Sunday, December 21, 2008


Bender Builders, Inc.

                                                   The builders arrive                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      


On a bright October morning they came down the hill like a train. Four trucks and trailers. They were loaded with every thing from a cement mixer to a microwave oven.....yes.

Bender Builders, Inc., we soon called them Denny and the boys, seven of them when they were all working on this project. Denny is the owner and his son Kyle is the stone mason. This is the second of the big trucks and a trailer load of things.



A trailer load of scaffolding and the mortar mixer (boy did that mixer really get used)! More about that later.












The bobcat that could do anything or I should say many things. You'll see it in action later on.

















Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The work begins

First comes the digging





The first thing that had to be done was remove the dirt ramp to the barn. A great deal of care had to be taken to prevent a rock that was being dug out from falling the wrong way and hitting the barn. If this happened it could cause stones in the barn to be pushed out and the side of the barn might have given way. Eric is a real artist with that machine and no damage was done to the barn.....Whew!
                                                 

                                                                             
                                                                   


The lower level is being exposed and quite a few stones have fallen out underneath the big door.













There are big one and little ones but there are lots of rocks!!

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Treasures found in the barn

One man's junk is another man's treasures


This is a winlas it is a rope hoist. It could be used to move many things in the barn by pulling on the rope and gave them lots of leverage.



Here are a few grain bags that were left in the barn for probable 30-40 years. They have some holes in them and many of them have patches on them. Guess you didn't throw them out when they got a hole in them, you just sewed on a patch.

The wash sink from the milk house and an wooden barrel are in the basement.
Thanks to our sons the horse drawn seeder was removed from the main floor.

Inside the barn

This is just some of the what has to be removed  

                                                                                                                                                           
Lots of rocks that were just tossed in the basement of the barn, kinda wish we had found some other place for the rocks!


Hay forks and some track. The forks were used to pick up a bunch of hay. The horses would pull on the rope and the hay in the forks was raised up into the hay mow. There was a track in the peak of the barn that ran the full length of the barn so the forks could be moved to different parts of the hay mow.








A close up of the trolley that was used to move the forks along the track.

These could be lowered and made a great swing, if you didn't mind a rather hard seat. You could swing in the hay mow and jump off into the pile of hay.
Sounds like fun!








Thursday, December 4, 2008

A look inside 

A few of the reasons that something has to be done soon!






The hay loft has fallen down and things are looking kinda bad. The hay loft was only on the east half of the barn and fell down about six years ago.










These are some of the original beams, that were hand-hewn, using and axe. This is the way the beams were cut, also note wooden pegs were used to hold the beams together.








This close up view shows the uneven roughness of the beams.













Saturday, November 29, 2008

Lot's of work to be done

Here is some of the deterioration that will have to be fixed



The south wall of the limestone barn has a huge crack and is bulging out about 8 inches at the top. This was created because over the years water leaked down the north side of the barn where the drive in ramp is located and as the freezing and thawing took place it pushed the opposite side (south) out causing the large crack and bulge.














Stones have been displaced.














Wood on the exterior is getting in bad shape.




Friday, November 28, 2008

The BIG decision

What to with this 1850's barn that was deteriorating 



We have owned the farm that the barn was built on, since 1998. In 2002 a house was built, after removing a granary, a dairy barn (1916 era) and house, this left only the limestone barn as part of the original farm.



In the fall of 2008, we made the big decision that the barn was just to much a part of the history of this land to let it fall down. Finding someone to do this kind of work was not easy, several contractors were found that could restore barns with limestone foundations but they didn't restore barns that were built totally out of limestone. Finally a contractor was found that could do the work.




Thursday, November 27, 2008



Restoration of an 1850's barn

The following is the story of the restoration and additions to 

              a limestone barn

This is the first post in the restoration process of a barn built in the 1850's. It is made of limestone, and is located near Liberty Creek, about a mile from the head waters of the creek, in Green County, WI on Liberty Creek Farm.