All things old are new again : Why Rural Appalachian people sometimes keep old cars in the yard

      It  is wood cutting time again and this year I decided to pull this little blue beast back out of retirement - He has been sitting in the backyard for about three years with a flat tire and has been a storage building, dumpster and all manner of other things since that time. This is- without a doubt -the good side with only a dented door and no handle, a messed up radio antenna and mismatched tires. The other side is rusted out beat up and pretty much ugly with a window that will barely roll up and down, One wheel that sticks out too far , and mismatched tires. He has 237K and a vortex v6, and has been on fire twice( once in the cab and once under the hood). It has towed about 8 other vehicles to the junkyard on tow dollies and had hauled mules, donkeys , horses, junk iron and torn down houses in the attached trailer -which is really too heavy for the truck cause this is the 4th bumper as the other 3 broke or got torn off with various too heavy loads attached. Its a 4x4 with a high and low range and a CD player that still works. It was a little low on oil and the power steering has a significant leak so it grinds a little when about out of  fluid.

     Many people drove by and saw the old truck sitting , a few stopped to try to buy it. It wasn't very pretty back there with a flat tire and covered with old lumber and trash. I bought a brand new battery today and  five gallons of gas and, after changing the flat tire, Heather and I had it running in no time. The other tires needed aired up a little and then we hooked up and cleaned out the (also heavily trash laden)  horse trailer - good thing it was trash day.

    I had to prime it up by pouring fuel down the breather but once it started the first time it fired up the first crank every time afterwards.  Plans are to load the truck and trailer and back them up a few feet from the back door and throw a tarp over them so there is plenty of firewood ready once the snow is flying 

  Now look up in the wood line straight behind the drivers seat - that's another dodge minivan - a 93 - the one I drive is a 98 - the tires, brakes, and a great many other parts are the same. That's another reason why people keep old cars around their places - yeah it is worth 3-4 hundred dollars as junk iron but that would just get spent. As it sits it is there when I have a blowout on the way home from work or my radiator gets a leak or my alternator goes out. It also stores the seats out of my current van so I don't have to waste gas hauling the extra seats around all the time. This vehicle will start up and pull itself around - it has a very rare transmission that would fit my current van- would cost $2000 used at a salvage yard.

Behind the van and blocked from view is my 1992 Subaru Station Wagon - Its got a bad transmission with no reverse- It also has a broken front axle. None of the parts off it will fit my other vehicles but its still here for a third reason people keep their old cars - I just like it. I Love to drive it around with just one rear wheel pushing it around -its fun for playing in the mud and spinning and fishtailing on a wet road. Its also good for storing stuff - I keep all my outdated computers and CRT monitors in it and some big old TVs. 

That's me and my three wrecks but I am representative of the culture in the area. People keep things for years - something to fall back on mentality. It comes down from the pioneers who first moved into the area after the Revolutionary war - there wasn't a person nearby who could sell them a new wagon wheel when the old one broke , so whenever someone in the neighborhood got a new wagon the old one was a good source for cannibalized parts. The mentality of holding onto and getting just-one-more- use out of things made the pioneers able to survive.

   

 Picture an old farmer with a crosscut saw.

He used it till the teeth were short and thin and recut them with files, sharpened it down over and over until it was too thin and weak width-wise and unserviceable as a saw.

The farmer was wise and frugal so he fired up his forge and used the metal to construct a mowing scythe (think grim reaper) which he used for years to mow; sharpening it with a stone until it was too thin and flimsy for even that purpose. 

 Then he then fired up the forge again and cut it down into a set of knives for butchering. as they wore out he strapped the remnants to a piece of strap leather and used it to shell corncobs.

That old farmer got  a lot of use out of that saw. He was living in a house with boards he had cut out with it , eating  with knives it had been made into,  a cow who had been fed with grass it had cut and corn it had shelled.

     



Next this same farmer buys himself a 1926  Ford --when the engine wears out and it is no longer good as a vehicle, do you honestly think that farmer is going to throw in the towel and call a tow truck to come get it?

  No. he will cut the sheet metal out and roof a hen house with it, use the windows in an outbuilding, use the high carbon steel in the leaf springs for some of the best cutting tools one can construct. He can use the truck bed as a coal bin, the frame can be covered with wood and make an expedient bridge over the creek. The tires make planters in the yard and the rear wheels, and axle makes a fine trailer for his new 1935 Ford. His son in law who is trained by the coal mining companies as an electrician uses the battery, generator, and coil are hooked up with a waterwheel down in the creek to create the county's first electric fence. 

        70 years later and parts of the old Ford are still bouncing around the holler where the old farmer lived. I know because I ran over one of them three years ago, got a flat tire, and had to park my truck-- but it made an excellent tool for shelling dried corn off the cob.

On being small and having much to learn...

      At a local livestock auction I watched 14-16 wethers (castrated) full grown, beautiful, healthy purebred Nubian goats being sold. Only the slaughterhouse buyers bid on them. One farmer said "Yeah they are pretty but what could I do with them? If I put them on the nicest pasture I have they wouldn't put on any more weight, they are not gonna grow anymore - they aren't any good to me."

       This pearl of wisdom can be applied to our products, our staff, our businesses, and ourselves. Why should we spend money on things that wont grow or improve and be worth more later on; Why would one hire a person who couldn't or wouldn't be trained in the way you want to do business; why would a business limit its growth by only catering to certain customers or pursuing certain goals (for instance a dog groomer who would only groom collies); finally- when we stop learning and growing , emotionally, spiritually, and functionally we quickly lose our sense of self worth and with it our marketability. The only constant in business or in education is change and there is always a new things to discover or old things to be relearned by a new generation.

