At the "other" old farmstead, my mother-in-law's birthplace and our summer home, on the shore of the bay in southeastern NB, the barn was failing and needed to come down. My husband had been making arrangements all week while I was in northern NB dealing with clearing our my parents home. Here is the barn sporting the flag on Canada Day... the project began later that week. It was no longer cold and rainy but hot and humid!
It was our intention to save as much lumber as possible but not all the lumber was in good shape... perhaps taking it down 10 yrs ago would have been ideal but we were not ready to do that then.
My husband purchased 2 van trailers for storage: one for the wood of the barn; the other for another project.
A local guy was hired to demolish and try to save as much as possible.
He estimated it would take a day... it took 2 full days! He underestimated...
the amount of old hay left in the barn...
... the amount of old farming equipment inside and out in the field...
the baler...
the potato planter...
the thresher...
These machines are antiques and a local collector of farm machinery gladly acquired these and plans to restore them and then display in a museum.
Other farm equipment pieces were junked for the metal!
Twenty nine loads were hauled out!
We managed to salvage enough wood to fill 1/2 a trailer... This is the beginning of one of three piles.
We salvaged the doors...
some old shingles for future decorative projects...
And we transplanted a little tree in memory of my mother-in-law on the north side of the footprint of the old barn which was built by her grandfather from lumber cut and hand hewn from the lot. The tree will border the site of a future garden.
I think she would be sad to have witnessed this loss but pleased that we have salvaged some of the wood for our future cottage.
RIP Mum
04/30/2013
Great posts, Lorette! So great that you were able to salvage so much material! I love re-purposing and being able to use some of this wood in your future cottage sounds great to me. It will add to the character and provide a solid tie to your husband’s past.
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