Bending Branch Barn

We are in the process of building a barn. If you are checking in, here’s the latest.

We’ve hired Duane Miller to clear and level the site. Since we are building on a hillside, he’s removing enough surrounding area of trees to level for a 46’x48′ concrete pad which will be the floor of the new barn. There is 6′ of drop between the northeast corner of the proposed pad and the southwest corner.

It’s expensive to have dirt and rock delivered to aid in leveling. So the plan is to sculpt the site with existing fill material.

The other issue is drainage. When building on a hill it’s important to make sure runoff will not wash out under the new barn. We are unclear at this time whether Duane will need to build a 70′ retaining wall to the east (up the hill from the pad). He’s currently doing an initial grade to help make that decision. Currently, we are planning/budgeting for the retaining wall. However, we won’t make the final call until he’s finished clearing trees.

As you can see in the picture, he is burning the debris. When this picture was taken, Duane reported that the pile was twice this size when he lit it. He planned to use his loader to fold it back into itself before he finished work that day and then he’d return early the next morning to fold it in again. It could take several days to burn to ash.

When you burn a substantial pile, you need to scatter the ashes, or nothing will grow there in the future. Lisa has plans for a garden next to the barn, so it will be important to deal with the monstrous ash pile when he finishes. His plan is to push it into a few existing holes up near the road which need filling.

Lisa as connected with our builder and gotten on his calendar. Unfortunately, it’s looking like fall before he’ll be able to start framing. His crew has gotten extremely busy since we last talked. We hope to get the slab poured prior to the start of framing so we don’t need to deal with all the mud and runoff.

Here’s the view looking from the county road (Newton Lane) southwest into the area that’s being cleared for the barn.

That’s the farm update. Thanks for checking in.