Peas and barn, work and play

Tim's been busy with his electrical work during the week, then coming home with more to do at home over the weekends. 

Ariel has been teaching gardening to the kindergartners of Whidbey and has gotten inspired to get started on our garden as well.

So far, we've put in 5 of each of 5 kinds of peas, with the plan of planting another set every few weeks to see just what week is the best time of year for starting peas. Hopefully we will have delicious snacks growing in our garden this summer and be a little closer to our goal of food self-sufficiency. 

On Friday, Tim came home from a long day and long week of work to Ariel bouncing and shoving handfuls of messy plans at him saying "We're going to build the barn tomorrow!" having decided on it while Tim was at work. We need a place to store things securely on the property, as well as a structure to attach our power sources to. 

Tim put together a great video of building the barn over the weekend (above).

Our shopping list consisted of one trip to Home Depot and two trips to the local hardware store (Hanson's) to get

     16 - 12' 2x4

     27 - 10' 2x4

     32 - 8' 2x4
     1 - 12' 2x6
     3 - 10' 4x4
     1 - 12' 4x4 (pressure treated)
     9 - 12x12x8 concrete pier blocks
     9 - adjustable 4x4 pier block post bases
     9 - 4x4 post cap/bases
     6 - 2'x12' corrugated metal utility roofing
     4 - 4'x8' oriented strand boards
For about $600

We used 8' boards to lay out about where we wanted our footings for the building, then used stakes and survey string and measuring tapes and levels to lay out a more precise guide. 

Tim also realized we were in dire need of a bale of straw to make the mud a little more pleasant and clean to work on. With hay spread all around, it started to feel like a barn even without floors and walls and a roof.

Once the blocks were carefully leveled and placed, we made up stilts for the building, nailing post caps and bases to the 16" pieces of pressure treated 4x4. The goal is to have enough room under the barn for the animals to be able to use the extra space for shelter and to try to help deter rats. Also, being elevated brings the floor of the barn up to near the same level as the bed of the truck for easy loading, or the level of the wheelbarrow for easy unloading. 

As the light faded, we started lining up the first runner 4x4s between posts. We set up the generator in the back of the truck to power lights and the air compressor for our nail gun.

By moon and lamp light, we made our goal of getting all the runners in place and attached a floor joist to either end to hold it all together until morning. 

With the hard work of shopping and leveling and squaring done on Saturday, Sunday flew by, framing the floors and decking over with OSB in no time.

We were delighted we found we'd made something actually square and level and flush and plumb; and after adding some cross bracing on those legs, also stable.

After lunch, the dog park, and one more trip to the hardware store to replace those 2x4's used for bracing the legs, We got busy raising the walls. Mom-Joy and Dad-Rich arrived just in time to take some pictures.

From the tops of our ladders, we worked together to add a pony wall to our framing and were ready to start on the roof by moonlight.

 We built the outer frame of the roof on driveway - grateful we decided to get all that gravel a few weeks ago - then slid it into place and added additional rafters.

 Feeling like the Monroe Brothers from Green Acres, we worked together off a ladder to screw down all the metal roofing sheets, with a tight squeeze to reach the second-to-last panel and a long way up a ladder from the outside to put that last piece on, but we got it done!

With roof in place, we called it a night. Hopefully the sun will hold out for a few days until we get the siding on.

Monday morning means back to work for Tim, but at least those days end at 4:30.