    An old dog must learn new tricks.

       A small business can grow in any direction -think a man with a truck. He buys a mower and all at once he is a landscaper . Winter comes, he buys a snowblower.  Gets a client that needs a picnic shelter. He builds it for him. He hauls the lumber and tools on his truck. He  then tears down a old shed and hauls the used lumber and sells it,. He hauls aluminum cans to the recyclers.  The man with the truck is versatile and open-minded and successful.

Now examine the same man who has a truck but he doesn't want to get it dirty hauling a mower in it- it would mess up his truck. He doesn't want to get out in the cold and run a snowblower -his nice clothes would get all wet and ruined. He doesn't know how to build a picnic shelter - that's complicated all those boards and nails and stuff. He isn't hauling old naily boards in his nice truck (let someone else tear down that shed) and forget the sticky old cans. He misses payments on his truck and loses it.

It is in my blood....

CAUTION BORING GENEOLOGY INFO FOLLOWS then some deep thought about sustainability and a homesteader's ideal legacy.

1860 Raleigh Co., WV census farm on Broomstraw Ridge ~10 miles away
Henry Bennett, 27, m, farmer, va (Great Great Great Grandfather)

Lucinda, 25, f, matron, va (Great Great Great Grandmother)
Jacob, 3, m, va
Nancy, 1, f, va (Great Great Grandmother)
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1870 Blue Sulphur, Greenbrier Co., WV census page 341A & 341B household #199/190 -farm on Lick creek ~10 miles away
Ira Bragg 44 w m farmer VA - Confederate bushwacker and POW  (Great Great Great Grandfather)
Lucinda 42 w f keeping house VA (Great Great Great Grandmother)
Abby 16 w f at home VA
Nancy A. 14 w f at home VA
James A. 11 w m VA
Reuben 9 w m VA
Marion P. 5 w m WV
William H. 2 w m WV

Ira's father was Reuben Bragg who also was at the same farm in Blue Sulphur , His mother was Mary, Polly Richmond who's Father William C Richmond who farmed at Sandstone (at the time called New Richmond~10 miles away) Her mother was a Kaylor whose family had a huge farm Near Lick creek. Reuben's father Joseph Bragg was a farmer and in the war of 1812, Judith Adkins, his wife lived to be 108 years old and drew his pension but they also had a farm in Greenbrier County.
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1880 Green Sulphur, Summers Co., WV census page 180A (same farm still in family)
James A. BRAGG Self M Male W 21 WV Farmer WV WV (Great Great Grandfather)
Nancy BRAGG Wife M Female W 21 WV Keeping House WV WV
John Henry BRAGG Son S Male W 1 WV WV WV (Great Grandfather)

Paul Bragg, son of John Henry Bragg and Geneva Davis Bragg are my paternal grandparents whose farm I have spoken about extensively in previous blog posts. Geneva was raised in town and on her grandfather Horton Davis's farm on Madams Creek ~10 miles away.

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My maternal grandfather Austin Brown and grandmother Audrey Brown raised my mother and took care of his stepmother's farm (the Hicks place) which my property is a section of. They moved a lot but always had a farm. His father and mother Samuel Austin Brown and Virsie Jane Hatcher kept a farm less than a mile from the Bragg's farm listed above, her parents Elijah Hatcher and his wife Catherine Solesbury also farmed and Catherine's mother was Rebbecca Solesbury and her Husband Pleasant Lilly had a huge farm out Ellison Ridge(~20 miles away) where he kept Rebeca and her sister as wives in one home and another wife, his first, in another home. He fathered over 20 children between the three and was mentioned as a Confederate bushwhacker whose home was burned by the 23rd Ohio.

Audrey's ancestor's included  the Grahams whose farm was between the Hicks and Brown farms, there were also, further back, Foxes - who farmed in Brooks ~5 miles away , and Ballengees who owned and farmed all the land that is currently Hinton ~4 miles away.

        

     Most of the aforementioned families and their activities are not part of our oral tradition - I learned about them through my own research because to understand ones self is a big part of understanding ones world. I am proud now of who my ancestors are and what they have done. My roots in this area which were already deep were further cemented in.

 

     I hear people speaking all the time about "brain drain" from the mountain lands of southern WV - the idea that the best and brightest pack up and leave for more opportunities elsewhere. I subscribe to a different school of thought. To me it seem that the smartest , toughest, and most apt to survive are those who stay despite the difficult topography and limited occupational choices. I think that if you can make it here - not  New York City - you can make it anywhere.

Knowing we have been here for generations also makes me appreciate the land and plan how to do my part towards the  care and maintenance of it. I would love for my lasting contribution to be an extra 3 inches of topsoil on every square foot of my property - especially if it were on top of all the rocks that make part of my property unable to be used for anything but woodland.

I may leave nothing behind but a mess for someone else to come behind and clean up but hopefully through this blog, through the example I try to set for my friends and neighbors, and through the young people who see my place and learn something from it I could leave the world as a whole a better place.

The Morning Count

Every Morning I go around my homestead and see who lived through the night and who was born or hatched. This time I taped it for your enjoyment. hawks owls, skunks coons, stray dogs , stray cats, and disease can steal away small animal livestock at any moment, the constant danger of the highway is devastating to a few members of the farm yearly. The animal population here varries from 35-100 through the year.


