Friday, October 02, 2009

New Cow Stalls - The Project Begins
This pile of metal has been lying around the barnyard for a couple of years now, being moved from one location to another to keep them out of the way. Believe it or not, these looped metal tubes are going to form the sides of new cow stalls, and the work has finally begun. I can't wait to see how they're going to look!
This is what the old wooden stalls look like. Most of them have been broken down over the years, so the cows poop wherever they want and lie down wherever they want. Are you getting my drift? Even with keeping hay on the floors, the cows get awfully dirty and Weldon has to wash them morning and evening before we can milk.
The new metal tubes will hang from iron or cement posts, so Weldon is making one new cement post each day. This is the form he made, filled with cement.
Each one is perfectly beautiful, as you can see. He will need to make about 25 of them.
Weldon's nephew Wesley Carroll has been coming to help with the work: measuring, cutting, lifting sagging roof beams, and digging out cement, packed dirt & cow poop. It's a lot of dirty, heavy work.
Nothing is exactly square, so the whole center area needed to be dug up and laid out "just so." If you look carefully, you can see the string working as a level so that concrete footings can be poured. Weldon backed the tractor & generator into position , but only after Wesley did his best to drown a nest of wasps. I think he missed. But the work continued and now you can see the finished line of concrete and metal posts running down the center of the barn lot. The cement posts that Weldon is making will run along the sides of the barn lot ... or, that's my understanding. It's all pretty impressive.
Now this work has stopped so that the corn/sorghum harvest can be brought in. A farmer's work is never done.
Stay tuned ....

6 comments:

  1. whew!!! that's a lot of work!

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  2. Anonymous5:01 PM

    That old guy looks like a glutton for punishment.

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  3. Dear Anonymous ...
    Well, yeah, he married me, didn't he?? :-)

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  4. Anonymous9:05 PM

    I thought that construction guys worked with their shirts off when it's hot. But then, the old guy must be modest.

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  5. Anonymous12:49 AM

    Looks like a lot of work and long over due...it will be much easier to take care of the cows when this is done...keep us posted! ..oh the life of a farmer....:)
    Adell

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  6. wow, can't wait to see what it will look like!

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