The Old Folks Home

[Wickedchicken6]

Even in a dry garage you should have air space between the concrete and bags of anything or bales of hay. Concrete wicks moisture even in a dry climate. Thats why when ever you build a foundation or foundation wall there must be a vapor barrier between the concrete and the wood. AND the would should be pressure treated.

We get snow in winter and winds up to 80 mph at certain times of year including. Horizontal rain is not un heard of. Most people with hay shelters will fortify with Canvas curtains or simply cover their hay.

Mine is exactly like the one I showed in the picture. maybe a little lower pitch on the roof. Rated for 100 mph wind gusts and snow about a foot thick. The plan was, to build Two walls about half height. to shelter the hay from the prevailing wind directions. I have the materials just no workforce...

deb

I thought it being packaged in plastic with the straw buffer. I'm learning...lol.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Sorry you don't have helpers deb.

Same here...that's frustrating!

speaking of graduations... My son just filled in his paperwork to graduate from San Diego State....

just a couple of weeks ago he was applying for his grant money for the next two semesters... He figured he had that many courses to take to graduate.
He tried to contact the department head to sign off on a couple of classes he took in lieu of others.

Department head was on vacation... So when they finally connected and my son went in for the conference the department head was looking at his transcripts. First thing out of his mouth... "Youve been going here long enough lets see if we can get you graduated." he started checking off things and writing and finally came up with. 'All you have to do is take this one single online class this semester and your done...'

Yay... scared the crap out of my son though... So in December he gets his Bachelors of Arts in Geology. And a minor in English. He may go on to get his Masters of Fine Arts in Writing.... But I suspect hes pretty much done with school for now.

deb

That's fantastic!!!

Old barns and old houses, bullet proof, and nice barn wicked, I'd rather have a barn like that than a nice house lol, someday...
No board stealing here but we did have back during what we called the 'redneck gold rush' junk cars worth more for scrap than running, people driving their cars to the crusher, trucks piled high with metal of all sorts, copper was real high. Scumbags were breaking into houses and stealing copper pipe, ripping it out of walls even. My BIL hauls used cars, said one dealership he hauled for said all their trade ins someone came through at night and somehow stole all the the catalytic converters.

That's terrible! I can't even imagine that...copper pipe out of walls.
Stealing all the catalytic converters? Holy hanna banana. That's crazy!

We had old vehicles here and someone stole the chrome pieces off them.

 

[Beer can]

They buy old barn wood here $$ probably depends on what was used Alaskan. Most old barns here the wood is no longer available, many of them were built with American chestnut and other now rare super tough wood.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Did that just happen???



Did you need to use the fancy soap that SCG suggested?



. Fantastic! Absolutely fantastic!!



We have an old barn in Texas...I called around, those places that sell old barn wood for big bucks... wanted to see if I could sell them the barn....

They said NO!

If I did all of the work to dismantle the barn, they were willing to pick up the piled up lumber for zero cost.

To fix the barn, just the foundation...only place with rot....starts at $40,000

It happened in 2014. Not the best year for us.

See, now that's crazy. Those people want it for nothing so they can make a fortune. And to fix it...that's a crazy price!

 

[Alaskan]

They buy old barn wood here $$ probably depends on what was used Alaskan. Most old barns here the wood is no longer available, many of them were built with American chestnut and other now rare super tough wood.

Yeah, I am sure a Texas barn isn't built out of some fancy wood...but it is still old wood.

They didn't even ask me what kind of wood it was made out of, or where it was located, or how old....they said they didn't care.

Crazy.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

In the Chicago area they have been stealing window air conditioners and taking any "goodies" from the outdoor units they plunder.

That is BAD! People in Chicago die without AC!!!

Exactly.