The farm population changes daily and many of my farms residents are old friends and some are new friends, some are very tame and come right up to you and some are wild and run away.

This farm is far from sustainable without the constant inflow of money from my real job, but that is just because I am not a fulltime farmer. I am still learning and making mistakes and loving the journey.
I'll save worrying about profits and losses for when I am retired and supplementing my meager income with farm earnings.
The healthy food , the exercise, and the outdoors will add years to my life and life to my years if i am lucky.
I don,t smoke don't drink and haven't any illicit habits so the expense of feed and medicine for my animals is  lite compared to the expense of these aforementioned vices.

In a complete cost benefit analysis physiological benefits of the homestead are right up there with the ample fertilizer produced and the landscaping performed by the free range animals. I mowed my grass four times last year - the chickens and geese did the rest.

Key to my ideas of farming is substatial capital investment in buildings fences . I believe in the idea of buildng it once and building it right, Horse High,  Bull Strong, and Goat Tight. I dont want to have to rebuild something in my lifetime wether it be a henhouse or a hog pen. I do offer some exceptions to this in that I believe in temporary cheap but functional housing for pastured poultry and when building a better  replacement . Theodore Roosevelt said

Do what you can with  what you have and do it now.

No Farm No Food

        As you travel round the local produce markets, the livestock auctions, and flea markets , fairs and festivals where farming families hawk their wares one wonders why do they do it? To see so many children being toted around these places would give one a clue. The adults often are subsistance farmers because as children they learned how. They often inherit family land, equipment, and tools and more importantly they inherit a love of growing things. Their first memories are of walking barefoot in tilled earth and the smell of freshly baled hay. They learn to love the lowing of a cow to her new calf, or the low bawl of competing bulls calling each other names over the fence. They cherish the taste of a vine ripened tomato or the flavor of an orange round fresh fried egg that was still warm from the hen when it hit the pan.  These are the treasures of farm life that money cannot buy.

    The simple fact that for every bite that goes into your mouth has to at some point been a living growing thing, a product of millions of years of evolution is ingrained in the psyche of farming people more than any others. It is hard to relate your hamburger and french fries to the land if you have never picked up a potato or walked through a field of wheat or drug a bale a hay to feed a hungry cow in the winter.

Be unique, be different, be wonderful...

Each second we live is a new and unique moment of the universe, a moment that will never be again  And what do we teach our children? We teach them that two and two make four, and that Paris is the capital of France. When will we also teach them what they are?
We should say to each of them: Do you know what you are? You are a marvel. You are unique. In all the years that have passed, there has never been another child like you. Your legs, your arms, your clever fingers, the way you move. You may become a Shakespeare, a Michelangelo, a Beethoven. You have the capacity for anything.
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
- Henry David Thoreau

In this light one can examine our homesteads. Just because every neighbor on the road you live on is raising cattle does not mean you are going to make money in cattle. Just because everyone in your county raises white Kenebec potatoes doesn't mean you can't raise Yukon golds or Pontiac reds or Indigo blues. Mono-culture and doing the same thing everyone else is is not sustainable because...

If everyone in 50 miles is raising one particular variety of corn then the bugs that eat that kind of corn experience a population explosion and put a major dent in the profits however... if you are brave enough to be different and put in a different kind of corn you risk not having a market for it or have less of a output but you also stand to have the only healthy crop in the county and to be able to demand top dollar for it.

Diversity 

     Sustainability has already been proven in nature - how often do you see one type of grain covering.an entire field that has not been planted by people?

Turn Turn Turn

As the leaves begin to change and temperatures begin to drop the farmstead is in the throes of harvest and the onsets of the preparation for winter. The days are growing shorter and every fiber of my being dreads the onset of the dark cold miserable days of winter. But, on a more positive note... bugs are getting froze out and snakes are burrowing in.

The ABCs and economics of fence building or anything else...

Every job you do requires capital and labor.
Capital includes the materials you use for the job and the tools you use.

For instance if you are building a fence you could build a single strand electric, a 5 strand barbed wire, a stone wall 10 feet tall,  a woven wire fence or a chainlink fence. The decision is based on your capital and your purpose - a single strand electric is not going to keep in goats and you wouldn't want to build a ten foot stone wall around a small garden. Your purpose must guide you, but the route to the goal is up to you. If you are keeping cows in a pasture any of these would work. Thats when you choose based on your resources or capital.

You must examine your resources in any venture. the logical equasion looks like this:

I want A =( B+C+ D+ E+F+G ) H, how can I use B C D E F G and H to make A.

B C D E F G &H  have to in include labor , cash , and materials, supplies, and tools and help.

So we will call them Belief, Course of action,, Determination, Equipment, Finances, Goals, and Human Resources.

Belief
Back to our fence. We must first believe that there can be a fence built with the resources we have. Say, in this case we are keeping in donkeys.So a donkey proof fence can be built on the land we own with the resources we have.

Course of action
Then we concoct a course of action  -we plan the fence out - OKAY it is a triangle shaped pasture to keep donkeys in. It covers 12 acres of hilly meadows and and forest.  There will need to be 3 corners,  29 braces and 2 gates. It'll have to cross two creeks. It will need to be especially strong on one border, by the horse farm. This is when you do your research also to see how to cross creeks with fences and go up and down hills and what kind of fence will actually hold a donkey.This is the planning stage.

