heat and work . . .

The heat is on and the work on the barn has begun! WOW is it hot up there. It is currently 95 with the heat index of 100-105 today. And the wind is blowing as well. Feels like a day described in a story book.

On Wednesday a crew of four Amish men came to roof one section of my barn with steel. The back side if this part was done a few years ago, and it definitely time to do this side. Each time it rains, the water leaks through the hip point (that the area of the roof that angles down steeper), pours in to the loft damaging the floor, and continues to leak through to the ground floor. If I chose not to get it fixed, in a few short years, that part of the barn would easily be destroyed. The barn has stood for almost 80 years now, and under my care, I don't want to lose this part of American history.


This is Ben scaling along while he adds another 2 x 4 x 16 to the roof. They attached wood to the existing roof and then screw the metal roof to the new slats. Notice that he is almost standing straight up and down. That's because he is on almost a 25 degree slope. Here he is almost 40 feet in the air.


Another exciting barn update came about this week as well. Scott Hagan, the barn artist who originally painted the Ohio Bicentennial logo on 100 of Ohio barns (mine included) came by on his way through to Indiana and stayed for a day. I had contacted him wanting to know what kind of paint he used so I could touch up the red that had faded over the years. Since he was staying for the day, I just had him do the work instead. After 10 + years, the white,blue and black still looked fine, but I had him touch up the three areas that took some red paint. Being an artist myself, I felt the need to have him change the original red he painted to a darker hue that matches the barn. He wasn't offended, and did an EXCELLENT job. If you want a painting on your barn you can contacting him through his website the barnartist.com

the beauty of God's creation . . .

We are almost at the finish line with Macy's Hip Roof Chicken Barn building project. It has taken us a few days for a couple of reasons. One, we ran out of wood and needed to make it to town to get more 1 x 2's. Second, we are sort of building this one "off the cuff!" Macy had told me what she wanted, but it was a little bit of work to get the idea she had in her head, out to a physical house for her birds. It's a 3 x 4 foot barn for three birds and will have two roosts as well as two nesting boxes that are accessible from the rear of the movable structure. She will be moving them daily, like we do with all the birds on our farm, to get fresh grass to forage in. Tonight we finished the building part, put wire on, put roosts in, and a couple of burlap privacy curtains for the girls to do their work behind. overall, it is a lightweight, sturdy, functional house for the birds. I just might build a few of these to sell down the line.

A few night ago, and tonight, we have had some INTERESTING night skies. A double rainbow that stretched over MILES . . . and tonight this absolutely stunning sun illuminated cloud formation at the Big Pasture tree tops. We looked out of the garage (as we were building the chicken barn) to see this magnificent sight.

the mini chalkboard craze . . .

My whole Etsy mini chalkboard business is having a BLOW OUT summer. It's hard to believe that I have made and shipped well over 200 of them just in the last month! Here's an example of how an event coordinator used them at a bridal shower she planned last week. It seems that the boards are a big hit at both weddings and showers. Here's a link to a wedding planners site that started this whole mini-chalkboard phenomenon.

Kelley, the bride to be, and I worked together to come up with this idea for her wedding. She said she wanted chalkboards for seating name cards and wanted me to come up with a way for them to sit "propped up." I made a couple of mock boards for her to decide on and the final result was this 3 x 4 inch mini chalkboard with a post that props it up. I ended up making 70 of them for her wedding in San Francisco. All that happened over a year ago. Since I knew I could make more, I decided to use the images I took of them and re-list it in my Etsy store. That my friends, is the beginning of the chalkboard CRAZE. Since that time, I have probably sold over 500 of them. And it seems that most of the people that order them live in San Francisco! :)

I have streamlined my production of them to make it quicker to mass produce them. Just the other day I bought a belt sander that is cutting my work time sanding them in half. My next plan is to by a nice table saw that will help me make them more exact when I cut.

new addition . . .

Here are NINE of the TEN little puppies that frolic all over our property now. Floppy, our Black and Tan Coonhound, had her Collie mix puppies about four weeks ago. They will be ready for a new home August 1st.