My goal for today was to start getting things out of the basement and into the barn or junk pile, as appropriate. My daughters were doing a whole bunch of baking, but we were able to coordinate a time when we could work together on that.

I didn’t get as much done in the basement as I wanted, but there was still a lot of progress.

The first thing to do was shovel a path to the barn and get one of the doors clear enough to open.

There were a couple of problems. The first was that, having worked my way to the barn door, my hip suddenly did it’s thing. From one step to the next, I became unable to put any weight on my right leg, due to pain and instability.

I was, however, able to work on my left leg, so as long as I could just pivot around, I could finish clearing the barn door, moving my right leg around just enough to try and work out whatever was causing the pain in my hip joint. By the time I did, my hip was back to normal, and I could deal with the second problem.

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There was a ridge of ice right at the door. The doors sag in the middle, and it was just high enough to prevent the door from opening. The plastic snow shovel couldn’t clear it away, but a steel shovel could chip away enough for the door to finally open.

These doors are feeling very fragile.

Once inside, I had to figure out where I could clear out a space to put things.

My goodness, what a terrible picture. My hands must have been shaking like crazy, after the shoveling! Normally, I take multiple photos, just in case, but not today. Ah, well.

So I’m in the middle of the barn at this point. The old cattle stalls in the front half were all full of things, but further back were some that might be workable. Of course, the hall in the middle needed to be cleared, too.

There was also the lean to on the side of the barn, which has more space, but…

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When a metal roof was put on the barn (right on top of the rotting original roof), the lean to was skipped. As you can see, there is a lot of water in there. Water from the melting snow is dripping straight through a number of areas.

There was a stall that I could at least partially clear. In the process, I found…

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… old trusses that are rotting where they touch the concrete. (That’s my gloved finger messing with the photo, there. LOL)

Those metal screens in the back are interesting, though. I might find a use for them.

This grabber was hanging at one end. This is not something I remember from when I was growing up here. I have no idea where it came from. Looking at the size of the handle, this is meant for two people to use. One of these days, I’d love to restore it.

After clearing some space, I also cleared away some stuff that was in the gutter in front of the old stall. Some pieces of wood had managed to fall under the lid of the cistern, so I opened it up to get them out.

I didn’t bother getting the rest of the junk out. I do wonder why these are hear. They couldn’t have fallen in with the lid in place.

This, btw, is a urine drain. When the cows did their business, most went into the gutters, and the urine would flow into the pair of cisterns on either side of the hallway. Once they were full, we just emptied them with a bucket.

This is how things looks after clearing things out.

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I could now get through the hall to access the space I’d cleared.

There is a whole lot of stuff all over the barn. Including lots and lots of windows.

Like this one, which looks like something we might be able to use in a future cordwood practice building. After the outhouse, which will have strategically placed bottle bricks instead of windows, we’re thinking of making a garden shed, which will have windows.

With that in mind, I went looking at some of the other stuff lying about.

I rather like this steel, exterior door. If it’s not too water damaged, I think it would be fantastic for our outdoor bathroom. There aren’t keys, of course, so the deadbolt and probably the door knob would need to be replace. Likely the hinges as well. It looks like there’s only half hinges on there right now. :-D

There are also these huge pieces of window glass. Too big for any project we’re thinking of now, but perhaps usable for something else.

I also checked out a shed near the barn. I’ve actually been poking about a few places, as the snow melts enough for me to be able to access them, looking for the drawknife I know I saw, some time ago. I can’t remember where, though! So far, I have not been able to find it. :-( I was hoping to get it sharpened for use as we debark wood for the cordwood building.

The shed has more windows, including one that looks like it would work well in the deep walls of a cordwood building.

Why are there so many windows all over the place? Many of them are quite old, made before the more energy efficient double and triple pane windows were invented.

It may not look like much, but this aluminum double sink is still quite sturdy. I am thinking of cleaning it up and bringing it into the old basement, to go under the set of taps where the washing machine used to be.

