Barn roof would be wonderful.

I had every intention of working on the barn roof today.  There were just a few hiccups along the way.  I took my mother to Home Depot yesterday to buy 16 foot lengths of tin roofing.  After researching the price of a boom truck ($450/day plus $200 delivery charge) or a 20 foot scissor lift ($350/day) or scaffolding (free but it would take three people 4-5 days to assemble all the scaffolding so another $800 in labor) I opted on the old fashioned ladder method of roofing.  A full 16 foot piece of metal roofing will be brought up a ladder from below and slid up the roof to the waiting person in a harness on the peak, both parties will screw in the metal from their respective heights.  Once in place the ladder person will go get another piece and the roof person will slide down and finish screwing in the metal sheet.  This will continue all the way across the roof, not ideal but I would rather have money in new roofing then all the other alternatives.  Home Depot doesn't carry 16 foot lengths in stock, they could special order it for me.  I don't do big box special orders.  I ordered it from the local lumber store today, it will be here on Thursday, it was not cheap $900 but pretty much what I expected for 960 square feet of roofing. Imagine what it would cost to have it installed!  So I called and put off some of my help that was lined up for the weekend. 

Horse enclosure on left for feeding in winter. 

My nephew, Gannon and I went out with intentions of digging out the rest of the barn.  We spent almost four hours redoing fence crossings across the creeks.  The bull has learned to hook his horn in the panels and lift then push sideways under the fence.  It was just like a tricky gate for him.  No problem at all to get through.  We redid all three creek crossings that he was getting through and put him back in the lower pastures with the heifers and babies.  He was much happier being together with the herd.  His bellowing went away once he could stand around with the women. 

Backside of horse enclosure before changes.

The irrigation ditch I fixed and dug is doing much better.  It is halfway down to the school house from where it was a couple of weeks ago.  The grass is already starting to green back up.  I think by the end of the summer I will have to go down to the school house and fix all that irrigation canal with the tractor.  This is great news and will facilitate the dream of  planting a few more trees for eventual shade for the animals.  I will have to find said trees and then protect them with a small fence.  There are three more elm trees growing up in the front creek.

After lunch we went out to the barn but due to several thunderstorms and some torrential rain, no roofing was going to happen today.  We decided to work on this end of the barn and fix the horse area.  We cut out the back wall and added supports and a new wall.   I went along the side of the building and screwed down all the loose old boards.  We still need to add the batten between each wall piece of wood and get the feed stall area subdivided so each horse has its own area.  No more stealing of food or chasing away will be allowed. 

Annmarie has been working on our kitchen countertops.  I will be clear coating them tomorrow.  They turned out very nice.  I had just gotten used to the bright orange formica.  It looks very different without it.  I will get her to post a blog entry with pictures this month.

New side, used to be entrance.