Tearing Down the (Chicken) House
By Patty Wilber
The time had come. The chicken house had to go. We emptied it out, paid to have the water capped and the electric wires conduitized (is that even a word? Spell check says, “Not!” Oh well. Is now.)
We are ready to rumble.
On Demolition Day, we decided to de-tin the roof first.
Is it safe??
Check out that ninja-like squat (and the many layers of clothing)! It was a bit cold to start with.
I pried nails (ooh dual tool use!) from the middle and my Partner in Crime worked ’round the edges. Then we lifted the tin off and stacked it up.
Our next step was to Mow ‘er Over over using the tractor.
Yee haw!
But upon reflection, it seemed like we’d end up with a big pile that we’d spend a long time dismantling, so we decided to try knocking it apart bit by bit.
The Iron Man (triathlete) mauling the chicken house (that's a splitting maul he's wielding).
Turns out the old shed was ready to come down–there was nary a protest!
JD is helping Jim survey the progress.
Lacey : "lt, what is going on?" LT: " a bunch of boards fell off the chicken shed!" Lacey: "odd!"
We said: Ok, that’s enough “help”.
JD:"but why?!"
Someone’s going to step on a nail, that’s why!
As the boards flew off the walls it became clear that the corner posts were not cemented in.
Thus, the next step was to knock the supports out, so the roof would fall. It was ridiculously easy to do.
What a weenie little sledge compared to the maul!
Triumph! Notice I have "shed" a few layers, too!
We carried a lot of wood up to the house to burn later, but the roof had shingles and tar paper, so we stacked that in the truck for transport to the Transfer Station.
Loaded up and almost ready to depart!
We raked and picked up a few (surprisingly few) stray nails.
Penny says: "what the heck happened to the shed while i was not looking???? i must inspect!"
"FIRST! i must inspect FIRST! hmm...the dirt! it is softer here!" Lacey and LT: "let us see! let us see!"
And the third stringers: JD and Toots (in that order).
Toots waited patiently. And then: "yup, that shed is gone. what's all the fuss, lacey?"
The Demolition (and clean-up) took about three hours. All went according to Plan! That might be a first!
Next, we are ripping up carpet and painting in preparation for a new tile floor (this time in the house!), but I won’t write about that unless the horses come in to help (if they had a clue, they would have already offered)!
Toots, LT and Penny want to wish every one an ‘Appy Friday!
Tags: adventures, barn, horses, The Write Horse