Determination
This is when you check to see if you are sure you believe in the course of action enought to go through with it, you check that the resouces you plan to use are viable. I have 300 poplar 5x5s 9 foot long -"Can I use them for posts? (NO poplar rots too fast ) - What if I pay someone to pressure treat them - yes if you are that determined you can build a fence with that."

Equipment
This is where you see that you have or have access to the tools and equipment to do the job. You gotta figure builidng this big of a fence you will need a truck or trailor, maybe a  tractor a post hole digger or driver, hammers and pliers and a spinning jenny if you are making a high tensile wire fence, levels, whel barrows, gloves and hammers and a chainsaw and wrenched and fuel tanks for your other equpment ropes and strings to lay your fence out with , a drill for drilling your gate posts to recieve the hinge pins. The better the equipment you have, the easier it is for you to get a job done.

Finances
The thing most people think anbout capital is liquid capital or cash. Cash can buy the concrete for the stone wall, the wire for the other types of fence and can hire help in construction. Cash is wonderful but unfortunatley it is also rare so must be used sparingly with a mind towards return on the investment - you wouldnt want the concreted in steel posted profeessionally installed chainlink fence for a leased property where the lease is only for a couple of years. There would be no way your product, in that short of amount of time, could  return your capital investment , much less provide you with a profit. Finances can also include all the economics of procuring materials and even human resources if your project is of such a pressing nature to nesitate hiring help.

Goals - while an ultimate goal of project completion is the final result, the small goals along the way are what getsyou there. If you know you will eventually get the whole fence built the 100 feet of post holes that are basically digging through rocks don't seem so bad.  The days you get out when you have a cold and don't really feel like it or the days when it is snowy and rainy and you still work on your project.

Human Resources - this is your staff -which on many small farms is just you , maybe a spouse or signifigant other, kids, neighbors, or friends. You have to treat these folks well, including yourself because they are where the rubber hits the road. Two people can do more than twice the work of one person working twice as long. Three people workng together can be a rarity and four or more is downright unusual.

 Finally "I" for any of the others to work its needed for input from "I" the person with the goals and finances and help and determination and plan for the job to get done.

So back to our fence. I believe I can build it. I have a course of action to get it built. I am determined to get it done.  I have the needed equipment and finances to do the job. I have the help or human resources to do it.

Now another goal courtacy of http://watchout4snakes.com/creativitytools/RandomWord/RandomWordPlus.aspx

we will examine: surgery- my random word today.

We are wanting surgery; we believe we can do surgery; we plan out the course of our surgery; we are determined we are going to do surgery; we get the needed equipment and finances to do surgery; then get out friends and famiy to help up with surgery.

and another

Slobber

We are wanting to slobber, we believe we can slobber, we plan the coarse of our slobber, we are determined we are going to slobber, we get the needed equipment and finaces to slobber, and then we get our friends and family to help us slobber.

Aren't random word generaters great?

Nails: All you need to know about nails

There are hundreds of types of nails. they vary by size shape and material.
The size of nails is denoted by a numeric value and penny - dating form the days when one could buy 120 nails for 2,4,6,8,10 or more pennies. The abbreviation for penny is "d"

The parts of the nail are the point, the shank, and the head. Points can be sharp or tapered or blunt. Shanks can be twisted or ribbed. Heads can be oversized (like tacks), barely there(finishing nails, or doubled for ease in extraction. Nails can be made of iron, steel, High carbon steel, or aluminum.
When nails join two pieces of lumber 1/3 of the shank should go through the piece closes to the head of the nail and 2/3 of the nail shank should be in the other board.

HOW did 'd' become the abbreviation for penny?
The 'denarius' was an old Roman coin and as the centuries passed, the abbreviation 'd' eventually became associated with the old British penny.


In current usage in the United States, a 2d nail is 1 inch long. Each 1d increase is a ¼ inch increase in length up to 12d. A sixteen-penny nail is a ¼ inch longer than 12d, and the remaining sizes, beginning with 20d, are multiples of 10 and are each ½ inch longer than the preceding size. Common, box,  and sinker are types of nails and refers to the diameter of the shank and the presence of a pattern on surface of the head - crosshatching keeps the hammer from slipping when driven on sinker nails.

Nails used to be pressed from sheets of steel or iron, now they are carbon infused steel and often coated with glues, zinc or other coatings for adhesion and or corrosive resistance capacities - nails having no coating are refered to as "bright".

So you choose the nail to the purpose you intend to us it for.

If you are framing a house with 2x4s - most people would use 16 or 20d adhesive coated sinkers.

If you are nailing together a deck that is of pressure treated lumber , corrosive resistant zinc coated galvonized spiral cut 12 d nails woould be long enough and strong enough and resistance to pulling out and rusting or staining the deck with rusty residue.

If you were installing moulding around an interior window finishing nails would be prefered as their small heads would not detract from the beauty of the wood you are trying to dispay.

If you are joining 4x4 posts  to railroad ties to cover your garden's hotbeds 60d spikes would be big enough to hold securly to the crossties.

If youare building a temporary scaffold out of 2x4s you would use 16 d doubleheaded nails.
If you are putting down plywood sheeting on a wall ribbed tacks would work well to grab tight and hold pressure over time.

Now a test..

1. If you are nailing plywood subfloor that is 3/4 inch thick to 2x8 floorjoists inside your house
what it the smallest nail you should be able to use?

2. If you are nailing 3x4 pressure treated landscape timbers to fenceposts outside what is the smallest nail you can use and what kind of nail?

