Finally getting around to telling ya'll about taking this beautiful barn down!

Can you even handle this picture!  We received a few from some folks from Mapleton who hold their memories of this barn close to their hearts.

 We met Claudia (the owner of all this property) and paid her for it.  She owns a lot of property there in Mapleton, but since her husband passed away, she is ready to sell some of it.  She told us this was her husbands family property and they were all sheep farmers. There are horse stalls on the property too and horses in the fields around the barn.  It's just a real pretty place.  I can see why so many people came out here to take pictures or just sit in this beautiful peaceful place.

 You could tell it was really tugging at her heart to let it go though.  People have been picking away at the barn though and it was really just a skeleton of what it used to be.  Vagrants have been living there and in the other buildings on the property too...beer cans and garbage were all over the ground.  Somebody had even brought in a old couch.  I think all these things made her feel like, even though she had posted no trespassing signs all over,  people were not staying away and the barn was turning into a safety hazard.

 Someone had even come and taken this whole section of the barn in the few days since we had been there before to look at it. 

 Kelley and Paul surveyed the whole situation from every angle and came up with a plan of how to take it down.  

 Just looking at Kelley up there makes my stomach flip over.  Do not like heights!!!  And I'm just saying that looking at his recent history, Kelley is a little bit accident prone, so I was just holding my breath till he got back on the ground.

 Kate and I were mostly giving moral support, moving things around, and fetching tools for them at this point

 They would drop the boards down and we'd pick them up and load them on the trailer.

Then they busted out the chain saws and started sawing away.  Chain saws were the key!

 After cutting almost every beam that was supporting the barn, they hooked chains and straps to the barn, then fastened that to the truck.

 The first time he tugged on it, the straps broke.  So they hooked it up different with a strap to each side of the barn, then meeting in the middle and attaching to the truck.  This time it pulled the front side of the barn off.

We could see this barn was still as sturdy as all get out and did not want to come down!  They had been a little wary of taking out the main beams while they were standing under the roof, but now they just went for it.  So after a little more sawing, they thought it was ready!  Kelley pulled slowly so the straps wouldn't snap again and after a few good tugs, it finally came down.

 People were lined up all along the road to watch it come down.  I guess word gets around in this  close knit community.  Kinda felt like they were all hating and giving us daggers.  It was really interesting to see how many people had ties to this old barn. "I had my wedding pictures taken there"..."We had our family pictures taken there"..."I used to play there when I was a little boy"  "I used to go there alone, just to enjoy the serenity"...everyone had a story.

 The sun was going down when they finally got it down, so we decided to load up some of the big beams, then come back and go to work on it the next day.

 We got out there early Tuesday morning and now there was plenty for us to do!  The guys would saw and we would load the boards on the trailers.  Paul was great to let us use one of his trailers too.  

 The roof was still pretty much together so they had to do a lot of sawing to take that apart too.

 This guy was a nephew of the owner and wanted to buy some of the wood to make some clocks and frames as mementos for their family.  He was nice about it so we just told him to take what ever he wanted.  There was at least 20 other people that came by and just said they wanted to take some of the wood...one lady wanted to build a chicken coop!  We told them to come by when we are finished with it and they can have what ever they want.  

 Paul brought his tractor over and that was a big help!  He taught Kate how to drive it then he got in the front loader thing and she hoisted him up so he could reach the top of the roof.  He would saw the boards off, Kelley would take them from him, then I'd load them in the trailer.  Then as he worked his way down the roof, Kate would move him along in the bucket.  It worked out real good!

 I don't know what the deal was with the building situation back then, but they sure didn't have a shortage of nails.  Ridiculous amount of nails.

 Kelley really is so incredibly strong.  Those beams weighed a ton!

Kate got to be quite the pro on the tractor and was moving big beams and picking up stuff and everything!

 This was another picture that relative of the owner sent us. There have been quite a few people who want to have something made from the wood of the barn.  I think it's wonderful to be able to help the barn carry on in different forms now and to give people something to keep those memories they have of it alive.  This is definitely one of those places where you would love to hear those walls talk...