It Takes A Strong Back And Strong Will

    Ed has been working hard every day to get the foundation ready. That requires a lot of rebar bending...well bending in general, because the rebar has to be bent, then bend over to put it in the hole, then bend over to tie the rebar to the supports, bend over to build the forms for the cement. Over and over.
 

Then straps, cross straps, nails, supports, more nails, screws, Then do it all over again on all four sides.Sophie supervises until she gets bored, then she comes back up to the house.









  In the center are four large support columns.


    Then the footings have a cement wall that brings everything else up to grade. Repeat all steps listed above.

    After a flurry of phone calls, the cement for the first part comes today. One pumper truck, 21 yards of concrete, several friends, for whom we are very grateful.

We're Not Really Done

   We're not really done, we just thought we were. Ed wants another barn...this one for farm implements and potentially an RV or trailer. And hay...and maybe cows. That way the first barn can have woodworking tools and a workshop.
    Ed found a likely spot in the east pasture. It's on high ground, close to the road, and relatively level.........or not.
  We staked out the perimeter and had James Trott come out with his equipment to excavate the site. He started by scraping off the sod.




   It wasn't as level as we thought. Ed and James set up the transit and rest was excavated. Now Ed can form up the footings and get started.