baymule]

Well, it's been a year and we have been busy. We attacked an acre of green briars with machetes and hacked our way through the trees and now have a nice kinda sorta pasture and wooded area. We worked a little on the fence and got 2 more 200' rolls of non climb horse wire put up. The garden produced fairly well and I did lots of dehydrating, canning and freezing. I ordered 50 Delaware chicks, straight run, and wound up with 10 pullets. We butchered 33 roosters, the mean devils killed 7 of them. Our daughter had a beautiful little girl September 1 and we baby sit the girls every chance we get. My husband had knee replacement surgery and the following physical therapy. He also had to have oral surgery, a couple other things done--heck--he's getting rebuilt faster than @Nyboy 's truck. He is scheduled for shoulder replacement surgery in a couple of weeks.

So we have finally come back to the barn! Last week, we scooped poop, cleaned the barn up real good and spread chip mulch that a high line cleaning contractor dumped on our property. Then we got the outline 2"x6" frame put up for our feed and tack room. I measured and screwed in place the 2x6 metal thingies for hanging the floor joists. DH and I riffled through our pile of lumber that lives under the carport (keeping the car and truck out in the weather) and loaded up 10 sheets of plywood on the mule. Our neighbor Robert came over to play because he was bored at his house. Between the 3 of us, we got the floor laid and it doesn't look half bad. In between all this, we had rain, cold, and a day that we made a turn around trip to Houston to attend a funeral. Throw in a dog that had to go to the hospital for surgery and a Doctor appointment for my husband and keeping grand kids on the weekends. LOL

Monday we got our dog from the vet--he swallowed a hickory nut! Parker will recover. https://www.theeasygarden.com/threads/we-almost-lost-parker.20094/ Then we again riffled through the lumber pile and loaded up the mule with 2x4's and took them to the barn. We put them on the "in progress" pile in the barn, then studied on how we were going to go up with the walls. I want the walls to go all the way to the ceiling, DH thinks I'm nuts. Neither of us have ever built a stud wall and raised it. We laid 2x4's in various places like we knew what we were doing--which we don't but that has never stopped us.

This morning we delivered eggs and came home and had lunch. DH called Robert and asked him if he wanted to come over and build walls. He has built various projects and has a nice shop that he built and seemed like a prime candidate for helping us mess up a bunch of 2x4's. So off course he came right over.

You have to understand that all the lumber we have is either cull rack rejects from Lowes or I dragged it out of construction boxes (scraps) or it is used and has had nails pulled out of it. ALL of it is bowed, curved, has bark rough edges, split, broken, splintered or screwed up in some way. The whole barn was built of my scrounged up reject lumber except for 29 twenty foot 2x6' rafters that we had to buy brand new. Oh, all the metal outsides was new too. The end result is an optical illusion that looks like a nice barn, but has not one square corner, not one level board, not one straight anything.

So today I put up 2x4's against the end of the proposed future feed and tack room. Robert and my husband built a section of wall, that will face out toward the alley, allowing space for a door. Each 2x4 was measured, checked for really outrageous bows and laid in place on our new floor. Then they screwed it all together. We raised it and proceeded to screw it in place. We got the door headers measured, cut and screwed in place. My husband got the level, gloating that it was only almost a half a bubble off. Sometimes he got downright pissy that things weren't level. For a guy with no carpenter skills, where did he get this brain fart that boards are supposed to be straight?

This is a picture from yesterday, before we got a section of studs up today. Joe is checking out our handiwork and my husband is telling him to smile for the camera. The 2x6's screwed to the poles a few feet up are to keep the horses from tap dancing on the new floor.