This summer my sister came up for a week in July. While she was here she helped my dad start the addition that he wanted to build onto his barn.

This was in 2005 after the barn was completed. Or so I thought. A few years ago my dad decided that he needed more room for calves and to be able to separate them if needed, so he put an addition off to the right side of the barn.

In the meantime, life has gone on and space is getting tight. He is planning on retiring in 15 months so he wants to get as many expenses taken care of right now while he has the money. Also, he would like to do some woodworking once he has retired, but his work shop is a bit crowded. And that’s putting it mildly. To help solve this problem, and the other problem that he has to duck way down to get one of his tractors out of my old spot in the garage, he decided to add onto the barn so that he has somewhere to store this:

When I lived at home this was a three car, two tractor garage. My dad has managed to condense it down to two cars (which park on the cemented area of the garage), one tractor, one 4-wheeler, two riding lawn mowers, an old furnace, and the snow blower. There’s lots of other miscellany in there, too, but I won’t bore you any more.

So my sister helped my dad set the poles and get the trusses put up. Then Jay and I showed up to help put the boards up on the side.

Don’t ask me what the dimensions are for I have no idea.

When I am the ‘Contractor Helper’, as my dad calls me (aka Slave Labor), I just do as I’m told. I fetch tools, remember where he last laid them down, and attempt to foresee anything that might try my dad’s patience. The last one is usually the hardest.

When I was growing up I usually had to be my dad’s helper because somebody had to stay inside and watch Chrissy. That was usually my mom because then she would also do her household chores at the same time. Whereas if my sister or I had been in charge of watching Chrissy we would have mostly watched TV. Besides, how else could we build character? I mean, being out in the country air and working with your hands helps you to attain high levels of beauty like this:

Me on the left, Droof on the right.

We never entered beauty pageants because it wouldn’t have been fair to the other contestants. Man, it’s hard to be humble sometimes…

Getting back to the barn, Jay’s boss must have decided that I needed to build character, too, because Jay was suddenly scheduled for Saturdays. Thus it was just me making the trek up to the old homestead. With my mom’s help (since we no longer have to worry about watching Chrissy), we managed to get the stringers up on the roof in preparation for the metal roofing.

Looks good!

When the metal roofing was delivered I told my dad that I would help. He was sure that with the help of his brother they would be able to get it done without my help. Okay, but I was around if needed.

They got this far:

It’s not the best picture, but there are only two sheets of metal up so far. It took them two hours to get that much done. I was looking at fabric online when I got the call asking if I was busy. Nope. So I headed up there to help.

Apparently my dad didn’t want any skylights in the barn. Who knew?!

So, five and a half hours later this is what we had:

My dad is thinking that it looks great. Especially now that he was back down on the ground. He doesn’t really care for heights. He stayed up on the roof and did all of the work up there while my uncle and I would hand a sheet of metal up to him. Then my dad and I would wrestle the sheet into place while my uncle worked from below to lift the metal sheets on the main part of the barn to slide the new sheet under. It was a bit of a process, but we got it done.

The cows were not impressed. Pictured above are: Sirloin, Filet Mignon, Porterhouse, Ribeye, and T-Bone (a nod to Seinfeld with that one). That’s right, keep eating! We need to get you nice and fat before the winter.

Now that the roof’s done, the next step is to put the planks up on the sides.

My help shouldn’t be needed, but if it is I’m just a phone call away.

Once this is enclosed and the doors are on, my dad can begin to put his equipment from the garage into the barn addition. Then he can do what finishing work needs to be done in order for him to move a good portion of his wood shop into that space. It will allow him to spread out and actually be able to work on a project. Both of my parents are looking forward to the day when my dad can spend oodles of time in his work shop. Although, I think it’s for completely different reasons… hehehe