Moving the Corn Crib

The one drawback to the new house is that it doesn't have a garage. We've always wanted a large barn, so when we bought the house, it was a feature we were willing to sacrifice. But that still left us with a problem. Where would Zach blacksmith?

We were hoping to build Zach a stone workshop by the time we moved in, but it didn't happen. We're still building goat pens, and we still have to move the small barn for the chickens to live in. So unless something miraculous happens in the next couple months before winter, it's not going to be built until spring. We thought about him making a temporary shop in the barn, but with a 2000 degree forge, and a grinder that throws a waterfall of sparks, it probably isn't the smartest thing to do in an old dry barn with a loft full of ancient hay. One wrong move and that big beautiful barn would go up like a match box.

Zach kept looking at the metal corn crib as a possible shop, but it was kinda far from the house to run electricity, and the floor consisted of years of dead grass, and the dirt was sort of loamy and porous, not stable enough for the pounding of his treadle hammer.

I asked Zach what he though about moving it to the driveway. That way he would have a nice solid surface to work on until we could build his shop. We agreed, that we would attempt it.

Moving the corn crib was a lot like moving a really large, really heavy slinky. But with some hard work, and some crazy maneuvering we got it done. It looks pretty ugly in the middle of the driveway, I'm sure the neighbors think we're nuts, but it's only temporary.

 This is my brother Wayne. He was an awesome help that day! See how the hats are taking over.....

Zach and I used a car jack, two 2x4's and some cinder blocks to raise up the one side from the inside.

Then we used the tractor to raise up the other side.

Then we backed my brother's trailer under the teetering corn crib. A tree fell on my brother's truck during a storm and crunched it, poor truck.

The wheel covers kept it from sliding back.

Then Zach and I used a dolly, (hand cart, hand truck) as the second set of wheels. We pushed down on the dolly as my brother drove very slowly to the destination. Anyone driving by the house at this point must have thought we were nuts. We should have sold tickets.

Ok I know it's just Zach pushing down on the dolly in this photo, but I promise I helped.

There it is, now we just had to get it off Wayne's trailer.

Go Zach Go!!!

Side note: I want to make that spool into a table or something.

Good work boys!