Gettin' in over our head.....

[jwstewar]

Now they are a lot cuter than cows! When you price that barn, consider the heavy duty sky light panels placed in a few places. They make a world of difference in shops and barns- free lighting in the daytime. bordercollie

Yep, that is in the quote. Depending on what the builder is comfortable with, we are either talking the panels in the roof or 2 foot on the side walls. I don't know which is better, but I want to do whatever the builder is comfortable with and will warranty. The last thing I want to do is get him out of his comfort zone and have him do something that will give me issues.

Oh, one thing that all of the builders have told us. There is no reason to spring for the 40 year metal, as the 20 year metal is the same thickness and the same paint, just with half the warranty and once the building is used for animal confinement, not of the manufacturers will warranty the metal anyway.

 

[bordercollie]

Jw that is inspiring to see young people caring for animals like that. You can tell they will be fine folks when all grown up. Congratulations to her and you .

 

[jwstewar]

We've got our first customer. They are supposed to bring a Boer do by tomorrow afternoon and drop her off to breed with our new Boer Buck. She will probably be here for 3 - 4 weeks. This will be our first "income" other than the money the kids have gotten for selling their goats at the fair. Unfortunately, we had already sent one of our goats out to be breed with another goat when we bought our buck. So the $100 we take in will be passed right on to the other guy, but at least we aren't out the original $100 we would have been for breeding our buck and it gets us a little more genetic diversity.

 

[jwstewar]

Getting real close to pulling the trigger on the barn. So far I've only talked to the guy on the phone, so I want to meat him in person and go over everything with him and make sure we are on the exact same page. We had budgeted around 15k for the barn and we were hoping to do 40x60. I started getting scared as my first estimates came back at $23k and $28k. Then I got one back about 17.5k. Then finally at 16.8k, but this one didn't include over hangs, Then finally the guy I'm leaning toward came back at $16.5k. That was still going to be pushing/breaking the bank. And that wasn't going to leave us any room to have $ for water, electric, and stalls. So after talking with the guy, he thinks he can build us a 36x54 w/ overhangs and the clear panels down 2' on the sides for around 14k-14.5k This should include one 10x12 slider, 2 4x8 sliders for the goats, and a service door. I need to verify that this will include vents in the overhangs and ridge vent as well as the "insulation" to keep the moisture content under control.

I was originally wanting some type of window to be able to open for ventilation, but I'm real worried about glass around the goats. So I'm thinking of just going with the side panels I mentioned above and then during the summer leave the big slider open with one of the farm gates across it to keep the goats in and then hang one of those mesh nets up to keep the rain from blowing directly in and keep the sun out. At least that is the plan at the moment.

 

[bczoom]

That price seems pretty reasonable.

 

[jwstewar]

We ended up deciding on going with the guy that with the 36x54. His price did include ridge and soffit vents and the "bubble wrap" for the roof. He is scheduled to start next Thursday at this point - subject to change if he gets a rain delay. To save him (and ultimately us) a few $, he was going to use our tractor and rent a PHD. I told him that I had a PHD with 12" auger. Not feeling 100% confident in letting someone else use the tractor, I will be taking the day off working and doing the holes myself - where they tell me to of course. They just don't know that I will be doing that part of it yet. I will try to take pictures as we go, but he is Amish, so he isn't to keen on pictures, but he has a cell phone.

As far as the goats go, we are in the middle of breeding season - actually coming to the end of it for the Boers - well, not really, but to produce wethers for our fair it is getting late. Using a couple of old wive's tales and tricks (divining rods and a urine test) it looks as though all of our Boers are pregnant. Still unsure about the "client" goat. She was in heat last week and he was riding her hard, so hopefully. We might also have Alaina our 1 year old Alpine bred. Still waiting on here. Also might have the two Toggenburg does bred, fortunately/unfortunately however you want to look at it, they were bred with our little Alpine buck that was born in February. Which means they can be registered as experimental, but they won't be true Toggs. Our Toggenburg buck isn't registered and he was really determined until he got with the ladies and then he just stopped. I've started calling him Raj like on The Big Bang Theory. All big and bad until the ladies were around and then he can't speak. Still have our one LaMancha that we are need to get bred, but she is going to go back to here previous owner to bred with their buck. Then Midnite the black Alpine that gave us the babies in February. We wanted to hold her a bit since we just stopped milking her in August, but she has given a little bit of a fit again in the last couple weeks and dropped quite a bit of weight. So we will need to get her healthy again before we breed her. So in theory, we could have 9 goats pregnant. The Alpines and LaMancha could give us 1 - 2 each. The Boers could give us anywhere from 1 - 4 each most likely giving us twins, but the one's Momma has thrown quads twice and triplets once and all have survived.

