Barn cleaning

Lots of miscellaneous projects to do before Winter comes. One of them was to sweep the loose hay out of the barn. I thought that would be quick and easy, especially as I had a clean barn last year. It wasn't like I had lots to clean. Naturally I was wrong.

There is an old nonworking freezer in the barn from when dad had the ranch. At some auction or another last year I got a partial bag of grain. I placed it in the freezer to keep the grain safe from any mice. I opened the freezer lid to find the grain had spoiled and was damp. P-yew!

First step: clean the grain out of the freezer.

For some reason dad had stored horse hair in the freezer. I am not sure why. Since the grain went bad, it also affected the horse hair and made that mildewy (or something like that).

Second step: clean the horse hair from the freezer.

Then I looked behind the freezer and found packed loose hay between the freezer and the wall.

Third step: move the freezer and clean the hay.

Then I noticed the spot where the motor used to be was a bed of hay. I am not sure how that got there. It was too big for a mouse to make. It was a nice size for a cat to call home. Dad used to have barn cats. Well... old hay and its gotta go.

Fourth step: clean the hay from the bottom of the freezer.

The freezer sits in the part of the barn that has a wood floor. 90% of the barn floor is concrete. I guess they ran out of concrete and finished the floor as wood? In moving the freezer I discovered the wood underneath the freezer had rotted.

Fifth step: remove the rotting wood.

Then I finally got around to sweeping the floor. No wait, for some reason some nails are sticking out in the lower wall. The higher part of the wall I understand as one can hang stuff on those nails, but the lower sections?

Sixth step: get a hammer and remove the nails.

I noticed a section of the wall where part of the wall had an inner and outer section. Don't know why as loose hay can fall between them.

Seventh step: reach and remove the hay.

I found a few odds and ends mixed with the hay. A couple tools and pieces of wood.

Once that was all done I finally got around to sweeping the floor. The debris from the wood section was swept out the side door and the breeze took it away.

With a clean floor I noticed old hardened dry hay? manure? on the wood floor.

Eighth step: scrape the stuff off the floor

I got a tool that had a blade at the end of a long handle. What the tool is for, I have no idea. I used it to scrape the stuff off the floor. Then I swept the wood floor again. Why? I don't know. I hardly ever go in the barn so having a very clean floor wouldn't make or break me. But, if I am going to do something, then do it right.

By the time I got to the concrete section the wind died down and the dust hung more in the air as I swept. At the very end of my cleaning a small breeze came in the main barn door and that made sweeping that much harder as I was trying to swept the dust and dirt out that door.

*sigh*

But I got it done.

I also put stakes in my garden on which to drape tarps to cover and protect my plants from the freezing temperatures. The forecast is for near freezing temperatures tonight and perhaps freezing tomorrow night. The past few nights have had low temperatures in the mid to upper 30s. So far, the temperature tonight is holding up. I didn't cover my garden with tarps as it is a hassle to do so. If I don't need to do so, then I won't. Cross your fingers I made the right decision. My garden needs more time to ripen. That's what I get for planting late.