The (not so old and red) Barn

The barn is not a beautiful old red barn.  It's an old pole building that isn't even red.  It has a few imperfections, like some wood that's rotted and a few leaks in the roof, but it still works great for the cats and for storing hay.

Several farmers stopped by to take a look at the hay field after/while we were moving in, but none were interested in renting it for the year.  I'll freely admit it needs some TLC, but it was still worth cutting this year.  Thankfully, a farmer stopped by and was willing to bale it for a share. He, along with some help, cut it, raked it, baled it, and loaded up the hay racks.

We pitched in to stack the hay in the barn.  After ten or fifteen minutes, we were soaked with sweat and parched.  I'll never again be jealous of my little brother's (poorly paid) summer hay baling jobs again.

The week of the July 4th, the hay field was ready for another cutting. Unfortunately, this meant we needed to clean out part of the barn in order to have a place to put it.  So, in the middle of the 100 degree heat wave, we cleaned out bunches of old straw that the cats had used for nesting, a litter box, and kittens.  There was so much straw that we ended up filling up the wheelbarrow, filling up the kiddie pool, then putting the kiddie pool on top of the wheelbarrow.  It still took many trips to empty out that area, and we concluded this was (another) good reason to buy a farm truck.

We also generated a trash pile of half rotten blankets, cat food sacks, and total miscellaneous.  I'm still hoping one of the three can openers we found still works.  The burn pile also grew as we found layer after layer of partially rotted boards reeking of cat urine.  It'll be quite the smelly bonfire sometime this fall. It was incredibly satisfying to finish cleaning out that part of the barn (especially to be rid of that straw!).

We're pleased with the amount of hay in the barn, which we plan to sell for additional farm income.  There's enough space in the barn that we can stack the third cutting without cleaning any more of the barn up this year (although who knows if we'll get another cutting with this drought).  Best of all, each time I walk into the barn it smells of sweet hay.