Ah, there’s the table saw! I was hoping it wasn’t one of the things that grew legs and walked away while this place was empty.

Which makes me think it might now be in working order.

If it is, I’m going to be very happy! It will come in very handy for future projects.

I kinda sorta found a second one.

I spotted a blade in between the stacks of flooring. It seems to be a table saw, without it’s table!

Speaking of tables…

There’s a round table top, minus its legs (which might be lying about somewhere else, for all I know), next to yet another stack of windows.

I wonder if that big blower on the counter works? It looks like a larger version of what we have in the old basement.

They’re hard to see, but there are stacks of glass blocks under the counter. I was seeing some at the salvage yard website I found, and at salvage prices, blocks of this size were selling for $8 each. There’s probably about 30 or 40 of them under there.

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At one end of the shed are more doors. That wooden door with the big glass window is probably an exterior door. The lock on it would be for a skeleton key. They certainly don’t make doors like this anymore – with reason!

Then there’s a sections of a fence, that was clearly cut apart with a saw. :-/ And more windows. Because there are windows, everywhere!

Hopefully, we’ll be able to find most of the materials we need to build our first cordwood practice building in all of this!

Then there was this thing.

I have no clue what this thing is. If anyone knows, please leave a note in the comments, because I would love to find out!

I also found these.

Just… tucked away, under a shelf.

I really don’t think these go back to when my dad worked in a shoe factory. They are newer than that.

So many things… so few explanations! :-D

With the space cleared in the barn, it was time to get stuff out of the basement.

Which… didn’t go as well as I had hoped. My hip did its thing again, part way through, and we ended up stopping sooner than I’d hoped.

That shopping cart has been coming in very handy, including as an impromptu walker!

We did get a decent amount out, though.

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At this point, we just needed to get the stuff out of the house, so my daughter put the stuff in organized piles. Glass and regular garbage in one area, the water damaged shelf, riddled with nails, for burning, hazardous materials, including mystery liquids, and stuff to go to the barn for storage, or the junk pile.

Once my hip was working again, the girls went back to baking and I got the bigger wheel barrow and started hauling things away.

I also grabbed a cane from our collection to keep handy, just in case! :-D

Then, since I was hauling things into the barn anyhow, I cleared a few things from the garage, too.

It’s still a disaster, but I was able to clear out more batteries, paint cans, and some jugs and 5 gallon pails of mystery liquid.

I discovered that this wheelbarrow can handle only 2 batteries at a time. Those things are heavy!!

Gosh, there is a lot of junk to sift through in there. :-( Somehow, we have to separate out the junk from the stuff worth keeping. I see some sort of little compressor under there.

After many trips back and forth to the barn (I had my phone in my pocket, and walked far enough to hatch 3 Pokemon Go eggs! That would make it at least 2 kms of walking, probably more), this is the result.

I’ve got the hazmat mystery liquids and paint in one area, a total of 11 car, truck and possibly tractor batteries (there are at least two more in the side of the garage where we keep the lawn mower, and probably more in the basement) and a couple of old sump pumps. My brother tells me that at least one of them works, as it was used as an emergency pump at some point. There are others that will make their way in here, too. I’m hoping to get the old door from the van into the barn as well, and there are quite a lot of other things that I’d like to get out, including what appears to be a collection of motors. If we run out of space here, there is another section that can be cleared out for more.

Then, at some point, we’ll take all the old paint cans and mystery liquids to the landfill for proper disposal, and the batteries will be taken to a scrap yard to be sold for their lead, along with the bags of aluminum.

By the time all this was done, it was almost evening. There were still loaves of bread rising, with some in the oven, so no one had been able to start supper.

My husband was a sweetheart and ordered pizza! I didn’t mind the trip into town to pick it up. Since I’ll be going into town again tomorrow, to pick up prescription refills, it gave me the opportunity to park the van in front of the house. That way, I won’t have to walk through the lake of melt water to get to the garage!

Hhhhmmm… That pizza is really hitting the spot! <3

The Re-Farmer