Barn Renovations! Part 2: During

One day down, a few more to go! We didn’t get quite as much done as i’d like this past weekend, but we only had an afternoon to do the work as i had to work on Saturday. This coming weekend is all about the barn, though – so hopefully we can finish this wall and get the track up and get a good start on the opposing wall as well. Doors will probably have to wait until the next weekend but they can’t come too soon: i’ve got 6 new kits born, 9 getting bigger every day and another litter due any second. I’m ready to move them on over to the new cages, that are almost ready themselves.

Pocket was an excellent supervisor and was probably quite bemused by all us humans cursing loudly at tiny screws that refused to pierce the metal like they were supposed to. I think we’ll be finding screws as far as 20 feet away from the barn for years to come – those things are little stinkers! And thank goodness our ‘hired hand’ is about 7 feet tall or we’d never have been able to get the top bits screwed in just right. Now that we’ve got ‘the hang of it’ i’m hoping we can increase efficiency a bit and hammer out the rest of the wall. Oh right, we have to work around the track from now on…. cutting metal is my least favorite job on this work site.

Note on materials: we purchased our lumber from Van Well’s in Dallas and had the metal cut to our specifications from Willamette Valley Metals right here in Pedee! The metal came from about 3 miles away – now that’s going local! We chose the lowest priced metal that’ sa bit thinner than roofing metal and i think it looks just fine. For whatever reason the screws they sold us just don’t piece the metal easily like the screws we used on the chicken coop. Not sure why, but definitely curse inducing.

New boards up!

First metal up!

Looking a little nicer, ay?? I can’t wait to post the finished before/after – though even the after we’ll have completed soon won’t be the ‘real’ after, as i still have tons of manure to shovel out of the barn, long walls needing replacement before we get pigs (those little pig noses would jus tlove to squish out of any rotten spots!), and a bunch of painting/sealing to do plus just general CLEANING of the mess that is our barn interior…. One thing at a time…

It’s interesting working with someone else who isn’t part of my family unit. I’m normally quite the task master, hustling (safely) from one place to the next and maximizing efficiency at all times. Working with someone else means in part, working at their pace. Though in this case it also means access to a lifetime of knowledge, expertise and a bunch of really nice tools. Pros and cons, i guess. 😉

Next up, assembling my hanging cages and hopefully at least one wall finished!