Well, given the good weather I decided to start working on the pig shed as good weather is just around the bend. So I borrowed an excavator from a guy I work with and started cleaning.
When I got down to the shed I noticed Pig sound asleep in a nest she built herself. She must have decided it was quieter to sleep with the cows than with all the little ones!
So first I lifted roof enough to let post fall out and let it go and it fell right off the barn....not supposed to do that. So I picked it up with the forks on the tractor and put it on the burn pile.
I made a lot of noise doing this and the cows got spooked and ran out of the shed. Pig didn't seem to care as she didn't even open her eyes to see what the noise was.
So next I knocked the post out of the next section with the excavator and hit the wall on the back and the entire rest of the roof fell off. So I folded it all up and lifted it up with the forks and put it all on the burn pile as well.
Pig......still sleeping. The cows you will notice are not in the pic....that is because they were spooked so bad from the noise that they ran to the other end of the pasture and stayed there till I was done.
The barn minus the old broken down shed roof.
Next step was to dig out all of the soil in the area to get ready for the base material. I am going to install #4 slag about 18" deep and then top dress that with about 4" of 8x slag. Slag is the material they pull off the top of the melting pot when making steel. It is all the junk out of the steel. It is kinda like taking the grease off the top of a crock pot full of fatty meat. They then break it up and screen it to size. When installed properly it will set up like concrete but doesn't crack and will flex with freeze and thaw. It is also much much cheaper than concrete!
After getting it all dug out I was examined the corn crib that was built into the side of the barn. I realized it had extensive insect and water damage and was not able to be repaired like I previously hoped. So we removed it as well. Not I had to address the issue of the grade change and how to hold soil up under existing barn while lowering the pig pen area.
I was discussing this with my father when he suggested using a naturally stacked stone wall instead of stacking block. It was an excellent idea. I already have a bunch of stone from a foundation I took out of the lawn and I am a professional at stacking stone. Furthermore, once properly installed, the wall will move with freeze and thaw and allow me to compensate for grade change without adding any more to the budget.
This is a pic from the guy dumping gravel yesterday. With the quick early thaw I had some very large holes open up in the driveway. It took three truck loads to fix all the problems. I will take some pics of the drive tomorrow.
Thought you might want to know that the pigs and cows now get along great. They play together and sleep together from time to time. This was also their first journey out since winter started. It was 65 degrees and sunny all day yesterday! Absolutely beautiful! I wish it stayed that way all winter. We even had our first cookout of the year Thursday night!!
I will try to get updated photos of everyone soon. The camera on my blackberry is not very good. However they are getting us new phones at work and I am getting a droid which will give me a phenomenally better camera!
I will still take pics of the wall process tomorrow and better pictures of the barn with the junk torn off. Hope the rain holds off till we are done. I hate working in the rain when it is in the 30's!
Have a great day!
Kenny
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