Dart Creek Farm

by Michael Lobby

110 bales so far (a little over 3 tons) and only 350 more to go. I’ve decided this will be my daily or every other day…mmmm… or every other other day workout…50 bales, five at a time up into the truck, ten up into the loft, then up the ladder and stack. I’ve got a system going where I load 2 bales onto a platform I built to sit on top of the truck bed. Then I load 5 bales at a time into the truck, stack the bales onto the platform, then climb onto the platform, standing on the 2 bales, and load the 5 bales up onto the loft floor. After two cycles of 5 bales, I climb the ladder up into the loft and then stack the 10 bales. It seems a little like Daniel waxing Mr. Miyagi’s cars or sanding his floors, but then the muscles begin to remember and the progress is slow but steady. Only 6 more workouts until the job is done! Next year…a hay elevator.

my temporary hay elevator

the first hay in

I did have a couple of bonus discoveries…eggs. The chickens have been out of their coop during the day since all the hot weather started so they can find some cool shade and take dirt baths. The downside to this is we have only been getting a couple of eggs out of their nesting boxes every day. Well today, after taking bales of hay down out of the stalls, I discovered two different nests with eggs totaling a baker’s dozen. And some new darker ones that I’m sure are from the youngest hens. Score! I have two people at work who have prepaid for a dozen eggs and I haven’t been able to deliver…until now. We picked up some chicken wire on our supply outing to mend a few holes in the coop fence. Tomorrow, Kaitie and I will put up a platform for shade inside their yard. We’ll add some nice fresh dirt to the yard too for them to bathe. That, along with the new nesting boxes we added this week should make them happy enough to give us a good dozen and a half eggs a day.

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by Michael Lobby

September 12, 2007

So, my master plan included pretty much gutting the existing barn and splitting it in half lengthwise. I would then de-construct one side and move it over twelve feet, splitting each roof truss in half and then building a completely new one for the additional 12 feet on the end. Kimberly and the kids and I had a fun time hammering and smashing and pulling lumber out of the old barn. I must admit, being used to working alone on projects of this sort, I had to “step back” a little and let everyone do their thing trying not to worry about managing every little aspect of the endeavor. It’s the ‘only child’ part of me that I haven’t quite gotten rid of yet.

We gutted the barn (saving as much lumber as possible for later recycling) and removed the metal siding on the East wall. The large sliding door on the North side was also removed. I removed all of the random nails (Kim’s term) and electrical wiring for the few lights that were there. I also had to remove PVC pipe that had seemingly been plumbed around in various places for watering.

After all that was done, I began grading the ground around the barn to a level even with the bottom of the East wall. The barn was built on a slight slope and the ground was much higher on the East side. I will still have to put in some drain pipe around the East and North sides.

September 12, 2007

Once the leveling was completed, I could mark out the post holes and start digging. I put a total of 11 new 6×6 posts in the ground. I added two 24′ posts to the end and two on the inside of the barn. Then for the new 12′x48′ side I added 5 12′ posts. To the inside existing posts, I added 10′ posts to the tops and secured them with pegged mortise and tenon joints. As with many situations during construction, it was a feat of physical science to get the posts seated by myself using the tractor and some interesting bracing.

September 13, 2007 September 16, 2007 September 16, 2007

More to come…

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by Michael Lobby

I had been meaning to do this (blog) for awhile now. In fact, I started this entry a few weeks ago and then got a kick in the butt when our good friend Kelli Wright started a blog for her family. For our family I thought of it as a good way to show off all of our hard work and also document our journey to the place of which we have dreamed.

We have been living in this house since January of 2007 and closed on the purchase at the end of that March. We now own a little piece of Heaven and I cannot imagine ever moving.

Since last September, much of our free time has been spent gutting and then reconstructing and enlarging our 24’ by 36’ pole barn that, by judging what was left on the stall walls, was once home to an undetermined number of cows. Our house, shop, and barn sit atop a hill on 14 and a quarter magnificent acres in Yankton, Oregon. The barn as it originally existed had two shed row type stalls on the side that open to a 6 acre pasture. The side that would become the end of the isle opens to a 84’ by 168’ outdoor arena that, hopefully someday, will be covered.

I came up with what I thought was a simple design for a nice six stall horse barn with a tack room and hay loft. After spending two years refining my forte as a furniture maker and woodworker at the Northwest Woodworking Studio, my designs skills have evolved to a point where I could not design something that was not, at least, unique in some special way. In upcoming posts you will see what I am talking about become more clear. We are now nearing the end of May and I can say that if it were not for this fabulous design of which I speak, the barn would probably have been completed last year (before the Winter snow).
I will start from the beginning and take you chronologically, and using photographs, through the construction of this monster, uh, addition to our estate as well as what is going on in our crazy, horsey life. Keep reading…

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