Dad's New Project

I've mentioned it a few times before, but I'm officially announcing the start of my dad's new project.  I say "dad's project" because so far I've been zero help.  Also please excuse the poor quality of the picture below.  It was terribly cloudy and darkish and taken with my iphone and hey... I'm no picture pro.

My dad has power washed 3 sides of the barn so far with one more side to knockout, hopefully this weekend.  With our improving drought conditions, there still is barely enough water to fill the cattle tanks at night, so my dad's been trucking loads of water in and hooking the washer up to it.  It works pretty well and one load of water goes a long way.

One of my dad's friends let him borrow this lift so he could reach the high sides.  He has some major Petty Coat Junction connections. 

A side note: My dad is terribly afraid of hieghts but will tough it out on a lift.  He's reluctantly been using the ladder to get up to new heights, but when I'm around I try to help out by lowering and raising him.  The other day I snuck up on him without him knowing I was home.  He was rocking out (no doubt to Conway Twittie) on his headphones and couldn't hear me yelling.  So I decided I'd give the lift a little bumb down to get his attention.  I think I almost gave him a heart attack.  The look on his face was priceless. :)

Back to the job at hand.  Power washing is a dirty job.  I know first hand from last summer when we had to spray down the picket fence to paint it.  But my dad has taken command of this job and pretty much has mastered the power washer.  Which is a good thing because that is one filthy barn!

I vaguely remember a crew coming in and painting this barn was I was a wee little one.  They happened to stop by one day when just my dad was home.  The conversation went something like this... "Hello sir, mighty fine barns there, need any painting?" To which my dad replied "Yeah!".  By the time my mom got home, it was too late to stop them in their painting frenzy.  Let's just say mom wasn't too happy.

This is the lone side remaining to power wash.  I think it's been beckoning to my dad now for the past 2 weeks, but with baling hay, he hasn't managed to get around to it.  As for the "small" gaps in the wall, they will have to wait to be replaced.  Tongue and groove boards are ridiculously expensive right now.  So the suckers will be painted red and stay there for now.  No worries though, along the bottom of the back side of the barn there is an inside wall.  So those bottom holes don't actually allow rain or snow to sneak in.

The goal is to get the whole thing washed down and painted before it starts getting too cold.