Day 61 - Bad Wood
Once our first winter at the farm hit, we didn’t have much use for visiting the barn. Since moving, we hadn't done much besides cleaning and reorganizing the barn. Then, we cleaned and reorganized. When we had finished cleaning and reorganizing, we cleaned and reorganized again. We did have our farmer friends stored a trailer there in exchange for some of the work they completed in fall. Besides these reasons, we hadn't really figured out how we were going to use the barn so we didn't spend too much time there once the temperatures dropped. Everything we needed for winter, including the snowblower, sleds, shovels, and snowshoes, were stored in the attached garage.
When the time came, our farm friends came to pick up their trailer. It was at that time that we ventured back into the barn after a winter away. The barn’s setup included a row of individual stalls on each side and a larger open space in the middle. One side of stalls was basically underwater. We knew there was plenty of wood that needed replacing in the barn and now we knew why. Water can have many fine and worthy qualities, but sometimes, water and wood just shouldn't mix. It appeared grading issues around the barn had allowed water to infiltrate and slowly erode and rot out wood throughout these stalls. It was time to take out the bad wood and put in the good wood.
Most of the wood wasn’t too difficult to take out considering its stage of decomposition. Measuring, purchasing, cutting, and then installing the wood was a repetitive process, especially when I had little experience and minimal tools. Replacing one board led to the discovery that more wood needed to be replaced. We could have gone on replacing wood until we replaced the entire barn, but we stuck to the most important areas at first.
With more wood replacement already on the horizon, upgraded grading was added to the ever-growing list of things we needed to get done. Otherwise, we were just putting a bandage on a broken leg.
And considering what a spring storm was teaching us about the house, we might have two broken legs.
