The Dixie Barn - II
The next day of work on The Dixie Barn begins with Jaken and his grandpa back out with the tractor and chainsaw. Jaken’s father joined in on the fun as they try to see what direction to go in as far as rebuilding the frame. They realize the trusses, although strong are going to need to be reinforced and the walls are all pretty much crumbling. The tin on the roof is bent and warped with time so they make the decision to start removing the tin roof to salvage what pieces they can and to stack the wood into piles based on what shape it is in. Brooklyn spent the day over at her grandparents with Hope while the guys worked.
Later in the day another set of cousins came over to visit and decided to ride out with Brooklyn when Jaken came to collect her for a status report. While there we started smelling a strong licorice smell and turns out there was a sassafras tree growing and the roots were unearthed. We should have made some root beer! Hopefully there are some more out there hiding. The cousins helped us collect some of the glass bottles and jars and found several old apothecary jars with various medicine labels, a ton of neatly designed bottles, and of course those abundant chili powder jars. We also found an old cast iron sink, Brooklyn can’t wait to restore it. So many treasures from the hay day of the barn mixed in with memories of the more recent families to live there. With the roof removed all these things are brought to life and the next stage and cleaning began.
After a week of our day jobs we went back out to the property the following weekend and continued the cleaning. Jaken with the help of his grandpa and father got just about everything out of the floor of the back of the barn. We expected to find a ton of deteriorated wood and old metal but what we did not expect to find was a huge stack of milled cedar planks in pristine condition. We later found out that the planks were milled at Bettie’s late brother’s wood mill that he used to own. We hope to use the planks in the rebuilding of the barn and possibly to make some furniture for the house to really tie in the family connections.
Another fun surprise reared its head in the shape of a giant chicken snake hiding under some of the less usable wood. Once it was moved to a new home there then appeared two very large rats running about. We didn’t even mention the spiders...Once much of the live critters were politely asked to leave we came across a mummified opossum. The wildlife in the barn is out of the world and it’s not even the livestock kind. We’ve got our very own Charlotte’s Web going on out here.
Once the back of the barn was effectively cleared out they decided to remove a few of the trees that had grown up under the foundation of the barn. This required assistance from a chainsaw, the tractor, a jeep with a winch, an towing strap, and four men. All this and the tree still managed to pull up the foundation and burn out the wench and almost flip the tractor thanks to the help of those lovely grapevines. By the end of the weekend the foundation was successfully cleared of the trees that had grown up underneath it. This is when we realized this barn had been built at different times. Three separate foundations had been installed with one being added after the front of the barn’s door with installed because it blocks the door from opening. The mystery continues but is keeping it exciting. Our next step is to deal with the existing foundation.
