Concrete work at the barn

Our barn is over a hundred years old and needed some work to help it last for a few more years. This barn had been built in a couple of different stages over several years with reclaimed beams from other barns. The support posts of the barn had been placed on large, flat rocks, placed on dirt (hard-pan). A concrete floor was added later but poured around the support posts leaving the bottom of the posts embedded in dirt. Over the years the bases of some the support posts started to rot.



We want to fix the old floor of the barn but first need to re-set the supports on a solid base. We got a couple of 20 ton jacks and raised the barn enough to remove the old post. We then removed old concrete floor, dirt and rock until we found a solid spot to pour a new concrete footer with re-bar. Once the wide base was in place we poured a new concrete extension above the floor line for the post to set on. The bottom of the old support post was cut off to the correct length and the rot removed. The post is then reinstalled (level and square) and bolted to the new concrete base.



Another part of this project required the installation of a new retaining wall on the south side of the barn to replace an old section of the stone support wall that had fallen due to frost movement. We started by removing the dirt and rock from the old wall section. A 6 inch thick base of concrete with re-bar was poured to form a level platform to build the new wall on. We then poured a 5 inch high section of the new wall to form a "key" to hold the forms for the new wall.



Once the "key" was ready more re-bar was installed and the concrete forms for the bottom section of the wall were attached to the "key".


The bottom section of the wall is 32 inches high, 8 feet long and 10 inches wide. We mixed 11 batches of concrete in our mixer and completed this pour in a couple of hours.



Once the bottom section cured we removed the forms and moved them up for the top section of the wall and clamped the form in place. This section only required 8 mixer loads and was completed in less than two hours.



A new 5 foot high retaining wall. This photo shows the wall, Mary and the cement mixer. Another extension of the wall will be poured on the right end of the wall where the re-bar is sticking out.

The end of a rainbow

This weekend, like most of this summer, included rain showers. We were working at the farm when a rain storm came out of nowhere. The shower didn't last long and the sun reappeared creating a rainbow that appeared to end at Brian and Tish's house.

Seismic Survey

Geokinetics Inc. was in the neighborhood preparing for a seismic survey of the south end of Joyce Road.


Shot holes are drilled twenty feet deep for the placement of an explosive charge.









Once the shot hole is drilled an explosive charge is placed at the bottom of the hole and back filled with gravel.



Four shot holes were drill on our property.

Neighborhood Deer

In the past couple of weeks I've started to see a lot of fawns with and without their mothers. Saturday evening I was in the back field at the farm with our neighbor, Harley, and saw three fawns come running out of Harley's field and into our food plot. After a few minutes at the food plot the fawns ran at full speed back to Harley's field. Tonight triplets were in the clover field with their mother.


Caught this young buck behind the barn.

Night time activity

During the daytime we only see a small number of the wild animals in our neighborhood. Here are a few photos taken with digital game cameras of night time activity.


I created a bird feeder from an empty coffee container and suspended by a wire in front of the camera. It didn't take long for the local raccoons to find the feeder. This raccoon studies the feeder's design.

Greg and Linda's deer

Photos from Greg and Linda Saylor's deer farm





Photos provided by Greg and Linda Saylor