New Life for an Old Farm

When we first moved to what would become Morning Star Family Farm, we were somewhat discouraged by the state of the outbuildings.   It had been 20 years since the previous owners had used the outbuildings and, frankly, it showed.

The original outbuildings, as we first saw them, June 2010

We knew the buildings had life left in them--and we also knew that we had many uses for the structures--but that it would take a good deal of oomph to get the buildings back into working order.  Chickens were top on our list for desired farm animals, so we knew we wanted the Chicken Coop (the middle building in the above picture) to be functional sooner rather than later.  As a result, we decided to tackle that building first.  

Since the Chicken Coop (like the other two buildings) had gaping holes in the roof, the first priority was to replace the old shake shingles with steel roofing.  The work began in March 2011.  It was Robin's project, with help from Dad, friends, and our boys.  As all projects go, the further we got in, the more we realized that we had to do.   

In May, the Moen boys arrived and knocked down the old Machine Shed roof, preserving the original walls.  Our plan was to use the building as a workshop and garage, but the old gambrel roof, while beautiful, was simply beyond repair.  Of course, watching the guys knock down the roof with sledgehammers and then clear it all away with a Bobcat was well worth the price of admission.

Then in August, Robin and the boys removed the Chicken Coop siding and put up OSB, while the Moens continued their work on the Machine Shed, putting up new trusses, OSB, and, eventually, steel roofing.  Somewhere around September we realized that it would be necessary to replace the big barn roof before winter, or we would risk losing that big, beautiful, antique.  With school starting up, though, we also knew that we would need to call in an expert to do the job.  We ended up finding a barn restoration expert who not only installed a steel roof on the barn, but also replaced rotted beams and joists, and missing siding and floor boards so that now our one hundred year old barn has at least another hundred years of life in it.

Barn, Chicken Coop, and Machine Shed February 2012

It's still a work in progress, but in one year I think we've come a long way.  We have finished replacing the roofs on all three outbuildings and are in the home stretch for finishing the exteriors of the buildings, as new wood siding boards are going up on the Chicken Coop and Machine Shed as I type.  It's a project that will never end, but all in all, I think we've breathed a good deal of new life into this place in the past year.  And this is only the beginning.