One Step Closer to the Goat Barn

Finally. I’ve been blogging about building a goat barn for years, presenting various ideas, sketches, and floor plans from time to time. Our little old shed has been okay for making-do, but I’ve long wished for something more suitable for goats so I wouldn’t have to continually work around my problems. The hold up has always been the old oak tree.

Dead branches fell to the ground regularly.

We took down its sister tree awhile ago; cutting it back in August 2012 and then finally taking it down in September 2013. Most of that one was already dead and much of the inside was rotten, so it was fortunate it never fell on the house. This one was more alive but also old. Some of the branches you see are still alive, others are just growing mistletoe.

Our barnyard is fairly small and tight, and with various size branches crashing down regularly, we decided this tree needed to be dealt with before we could commence building the barn.

They guys who topped the first oak used a high reach. These guys showed up with a pick up, ropes, and two chainsaws. I was amazed to see one of them was a climber: ropes, safety belt, boot spikes and a chainsaw. It only took two hours to do this…

We negotiated a lower price by doing our own clean-up. Dan prefers that anyway, to make sure we get the logs cut into a size that will fit our woodstoves. The first order of business was to clear the driveway. Because of that we decided to invest in a few tools.

Something Dan has been wanting is a cant hook. A cant hook is used for handling and moving logs. We took a trip to Northern Tool to try and find one, but they only had them with 3-foot handles. Dan chose a timberjack instead.

The timberjack is a cant hook with a built in log stand.

That made it easier to cut it. When the log is lying on the ground it sometimes pinches the saw near the end of the cut. Not fun.

The other thing we got was something I’ve been wanting for a long time.

About twelve or thirteen years ago I had an old Gardenway cart that I just loved. Its design made it so easy to move heavy loads with minimal effort. When we bought this place I looked for a new one, but they were priced somewhere around $350. Northern Tool had this one for $130 plus free shipping to the nearest store. It’s got a 14 cubic foot/400 pound capacity and makes it easy to move firewood for stacking.

Clean up will be a little at a time.

Source: http://www.5acresandadream.com/2016/04/one-step-closer-to-goat-barn.html