Barn Raising

After last week’s installation of the posts, the walls and roof of the new barn went up today. It was framed by morning break. Unfortunately the crew got stuck coming up our long driveway, but Gary helped pull them out with the tractor. It was a nice sunny day, unusually warm for this time of the year. I had to keep the turkeys in the barn or they would be all over the men working and what they were working on.

The trusses were mounted by lunch. When the crew took their break, I brought out a big pot of coffee for them.

After lunch, I walked to the bottom of the driveway to check the mail. As it turned out my timing was perfect and our carrier was just sticking things in the mailbox, so I stood in the road and chatted with her a while. It’s so warm out that there was a honeybee hitching a ride on the roof of her car.
I said good-bye and started up the drive. I knew I heard my turkeys calling, but that was impossible since they were all locked up tight in the barn. They sure were loud though. Once I crested the hill and saw the trusses, sure enough – a couple hens were jumping around on the roof. Turns out the doors and windows were stored in our first barn and when one of the crew went in to retrieve them, he forgot to close the door. I rounded them up in short order and got them back in the barn. The crew had a good sense of humor and took it in stride.

Gary and I received a wonderful copper rooster weathervane for our first wedding anniversary from his mom. We’ve been holding on to it waiting for just the right spot to mount it. We decided that the new barn was as nice a spot as any, so Gary asked the foreman if it’s possible to mount this weathervane on the roof. I can’t wait until she sees it!


Hank was the perfect farmdog today and showed a little defensiveness towards strangers, but not too much. He’s too friendly a dog to be mean. He showed off his chicken-herding skills and helped me put away all the birds at sundown.
As far as the “Behind the scenes” look at our article, well I forgot to take Cindy’s picture! I can’t believe it. She did have some trouble with her camera though, so she may have to come back.