Christmas

This was certainly an eventful Christmas season.

Some hightlights:
- A massive ice storm rolled through our area knocking out our power for 4 days.
- The ice storm made a mess of the yard, trees tore up the gutters on the house.
- Baby was sick and orally expelling fluids for 3 days.
- Extended family Christmas gathering was cancelled due to illness of the hosting relative.


That doesn't sound too fun, ah but we made the best of it. We managed to make it out to Frankenmuth for a nice chicken dinner. Guests from out of town stayed with us and braved the dark cold conditions. The power finally came back on late Christmas day and we had a lot of friends and family come visit a couple of days later.

Thanks to all the family and friends that helped make this a wonderful holiday to remember.

Here are some pictures Daren and I took.

Old Doors Emerge

Our barn is filled with things. My wife and I sometimes differ on the exact terms used to describe these things but often it's either 'treasures' or 'junk' depending on who you talk with.  Besides the 'items' there are messes that only 80 years of animal infestations and decay can create. Our latest adventure into the barn took us to the very back, through the piles of organic and in-organic unknown masses that seem to proliferate the structure. We salvaged a collection of old doors. Not sure of their condition, origin, or intended purpose we gathered them in the driveway and pressure washed them, being careful not to scar the wood. Our hopes are to fabricate jambs for a few of them and put them to use in the addition. It's clear they will take a bit of repair and prep work to deal with loose panels and lead paint.

Starting the Barn Cleaning

With some much needed help from the family, the holiday break was spent cleaning out our old barn. By our estimates it hasn't been maintained for roughly the last 30 years. Going this long without attention has allowed many critters ample time to get in, build nests, defecate, and die inside the structure. The weather has also taken a toll on the siding and some of the main supporting beams.

Here are some pictures of the task at hand.

This is an enclosed area side of the main entrance. The hay in this area might not look like much but it has compacted over the years and is full of surprises. 

Here is the other half of the same area, full of hay and other various stuff. Many woodchucks have dug tunnels in the hay and called this place their home over the years.

Here is room full of old wood planks and other random farm junk.

Yet another part of the barn filled with random items.

You can see the upper loft in this picture. There is even more hay up their.

This is a smaller room toward the front of barn that was used to store chemicals.

The task of cleaning all this up is quite daunting, this will certainly be a multi part project.  A few raccoon latrines were also discovered along the way. Apparently the latrines are areas where a whole community of raccoons will take care of their business. The amount of feces they left was horrific. Many of the poo soaked boards had to be thrown down from the upper levels of the barn, taken out, and burnt. Proper PPE should always be used when dealing with raccoon feces due to the risk of roundworm.