We have a barn that I believe was at some point in its life used for threshing grain, though it shows signs of having been extended a number of times and may not originally have had that purpose:
Over the last couple of years the stormy winter weather has made it quite obvious that it’s time to replace the roof, especially as it’s become obvious recently that the two timbers supporting the central section of the roof in the second photo were completely rotten, to the point that they could be removed:
So, as part of the operation to replace the roof the first step is to build new buttresses on that side of the barn to match the ones on the other side (it appears those buttresses did exist at one point, but have since disappeared) and create an arch between them to support the new roof. First step is to make some proper foundations. There’s no need to go too deep here as there’s not a huge amount of soil on top of the rock of the hillside. Just clearing off the loose stuff and backfill is sufficient.
To make room for the scaffolding the roof has to come off the hipped end of the barn too.
Next stage is to get the concrete into the trench for the foundations.