Moving a 400 year old tree to get a new door.

As I said at the end of the last blog, we needed to get back to "Cowfeathersschlossienhofpalais", or, at least, Cowfeathers Farm, our beautiful home.
One of the biggies on my "to do" list was to reboot the north side of the barn. When we arrived here, there was only a 8 foot span of wall left on the north barn bottom story. Someone had cut off the siding about 9 feet from the ground. Presumably for better access for cattle? But it also meant better access for weather, and wind. In the winter the north wind is...formidable.
So, I went about blocking it up, not very professionally, thinking it would be mostly temporary until I decided how to configure the barn to our liking. That was 13 years ago.  Eye Roll.
Like many things, once they are somewhat serviceable, they become "good enough".
I had built a door into the wall, where the row of stalls were located, so that if I put a stall there it would have a north door. It was a double dutch door with windows in the top half, so it could be open on the top, closed on the bottom, or half all the way open other half closed, or both wide open. I like versatility. Then, promptly turned it into a stall.
But last year, after 12 years of battering north winds, one quarter of the door gave up and ripped right off.
Thus, on the "to do" list. Before next winter ( which is now this winter).
I decided, with the help of my wise counseling neighbor, Dave, that a sliding door would give me the versatility and wind control I needed, plus last a lot longer than my charming, but battered previous creation. He even gave me a lead on someone who could do it for us.
So, into the picture came another capable helper, Jim. Who looked at it, measured it, and said "Sure, I can do that!"
It seemed so easy.

Two hundred year old barns are never easy.

 

So, when Jim eventually arrived to put up the sliding door, it became apparent we had not noticed a little "glitch" to putting it in place. 

To orient you, the wood at the right side of the photo is the siding. The beam through the left side of the photo is the east-west horizontal support beam. Visible betwixt the two is the vertical beam that supports the north wall and the roof.  It is supposed to be resting squarely on top of the horizontal beam, but instead is about 3/4 of the way OFF its support! This is not only bad news for the barn, it also pushes the siding out, causing a bow, and making it impossible to hang a slider door attached to the horizontal beam. 

Ugh. 

 This is looking up from the base of the barn. through the hay drop (hole in the floor for tossing down bales of hay from above.) It doesn't look too bad, but the vertical beam is obviously not resting squarely on the support beam!
So, who do you get to fix, safely, a two hundred year old barn, built with wood that was centuries old when it was cut, honed and pegged into place? That's tough. I tried Amish builders, but there was a communications problem. I don't know what the rules are with telephones and the Amish, but my go-between, another helpful neighbor that does some business with Amishmen, never got us successfully connected. So, I emailed a few folks, asked questions fruitlessly, and hoped for a break through. When our barn was straightened, way back in '05, it was done by a knowledgeable German fellow, who was in his 90's. I couldn't find him for this repair, so I assume he retired.
Then, the break through arrived. I phoned the right guy. Structural Erectors of Columbus said they would have a look.
They have experience working with these precious old buildings. And each year that goes by our barn becomes more rare as the old barns around us get pushed over and burned or buried.

The team put a come-along between the beam that needed to be pulled back onto the support and the center barn beam.

They then placed two 4-ton jacks on either side of the beam to pick the beam up enough to pull it in with the come-along. But, the bottom of the beam is not sound. Years of weather has made the bottom uneven and not a good flat purchase.

So using a most braw reciprocating saw, they cut off the bottom of the beam (cutting through wood this old is like cutting stone). Then found an equal thickness of wood in our ancient scrap pile to fill in the base gap.

Lastly, they put two angle braces in through all the pieces to hold it there for another 200 years.

 So now, the door!

 Getting the structure in place.

 From the inside of the stall. So tidy!

And the finished product. Delightful.

And the result is a happy horse with a new door. This is the first day she has had access to a paddock since her surgery in early January. The paddock has been fenced off to be rather small, so she cannot get up enough room for a trot or a canter, but Nelle loves to survey her territory.
An open door is a beautiful thing. Progress!