Work Week 2021!
Day 1, Branding at CA Camp
Click here for a video of the last few calves worked through the tilting chute!
Day 2 We built a structure out of pipe to support the roof then started to tear down the barn wall. Scroll down for pictures.
Day 3, Tuesday, We removed the rest of the wall and poured a concrete footer.
Day 4, Wednesday, We spent the morning getting ready for Clay to get there, then we started rebuilding the wall after lunch.
Day 5, Thursday, We decided that we would only build the outside wall one rock thickness and then later build the inside wall layer with either cinder block or framing lumber. Click here for a video.
Day 6, Friday, We hustled to see how much of the wall we could get done. Clay was originally going to leave Friday evening.
Day 7, Saturday, Clay agreed to stay Saturday morning to try to finish the wall. We almost made it. Just a few rows left on the right side of the wall. We will have to finish it later.
Day 1
On Day 2 we built a metal structure to hold the barn roof up in case the entire front wall of the barn was too fail. We started with the idea that we could remove only the front half of the rock wall and rebuild the front half only but as we progressed we decided it would be to dangerous to work under the half wall as it was looking pretty marginal. So we removed the entire wall from the door to the window.
We started the third day thinking we could take down only the outside 1/2 of the wall and just rebuild it but as we progressed we decided that the inside wall was too flimsy and would be too dangerous to work under, so the whole wall was removed. We went through about 5 changes of plans on how we should rebuild the wall, from leaving the wall open, to building a free wall, to building one layer of rock wall to building the entire wall back. We decided that with Christine’s family friend (a professional mason) and his helper coming out to help we would see if we could rebuild the entire wall. Maybe optimistic but here we go!
Day 4
Day 4, Wednesday
We started day 4 in ernest when Clay Hammond our mason friend got to the ranch from Rocky Ford at noon. After lunch we helped Clay and his helper, Denton start rebuilding the wall!
Day 7
Saturday, Day 7, The last day!
Building rock wall is hard work. Clay agreed to stick around on Saturday to try to get the wall done! We didn’t quite get it done but we got pretty close. Al and Kathrine left Friday at about 2:00pm and Jeff left Friday about 5. Colton left Thursday morning in his airplane. So with a smaller crew Hilary and Doug agreed to help and drove in Saturday morning.