Archive for November, 2009
November 2, 2009 – Hog Barn Renovation Milestone
Today marks a major milestone in hog barn renovation. One of our stated farm goals is to “maintain the architectural heritage of the area.” To me, this means not automatically burning or tearing down old buildings and where possible to adapt them to creative re-use.
Here’s the hog barn at a place where it would have been torn down by many folks – no windows, major portions of the roof gone and what you can’t see from this photo – walls lilting at about a 15 degree angle.
Here’s the same building with a new roof, new windows and a modification to allow for an animal “porch” so we have more options in separating out animals and having shelter from rain and wind – the new porch faces south. I still need to complete some trim, shore up parts of the building that were not rebuilt and where the white siding is, to put in a door.
November 1, 2009 – BBall and Music
Today was a day in Ames. We went to see the first exhibition game of the year for last year’s Elite Eight Iowa State women’s basketball team. The girls now have season tickets in the 2nd from the floor a few feet from center court thanks to a good friend. After the game, it was a short walk next door to the Band Extravaganza to see a concert of the Iowa State symphonic, wind ensemble, jazz and marching bands.
This year’s ISU marching band is 329 members strong – 24 tubas alone! It was a great sound to hear the band within the confines of an auditorium – no loudspeakers needed! The girls were especially enthralled to watch a band an age level up as they are both in regular band and marching band and Claire plays keyboards in the jazz band.
