The roof is gone!

With the help of a rented lift platform, yesterday and today we took down all the rest of the purlins (3/4s of the roof area) and all 124 rafters! What a hoot!

Using the lift, one person rode to the top of the inside of the barn while another climbed the purlins on the lower pitch of the roof's west side. (The upper pitch purlins were removed weeks ago.) Each pried off one end of each rafter and the "lower" person slide his end aside until it fell off the header and dropped to the ground. This was repeated until all the rafters in a bay were dislodged and dropped.

Then the lift was lowered, moved to the next bay, and raised to the top again. The process was repeated, dropping about 6 rafters for each move of the lift, until the whole west side top pitch was removed.

Then the purlins on the east side top were removed so the rafters could be taken down next. On this side the lift was even more helpful. As each bay of rafters was dislodged at the bottom by the person standing on the lower east side purlins, the lift was used to lift them off the bottom while they were still attached to the top header. This made it a simple task to push the wrecking bar under each rafter, unlike the rafters on the other three pitches, most of which were tightly nailed down and took considerable effort to pry them off. Then, as each rafter was pried off at the top, the lift rider hung onto it while he hung up his wrecking bar, and pushed the rafter down over the hip of the roof and gave it a push. Each rafter slid down the lower pitch and landed on the east side of the barn.

Next the lower east side purlins came off, the bottom four or five rows being removed from the list platform, now on the east outside of the building. Using the lift saved probably 3/4ths of the time for these last rows which otherwise would have had to be removed while standing on a ladder, and climbing down to move the ladder every 6 rafters or so.

On this pitch of rafters, from the lift platform, we pried the lower end up and swung it left or right until it cleared the header it had been nailed to. Then it was dropped just as the top pitch of the west side had been dropped, only not so far.

Finally the lower west side purlins and rafters were removed in the same way as the lower east side.

The bad news: many of the rafters broke when they fell. Many were already cracked, especially at the notches. In some cases the length below the bottom pitch notches - the roof overhang - was already disconnected from the rest of the rafter. Only the purlins, attached to adjacent rafters, had been holding these rafter fragments. Obviously, if the roof is rebuilt like it was, the rafters that are broken or damaged cannot be used.

The good news: All but a handful of the damaged rafters will make great joists for the lofts that had no flooring to begin with.

Next: take out nails, stack and load and transport to Raccoon Creek, take down, load and transport posts, beams and knee braces to Raccoon Creek.

Barn history

One of the grandsons of a past owner of the property on which the barn we are dismantling stands, investigated and wrote the following history. Our thanks go to Don Smith for this contribution to our community history.

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At the time of the 1859 map of Floyd County, the property at what is now 201 Hausfeldt Lane (Hossfeld) was owned by Peter Smeaton and his wife. As of 7-06-05, I have not been able to trace the ownership further back.

On September 24, 1860, the property (66 acres) was sold to Barbara and John G. Beck.

On May 21, 1866, the property was sold to Francis and Louis Fraaz.

On February 27, 1869, Francis H. Fraaz transferred half of the 66 acres to Jacob Vetterlin.

On December 6, 1870, Louis Fraaz and Anastatia, (his wife) and Jacob Vetterlin sold all 66 acres to William Geltmacher.

On November 28, 1872, William Geltmacher and Catherine (his wife) sold the property to Ignatius Ohlmann.

On December 18, 1878, Ignatius Ohlmann (marital status not shown) sold the property to Ernst Hossfeld, my great-grandfather, and the one for whom the road was named.

The farm came down through 4 generations of my family, with parts of the property being sold off at times until there was just under 5 acres remaining, this part containing the barn. This remaining property was sold to the present owner, Janet Burkhart, in September of 2004.

From what I was always told, 3/4 of the barn was existing when my ancestors bought the property in 1875. At that time, the "dog trot" or drive though was down the center of the barn and the barn had a gable roof. According to family lore, my great grandparents enlarged the barn by adding a series of bays to the west side, making the "dog trot" off center, and by splicing 2 sets of upright posts and raising the roof, they made the roof into the gambrel shape as is exists today.

In some publications, I've read, the barn was dated as going back to the 1860's and early 1870's. As there were a number of owners during that time period, it could have been erected by any of a number of persons.

My father ran the farm until the 1960s. After that the farm was sharecropped and the barn no longer used. A lot of the ground was sold in 1980 and the farm ceased operations; thus, the barn was not used except for storage since that time.

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If anyone should stumble across any additional information about the barn, please contact us.

Moving day

Well we finally bit the bullet and rented a van for two days to move most of the wood and roofing we have removed from the barn to Raccoon Creek. It took a total of 24 man-hours to fill the van twice, Friday and today. It took 6 man hours to unload and stack siding and other wood this morning, and will probably take about 3 hours each for two of us to unload in the morning tomorrow. That doesn't include the 20 hours total for two and then three of us to make the 4 hour round trip.

Truck rental was an expense I had hoped to keep to a minimum. The going rate for mileage charges for trucks here is $.79/mile! By the time we take it back tomorrow we will have put almost exactly 400 miles on it, and I was so sure we could find a truck to borrow.

We stacked the "good stuff" this morning before heading back to the barn site for another load. Tomorrow we plan to just dump everything off and try to get the truck back before the established return time. I hope we have enough time to cover all the piles with tin roofing. There's plenty of roofing, but I'm not sure there will be plenty of time.

We'll have to get some folks down to the site over the next few weeks to get the lumber sorted and stacked neatly. Otherwise, when we need it in the spring, we'll spend too much time searching for what we need.

Left to do at the barn site:

Remove remaining purlins and rafters.
Take down all posts and beams.
Truck posts and beams to Raccoon Creek

everyday matters

Recently the Sierra Club added a new feature to its web site named "everyday matters." Club members across America were invited to submit a short article telling what they were up to on the same Saturday in August. If you're interested, here's the entry I sent. You also can read some of the nearly 200 others.

Permaculture Course details - Web site

Web site

Due to a gift of DSL service for my birthday and the pending loss of my old web site that came with the soon-to-be-defunct email address, I have finally made the effort to set up a simple web site for the Raccoon Creek Community.

Our new web address is http://a.domaindlx.com/RaccoonCreek/.

It's not fancy but it should be an easier way for one to find information about us without having to scrool through "Up the Creek..." and its various monthly archives.

Over time I'll try to expand the web site to include more pictures and specific information. If there is specific information that you'd like to see there, let me know.

Permaculture Course Announcement flyer

For now, the web site's prime purpose is to provide a home for the "Permaculture Course Announcement flyer."

It would be great if you would distribute the announcemnt to anyone who might be interested. Note especially the discount offered for registration by September 21st, a month before the start of the course. Campers can save another $50.