Aloftyendeavor

As he and his crew have labored 60 feet above the ground, they've marveled at the ingenuity it took to build such a barn.

While standing on top of a barn might be one of the last places most people would want to be in January, that's exactly where Peterson and his crew have been almost every weekday this winter.

They took a few days off when air & wind temperatures dipped to minus 30 degrees.

Both literally and figuratively, this was the loftiest project Peterson has taken on in his 20 years in construction.

He viewed the St. Croix County round barn as a personal challenge. It was his first round barn and the tallest roof he's ever worked on.

Despite Peterson's lack of experience with round barns, Frydenlund said he was impressed by his willingness to take on the job.

"He was totally psyched about this round barn," Frydenlund said. However, Peterson's employees weren't quite so confident.

Travis Winter said he thought his boss was "out of his mind" when he agreed to re-roof an old round barn.

The first day Winter set foot on the roof, he was trembling and "scared to death," he said. He said his fears subsided on about the third day, when he began to trust that his equipment would save him if he lost his footing.

"I'll remember this forever," Winter said. "This will be the job we'll talk about 10 years from now."

Peterson's brother, Joe, said it took a few days to find his bearings and feel at ease on the steep roof. "Normally on a roof, we have a ridgeline to hook off," Joe said. "Here, there's no real ridge."

They took a few extra safety precautions before venturing onto the roof, rebuilding more than 20-25 rotted trusses inside the barn. They anchored themselves with support ropes and harnesses and nailed small boards to the roof for extra leverage.

Because snow and ice make the roof slippery, they use a leaf blower to clear it before working.

When he agreed to roof the barn, Peterson studied blueprints and books about round barns so he could better preserve the unique building's historical integrity. The crew, then began by tearing off two layers of decaying roofing - the original wooden shingles installed when the barn was built circa 1914 and the asphalt ones nailed on in 1958.

After that, they began sheathing the roof with a layer of 250 sheets of plywood.

That was no easy task: Because the roof isn't a typical symmetrical building covering, no two sheets were cut the same. Workers on the roof yelled dimensions for the next piece to someone on the ground, who would cut it and send it up the ladder with another worker.

The last 3 weeks, the crew has been shingling. They used 75 rolls of 90-pound rolled roofing.

In the evenings, Joe Peterson takes a few rolls of the roofing home to his heated garage in Anoka, Minn., where he cuts them into 3-foot-square pieces, then brings them to the farm.

The roofing is laid in a diamond pattern featuring a 9-inch overlay.

The workers' last job will be to replace a large barn door with an 8-foot-square man door and re-roof the milkhouse.

Frydenlund also convinced a worker to carry his camera to the roof's peak to capture the rural view from all angles. He said he wanted to "see what the pigeons saw there for the last 94 years."

"I wish I could have the guts to go up there," he said.

'Crazy about round barns'

To the Frydenlunds, their barn is much more than just a shelter for livestock and hay; it represents a bygone era.

Frydenlund waxes almost poetic as he talks about his barn, using words such as "elegant" and "cathedral" to describe it.

"I'm crazy about round barns, People become dumbstruck when they first look up at the barn's massive dome.” he said. The couple see themselves as stewards of this disappearing chapter in agriculture's history.

Since they bought their farm, they've replaced a fallen wall, applied fresh paint and updated the electrical service.

Although they hadn't planned to roof the barn yet, last summer's hailstorm left them little choice.

"Water started coming through the roof. I felt it was unsafe," he said.

After the hailstorm, they removed their llamas from the barn and built a temporary backyard shelter for them.

Since the Frydenlunds moved from St. Paul, Minn., to their 40-acre farm in 1995, they've become a national authority on round barns.They field inquiries about round barns from across the United States in between their regular jobs. Bob works part time at Fleet Farm in Hudson, and Kathy is employed full time at 3M in Maplewood, Minn.

Frydenlund said he gets "giddy" when he's able to be a resource to a farmer, contractor or architect who is restoring or erecting a round building.

Although original round dairy barns have been disappearing from the countryside at an alarming rate, circular buildings recently have seen a renaissance.

Frydenlund said he has advised the construction of about a dozen new round barns in the past several years.

His research has found that a century ago it cost about $3,600 to build a round barn. To build one today would cost at least $250,000.

The Frydenlunds have been invited to speak at statewide and national barn-restoration conferences.

They have about 26 blueprints of various round barns available for purchase and dozens of photographs.

They've also published two books: "How to Build and Love Your Own Round Barn" and "The Original Round Barn Building Plan Book," which includes a reprint of University of Illinois dairy scientist Wilbur Fraser's 1910 round barn circular.

They've sold about 1,000 books worldwide and are working on a third book, "Circle Logic: An Anatomy of Round Barns."

They have compiled a couple of CDs, including a self-guided driving tour of 22 round barns in northern and western Wisconsin.

Thirteen years ago, the Frydenlunds planned to use book sale proceeds to help fund their barn's then-estimated $80,000 restoration. They wanted to bring it back to its original character within a decade.

Some progress has been made, but it's been in baby steps as costs have escalated. Still, the couple hasn't lost sight of their goal.

"I was Don Quixote, and I had dreams," Frydenlund said. "I thought it would be five years."

They're paying for the new roof with proceeds from their book sales and the insurance company settlement.

Frydenlund said that since 1996, the estimated cost of re-roofing the barn shot up from $13,500 to $38,000.

Next they plan to thoroughly clean the barn and replace the haymow floor, which is riddled with holes.

The Frydenlunds would like to open their vintage barn for weddings, reunions and other events someday.

"Our barn will live on," Frydenlund said. "She's been patiently waiting."

For more information about Bob & Kathy Frydenlund’s round barn book & CD’s and their Round Barn Llama Farm, visit www.roundbarn.homestead.com or email rbfarm@frontiernet.net.

Heidi Clausen can be reached at clausen@amerytel.net.

& for honest work, done at an Honest Price…Call Bob Peterson at 651-437-4160 or email: kbpeterson@embraqmail.com