Pole Barn 5: Walls, windows and well



This week, the pole barn underwent a transformation!
First, we got a shipment of lumber from Menards. 
(It was actually about the same price as it would 
have been to drive 1/2 hour to borrow a truck, 
pick up a trailer, drive to Baxter, load lumber ourselves, 
drive back, unload lumber, return the trailer, return the truck, 
and fill the truck with gas. A whole lot easier, too!!)


Good thing we have helpers!


 Randy and I built the first little stud wall and installed it.



We tried that method with a wall section for another 
side of the building, but it was just too tight to 
install as one big piece. We took it apart 
and put studs in board-by-board.
Again, the help was eager.



 First "meal" (Andrew's belated-birthday-cake) on the concrete floor!


At the end of the first stud-framing day!



On Wednesday, the kids and I rode the Teamcycles 
to town and dropped them off to be rented, and 
then walked back. Andrew insisted on being a 
little independent, serious dude with his hands in his 
pockets. He's such a clown sometimes!


When we were almost back to our "driveway," the 
well-drilling trucks passed us and turned in. Teddy 
and Bridget didn't want to miss a THING!


Randy had smoothed out a "road" to the well location with
Pa's tractor but... the sawdust-dirt just couldn't hold up 
this heavyweight. He buried himself up to the axles. 
Luckily they had another heavy truck with a winch.
And then they put down fiberglass mats to drive across it.


The friendly well-drillers were happy to explain things to 
the kids (and me!). They dumped bentonite clay into their 
"trough" so that as the well was drilled, the clay 
in the water could coat the sides of the hole and keep it 
from collapsing. These guys were a little weirded-out by our "soil"; 
they said they had never dug through 4+feet of sawdust, and 
had to skim their clay water with strainers to keep it 
from getting clogged up. 


Pictured below is clear, tasty water coming out! They 
ended up only at 38 ft deep, which is a "shallow well." 
Based on other wells in the immediate area, the next 
mother-load of good water (though not as good as this) 
was going to be 180 feet. We have to move the drainfield 
site a few more feet away from the house/pole barn to 
hit 100, but we figured that would be better than paying 
for an extra 130 feet of drilling (50' of drilling is 
included) and ending up with not-as-good water.
It was a good sign to watch one guy taste the water (and 
not spit it out) before he even took test samples.


By Thursday evening, we had installed 4 windows 
and a patio "front" door! The patio door is framed
within the frame for the future shop's 9x9 garage door.


Most of the north side of the building was covered
 in tin by the end of the week, as well as half of the 
south side. :) Here the boys are setting up scrap insulation for 
Bridget to swing over and kick down. Randy and I tell 
each other often: toys are unnecessary!




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