
These calves got loose from our neighbors pasture to romp free like teenagers. Their mothers were on the other side of the fence keeping an eye on them.

This is a picture of our new concrete floor in our pole barn. We had to have 3 truck loads of gravel brought in to put in a drive way so the cement truck wouldn’t get stuck.

This is a picture of a old barn along I 80 in Illinois that I have been meaning to take a picture of every time we go to our farm.
- The two story pole barn house I plan to build.
- We are building a style of pole barn house that will take advantage of this view of Gander Hill Pond.
- After two full years of growing a oak tree has emerged from one of our tree tubes.
- The gravel road that leads to our farm
- Nick showing Niki the area where city farm preps their vegtibles
- This is picture is from a post we did about city farm
- My grandson and I
- My daughter inlaw Sarah and grandson
- Another picture of my gg grandparents log cabin. This is from the post ” Big Rock”
- My son Tyler and my daughter inlaw Sarah
- This is a picture of my grandson and in the background you can see one of my fruit trees that look a little rough.
- A picture of my son and grandson on our recent visit to the farm
- My neighbors pole barn house
- Our New Pole Barn
- Bringing the tractor to the farm
- Back of Pole Barn House
- This is a picture looking up onto our building site, you can see the start of our pole barn. This is also a good picture one section of pasture that is about 16 acres of Reed Canary grass. I hope my cows and pigs love it.
- My wife Niki and I
- This is a picture of the building site the way it looked before we started to build.
- Building site after it was graded
- A picture of my mother in front of my Aunt Bertha’s barn that I played in as a kid. This is from the post “Memories of Old Barns”.
- This is the first two post that my wife and I had did the year before, This is the gate that I have a picture of at the top of my website.
- This is a photo of the new gate and fence,
- Gander Hill Pond
- This is a photo of what will be a pasture. It is Reed Canarygrass.
- A veiw of our woods
- Veiw of Gander Hill
- Not a deer, just my wife Niki pulling weeds around a tree tube.
- One of our goals for the first year was to plant some fruit trees, we planted some apple, pear, peach, and cherry trees. You see how we had to protect the trees from the money deer there.
- Veiw from our condo downtown Chicago
- This is a picture of a tree that grew out of the tube after only one year.
- More pictures of our trees
- A tree growing out the top of one of our tree tubes.
- Another picture of our tree tubes
- Picture of our rows of tree tubes after pulling the weeds and straightening the stakes, and mowing around them.
- Tree tubes along my creek
- More of our tree tubes
- Friends helping out
- The little tree inside the tube that had survived.
- Another picture of a tube with debris piled around it.
- Brush Creek
- Brush Creek
Hi Gordon!
My name is Julia, I live in Oklahoma on a farm with my daughter. We are considering relocating to another farm and I was particularly interested in the design of the red pole barn house you modeled your home after. It is the one with the windows floor to ceiling on the end and what appears to be a dual fireplace with openings both in and out. I tried to follow the picture out from Pinterest where I found it. I found you and am pleased to hear about your farm adventure. I hope it continues to go your way. Back to my point. I have been strongly considering building a pole barn house. My dream barn is a renovated barn in Virginia, but in Oklahoma we don’t have things that old just sitting around waiting to be made dreamy. We are a young state, so I want to create something along the lines of the old barn style, but do it with a pole barn. Would you please share with me where you found this particular pole barn house – who designed/built it, etc., please? It is so very close to my design, it would be nice to explore the lay out.
Thank you, and best of luck with your farm!
The house you are looking for is listed on a website called HOUZZ. You can use their search engine and look for Thistle House Farm. You will find some additional pictures there. This is also the dream house for my husband and I. Hope this will help you.
Thanks Tracy, I will check it out.
Gordon, came across your blog and was wondering where you were with the pole barn home. I am considering building a modern version of one here in Salt Lake. My wife and I would like a 4 bedroom 3.5 bath home about 3000 to 3500 square feet including a basement. It would be 3 floors with the basement. I really like the pole barn style bc it can be open and have great access to outdoor space. How big will yours be? Anyway have you settled on a floor plan? Would love to see as we are at that stage now. What sites/sources were most helpful for you? hanks and best of luck to you. Looks like a fun project.
Hi Matt, we have now decided to build a log home that will be about 1700 sq ft not counting the basement. I have done a post about it titled “Our Log Home Plans”.
Hi Gordon,
Do you happen to have any info on the pole barn home in the first picture? I am looking to build something similar.
Thanks, Brandon
Where did you find that red pole barn photo? It is a great inspiration/base as you mentioned. Would love to know where that photo came from.
Regards,
Michelle & Eric
Thanks for stopping by and checking out my blog, I found that picture at this link. http://www.houzz.com/projects/109781/Thistle-Hill-Farm
I am in the middle of finishing a pole barn house and have a question I was wondering if you could provide an answer. I have an air barrier of an inch and a half between my drywall and vapor barrier/insulation. I have a significant draft coming through my outlets. I have been told it is normal and has to do with the air barrier being Colder than the conditioned space. I was wondering if you have the same thing in your pole barn house?
Thanks
Hi Shawn, when I built my home I used plywood sheeting over the outside frame of our house then used house wrap over that before putting the steel up. I then had a bout two inches of closed cell spray foam insulation. I also have an inch or two of air space between the insulation and drywall and I can feel no air coming from the outlets. Can you tell me what type of insulation did you use and what did you put on the outside of your pole barn house before you put your steel up?
Thanks for the reply. behind the tin is bat insulation (plastic facing tin) then a plastic membrane covering the bat insulation, the inch and a half air barrier and then drywall.
I have to say that fiberglass bat insulation is very porous and air seems to go right through it. I have a friend who built a pole barn house just a few miles from me and he has this same problem. I doubt the air you are feeling coming out of your outlets is caused by just a cold dead air space. It seems you have air coming around your insulation and some how getting past your vapor barrier. My friend bought insulation outlet covers and that seems to help him a lot. You can by them at any home improvement store.