3. If you are  building a wooden box out of thin 1/4 inch plywood nailed to 1x1.5 inch boards what kind of nails should you use and what size?



ANSWERS   (1)   3/4x3=9/4 or 2 1/4 inches or 7d nails - odd numbers are rare so you would most likely buy 8ds  but you could always buy bigger nails and space them a little further apart since since plywood doesnt split easily. Also the coating is not important so you could have common or bright withouany ill effets in this application.

(2) 3x4s would actually be only 2 3/4thick  so for optimum you would need a nail that would be atleast 8.25 inches long you are talking 70 or 80 d spikes.

(3) This is a job for a 2d nail and even as tiny as they are protruding points will need to be bent over (called clinching)

Battery cages on the homestead...

Most substanance farmers raise A few hens for eggs and meat and there are several methods and lines of thought associated with raising healthy productive poultry.

     On our farm we mostly practice free range poultry production the chickens range over woodland pasture yard and porch and clean up table scraps and supplemental feed not to mention any dog food they can steal. The eggs are left all over the farm and most are never collected but instead rot or are sit on and hatched to resupply the chicken population. The mortality rate of the chicks born on my farm is well over 70% due to predation and the road that runs all too close to my pastures and fields.

      However, hanging on the back of one of the outbuildings you will find three 12 foot long cages on top of one anther each separated into 12 smaller cages so room for 36 hens or more if bantam varieties are included. There are PVC pipes cut into troughs with elbows turned up on either side to hold fresh water and smaller troughs above them for feed. These are my battery cages. Battery cages are used in big chicken production farms to contain as many as 4 hens in each small cage they have a conveyor or auger that carries feed and water to chickens and they are kept under artificial light to force extra eggs out of them during their short productive lives before going to slaughter. 

Why you may ask would I need these cruel devices on my animal friendly free range farm?

       These cages are used once every 2-3 months to confine my entire laying flock so that they can be treated for intestinal worms, for leg mites, and to get a general idea of each individual chicken's overall health and productivity. Also if these is a significant predator problem I can pen all of them up for a few days until I can find and dispatch the offending predator.  Even the heaviest of my hens show no ill effects from up 7-10 days of confinement. After release, some chickens return to the cages at night and go back into the same compartments they were confined in to roost.

   Battery cages like any other tool on the farm are not inherently evil and can be a valuable tool in your livestock management toolbox.

We Built a Grainery or is that Granary

     Last winter my cousin was cleaning up his place and decided to trade off some big timbers he had hauled in from a job he had as a laborer. These timbers had been used as forming boards around a deep concrete pour.There were 50 big old clunky 3x10s - very dirty and rough and I begrudgingly took them off his hands {$100}because if anyone could find a good use for them I could -had a root cellar in mind at the time. I bought an air compresser at a government auction and picked up several boxes of 9 inch screws (used to put log cabins together) that I found in an old van at the junkyard and bought for $10. My soon-to-be-inlaws gave me a box of old tools and there was an old impact wrench included in them. I bought the hose and connections to get the air compresser up and running and one weekend we( Heather my fiance) loaded some of the timbers up and measured them, sorted them and hauled them down into my front yard where I lined them up and screwed them together using the big screws 3-4 in each corner. This, of course, required the impact wrench cause it takes alot of pressure to turn a 9 inch screw into Oak and Maple Timbers. 

      Using this as a pattern, we started bulding 10 inch tall layers alternating the way the corners screwed together log cabin style and once we had enough to add up to 8' tall we started moving them. By setting them on other timbers streched out the back hatch of the van and through the two sliding doors to the building site. Then, by propping the floor joist section (which weighted around 500or more lbs) up on timbers sticking out of out of the back of the van and propping the rear of it on the indestructable donkey cart. Then we moved the floor joist section to its new home and placed it, leveled it on cinder blocks, and added the other layers. We did leave room for a door and window -which made the higher layers easier to lift becuse there was a ledge to rest them on between the floor and their ultimate height. They were still HEAVY. The layers got toenailed together with 20 and 30 penny nails



 I ran out of long timbers so decided to get complicated and make tapered bevels and bring the corners in consistantly to allow me to use up shorter timbers so after nearly burning out a table saw and spending hours concentrating on cutting 43.34 degree bevels and 14 degree slope I screwed that level together and only when lifting it on top of the building did I realize that i had screwed the two long sides together and the two short sides together creating a very out of square layer. But since it had been so hard to raise the 9 feet onto the roof - a passing neighbor even stopped to assist - we left it and adjusted the window hole so it came out right. That, of coarse, carried on to the next lyer of the taper so at that time being almost out of timbers and way out of square we  abandoned the tapered roof idea and a trup to 84 lumber broght me $27 in cull pressure treated lumber and some tin. This lumber became a 8x12 roof withthe belowextra long shed front on it. The extra long shed was build because it was used to prop the rest of the roof (which was built on the ground up on to lever it up onto the building.then it was cut off and the rest of the roof was added in a saltbox roof configuration.

 I am not crazy about how theroof finished up but am glad tha the building is covered and dry inside.

 And it does not leak this is a view of the window hole in a rainstorm.

 So now to cut the window hole to size.

 And put on some tarpaper to protect the timbers (and hide some flaws).

 Windows have to have trimboards to look good.

 See, I told you they look good with trimboards.

