Yakman's Most Recent Photosynths

Big barn, Christmas 2011

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:11:55 Z

Christmas, 2011 porch

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:10:26 Z

Big barn inside

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:17:34 Z

"I was standing inside our large barn to take this. The barn is oriented East-West, and the West end is the near wall with two windows. The two horses on the South wall are our two percherons, Barney (the blind gelding) and Belle, a mare 'with an attitude'. They both were heavily worked by an Amish farmer. We got them when he decided to sell them, and we did not want them to be split up. Barney (so far) has fallen into a trench, crashed into a thousand pound concrete well casing, and smashed the windshield of one of our Troopers. But he is fine, and a gentle soul. Allison used a trail of grain to get him to walk out of the trench ... there was no other way to get him out of it. Belle's real end is still badly 'adhesed' ... meaning her muscles have a lot of adhesions that still need to be ripped loose before she will be pain free. But her attitude, after nine months of care and good feed, has changed much for the better. If you rotate the picture to the right (the North wall) you'll see Gayla, the horse that saved Allison's daughter from a pack of wild dogs in Truckee. The lighter brown on her coat is due to dirt she rolled in. Another 90 degree turn to the right shows you the whole length of the barn, with another horse on the other side of a internal corral fence. That's TimeKeeper, a thoroughbred stallion that broke down on an European racetrack after winning ~$300,000 in his first year of racing. His other owners used him for stud, but eventually his fees could not cover his costs. We got him to help bring our mares into season, and that is working out. He's a gentle horse, and likes to nibble on my shirt arm when I get close to him. Another 45 degrees to the right shows the shadow of another horse, Lacona, but she moved away so I could not get a complete picture of her. The last 45 degrees brings you to Lady, a standardbred horse trained to be a trotter. We got her from an Amish family that used her to pull their buggy."

Big barn interior from the 'other' side of the fence

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:16:03 Z

"Here you are standing about 50 feet in from the West end of the barn. You can see two horses eating hay, and then the two 8' long barn doors waiting to be placed on the rails. To the left, 90 degrees, is TimeKeeper and behind him the goat pen for Cotton. Another 90 degress to the left and you can see the rest of the barn looking to the East. See all that light under the wall on the left hand side? Well all that has to be filled in. It's hard to tell, but there is a shallow trench along the whole wall and Allison thinks water is getting into the barn that way. The plan is to build forms and then pour concrete into the trench to build a watertight barrier. The weight of the walls and roof and snow is carried from the rim downthe posts. The concrete won't carry weight."

External barn from the Southeast corner

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 18:14:43 Z

"On this trip we put up all the siding on the peak, framed and cut out 7 more windows, and started the battens. The side you are looking at is 40' long, and the length of the long wall is 160'. Whe you rotate to the left 30 degrees, you can see the smaller barn. It's 40' length side is facing you, and it is 32' deep. We expect to finish the siding and all the battens in October. If you rotate to the right, you'll see Mike,our daughter's fiancee working with a air compressor. We have a good 'batten system' figured out, but all those rocks and uneven ground make progress slow - you have to reposition the ladders a lot!"