Barn from '09 to '14

In 2008, Janie and I began building a house and barn.  We spent weeks waiting for approval for the house.  Until then, we started on the barn on this property.  Lots of little tree cutting and prep work.

 

 

 

First a few 4 x 4's. 

 

 

Loft platform went up first.  Didn't look like much.

 

 

The total dimentions can be seen, and the platform for the loft.

 

 

Makes you wonder doesn't it?

 

 

 

 

It look a bit like an unfinished project on this day.

 

 

 

 

A little roof line may be seen at last.

 

 

 

 

Perhaps folks passing can tell what's going on here now.

 

 

Home made trusses for the loft sped the job along.

 

 

Sticks in the air.

 

 

Roof tin nearly finished.  It was at this point, we started on the house.

The barn went untouched for months!

 

 

A long wat to go yet.  Stetson has, at this point, never been in the barn.

 

 

 

 

More wood to buy and put up.  The thing is, board and batt goes up very fast.

(Tarp is to keep the hat in the loft dry)

 

 

 

For the most part, it's weathered in.  You can still see through it as the inner walls are not up.

(Stolen Big Ugly truck)

 

 

 

It looks gooder and gooder all the time.

 

 

 

I was content to let the barn go plain a while longer, but Janie wasn't.

After it was painted, I was very happy with it.

(Tractor Supply paint/stain, one coat only!)

 

 

 

 

I hoisted up the loft doors alone.  Do you like my none OSHA approved work surface?

 

 

 

 

Here it is up.  Glad that's over!

 

 

 

I was going to let this be the condition of the barn until Spring of the next year.

But the theft of our truck changed that.

 

 

 

 

It was good to have that last door up and all thing secured.

 

 

Stetson's side with shelter.

That's 36' X 36' of pure storage.  (Still not big enough)

 So until we get the cement floor poured early in the Spring, we'll call this finished.

A walk around the lake

Janie and I went to Brown County State Park to walk around Ogle Lake.

A nice day with great December weather.  The water was down at least 4 foot.

Talls trees abounded, the one in front with beaver damage.

Moss on log.

Take a gander at these geese.

Beaver damage.

Little berries.

Long views at Western Tower overlook.

Not much of a tower really.  But nice location for picnic.

Janie ponders the vista.

7 July 2012 at Mossy Point

We had family out to Mossy Point for a 4th of July event, including a homemade boat race.  Family came from: Califorina, Georgia, Texas, Iowa and Indiana.

Grandpa and Grandson Gavin on pond.

Granddaughter Synora

Grandson Kamren

Granddaughter Keira (and Gavin)

Race entry "Team America" (Jason)

Race entry "Team Kathy"

Race entry "Team Dan"

Winner !  "Noodle boat" (Jonah)

Love that family.  It's easy to add to it, hard to subtract from it.

Grandma and Grandpa Lane

A little less boring

My last post lamented the lack of "major events" around the cabin on Mossy Point. This post? Not so much.

For some very odd reason, a person or persons found the need to steal our "Big Ugly Truck".
Big Ugly is/was a 21 year old Chevy 1 ton duelly with 150,000 miles, no working A/C, headliner, rusty, dented, torn, oil leaky, no brake havin' truck. We used it only to pull the trailer and what-not.

We heard it drive off about 0400hours Thursday. We thought it was odd, but that it must have been a neighbor. In the morning, we found that our truck had been stolen. The Sheriff was called, report filed and that about it. The folks on our road have gotten together to tighten-up the look-out for vehicles that drive in and around for no apparent reason.

Here's the good news, we are looking forward to a replacement truck.

Something along these lines will do nicely. It's a good thing that God is our source.

So I had last week off from work and did some work on the cabin. Bats had taken up residence under the wavy siding of the cabin and garage. They stunk! The poop that is. I spent several hours tighting up the siding that had "cupped" and shrunk over time.

