With February's warm weather and sunny days, I am on a roll with finishing the barn. I had the week off and really took advantage of it. I ordered door track flashing on Monday from Mueller Metals. This is the place I bought the roof metal from. I had bought the door rails from Tractor Supply Co. and had hopes of buying the track flashing from them. I had a brochure on the door track installation from the manufacturer, National Mfg., when I approched Tractor Supply's employee. He called National and said I could order ten pieces. It is then I told him I only needed 5 pieces of flashing. He stated I could talk to the area manager. That is when I left to go back to Mueller Metals. Mueller has a plant just north of Willis, so I didn't have to go far. I ordered the flashing and some more corner trim. It only takes them 4 days to make it. So I went ahead and installed the siding over the trailer shed and over the door track.
I had previously installed some roof rake trim on the corner with the front of the barn that now I had to fight to measure and install the siding. This exericise was made simple with the Big RED Beast's bucket doing double duty as a work platform. While installing the center siding up to the ridge, the 6520's bucket was at full height. To drill and install the screws near the ridge, I had to stand on the upper lip of the bucket. While doing this, I thought of work where we have to wear safety harnesses and lanyards attached to inertial reels. Nothing like that here, but a huge oak tree to hang a rope from! When I got to the far end, I ran my first full length pieces and then went back the other direction with the 10 foot lengths to fill in under the door track. While putting up the door tracks and siding, I continually snapped photos and uploaded some of them so y'all can see what is going on. The next day I picked up the track flashing and trim. I had the flashing under the door track and header made in red. As I think back now, I should have had it in white. The red won't be seen much and the white is a whole lot cheaper. Oh well. I will get the back side right. I should have installed the back first so all my mistakes wouldn't be seem much.
Another mistake I made was not shimming the door track further from the header. The door hangar hits the top of the siding crowns or ridges. I experimented with a scrap piece screwed in place and I smashed the ridges down with a ball peen hammer and a short 2x4. It worked great and looks, well....., presentable! I left all the siding above the door track loose with just a couple of screws holding them in place. This was so I could slide the track flashing across over the track with the siding loosely in place. This worked better than expected. But the back of the barn will have the flashing installed over the track before the siding. So I will not have this double work again.
In between all of this "fun", I had to meet the home health care nurse at Mom & Dad's. Home Health Care will be coming back out to help Mom with her baths and school Dad in all the meds Mom takes and when to give them to her. Yeah right. I can only pray Dad gives Mom medicine at the right times. Dad wants a maid to come in and clean the house good just once. Now I need to find a trust worthy maid. Any ideas?
With all the rain we are having, I spent Saturday cleaning out my old workshop. I say old as I built it 25 years ago and moved it to my 5 acres 12 years ago. It is only 10x10 feet. I stopped rebuilding the rotten 2x6 foundation I put it on when I started building my barn. So when the barn is finished, I will tear it down and reuse a lot of the materials. Before tearing down the workshop I will move my helicopter tail rotor ceiling fan to the barn. I built it back in the early 1980s from pieces of wrecked Bell 206 parts. When I move it, I will add a new motor as the old washing machine motor I had driving it died and gave up the ghost.
I went ahead and worked on the back door header and tracks Sunday. I did this because it takes two folks to join two rails with the track rail splice and Luke is off work on Sundays. One person to hammer the track into the other track and the other person line up the track and splice and squeeze the other rail end. Luke gave me a hand and it popped right on like a glove. I removed the 2x6s at 8 and 10 feet. I had the door header at 8 feet high, but the 6520's canopy hit it and knocked it loose! I then added doubled up 2x8s at the 10 foot level.
I only have 20 feet from the barn to the back fence,so it is hard to get the Big RED Beast back there and the bucket square to the barn as a work platform. So I will need to rig up a platform in the bucket and support it with chains from the bucket hooks. Then I will be able to park the tractor beside the barn and work from one side of the bucket platform. Check back later to hear about more progress on my barn and everything else that is happening.
hugs, Brandi
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