The Dixie Barn - III

Well after a very stressful evening we woke up the next day to realize the septic was still operational and the flooding only due to the dirt collapsing around the tank and not the tank busting itself. Still it became apparent the plastic water tank was not going to prove to be a long term solution. We have some family who work in septic currently so after a conversation with them we learning that we could use two large oil drums as tanks that would function the same and handle the trailer septic well. The next weekend Gramps and Jeremy returned and swapped out the tanks to the drums and we were ready to rock, good as new. Thank goodness for family.

Once the septic solution was handled we decided to tackle a new and equally large challenge. Clearing the barn rooms. As we mentioned way back at the beginning of these posts, the barn was absolutely over flowing with all sorts of stuff. I use the word junk endearingly as much of it was once very useful but has sense faded into disarray and begun to fall apart irredeemably. We gingerly plucked through the two rooms as best as we could salvaging what was possible and taking the rest by bucket loads to the scrap pile. In order to even get into one of the rooms we had to remove the whole outside wall which upon further inspection was already basically splinters anyways.

It took about a whole day’s worth of work and many allergy pills later but when it was finally empty the relief could be felt across the team. A huge roadblock in improvement finally cleared. We now have a ginormous pile of junk to be handled and disposed of and a small pile of glass bottles, old metal tools, and barn wood that wasn’t rotten yet. We sorted our prizes into places for safe keeping and reveled in the now empty barn rooms remembering where we came from to where we are now. The ranch is improving, the garden is thriving, and life feels a little more peaceful for the moment.

More like a second…