It's done... Finished... Completed... Phew

A barn built on the budget of a shed.

 A structure with a 40' x 55' footprint and 27' rise!

As with most projects Ray sets out to tackle I was very skeptical to even attempt this one.

 This barn was never meant to be anything fancy- and fancy it is not- but it is impressive to me because it was beyond ambitious for our means and abilities. 

It will stand and constantly remind us that we have been blessed in countless ways to achieve something beyond ourselves, and I couldn't be happier. 

Here it will stand-for decades to come-
 for our family to see what we are capable of if we just try.  

October 26, 2019 

Here's a "bitty- bit" of  how this all came to be.

For over two years we collected the materials- a little here, a lot there-  and built this beast in stages- a little here, a big push there- and I can't tell you how many times I just wanted to quit. 

The first bit of material came from a run to Wyoming in 2017.  My dad had a pile of tin from an oil field structure and when he offered, we ran! (What a chore and a story! Suffice it to say we learned how NOT to cut 50+ sheets of tin- use a circular saw, not a grinder.) 

About a year ago, as we were still unsure how to acquire poles- let alone figure out how to stand them- a mico-burst came through the canyon and made a mess of things. A few of the heavier (grey) sheets of tin took flight and were found nearly a hundred yards away, others were bent around fence posts; both piles were a mess. 

For months the tin sat, and sat, and sat some more until we met a special family who have become our friends.  The dad of this family had all the right connections and got our project into motion.

 I don't think we knew them more than a month-nor told them of our dream barn but in passing- and this guy showed up with poles! We had been trying for years to get poles and then one day he just shows up with four! Then a few weeks later there were four more, etc.  And then, just as quickly, the poles started to get stood in like fashion, a few one day, a few more another. March 2018 looked real good to me. 

 

I think of this guy as our genie friend... every time he brought a pole or placed a pole  the Genie from Aladdin was singing in my head "can your friend do this.... can your friend do that.. can your friend pull a few poles...out of his hard hat!" 

Seriously though, what a blessing that was exciting to see. 

 While we waited for more poles...we played. Hundreds of feet of rope and some poles make for instant monkey business.

However, when the day came in April of 2018 to top the poles, I hid! 

I tip my hat to anyone who straps themselves to a skinny stick while wielding a chain saw to be used on that said stick!  Some of these poles had twenty-foot lengths cut off, others five, and Mr. Genie treated it as if it was no big deal. Yikes

           

 The poles stood untouched for almost a year as we gathered the funds for the beams.

I had a non-living orchard that at times I feared would stay that way forever- but at least it looked great in the moon light. 

While we waited  and busted tail on side hustles to earn the money for the four- forty foot long beams we placed more poles in two other locations around our place for shades 

(some are still bare poles today, others are supporting a shade that's nearly complete)

While setting these fifteen foot tall poles in our steer pin I was almost brought to tears. I don't know how we man-handled them to standing, but we did, and I was left KNOWING there would have been no way we could have ever  stood anything any taller by ourselves. 

 This in and of it's self brought the level of gratitude for my genie friend to a whole new level. 

(As I type, #1 is telling me we used a block and tackle along with one-horse power named Vaquerro to hoist one particularly large pole up and into place. I seem to have forgotten this. )

In March of 2019 we bought the beams. But the beams sat for months while finding a crane to hoist them up. 

Buying the beams was a fiasco and getting them delivered... another fiasco that derailed us for a short spell. Thankfully though Ray just happened to know someone with a roll trailer and some "free" time. But how on earth were we  going to get them up? Well, we had to think on that for a short spell. 

I am seeing a common theme to this whole project....aren't you?

In July- when Ray's brother went BIG and bought a crane- we called him up and got back in the game. What a great day!

This was a fun day, and a day full of blessings galore.  I don't know how Ray and his brother were going to lift and anchor these beams as a pair, but I thank God our neighbor saw the opportunity to climb (he's a utilities man to the core!)  and rushed over like a kid headed to an amusement park.  Despite the wicked heat these three got all four beams up in record time.  (It was the fastest stage of the whole project) 

With the beams placed, and all the heavy lifting behind us, we were left to work, and work we did! At last, there was no more waiting for anyone or anything, we just needed time to be on our side. 

,

                    

My brother's family and our mom joined in on the fun for one day- September 1, 2019.
 Everyone was willing to climb up there so I wouldn't have to, that was touching.

 

On September 13th Ray became Super Man. We had to get the plywood up.... it was better him than me! He rode the stack up, dropped it, then "flew" down. 

On September 20th we started to lay the sheeting.  
The first 15 boards or so went up alright, but it soon became impossible to get a snug fit at
 every union because the structure was not square-  consequently "gappage" started.

This picture was taken when the sheeting was done and shows the "gappage" if you look at the shadow.
We ended up covering these gaps with roll-out roofing shingles before covering the entire surface with tin.

 Now, we knew this was going to be the case when putting up the "trusses". The beams were out of square by just a couple of inches but we hoped that a couple of inches wouldn't be such an issue....wrong thought.
It was, and I saw the disappointment in Ray's eyes. He wanted to cut and fit every board from then on out, but we just couldn't afford the extra expense and pressed on.

 

 I had to continually remind this man he was building a  POLE barn and if we took into consideration how perfectly imperfect our building materials and resources were to being with, what we were accomplishing was grand and perfect in it's own right!

 

The poles were square and plumb when we set them,
but by the time we got to building nearly a year later....they were not.  The beams went up in such a way that we had to eyeball their alignment. I'd say that being three inches off on their alignment with each other in the end was a miracle.

Drum roll...the tin started being laid on October 25th 2019 and marked the last day I will EVER ever have to get up there.  I can't tell you how happy I was to get down that day. Even though there were six sheets of tin to place the next day, the sun had set and I officially retired. 

If we hadn't have run out of screws and ran to town, we could have finished, but alas that's just how these projects go. So we worked till daylight was through and committed to be done by noon the next day...and we were.

 It might have taken us years to build, but it is done and WE did it.
October 26th, 2019

My boys are proud of what they helped build and I am  grateful we had the chance to give them this to look back on. 

We didn't build this barn alone, but had help all along the way and I never want that to be forgotten. There were several tender blessing from Heaven, muscles lent from friends, and a whole fleet of angles that helped this all come about-both seen and unseen-that kept us all safe. 
We are truly blessed. 

Public Service Announcement:

I would NEVER build something this big! It was hazardous to my health. 😏