Many moons ago, my brother was visiting and decided to see how much pull he could get with his new truck...So he hooked onto the old crib barn and gave it a pull. After a few pulls there was a big mess.. he was quite pleased with himself and I just groaned knowing the time it was going to take to clean it up.
I have attempted to work on it from time to time but honestly, this is one pile I cannot do myself. We did not want to torch it because we believe that there is some stuff that we might like to salvage from it and under it. (I lost my favorite hoe about the time of this incident) Also, there are quite a few cedar boards still in good condition that can be used in repairing another barn. Plus lumber that can be recycled into raised beds or compost bins or some other project that requires a boards.
A little history on what used to be this building. My parents always called it the crib. I just knew it as a barn. I do not know how long the building was there. I do know that there used to be an old log house out beside it but I am pretty sure "the crib" was built by my grandfather. My grandfather used to have a sawmill out beside it as well and I can tell that some of the boards used in this building are in fact rough cut boards probably from his sawmill. I suspect that the lumber my brother took out of it was some of these rough cut boards that had come from grandpa's sawmill. I also remember my folks talking about grandpa using wood from another structure. It is very obvious that the building has used wood in it.
In the early 1960's, a tornado came across this property and took down the log house that sat out there and every so slightly twisted the crib. It stood for 40 years with that twist in it, which always fascinated me.
Well, enough history and back to the beginning of what may indeed turn into quite a lot of work. For starters, a project like this is not without some danger. It has to be done from the top down and up until a year or so ago, I felt pretty confident climbing up on it but it has sat just one season too long and some of the boards have aged to the point of deterioration. I have to be a bit more careful about stepping with my full weight. Also there are a lot of nails to be wary of. Not to mention the sections that all came down together that my brother twisted up with the steel cables when he yanked out the boards he wanted.
While the deterioration makes climbing on it more tedious, it has actually made the work easier because it does not take a sledge hammer to the pieces apart.
Just wanted all you all to know that there is progress on more than one front going on here at the farm. So check back frequently to see how it is going. Ya'll have a good day now!