The wind is usually nasty, and it really must have been nasty during the last week.  Remember the portion of the barn that was collapsed?  The remains were resting on a little interior room.  I noticed today that one of the walls had violently snapped in half, and several of the boards on the back wall were now crushed.  I think it fell about a foot.  I few of the 1×6s  (the thin way) are still holding the end, and I can still see a 2×4 holding up the middle of the floor underneath.  I was able to pull apart the framing that was the front wall.  I can shake all the remains by hand, so it’s quite dangerous at this point.  Maybe another storm or two will do it.  I found a crowbar buried in the front of the barn, no rust.  I had been looking for that one.  Also, I noticed that the field behind the barn was plowed over recently.  I found several pieces of boards pulled up out of the dirt.  Did I mention that we found the front hay loft door WAY out in the cornfield?  It must have flown!
It’s odd.  With the corn gone, you can see the barn remains now.  Instead of seeing the giant roof from the corner of O and 320th, now you round the bend and see the only standing wall.  From a distance, it looks like a construction site trailer.

The final fate of the barn?  I don’t know.  There is some good wood and beams there, and there is one section standing. I’d love to get all the fallen down and junk wood removed.  Then I can trim the back 1/3 from the standing barn, and cleanup over what was the main walkway.  If the rest seems OK, we could stick a little roof on it, and get a shed/chicken coop/something.  We have been trying to save all the good curved rafters.  Most of them were shattered.  We have enough for a small coop, or a good doghouse.  I still think I can dig out the pen area of the barn to use the footings as the sides of a small pool or pond. 

Bill Sutton, who farms around us did bring one of his tractors down.  In exchange for some of our pile of field rock, he donated some time to helping move material and brush around.  He also used the bucket’s reach to cut down the branches  that were hanging over our driveway.

I think I figured out how to cover the greenhouse space, I just need an excuse to get to a home improvement store to look around.

We have been going pretty gung-ho on the house in town.  Just after we finished the kitchen, the dishwasher sprung a leak.  And you guessed it, removing a floor and a layer of plywood before replacing it with hardwood flooring did bring the floor height up about 1/4″.  Exactly how much room it takes to remove the dishwasher.  We ended up removing a untrimmed piece of laminate from the front edge of the couters and cut out the offending overhang of the counter to get the old one out.  Reagan happened to be in Des Moines and found a Kitchenaid dishwasher at the Habitat for Humanity store for $200.  Our dishes have never been this clean.  I love the thing.  It does hold a little less, but it’s solid stainless inside.

The bathroom and kitchen got all the walls textured and painted.  I even hung up curtains while Reagan was out for the weekend.  The back entry still needs to be done, and a little bit around the front door.  Then moulding, everywhere.  We are running out of to-do items here.

I have used the super nice weekend weather to get out for some bike rides.  You might say late season rides, I’m calling it early season rides.  In November and December, we start packing in miles on the trainer so we hit the Spring-fresh roads with speed.  I’m just getting a head start on my base mileage right now. There is always an upper body workout to be done, with all these leaves on the ground.  Oh, I rode to the farm the other night, and found carrots.  I had forgot about them.  I pulled one up about 6″ long, with a little left in the ground, and it must have been 2″ wide.  Free snack!  Super sweet and wonderful.

We finally figured out what Two Barn Farm is for.  Iowa has a new LLC registered, and we have been getting ready.  In fact our first prototype was created last night, and made this morning.  There is a fine line between a hobby and obsession.  Some hobbies turn obsessive, some obsessions turn into hobbies.  Which ever way it is, that’s usually a good sign of drive and passion.  More to come!

Wow, it’s starting to look like something.

OK, here’s the scoop.  For nearly two years, I have left a few minor hand tools in the corn crib.  Each summer, the generator is there.  I even left my compressor there most of this summer.  Two weekends ago, we added a wall, and a door, and a lock.  I finished this up Tuesday night, and thought to myself that I would be back by Saturday.  I have a locked door, I should leave all my tools here.  So, I tucked them all away in the side room.

I show up Saturday, and guess what.  No tools.  Some complete waste climbed up and over the plywood, to get over the door.  I know this, as a pair of loose boards used as blocking to keep the door frame square was kicked out.  Once inside, they unlocked the door and carried everything out.

The list so far is: Craftsman pneumatic framing nailgun, Craftsman 12″ compound miter saw, 2500 nails, gas weedeater, the large propane heater, a sawzall, a Mccullough chainsaw, a few random tools, some nice plumbing goods, and hundreds of feet of electrical wiring.  Thankfully, they left the compressor and generator, which are now at my house.

According to the Sheriff, we are about the 5th place “in the area” with small tools missing.  Since they were checking into every single box in the shed, they must have not realized that their shoes were making perfect footprints in the dirt.  The Sheriffs loved this and even came back to take extra pictures.  We even had good tire tracks.

Afterward, I added a little more plywood to cover the entrance point, and we have locks everywhere else.  Since I am a tech geek, and we just got power, it didn’t take long for a trio of hidden webcams making a live Internet feed to a motion activated recording system.  I did pass on my brother in-laws idea of having power saws turn on and fly at the door.  So, if whatever asshat comes back to look around again, make sure you smile.  If you are stupid enough to come back, I might let loose the saw wielding robot, aka Robot Wars style down there.