That's not all, we had camping guests over the weekend. KS and daughters with other guests stayed in the woods behind the house. Hiked, fished and in general had a nice time.



CS caught the only fish. For some reason, they were not biting that day.

AS cuts bait.

Cutie pie


On leafy pond

Miss AS sitting on Mossy Point

A little along ........

There just aren’t enough major events going on around here to amount to anything. That’s most likely a good thing. Other people I know are having Earthquakes, hurricanes and babies, and having them all one right after the other.


The onlyest accomplishment here on Mossy Point, that would not otherwise put you to sleep, is some progress on the barn. Currently, our loft is occupied by 7 cats, Miss Jerri Johnson and her kittens. We call her “Miss” because, if she is married, you couldn’t prove it. He’s not been around, does not help her in any way and must surly be an absent father. So Jerri has sole custody and has been getting by on the assistance we provide. At least she’s not a drain on the local economy. There are few things cuter than a loft full of kittens.


The barn has been sitting there for three years without the first door on it. We’re determined to have the loft closed in before Winter, and this was the first step in that direction. The track and all costs about $100 and we’re paying for everything in cash, (No credit in our lives) so one door at a time is fine. Please take note of my non OSHA compliant work platform.



I made it from left over poplar boards from the bridge. Just enough too. There are no battens on the door, but I did cut a lap joint in each to prevent weather from coming in.
The whole thing is 48” wide and 74” tall. It’s heavy. Too heavy for me to lift alone, and since I work mostly alone, the real feat was to get it up and into place within help.


Without help that is, but with my friend John Deere. It took a few steps but I got the thing up and leaning on the barn, and the wheels slide into the track. the rest involved a rope, the lawn mower and some grunting. Suffice it to say, I got the door installed without damage to either myself or the door. Next weekend, another loft door!

Mossy Point Cabin photo shoot

Yes, I know it has been close to two months since I have put anything on the site. This blog is about the cabin and frankly, it’s been far too hot to do much outside, thusly, no posts either. We’re expecting a high of 89 today and 84 on Tuesday with some rain. Time to go back to work.

In June, we took part in an annual event here in Brown County called, “The Log Cabin Tour”. Five to six houses are selected that rage from small, (900sqft with no electricity) to the huge. (5,500sqft with all the bells and whistles) Our cabin fell somewhere in the middle. The money that is raised by the tour goes to educational programs and food for those who need it.

Shortly after the tour, we were again selected by a magazine named “Country’s Best Cabins”, to be featured in their publication. They sent a photographer named Joseph Hilliard out last week to do the shoot. To say it was interesting would be a huge understatement.

http://www.josephhilliard.com/index2.php?ver=v1

I have added Joe’s web site here in case you’re interested in seeing his outstanding work.
If you choose to visit his site, you can select “Log Homes” in his gallery listing and see some of the architecture he photographs. Most of these “Cabins” have front doors that cost more than our entire house! And, after viewing Joe’s site, I am wondering why I submitted ours for consideration.

If you are like most of us, looking at a 2 million dollar house is interesting, but not feasible, or maybe not even desirable. I think this is why we were selected. Our house is more normal in size and doable by most anyone, specially in price if you’re doing it yourself.


This is Joe.

I am happy to say that Joe uses a Canon camera and so do I. Are you impressed? Mine cost over $400. Joe’s was a bit more. (20 times more) He was kind in allowing me to shadow him during the process. I learned a few things, most of which I can not use because it takes proper equipment, of which I am not likely to purchase. Needless to say, lighting is a big part of it.

This thing below, is a controller for flash units. It allows a photographer to control the intensity of the flash and so much more than I can describe.




Large lights and what-not.

I would have liked to have a large format photo to post, but all I have is a small one Joe e-mailed to me. It’s a wide angle picture showing the whole back ‘Yard” for the first time in one picture.

I encourage you to go to Joseph Hilliard’s site and look at his photos. Awesome! And the log “cabins” are really something to see.