The bank barn is the oldest of all built in 1880.

Story goes Great grandpa was a tag ender and was never supposed to happen. He was an uncle many times over before he was ever born. His brothers and sisters were much older than him.

Great great grandpa bought this farm in 1866 and was the second owner once the land started being surveyed and sold from the govt. About 1880 him and his older sons built the bank barn. Great grandpa was 5 yrs old (born in 1875) so they spanked him and sent him to the house for fear he would get hurt while this bank barn was going up. 

Great grandpa built several buildings around the 1913 time frame.

In the first picture he is standing on the roller and his wife is to the right. His mother is in the center and a hired hand is to the left. I'm guessing this is right around 1900

Already did all the work getting the new metal roof on the bank barn in summer of 2012.

It's going to take a lot longer to do as it is much bigger in size and I want to re-work the bank quite a bit putting in concrete retaining walls and maybe an apron outside the doors. It's original wide plank siding and I fear I may have more issues to deal with. Also considering enclosing the over jet underneath it as well to make it tighter. It was used for cattle up until about 1965 or so in the bottom level.  

It's a never ending job with these buildings but hopefully when I am done with them they won't need much work for a very long time. The prep work of sistered rafters and OSB underneath is also a big key should the siding or roof need replaced at some point it can simply be replaced as the underlying structural work should remain sound for decades 

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Old Barn 2.JPG (69KB - 436 downloads)

P9120005 (Medium).jpg (74KB - 406 downloads)