A long time ago I told myself I would put a metal roof on our barn. The cheap and nasty composite roll roofing we have on there has tended to blow off in storms, and there is at least one bad leak and probably several others. I had stashed away some large pieces of gash roofing at college -- stuff that would have been thrown away otherwise -- and finally found the time to cut it to size and fit it.
("Gash," as in "gash roofing," is RAF engine fitter and general service slang for metal waste, or just about any kind of junk, or when used in the phrase "gash jobs," it means odd, usually unpleasant, jobs that you have to do.)
This roofing was dirty and already had screw holes in it, and not particularly evenly placed ones at that, but it was free, and will look fine after a few rainstorms and a little sun-bleaching. I just put new self-sealing screws in all of the old screw holes. There's plywood under the roll roofing so this was fine. If there had been purlins instead, this wouldn't have worked.
I need another 150 running feet of roofing, but only 27 of those need to match. You can't see the top of the gambrel roof from anywhere on the farm.
Except, well, from the top of the gambrel roof.
So pretty much any color and style of metal roof could go up there. I have calls into a couple of guys with classified ads for second hand, and offcuts of new, roofing. We'll see what we can do. I should be able to find something.
The recently-sheared sheep have grown out a quarter-inch of new fleece already, enough to keep the bugs off, and are much happier with life: lots of green grass, cool weather, and no hot heavy fleece to carry around!
The blackflies are all but gone anyway, and although we have had some no-see-ums, the mosquitoes don't bother us much here on the breezy, sunny knoll that is the Great Farm, so that's the worst of bug season over. In other parts of Maine, of course, the air is still thick with skeeters, but here it's nice out now here, and has been a very comfortable temperature the last couple of days.
Two chickens have been consistently getting out of the new chicken pen.
They must be the stars of that movie, Chicken Run.
Aimee took pictures while Haggis and I caught them this last time. They went to ground under the Christmas spruce in our front yard. Haggis likes to show his chicken herding skills off, so it's fine by him if there are chickens to catch.
Sheep are another matter. This morning, as I was moving them from one paddock to another, he just turned his head away in shame.
What a sorry sheepdog.
But what a fine chicken-dog. Just look at those moves!
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Welcome to our Farm Blog.
The purpose of this blog is for Aimee and I to communicate with friends and family, with those of our students, and other folks in general who are interested in homesteading and farming activities.
The earliest posts, at the very end of the blog, tell the story of the Great Farm, our purchase of a fragment of that farm, the renovation of the homestead and its populating with people and animals. Go all the way to the last post in the archive and read backwards from there to get it in chronological order.
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