 The same cousin had a bunch of used hardwood flooring for sale so after putting down a plywood subfloor (I had to scab in nailers all around) we installeld the tongue and groove oak and poplar flooring even recycling most of the used nails. It is so pretty when swept and mopped and most importantly in a granary its rodent proof - we are also going to put it up all the walls at least as high as the window and install a threshhold under the door. I I may use a car jack or two and switch the cinder blocks out with tradiitonal staddle stones. Hardware cloth mesh is going to be across the ceiling and a shelf for storing tools in the top.

We also added tar paper over the rest of the exterior, gray on the front - neighbors may think im being snooty if I used all the same color.

Even though its a very small building, once we add sheds to the back and sides it will store tools, grain, Hay, Livestock, Poultry, and even be sanitary on the inside enough for milking goats.




UPDATE: weekend ending 9/19 added another room to back possibly hay shed.

When should she have babies? Gestation calendar, lambing , farrowing, calving, breeding.

Below is a Gestation Schedule for livestock.I built it with information form various websites and a spreadsheet I created.

BREEDING

CALVING

FARROWING

KIDDING

BREEDING

CALVING

FARROWING

KIDDING

BREEDING

CALVING

FARROWING

KIDDING

BREEDING

CALVING

FARROWING

KIDDING

BREEDING

CALVING

FARROWING

KIDDING

BREEDING

CALVING

FARROWING

KIDDING

1/1

10/11

4/25

5/31

3/3

12/11

6/25

7/31

5/3

2/10

8/25

9/30

7/3

4/12

10/25

11/30

9/2

6/12

12/25

1/30

11/2

8/12

2/24

4/1

1/2

10/12

4/26

6/1

3/4

12/12

6/26

8/1

5/4

2/11

8/26

10/1

7/4

4/13

10/26

12/1

9/3

6/13

12/26

1/31

11/3

8/13

2/25

4/2

1/3

10/13

4/27

6/2

3/5

12/13

6/27

8/2

5/5

2/12

8/27

10/2

7/5

4/14

10/27

12/2

9/4

6/14

12/27

2/1

11/4

8/14

2/26

4/3

1/4

10/14

4/28

6/3

3/6

12/14

6/28

8/3

5/6

2/13

8/28

10/3

7/6

4/15

10/28

12/3

9/5

6/15

12/28

2/2

11/5

8/15

2/27

4/4

1/5

10/15

4/29

6/4

3/7

12/15

6/29

8/4

5/7

2/14

8/29

10/4

7/7

4/16

10/29

12/4

9/6

6/16

12/29

2/3

11/6

8/16

2/28

4/5

1/6

10/16

4/30

6/5

3/8

12/16

6/30

8/5

5/8

2/15

8/30

10/5

7/8

4/17

10/30

12/5

9/7

6/17

12/30

2/4

11/7

8/17

3/1

4/6

1/7

10/17

5/1

6/6

3/9

12/17

7/1

8/6

5/9

2/16

8/31

10/6

7/9

4/18

10/31

12/6

9/8

6/18

12/31

2/5

11/8

8/18

3/2

1/8

10/18

5/2

6/7

3/10

12/18

7/2

8/7

5/10

2/17

9/1

10/7

7/10

4/19

11/1

12/7

9/9

6/19

1/1

2/6

11/9

8/19

3/3

4/8

1/9

10/19

5/3

6/8

3/11

12/19

7/3

8/8

5/11

2/18

9/2

10/8

7/11

4/20

11/2

12/8

9/10

6/20

1/2

2/7

11/10

8/20

3/4

4/9

1/10

10/20

5/4

6/9

3/12

12/20

7/4

8/9

5/12

2/19

9/3

10/9

7/12

4/21

11/3

12/9

9/11

6/21

1/3

2/8

11/11

8/21

3/5

4/10

1/11

10/21

5/5

6/10

3/13

12/21

7/5

8/10

5/13

2/20

9/4

10/10

7/13

4/22

11/4

12/10

9/12

6/22

1/4

2/9

11/12

8/22

3/6

4/11

1/12

10/22

5/6

6/11

3/14

12/22

7/6

8/11

5/14

2/21

9/5

10/11

7/14

4/23

11/5

12/11

9/13

6/23

1/5

2/10

11/13

8/23

3/7

4/12

1/13

10/23

5/7

6/12

3/15

12/23

7/7

8/12

5/15

2/22

9/6

10/12

7/15

4/24

11/6

12/12

9/14

6/24

1/6

2/11

11/14

8/24

3/8

4/13

1/14

10/24

5/8

6/13

3/16

12/24

7/8

8/13

5/16

2/23

9/7

10/13

7/16

4/25

11/7

12/13

9/15

6/25

1/7

2/12

11/15

8/25

3/9

4/14

1/15

10/25

5/9

6/14

3/17

12/25

7/9

8/14

5/17

2/24

9/8

10/14

7/17

4/26

11/8

