Building New Coop/Barn...Phase 5 Great Barn Build, OCCUPIED! 3/6/16

[speckledhen]

Wow! Is that a bat? He looks bigger than the tiny bats we have around our house.

Yes, just a little brown bat. Sometimes, they chill out on my porch, fly around eating skeeters.

They eat lots of mosquitoes, I like bats.

Yup, which is why DH was gentle and took him to a safe location.

Hehe mostly true....and I'm not really afraid of bats, tho uncovering that would have made my heart pound, have moved a few myself.

Now snakes and spiders really give me the willies, even pictures, and can get me vocalizing if up close in person.....
.....and once I cut open a cardboard box containing an air conditioner stored in a shed, heard something in there and expected to see mice, cut open front of box and there was a whole family of red squirrels RIGHT THERE in behind the cardboard.....THAT had me, and the squirrels, skreeeching and running out of the shed.
Then I was cussina blue streak cause they had chewd the AC fan to inoperable. Funny now tho.

Hahaha, DH did that with flying squirrels in the LNB of the satellite dish. Cute little critters, but they eat through the cables.

 

[1muttsfan]

Oh I LOVE bats! There have been very few here in the last year, due to White Nose Disease

Red squirrels are cute, but they will chew through ANYTHING they can, including electric wires - very dangerous little beasts in the house.

 

[Peanutsmomma]

Count me in on all of the bat appreciation. They are marvelous at keeping the mosquito population down. I know squirrels are cute but they are super destructive. I cannot keep solar lights around our coop without squirrels chomping on them. My brother-in-law is a chemical salesman that caters to pest control companies and he always says that squirrels are just rats with good PR.

 

[1muttsfan]

And cute faces

 

[speckledhen]

The building is DOWN! It was quite dangerous at the end, but we did it. Now, we have to complete the disassembling of it and keep pulling nails. Lots of good 2x4's there.

 

[aart]

lol yikes!
How'd you do that.....get video?

 

[speckledhen]

lol yikes!
How'd you do that.....get video?

Video? Heck, no! Was trying to keep DH from killing himself. When all the plywood, or almost all, was off the sides and most of the 2x4 wall supports, the heavy 8x12 side began to list to the back. The entire building would sway if you pushed it. So, he got an old jack that we got from my dad's house and jacked up the side closest to the other coop so it would be encouraged to go back to the left. Then, he used a sledge hammer to knock one of the cinder blocks from a back, inside corner to further encourage it to drop down and to the left. Then, he pulled on it with the nylon rope he had attached to an oak tree. When the entire thing started to go, he got the heck out of the way and it just came down. Could have taken out the pen for the little coop if we had not done it that way. Winds were high, too, scary for a bit.


ETA: Unexpectedly, just after it came down, the gas company showed up to fill our 100 gal bottle. Guy says, "Little problem with your building?".

Had to explain that we did it on purpose.

It's pouring rain out there now, washing all the dust from those 2x4's (lots more are piled up against our basement). Hope the OSB on those floors is in good enough shape to use. The outside siding plywood was not at all usable, way too brittle, just fodder for the burn pile. It was only 3/8" anyway and much at the bottom was water-damaged.

 

[speckledhen]

More progress in demolition today. Had to quit. My hands hurt after removing shingles (lots of usable ones left to re-do the front of the other building) and nails. One sheet of OSB on the floor, which I did not recall being 3/4", was crushed when the rest of the roof slid down, but there are still 4 good sheets there. And the rafters are either 10' or 12' 2x4's so plenty of lumber to get the loft and floor structure finished in the new barn. Gosh, probably enough to build another building or a lean-to to store firewood or whatever. But we want the entire area tilled, seeded and cleaned of all trash and construction debris and looking orderly again.

 

[1muttsfan]

Good job. What a view you will have.

 

[chicklover 1998]

Awesome you are coming right along.