Making a barn a home - Entryway

For the past few days Sandy has been working with a shovel and pry bar digging up pieces of broken concrete that were apparently dumped as the barn was being built between the gravel leading to the sliding barn door and the side door. I've helped lift the largest pieces, but she's done all the hard work otherwise.

This is what it looked like before she started. You can see weeds along the wall which are thick and grow in dense clumps. She is pulling them out as she goes. Then she flips the concrete pieces over and away to the south (left in this picture).

Notice Sandy's homey touch - the welcome mat.

There is a wood apron around the entire building except directly under this door. This will allow us to slide a concrete chunk right up to the concrete at the doorway without risking moisture seeping into the bottom of the wall there.

Here's what it looks like after the concrete is pulled away. In the soil underneath there is a thick network of roots from the grasses and weeds that were there. She is trying to pull all of them and toss them down the small bank. Next she plans to replace the concrete pieces so they form a flat walkway sloping away from the building just enough to encourage water. We will need to import some sand to level the concrete and we'll probably

leave a small border of soil for planting something at the wall.