Now that the dust has settled and the mud has frozen, I can safely say that our barn renovation at Pine Brae Acres is complete.

In November we decided to undertake a project that would have a crew of Mennonite contractors help with the restoration of a 140 year old timber frame barn. As a child, this barn was always a place to escape, play and explore for myself and my siblings. The years as of late have not been kind on this old barn. As a family, we never had cattle in the basement, and as this was a "bank" barn, that added heat from the cattle kept the frost out of the walls. As the water slowly worked its way into the foundation, the harsh frost of the winter would push heavy on her 2' think basement walls. As the years passed on, the barn developed quite a lean and was slowly moving south. I saw an opportunity to restore the foundation and help give this barn a second life so that maybe one day we could have animals in the basement to complement our outdoor education programs.

With a flurry of activity, the contractors started punching holes in the basement and prepped the old girl for a new concrete and cinder block foundation. Sometimes, fate deals us a set of cards we never expected. With the north and south walls of the foundation removed I watched in amazement when the tow-truck arrived and moved this massive building back to her original glory, a new set of braces were placed underneath to hold her fast. As the excavator ripped hard into the west wall, leaving only the east wall remaining, she decided a partial restoration was not in the mix.

I sat and watched in shock as the old timber frame walls dropped almost 4 feet and the entire project started to crumble to pieces. Watching a barn of this size creek and grone as gravity pushed hard, I looked at all the gear, canoes, tractors, and cars inside and thought to myself "what the hell have I done". The old contractor came up to me and said "Well David, it looks like she's got to come down. It's too far gone to save now. I know you wanted the barn saved, so it looks like we'll have to rebuild her. I want you to have a nice barn David". The next day the troops arrived and tore the old girl to the ground in an amazing 7 hours. All the barn board, roofing, and flooring was saved and given to the contractor as partial payment.

In a couple of weeks after seeing these hand hewn timbers laying in the mud, she was back up and almost better than ever. A stronger floor, insulated basement and new face lift has the old timbers inside singing with thanks. We kept the old hay forks, pulleys, and even took it as far as having each rafter custom made to fit the joints in the original timbers. It hard to see the old gone, but in time this barn will darken and weather and last well into the next century where more children and adults can build their fond memories of this old barn.

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