Restoring The Old Spring

My Grandfather built this spring in the 70’s.  That was when this hill was a field. Over the years the trees took over and the leaves destroyed the cover. It still puts out water, but needs a lot of cleaning. Before I cleaned it, I wanted to make sure I built a cover, to protect the spring from leaves, for the time being.

We started by laying cedar 2×4’s for the cover. We decided to go flat as to not cut any materials since  this current cover will end up being a wall for the water shed we plan to build at a later date. We used untreated cedar in the construction of the cover, because of it’s proximity to water.

Once the frame to the temporary cover was built, we had to get the materials for the cover. We decided to use 6 ft. cedar fence slats to cover the frame. This spring is a little hike away from the house, but the cedar fence slats made it easy to carry all the necessary materials in one trip.

Once we got to the site the cover went together quickly. 

Woody is always around to help. Here he is checking his level. 

After the cover was down Woody took it upon himself to inspect the work.

He was very happy with a job well done.

     Now that the spring is covered the leaves wont pile up in the bottom. This wont protect from groundwater contamination, but hopefully this will make cleaning it out a little easier next year.

 

The first clear room in the house.

After a “couple” of years of the roof leaking, most of the things in the attic had been damaged. It took 2 days of hot, disgusting work to clear the second floor out, but the first room to be cleared is in the books.

The best part is that most of the sheathing for the roof is in decent shape, less a few spots. I am fully intending on restoring this house with as much original material as possible, so this is a good sign. Once the second floor was cleaned out the smell of rain damage disappeared. This was a huge step in getting started on the house.

 

The Corn Crib

After 100 years of use, the old buildings on the property look a lot like this. I am really starting to clean these up this year, but the key is to take it slowly and not hurt yourself on something buried. It was a slow going process, but when all was said and done it turned out great.

Next year I hope we can tackle the barn. That one might take awhile.

4th of July Fence

This 4th of July our neighbor John brought us some free fencing.  Since we are doing this with mainly recycled materials, it turned into the perfect opportunity to add some flair to the front of the farm.

The weekend started off with a beautiful rainbow during an afternoon rain shower.

Now traditionally you build a fence and then pick out the flowers, but this was a special weekend in the Flint Ridge area. The local Daylily farm was having a sale and we got a truckload for a great price. What a beautiful place to spend a rainy July day. The garden was started at the beginning of March, before the last frost. We took a big gamble with the early planting, but it paid off later in the year. We decided that this garden was eventually going to be a perennial garden, so we started with some small perennial beds so we could expand them later.  

Honestly , we didn’t know we were getting a fence. Luckily we are surrounded by great people. 

Once we had the fence, it only made sense to put it around this garden. Piece by piece, hole by hole, the fence went up. The first day we made a lot of progress. We even put a first coat on the roadside fence and laid out our daylilies.

The second day, we finished off the back of the fence and we were ready to paint.

The 4th of July arrived and we had a fence around the garden. We hung the galvanized gates and finished planting the daylilies.

Usually fences are put up to keep people out, but upon completing this fence, we found ourselves surrounded by new friends. This property hasn’t had anything new like this in a long time. It wasn’t easy to put up, but it has been worth every drop of sweat.

 

The Workshop

Before

In March we started pounding away on “organization”. It had been a tough challenge, but persistence helped slowly get us to this point. 

With a limited amount of power in the shop, it became the first priority for the year. It also happened to be the last thing accomplished this year.  After 9 months of working on the garage we had 200 amp service installed.