Thursday, August 28, 2014

My Summer Barn Project: Part 3

With the broken beams under the floor of the west hay mow, the double layer floor needed to be removed to give access.  This photo was taken before I began removal.  Note the sway in the floor.  My wife shot the photos of me pulling up the floor.



 




With the flooring removed, the broken logs beams were exposed for removal.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

My Summer Barn Project: Part 2

As with all renovation projects, this project began with demolition and clean-up.  My goal was to keep as much of the original barn as possible, doing only a limited renovation.  The photos below were taken over the course of a few evenings.  Keeping up with other chores about the farm and holding full time employment limited my work to evening and a few Saturdays. 
 
Demolition began with the removal of the mangers.

Barn with girder removed

View from opposite end
 

The last photo shows the temporary supporting structure used to hold the broken beams in place while the floor above was removed.
 
 


Saturday, August 23, 2014

My Summer Barn Project: Part 1

For those of you who have faithfully followed Country Captures over the years have noticed I have not updated the blog much over the past few months.  With the passing of my father many decisions needed to be made.  Some of those decisions had to do with the future of our farm, the cattle and the building.  Having decided to continue raising cattle my attention turned to the buildings.  As dad had grown old and infirm the farm buildings had been allowed to fall into disrepair as well.  Willard and I closely examined each building to determine what was worth saving and what needed raised while keeping in mind the building needs consistent with our vision of the farm's future.  The barn, the cornerstone of farm, was of major concern.
 
The following photos were taken following manure removal.






While it showed major signs of disrepair and some structure issues with seven floor beams being broken, all in all it was deemed structurally sound and worthy of repair.  In future post I will walk you through my summer project of whipping the old barn back into a usable piece of farm infrastructure.

Monday, August 04, 2014

Cedar Waxwings and a Lens Fail

While my wildlife photography time has been greatly limited this year I also experience the sickening feeling of aligning the 600mm rig on a Red-headed Woodpecker only to hear a rapid ratcheting sound as the lens attempted to find focus but could not.  After trying the lens on another camera and finding it to perform the same there was only one thing to do; return it to Canon for repair.  I expected the lens back within ten days but this time it took a full two weeks.  Unlike the time when I dropped and broke it two years ago and it took two trips back to Canon to get it right; this time when it came back it worked properly.  With the 600 back I was ready to exploit a flock of Cedar Waxwings that have taken to catching insects on the wing at a nearby creek crossing.  Setting up the camera rig it was only a short time before the colorful little masked bandit birds were perching nearby.

 
These little birds must be observed closely to see the beautiful earth colors of their plumage highlighted by the tiny but brilliant splashes of red and yellow.  So now with the big lens back in business and summer winding down I hope to eek out a little more time for wildlife photography before the autumn elk and whitetail ruts begin.