I am seriously behind in my blogging of the dairy barn! February of last year we had over four feet of snow in TWO WEEKS! No one was doing much of anything outside except shoveling snow! When we caught up on the snow one day we decided to work in the barn, one of the few dry places.

We needed to frame in the kitchen, feed, and stall rooms. So we gathered the male contingent and set up a home school class, on-the-job training, and carpentry lesson, all-in-one.

We called Granddaddy to oversee the framing of the walls and Kit taught the boys to finish the walls using left over 1x material.

Framing the walls was finished fairly quickly, as they are just short walls.

This will be the kitchen. We will eventually have running water, sinks, and counters so I can process milk and cheese without having to take it all to the house.

Then they moved to the siding, also with leftover 1x material.

Kit taught CW how to be a cut man on a construction crew and he brushed up on his tape reading skills

After reading the length, he carefully marked the line on the board.

He cut the boards using his own DeWalt battery operated skill-saw. He has saved his money over the years mowing lawns and working for the neighbors. Daddy talked to him about the need for boys to start accumulating good quality tools and learning how to use them, thereby make themselves more valuable on a jobsite in the future.

PW was the leg power running the boards back and forth between shop and barn.

Inside the barn Kit showed JW1, JW2, MJW, and PW (when he wasn't hauling boards) how to nail the boards up without leaving too many hammer marks.

Who needs an air-nailer when I have one that does four nails at a time! Future carpenters in training! :)