The Madness of a Chaotic Barn Raising has started... and it ain't pretty!
I must learn to Delegate!!!
So before you start thinking about the Amish and how extremely efficient they are at raising barns... This is not that kind of story! I only call this a barn because it is what it will become once we move the RV out of it, and a small one too. Think of it more like a carport for the trailer.
Building plans were in... Seventy 80lbs bags of concrete mix, delivered! Picking up both a tow behind auger and a concrete mixer as early as possible saturday morning, check!
Everything was going as planned, people were arriving and we were ready to dig ten 4 foot holes...
Ok, hold up... it didn't quite go that smooth. First I didn't get home 'till midnight Friday evening or Saturday morning, which ever way you want to look at it. That bit was actually realy awesome, my wife was hanging out by the bonfire with our good friend, Andrea (who was starting her weekend camping to celebrate her birthday on the homestead), she greeted me with a plate of her Guatemalan pupusas, cooked on the fire, homemade pickled slaw and a cold beer!!! Whose birthday was it again? 😁
If was in the morning that things became a little wild... at least in my head! I couldn't keep my thoughts organized in anyway I liked.
I had three friends who came to help, and they were all contractor types and handy men. Being all pretty good at working things out and knowing how to build things with our hands, there was a lot of discussion regarding how we should lay out the exact places to dig. It all starts here, at the foundation... Each one of these pillars, we're digging holes for, need to be pretty on point so we can have a square building.
After the heated conversations cooled off we laid out our building with stakes in the ground and made a grid out of string. We than spray painted big X's to indicate where we should dig!
Ok things were actually going the way we planned now, except we had too many chefs in the kitchen once again. The auger was doing its job just fine, but as soon as we hit rock... there it was again, all the different "roads to Rome" had to be told. One wanted to bring the dirt up to 4 feet around where our concrete foundation would be, while another wanted to rent an excavator and kept on about how we should be doing it a different way. Anyway, here I was torn between everyone who knew more about concrete than I and the panic of not getting anything done in time before the rental company needed their equipment back! On top of all that I had all these bags of concrete which supposedly have a short shelf life.
I definitely wasn't enjoying this building process what so ever! The stress was making me stress!!!
I was in some sort of panic mode... in the mean time friends and their kids were showing up and I didn't know what to ask them to do. They came with smiles and were eager to help but I had no idea what needed to be done, I was concentrating on our holes!
We had a tree that had to me cut down, a small poplar, but with so many things in the way all around the construction site and the outdoor kitchen, we needed a guide line.
That came down really smoothly and after we cut all the branches off, the little ones came to collect them for a fort:
I couldn't believe what an awesome fort this was. All these things were halpening while we were stuck in our holes! Can you see what they wrote on the makeshift door?
And than another good friend was cooking up a soup. I knew that the evening was going to be much more relaxing than the day has been...
In the end, even though i stressed out because I thought things were going completely wrong... people had lots of fun, the kids had a completely free range weekend, so they had tons of fun, we ate like kings and we got everything I wanted to get done except the concrete work. That was a blessing in disguise because I learned this week that the town inspector wants to "ok" the work before moving on to pouring concrete!!!!
I learned a lot about myself and working with my friends. I appreciate so very much all the people that came to help and I promise that next time I will have my shit together a little more 😁!
Barnburning sounds like more fun than barn raising 😘
Awesome crossover! Really well combined.
Haha thanks for that @likedeeler it's a fun song!
señor coco . excelente publicación sobre la base de la granja. Gracias por compartir se ve que fue muy divertido . Saludos desde Venezuela.
Muchas gracias!
Wat a fun post! Building on the homestead...
I assume from the amount of cement you got that you want to pour a whole slab for the barn, no just footings. Nice looking mixer, btw! Is it new? I don't think I've ever mixed with a band new one.
Of course, even with good equipment, and lots of help, there are always unforeseen challenges, trees and rocks, and more. But as you said, best to get the official okay on it, so it all went well.
Does the door say you'll be eaten if you open it?
Just 12ft x12ft holes 4 feet deep for the frost line... a friend of mine who grew up in the concrete world calculated that amount of "ready mix". Now I just hipe it won't harden before we can use it.
We never used the mixer, I had to return it! It's a loss for sure but lesson learned ... maybe when I have lots of experience building foundations I can say "we can do it in two days".
That would be funne if it said that on the door, maybe they were trying to actually.
good to hear from you my friend, I hipe your summer was good 😁
Oh, I see, it's mixed with the sand and gravel already. Well, that's quite convenient. That means just for the footings you need the rubber stamp? :-( But yeah, whatever it takes, right?
Thanks, my summer was good. I was actually down in the Winter for that, but neither in Mexico nor New Zealand is there much difference between Summer and Winter.
yeah it's super convenient.. I didn't know about it till my friends told me to get it! The town is cpming tomorrow to have a look... crossing my fingers 😁
Oh right, not much difference between the seasons there.
Seeing the good with the bad is a skill in its own right. I'm glad you had the good bits to balance the stress of the bits that didn't go so smoothly. That's where friends help. Even a stressful day can became much more bearable with good friends to help you through.
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Yes we are definitely blessed with good friendships... and that's part of why we stay in New York state!! Thank you
yeah things are moving along and it is only normal that you get a bit stressed with all that needs to be done. It is also hard to delegate, but how wonderful that all our friends came to help, that really is what community is about and once the kids are happy that is half the job. Looking forward to seeing more about the build. xxx
Haha thanks!!! Yeah the kids for sire had fun. And we do have awesome friends, I'm so greatfull for their help.
Talking about commumity, I am reading a book called Tribe (on homecoming and belonging) right now, very amazing how our modern society is really in trouble because of this lack of community!
Haha... I loved your raw honesty here. Very few people have the ability to plan, lead AND delegate whilst staying very very chill about their passion project. haha. I'm that person who has to go work in a coffee shop when the housemaid comes, because I don't like seeing what the hovering does to me. :)
Great that you had a relax at the end and can grow through this. :)
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Thank you, you're the best!
Ah thank you for the kind words. It is super difficult to keep the vision on track when friends have so many other ideas (some of them very far from the organic and green ways I wpuld like)... I should probably have gone to the coffee shop myself!
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Thank you for sharing 😁
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