Are you thinking of building a barn but you don’t know where to start? You don’t need contractors or even a lot of help to make your dreams come true. Join me as Mountain Man builds my dream barn.
When I decided I couldn’t live without horses, Mountain Man said I had to have a new barn. I was perfectly content to use the old, historic barn on our property but Mountain Man said the old barn sat on swampy land and the horses needed dryer ground. We went over design after design and finally decided on two oversized box stalls, a large chicken room, a tack room, a loft area and, of course, storage for some of Mountain Man’s equipment. No, we didn’t pick up the phone and call for help. That wasn’t in our budget so Mountain Man has built the entire structure by himself, from logging the lumber to the actual building of the barn.
First, he did the site work, which meant terracing some of our pasture, putting in a well and then getting started on laying out the stalls.
We are have two stalls and the chicken room is on the far right. We brought in the fill dirt from another part of our farm.
Working on the lumber for the floor joists.
Mountain Man made the walls in his shop and then moved them to the barn site with his tractor.
I thought we’d need some help to lift the walls and hold them in place, but I was wrong.
Once he got the walls into place, Mountain Man made sure they were just as he wanted.
And then, he climbed on the walls and tugged them into place.
And kept on going until he had all the walls into place.
As Mountain Man surveys his handiwork, I’ll leave you the walls to the stalls and chicken area erected. It’s been quite an adventure from start to finish, but most importantly, I hope our story encourages everyone to live their rural dreams.