12/14

9/16

6/26

1/8

2/13

11/16

8/26

3/10

4/15

1/16

10/26

5/10

6/15

3/18

12/26

7/10

8/15

5/18

2/25

9/9

10/15

7/18

4/27

11/9

12/15

9/17

6/27

1/9

2/14

11/17

8/27

3/11

4/16

1/17

10/27

5/11

6/16

3/19

12/27

7/11

8/16

5/19

2/26

9/10

10/16

7/19

4/28

11/10

12/16

9/18

6/28

1/10

2/15

11/18

8/28

3/12

4/17

1/18

10/28

5/12

6/17

3/20

12/28

7/12

8/17

5/20

2/27

9/11

10/17

7/20

4/29

11/11

12/17

9/19

6/29

1/11

2/16

11/19

8/29

3/13

4/18

1/19

10/29

5/13

6/18

3/21

12/29

7/13

8/18

5/21

2/28

9/12

10/18

7/21

4/30

11/12

12/18

9/20

6/30

1/12

2/17

11/20

8/30

3/14

4/19

1/20

10/30

5/14

6/19

3/22

12/30

7/14

8/19

5/22

3/1

9/13

10/19

7/22

5/1

11/13

12/19

9/21

7/1

1/13

2/18

11/21

8/31

3/15

4/20

1/21

10/31

5/15

6/20

3/23

12/31

7/15

8/20

5/23

3/2

9/14

10/20

7/23

5/2

11/14

12/20

9/22

7/2

1/14

2/19

11/22

9/1

3/16

4/21

1/22

11/1

5/16

6/21

3/24

1/1

7/16

8/21

5/24

3/3

9/15

10/21

7/24

5/3

11/15

12/21

9/23

7/3

1/15

2/20

11/23

9/2

3/17

4/22

1/23

11/2

5/17

6/22

3/25

1/2

7/17

8/22

5/25

3/4

9/16

10/22

7/25

5/4

11/16

12/22

9/24

7/4

1/16

2/21

11/24

9/3

3/18

4/23

1/24

11/3

5/18

6/23

3/26

1/3

7/18

8/23

5/26

3/5

9/17

10/23

7/26

5/5

11/17

12/23

9/25

7/5

1/17

2/22

11/25

9/4

3/19

4/24

1/25

11/4

5/19

6/24

3/27

1/4

7/19

8/24

5/27

3/6

9/18

10/24

7/27

5/6

11/18

12/24

9/26

7/6

1/18

2/23

11/26

9/5

3/20

4/25

1/26

11/5

5/20

6/25

3/28

1/5

7/20

8/25

5/28

3/7

9/19

10/25

7/28

5/7

11/19

12/25

9/27

7/7

1/19

2/24

11/27

9/6

3/21

4/26

1/27

11/6

5/21

6/26

3/29

1/6

7/21

8/26

5/29

3/8

9/20

10/26

7/29

5/8

11/20

12/26

9/28

7/8

1/20

2/25

11/28

9/7

3/22

4/27

1/28

11/7

5/22

6/27

3/30

1/7

7/22

8/27

5/30

3/9

9/21

10/27

7/30

5/9

11/21

12/27

9/29

7/9

1/21

2/26

11/29

9/8

3/23

4/28

1/29

11/8

5/23

6/28

3/31

1/8

7/23

8/28

5/31

3/10

9/22

10/28

7/31

5/10

11/22

12/28

9/30

7/10

1/22

2/27

11/30

9/9

3/24

4/29

1/30

11/9

5/24

6/29

4/1

1/9

7/24

8/29

6/1

3/11

9/23

10/29

8/1

5/11

11/23

12/29

10/1

7/11

1/23

2/28

12/1

9/10

3/25

4/30

1/31

11/10

5/25

6/30

4/2

1/10

7/25

8/30

6/2

3/12

9/24

10/30

8/2

5/12

11/24

12/30

10/2

7/12

1/24

3/1

12/2

9/11

3/26

5/1

2/1

11/11

5/26

7/1

4/3

1/11

7/26

8/31

6/3

3/13

9/25

10/31

8/3

5/13

11/25

12/31

10/3

7/13

1/25

3/2

12/3

9/12

3/27

5/2

2/2

11/12

5/27

7/2

4/4

1/12

7/27

9/1

6/4

3/14

9/26

11/1

8/4

5/14

11/26

1/1

10/4

7/14

1/26

3/3

12/4

9/13

3/28

5/3

2/3

11/13

5/28

7/3

4/5

1/13

7/28

9/2

6/5

3/15

9/27

11/2

8/5

5/15

11/27

1/2

10/5

7/15

1/27

3/4

12/5

9/14

3/29

5/4

2/4

11/14

5/29

7/4

4/6

1/14

7/29

9/3

6/6

3/16

9/28

11/3

8/6

5/16

11/28

1/3

10/6

7/16

1/28

3/5

12/6

9/15

3/30

5/5

2/5

11/15

5/30

7/5

4/7

1/15

7/30

9/4

6/7

3/17

9/29

11/4

8/7

5/17

11/29

1/4

10/7

7/17

1/29

3/6

12/7

9/16

3/31

5/6

2/6

11/16

5/31

7/6

4/8

1/16

7/31

9/5

6/8

3/18

9/30

11/5

8/8

5/18

11/30

1/5

10/8

7/18

1/30

3/7

12/8

9/17

4/1

5/7

2/7

11/17

6/1

7/7

4/9

1/17

8/1

9/6

6/9

3/19

10/1

11/6

8/9

5/19

12/1

1/6

10/9

7/19

1/31

3/8

12/9

9/18

4/2

5/8

2/8

11/18

6/2

7/8

4/10

1/18

8/2

9/7

6/10

3/20

10/2

11/7

8/10

5/20

12/2

1/7

10/10

7/20

2/1

3/9

12/10

9/19

4/3

5/9

2/9

11/19

6/3

7/9

4/11

1/19

8/3

9/8

6/11

3/21

10/3

11/8

8/11

