This seemed like an appropriate place to post an update of my son Ian's progress with his senior project of building a timber frame barn. We finished cutting wood in early spring, around sap time. We did have a slight set-back. Some dead grass around a pile of girts caught fire and shortened them by 4 feet, so it was back to the woods and the mill for two weeks.
We then decided to mix our own concrete for the foundation because the local contractors were pretty unreliable. We came accross a Jager 1/2bag mixer of 1920 something vintage. So we had sand and limestone delivered, storing portland in an old car. Got to use a transit and set up batter boards. We are building on a slope so some of our batter boards are 8 feet in the air. We rented a post hole digger for that. Local excavator did the rough trenching.
I then decided to get all of the infrastrucure work done before we got too far along. Ian's brother Erik, the mechanical genious, put together a pressurized water sytem from an old stone-lined dug well. We put up a large pavillion and built a workbench and 10 sawhorses. Today we are putting the roof on a tool shed, 10x12, that we built on a sled. It will become part of our sugar operation when we get a roof on the barn. We got some old boards donated from the local sawmill guy. He has lots of customers never show up to pick up their wood. So we got come 15 year old tammarack and some pine that is pretty punky. Once it dries out it is hard to put a nail in.
So, next week we begin to mix concrete and do the foundation. We are going to throw in alot of stone that is left over from some old outbuildings. We did discover a local, Chatauqua NY, timberframer, who does high-end work. Also inspected a market barn put together by the Amish. Chainsaw mortise and tenon, bolts for pegs. Not bad.
My three boys, Ian, Erik and Alec, are maturing at the proper time to get this done. It has been a two year ordeal so far, and I project it will be October before we have a roof on. They are learning almost every day, and that is what this is all about. We have met some really nice people and also found out there are some not so nice ones also.
Greg Knecht