SCG recommend a old timey soap, not fancy lol! I bet it does the job though. My fil uses it, could've got a bar from him, luckily didn't need it though my good boots and a hat I like and the clothes I was wearing have been banned to outside for now. Didn't spray much at all, though it did hit me once like nasty rotton onions. Think it was on the dirt under the trap, got on boots, walked through 'air' I didn't smell it on me but DW immediately sent me back outside to strip. Got lucky, only smelled outside for a little bit then disappeared.

I was walking up to the trap with a sheet, covering it and moving it so DH could take care of things when I let the skunk out. Never got sprayed..whew! They say skunks have poor eye sight so you have to walk up slowly when they're calm...that's the key.
The Pyrenees was in the barn with the second skunk right before I went in...and no one told me.

Well, eventually we had bad luck. The one skunk was too quick for us and got away. I may have been a bit upset. So I won't do that anymore. Now I just walk up to the trap from the front where the door is. I do them right there with them looking at me. It isn't how I like to do that but I'd rather have the head than the tail. Haven't had one spray me yet ...but they sometimes spray the ground. I dump them out of the trap later on in the day and leave them there until I feel ready...lol.
The guys think I'm hella crazy and won't have any part of it.

I once tried to catch a baby skunk. I got sprayed from the waist down.
Men's shaving cream works great for the smell. I didn't know I had been sprayed until I got in the tractor. It took about 2 years for the tractor to air out.

 

[drumstick diva]

I have a backyard skunk that walks on the outdoor basement window ledge ,while I am on BYC , some nights. It's not all powerful like being skunked - just their natural smell I guess. Gives me headaches- I have to wait till it clears to go back to the computer. We need a PU smilie.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

That is terrible

If that's at me...thank you! But that's life, right? The main thing is that we were all ok.
I think it's just par for the course considering what we've been through...lol.

2011 - We had the fire and all the equipment inside was fire damaged.


2012 - We had the power surge that took out most everything that was powered by electricity; all the florescent bulbs, the stove, the water softener, the over head door openers on the shops...and the list goes on.

2012 - The dismantle of the old and the build of the new shed.




2012 Ended with my back issues.

2013 Started with DH's knee and him trying to get out of things by pulling the 'ol pulmonary embolisms. We sold half the cattle herd. We started wet and ended wetter.

2014 was the flood. Oh yeah...there's grain in those bins.
The white building between the trees is to be my new chicken house. Whenever we get to it.

Our new shed flooded. *sigh*
The aftermath. I tried to build a dike with what we had. It held until the last 1/2 hour. I've since fixed the mess and am working at building up the yard.

2015 was the tornadoes I think. Thankfully we escaped that. This was also the year I got chickens. And you know...we haven't had anything bad happen since we got the chickens. Maybe that's a sign that things are going to turn around. We went out for supper tonight. No talking until we got near home where we were looking at the crops. They look pretty good at the moment. We haven't had a good crop since 2010.

I've gotten a bit carried away but this has ended up being very carthartic for me. I've been so upset since yesterday. My beautiful black ram passed away, he was the culmination of all our best breeding. The sheep have been on the back burner for a long time and we never got them split up to breed. I've been so, so angry with DH since yesterday. I've just been so frustrated with everything. I guess I see where all our time has gone...looking through all the pictures while doing this.

I do know I never want to have to deal with insurance companies ever again...

 

[Wickedchicken6]

I have a backyard skunk that walks on the outdoor basement window ledge ,while I am on BYC , some nights. It's not all powerful like being skunked - just their natural smell I guess. Gives me headaches- I have to wait till it clears to go back to the computer. We need a PU smilie.

He's probably trying to see what we're up to...lol.

 

[superchemicalgirl]

But:
1. They had Tom Cruise, and at this point...I have no interest in ever seeing him on the screen again.... nothing he has been in the last 10 years is any good...right? Or am I misremembering?

No, you're not. The last thing that I "enjoyed" him in was probably Top Gun, with the minor asterisk exception of his cameo in Tropic Thunder where they made him into a bald, potbellied, angry old man.