Lofty Ideas

Well,

As if I don't have enough going on already.

I had a friend telephone me about 4 days ago to ask my opinion about the feasibility of tearing down an old barn, moving it to another property (120 miles away) and putting it back up. The old barn he was referring to was built circa 1880. I told him that it was possible, not probable, but I would have to see it before I would know for sure. This prompted an invite to ride along with him last Tuesday in order to see the barn.
I accepted the invitation knowing that I would never recommend the attempt to tear down and relocate a 130 yr old structure.

To tell you the truth, I went along on the trip because there were some things that I wanted to talk to this guy about that had nothing to do with moving barns. As we were driving south and the dialogue turned to barns, I would humor him for a couple of minutes before steering the talk back to realistic (and important) topics of conversation. In this manner I was successful at fully sharing my valuable opinion concerning every other area of his life (The issues that prompted me to travel with him in the first place).

When we arrived at the barn site I got my first glimpse of an impossible task. This barn was 39 feet wide, 53 feet long and 3 stories tall. As I viewed it from the outside, I knew my job of forcing him to contemplate reality would be an easy one. No one in their right mind would attempt a job of that magnitude.
I respectfully followed him across the yard as we met with the owner of the barn. I quietly trailed along as he walked into one end of the structure and inspected the posts and beams. I meekly followed as he crawled into the hayloft and peered at the roof suspended 26' over our heads.

To be totally honest, I wasn't exactly quiet the whole time. I shared my opinion about the difficulty in taking down a roof that was perched 44' in the air. I shared my thoughts concerning the removal of the 4-8"x8" 44' posts that supported said roof. I shared my ideas regarding the impossibility of removing the wooden pins that pierced the mortises and tenons. I opined on the difficulty of removing 5,000 square foot of lap siding, and over 10,000 square foot of ship lapped 1x8's covering each wall and the hay mow floor. I spoke of the weight of the 39' floor joists, and the beams that held up the hay loft. I reminded my friend that everything would have to be done by hand. I reminded him that we were 100 miles from home and we had no lift, we had no cranes, we had no tractors capable of a job that size.

I broke in to the conversation again when the owner said that he would like the barn to be removed within two weeks. He had to know that my friend has a job and wouldn't be able to work on weekdays. That is the only reason I bothered to interrupt.

After all, if I hadn't spoken up, we may not have gotten the barn. Someone had to tell the owner that I would take next week off and we could get it done within his time frame!