Today’s farm project was pulling down the chimney in the Uncles’ House.

We noticed when we first looked at the Cairns Farm property that the Uncles’ House chimney was in an extremely precarious position. Wobbly and crooked…

…with crumbling mortar…

…there was shockingly no base at all to the chimney. It was held up by one 4’x4’ piece of wood and apparently magic.

Step 1: Access the roof safely.

Fortunately, the Uncles’ House isn’t very tall, so it was only a one-story climb to the peak where my brother, Jeff, and I (Beth) were able to perch ourselves with a couple of mallets.

The bricks had been deteriorating for years and made our job simple. Hardly any tapping at all was required to loosen the bricks and send them to the grass below. Pretty soon, we were below roof level…

…and able to climb down off the ladder and make our way up to the attic…

…where about 20 minutes of goofing off and playing with the big mallet had most of the bricks admitting defeat.

Below, only a foot or so of brick remained to pull off the bizarre wooden ledge and 4’x4’ brace.

All in all, SUCCESS! And very, very satisfying.