Anyhow.  I’ll probably go get a new nail gun, and NAILS (you jerk) and see if we can finish up some of the siding before it gets too cold down there (due to same jerk who stole the heater)

I took Grampy down there, and we got some trim and insulation hung up.  Grampy also pre-cut a few pieces of siding.  It was getting dim, but I got the first 3 pieces of siding on the East end of the crib.  After we picked up the tools, I thought about checking the gardens.  There might be some lunker of a zucchini hiding over there.

Tomatoes.  I nearly filled a 5 gallon bucket with bright red tomatoes.  Reagan has already canned sauce, diced tomatoes, garden relish, salsa, and a few other things out of the garden.  We have storerooms and freezers full of peas and onions too.  Now there is another batch of tomatoes to deal with.  Maybe we should check into Carla’s soup recipie…..

The whole canning process has gotten me into a fury as well.  I had to put up some barley and hops of course.  My hop vines only grew about 8 inches this year.  I used my business trip to St Paul as an excuse to visit the homebrew store that I usually order from.  Somehow, I came home with enough grain for 2 more batches of brew, even though I had that much at home already.

I started with the oldest first, which was something called “Big Honking Stout”  I realized that my power drill can replace the handle on this thing labeled the “Barley Crusher”.  It took care of 12lbs of grain in a minute!  Much better than cranking by hand.  I have quite the setup, and have started doing all-grain batches last year.  So there was a huge production of interconnected coolers and tubing and hot water sprinklers, and pots all over the kitchen.  Crazy to the untrained eye, but it was much more manageable than normal.
That batch is sitting in one of my large conical fermenters.  Next on deck for tomorrow is a Belgium Dubbel.  Next week might entail an Irish Red Ale followed by a Strong Dark Belgium Trappist Ale.  Notice that nothing seems to be labeled as American style?  Yes, there is a reason for that.
Hopefully this warm streak will continue for a few more nights and into the weekend.  I might get some more corn crib work done.

Well, if you’ve been in our living room in the last 6 months, you’ve seen the floor.  It’s been in boxes behind the couch waiting for us to have time to install it.  Being the thrifty gal that I am, I had decided that bamboo would probably be the best option concerning price-wise and still be made from an easily renewable resource.  Costco offered a solid bamboo floor for less than $3 a sq ft if I remember correctly.  Meaning the floor would cost us around $350.

However, one day while perusing Craigslist, I found someone selling their bamboo project leftovers.  I got 150 sq ft for $150!!  Of course, I didn’t get to choose brand, carbonized or not, species of bamboo, etc.  But you can’t beat the price.

I would have preferred non-carbonized, as I have read that it is harder than carbonized.  I know that some websites tout bamboo as a hard material, but the carbonized kind really isn’t.  We already have a few dents in the floor, but we figure it will add a nice patina over time.  If you aren’t interested in “patina”, I would highly recommend against this type of floor.

This is the second type of kitchen floor we have installed.

We previously installed cork.

Pros: I loved the softness of standing on it.
The color was a nice contrast to our existing hardwood.
It didn’t have a grain which made it just different enough to not look “matchy-matchy”.
It wasn’t “loud”.
Price.  I got it on clearance at Nebraska Furniture Mart for less than $3 sq ft.
Cons: It was a little difficult to install the “click system” under toe kicks.
It was soft (the refrigerator left dents).
The color faded in a strange way where we had a rug in the dining room.

Overall: I liked it, but I wouldn’t do it again.  There are too many other experiments to try!

This time:

Carbonized Bamboo

Pros:Easy install, we did have to rent a flooring nailer.
Price. Bought someone else’s leftovers for $1 sq ft.
Made from a quickly renewable resource.
Nice color and texture.
Cons: Dents Easily.
Others TBD, I’m sure!

So, that’s why we call this the “practice house.”  We are using it to find out what we really like for our next adventures.

I’m currently working on the subway tile in the shower.  Hopefully, I will have an update on that soon.

Our friend, Tammy, and her Jack Russell Terrier/Heeler mix, Arlo, just happened to be visiting yesterday on their way back to Colorado.  We call Arlo a “superdog” because he fetches, catches frisbees midair, and actually listens to commands.   He had a great time in the baby pool running to catch the frisbee.

I brought Tieta over first this year, since she loves laying in the kiddie pool we put in the backyard for them.  She was a pretty decent swimmer, but she soon became preoccupied with the other dogs, so I had to bring her home.

Next, it was Ozzie’s turn.  To keep him corralled, we stayed in the baby pool area where he played with an adorable West Highland White Terrier named “Max.”  They ran around and around and around.  Ozzie would take a dip in the baby pool every now and then, but he really isn’t much of a swimmer.  In the 3 foot deep section of the big pool, he just stands on his hind legs against the wall so his head stays above water and gives me a look that says, “Why aren’t you saving me???”

Always a great time, we look forward to this every year.  A.P.E. does a great job of expanding knowledge about spaying and neutering your pets, yes, even your “barn cats” and “farm dogs” should be spayed or neutered!  Check out their programs on their website to get ALL your pets spayed and neutered.