There's one building on the place that we haven't done much with. It was built as a grain bin, but for the last 30+ years it has been used as the catch all shed. It has a lot of potential to be a tack room for ranch affairs, but the building needs some attention. With a little bit of insight and some elbow grease, she is now standing strong and ready to be used as a cowboy's saddle room.
The first issue I have with the old tack shed is that it is in the way of the corral gates. We have gotten used to it, but if we are going to go through the trouble of fixing it up, we might as well put it the right place.
Originally, the bank behind it sloughed off into the back wall, rotting the wood and caving the wall in. So with a game plan in mind, we poured a 4' concrete pad behind to reposition the shed and eventually fix the back wall.
Prior to that, we reworked the back bank.
First step was to dung the room out. Years of junk and dust have pervaded this space.
So we brought the old International down to load up all the trash.
Before diving it, I masked up. Regardless of any disease that may or may not be looming, the dust and dirt in the air was going to be thick.
Once the trash was out, there was layers of dirt that had made its way in from the decrepit back wall.
As long as we are going this far, I wanted to remove the ceiling and expose the rafters.
Turns out it was a bigger can of worms than I thought. No turning back now.
Got it.
Once thing about cowboys, they don't quit. This building was originally built with a flat roof. Somewhere along the line, Grandpa put a pitched roof on it. So taking the plywood ceiling down was much more of a chore than I thought. However, I'm glad we went through the effort.
The main tool of choice on this project was a saws-all. Without it, I don't think we could have got this project done, not with the speed we did, anyway.
The next step was to cut off the anchor bolts that held the building down to the concrete. Worked good.
Then used the dozer to push the building back onto the new pad. Pretty simple, just one side at a time. For fine tuning, a crowbar was able to move the building an inch or two, here or there.
Then we used a hammer drill to anchor the building down in its new location.
We chose self-tapping bolts to keep life easy.
Snugged up, good and tight.
Lastly, we washed the building and the floor down. Makes for a good fresh start.
In doing so, we discovered the day it was originally poured and who helped out.
The 4' of the old pad that now sits out front will make a good porch to sit and chew on ranch affairs.
To give it a little character, we mounted Henry, the Hereford bull skull from the old saddle room at the cabin on Big Trails.
To make it true to its namesake, we put Dad's saddle in there to get a feel for how to set it up.
Better.
That was a lot of work for 4'. However, the tack shed is now in better shape than it has been since it was built 53 years ago. I prefer the name Saddle Room, because it reminds me of the tack rooms we had growing up. They held more than saddles, which this one will as well. Saddle rooms hold memories. Cowboys need a place to go to discuss life on the ranch. Just as saddles speak of the miles ridden in them, so do saddle rooms speak of all the cowboys and stories stored up on this place. That's the idea, anyway. Regardless, our saddle room is now in a better place and standing tall, ready for another 50 years of action. Let's ranch.
