Taking Down the Barn

There's nothing a John Deere...

and two farm-boys (or should I say men)

can't accomplish.  In this case, it was taking down the old barn 

on Kim's school farm 

The first tug from the lower floor did move the floor and it's contents quite a bit.  You can't see it well in this photo but the floor is sunk in the center about 3-4 feet in a V shape.  Don't miss the details of the hand-cut 100+ year old beams.

Time to move the the upper floor and start doing some damage.  Here, Mark is about to wrap chains around the beams of the main floor from the bucket of their trusty tractor.

Then it's time to link the two chains togehter, hook them to the tractor, and give it another tug.

I was videoing as the barn fell but the result was dust, straw and lots of stuff floating on the breeze causing a few kids who'd been watching the whole thing to cover their faces.

I wasn't the only one videoing.  Ms. Lois was also recording it all with Kari's ipad.

 Here is Farmer Mark and Farmer Kim checking out the aftermath.

Sometimes things fall the wrong direction and you bump into something you were hoping to avoid:

Look at those big 'ol beams that were held together wooden pins/stakes.  

We also found square nails.  It was really neat to see the history.

While Daddy and son check out the cool pieces of wood...

 Grandpa puts the tractor away for the night.  

Thanks friends for including us so the kids experience just a little bit of farm life.