Lookout Mountain Goats Facilities
About seven years ago, we sold the farm on incredible Lookout Mountain to be closer to our children and grandchildren. We landed in Snow Camp, North Carolina on about fifty acres.
No usable barn, no house, only a perimeter fence. Trees had been cut for timber right before the sale. Trash everywhere. Pasture weeds clogged the bush hog. BUT….the price was right.
Steve moved first, surviving in a travel trailer while overseeing the construction of a barn and shop.
We hired the fabulous truck, trailer and driver of Randy Owen of band Alabama to deliver goats, dogs, horses and two pet pigs to North Carolina. The herd was deposited into the new barn which was surrounded by massive weeds.
When I arrived, we perched in the tiny trailer for almost a year while we built an incredible barn with working chute, forty year old cattle weigh scale, stalls, ventilation, and hay storage. The goats had a better shelter than we did.
Within two years, we finally had a fantastic eco-friendly house, working facilities in the barn, cross fences, callouses and sunburn.
Log Barn
It was leaning precariously to one side, had rotten logs, holes in the roof and rafters, no foundation on one side and was hazardous for man and beast.
In deciding whether to repair it or tear it down and replace it with a new barn (less expensive), we did research on its origin.
It had been constructed 1n or before 1790 using the V Notch technique for stacking logs and leveling the building. That is the same system used by the Cherokee Indians to construct their lodge pole buildings. V Notch construction was discontinued in 1790 when European settlers introduced the Dove Tail Joint system of construction, so our building is at least 634 years old.
We decided to repair.
Log Barn Renovation
We quickly found that carpenters wanted no part of risking life and limb under a dilapidated barn skeleton. To the rescue came the cavalry, Oldham House Moving Company, with equipment to raise, support and level the barn.
First they put hydraulic jacks under eight corners of the barn, inserted steel beams under the base and raised all sides 4″ above the eventual level. Tim operated the jacks from a table in the front of the barn, appearing to be playing a game boy.
The steel beams were secured in place with “cribs”, stacked lumber squares.
With the barn raised, Oldham left, leaving us able to recreate the foundation and add missing logs. We did.
Steve replaced the missing foundation stones and the rotten logs, including an upper log that spanned the entire length of the barn. He repaired the rafters and then the roof with matching old tin.
Oldham returned, set his table back up, and tapped hydraulic jack lines to lower the barn 4″ to the final resting place. Took one day for a total of three days on the job. What a solution!
The restoration included replacing the upper floor with available ancient oak planks, 12″ to 16″ wide.
Each of 11 openings required 2 X 8 oak jambs held to the logs with white oak pegs. Stall doors and feed doors were replaced and fitted with iron hardware of Steve’s making.
The siding on both ends of the barn was replaced, including the space for doves or pigeons at the apex.
The Log Barn after the Renovation
The reconstruction is done. The old barn shelters buck goats that chew hay beneath the centuries-old structure. Most important, it is memory of past life, a tribute to early settlers’ construction technique, and a living history of this farm.