5/21

12/3

1/8

10/11

7/21

2/2

3/10

12/11

9/20

4/4

5/10

2/10

11/20

6/4

7/10

4/12

1/20

8/4

9/9

6/12

3/22

10/4

11/9

8/12

5/22

12/4

1/9

10/12

7/22

2/3

3/11

12/12

9/21

4/5

5/11

2/11

11/21

6/5

7/11

4/13

1/21

8/5

9/10

6/13

3/23

10/5

11/10

8/13

5/23

12/5

1/10

10/13

7/23

2/4

3/12

12/13

9/22

4/6

5/12

2/12

11/22

6/6

7/12

4/14

1/22

8/6

9/11

6/14

3/24

10/6

11/11

8/14

5/24

12/6

1/11

10/14

7/24

2/5

3/13

12/14

9/23

4/7

5/13

2/13

11/23

6/7

7/13

4/15

1/23

8/7

9/12

6/15

3/25

10/7

11/12

8/15

5/25

12/7

1/12

10/15

7/25

2/6

3/14

12/15

9/24

4/8

5/14

2/14

11/24

6/8

7/14

4/16

1/24

8/8

9/13

6/16

3/26

10/8

11/13

8/16

5/26

12/8

1/13

10/16

7/26

2/7

3/15

12/16

9/25

4/9

5/15

2/15

11/25

6/9

7/15

4/17

1/25

8/9

9/14

6/17

3/27

10/9

11/14

8/17

5/27

12/9

1/14

10/17

7/27

2/8

3/16

12/17

9/26

4/10

5/16

2/16

11/26

6/10

7/16

4/18

1/26

8/10

9/15

6/18

3/28

10/10

11/15

8/18

5/28

12/10

1/15

10/18

7/28

2/9

3/17

12/18

9/27

4/11

5/17

2/17

11/27

6/11

7/17

4/19

1/27

8/11

9/16

6/19

3/29

10/11

11/16

8/19

5/29

12/11

1/16

10/19

7/29

2/10

3/18

12/19

9/28

4/12

5/18

2/18

11/28

6/12

7/18

4/20

1/28

8/12

9/17

6/20

3/30

10/12

11/17

8/20

5/30

12/12

1/17

10/20

7/30

2/11

3/19

12/20

9/29

4/13

5/19

2/19

11/29

6/13

7/19

4/21

1/29

8/13

9/18

6/21

3/31

10/13

11/18

8/21

5/31

12/13

1/18

10/21

7/31

2/12

3/20

12/21

9/30

4/14

5/20

2/20

11/30

6/14

7/20

4/22

1/30

8/14

9/19

6/22

4/1

10/14

11/19

8/22

6/1

12/14

1/19

10/22

8/1

2/13

3/21

12/22

10/1

4/15

5/21

2/21

12/1

6/15

7/21

4/23

1/31

8/15

9/20

6/23

4/2

10/15

11/20

8/23

6/2

12/15

1/20

10/23

8/2

2/14

3/22

12/23

10/2

4/16

5/22

2/22

12/2

6/16

7/22

4/24

2/1

8/16

9/21

6/24

4/3

10/16

11/21

8/24

6/3

12/16

1/21

10/24

8/3

2/15

3/23

12/24

10/3

4/17

5/23

2/23

12/3

6/17

7/23

4/25

2/2

8/17

9/22

6/25

4/4

10/17

11/22

8/25

6/4

12/17

1/22

10/25

8/4

2/16

3/24

12/25

10/4

4/18

5/24

2/24

12/4

6/18

7/24

4/26

2/3

8/18

9/23

6/26

4/5

10/18

11/23

8/26

6/5

12/18

1/23

10/26

8/5

2/17

3/25

12/26

10/5

4/19

5/25

2/25

12/5

6/19

7/25

4/27

2/4

8/19

9/24

6/27

4/6

10/19

11/24

8/27

6/6

12/19

1/24

10/27

8/6

2/18

3/26

12/27

10/6

4/20

5/26

2/26

12/6

6/20

7/26

4/28

2/5

8/20

9/25

6/28

4/7

10/20

11/25

8/28

6/7

12/20

1/25

10/28

8/7

2/19

3/27

12/28

10/7

4/21

5/27

2/27

12/7

6/21

7/27

4/29

2/6

8/21

9/26

6/29

4/8

10/21

11/26

8/29

6/8

12/21

1/26

10/29

8/8

2/20

3/28

12/29

10/8

4/22

5/28

2/28

12/8

6/22

7/28

4/30

2/7

8/22

9/27

6/30

4/9

10/22

11/27

8/30

6/9

12/22

1/27

10/30

8/9

2/21

3/29

12/30

10/9

4/23

5/29

3/1

12/9

6/23

7/29

5/1

2/8

8/23

9/28

7/1

4/10

10/23

11/28

8/31

6/10

12/23

1/28

10/31

8/10

2/22

3/30

12/31

10/10

4/24

5/30

3/2

12/10

6/24

7/30

5/2

2/9

8/24

9/29

7/2

4/11

10/24

11/29

9/1

6/11

12/24

1/29

11/1

8/11

2/23

3/31

1/1

10/11

4/25

5/31

To determineLambing datesuse above reference for kidding and subtract 5 days.

Smaller breeds andyounger aged animals tend up to 7-10 days early, Large breeds and older animals tend up to 7-10 days later than estimates stated above.
To use look in the green column for the date your animal was bred. Look in the corresponding White column for your animals species and the date should be an approximate time of having babies.