 

[jwstewar]

We were able to get started with the new barn on Friday. I thought they made pretty good progress. All the poles were set/plummed. Then most of the wall purlins were put up. Everything went pretty well, except drilling the first hole. It was pretty wet and went the auger went in, it went down all at once and I couldn't get it back up quick enough. The tractor then couldn't pull it out. Ended up backing it out with a pipe wrench. Other than that, all holes dug easy and only had to "shave" 3 of the 24 holes to get the exact location needed for the pole.

The first picture is of the Northwest corner. The next is a close up view of the same corner. Unfortunately, you can see how much fill I'm going to have to bring in for this. Around 32". The good thing is, since not pouring concrete, I'm not concerned about settling. If it settles, I bring more dirt in. Then the last picture is the back of the barn.

 

[jwstewar]

Yesterday was one of those days that visually it doesn't look like they got much done. But the got the double 2x10s up at the top and all of the bracing for the trusses. They put a 2x6 the length of the 2x10s where each truss will set and the another 2x6 beside that that goes up to give each truss something to attach to. I thought it was a pretty neat system. Not too bad for 3 guys.

Talked to Monica a little bit ago. They are now setting the trusses. There are 6 of them there today. When I talked to her at 10:00, they had already had 6 of the trusses up and were setting the 7th.

 

[bczoom]

Looking good!

Since you're not putting in a concrete floor, have you looked into a good vapor barrier? My floor was dirt for a couple years before putting concrete in and during that time, I had a lot of issues with moisture. Lots of rust on equipment and the ground would get some sort of mildew growth on it (a whiteish film).

 

[jwstewar]

Not really much of a way to do a vapor barrier on the ground. No matter what we do, the goats would probably tear it up. We will have the "bubble wrap" vapor barrier on the roof, but that is probably about it unless we ever get to do walls and interior ceiling.

Even building this barn has been a learning exercise. This has been a whole different mindset that what I had when I built "my barn" now known as The Shop. This that I wanted and did then, either won't work with this one or just no need for it.

 

[jwstewar]

They made pretty good progress yesterday. At this point, I think most of the framing is done. Metal is to be delivered tomorrow. They aren't working today.

As you can see from the 1st picture, it is now the outline of a building

The second and third picture show something that I hadn't seen before. They ran a 2x4 from each of the corner out to a 2x4 that ran the length of the building and attached it between the 3 & 4 truss. I'm assuming to keep it from racking..... They also ran a 2x4 from the top of the 1st (and last) trust to the bottom of the 3 truss.

I'm pretty happy with the quality of the build so far.

 

[wheezer]

That's mighty fine looking framing, jwstewar! Only thing that would be better is if it were on my property. : )

 

[jwstewar]

We are getting close now!!! He is hoping to finish it up this week. He had to pull off for a couple days to go back to a job that he was working on but they were waiting on some material, so he went back to finish it up, but he is still planning on finishing this week. First shot is the front of the building (facing West). Next shot is the Southwest corner. Then the next is a better shot of the south side. We are really liking the polycarbonate on the sides so far. Next is the back (East Side). The little door here is for what will eventually be the stall for the bucks for them to go in and out of. Then the next shot is the Northeast corner. The door here will be for the does to go in and out of. As you can see we will have to include some fill here to give them a way to get in and out. Then you can see the front of the north side. Then finally a complete shot of the north side. Since these pictures were taken, we've gotten all of the 2x6s around the bottom to "seal" the bottom up. Now it won't take me much fill dirt to get the bottom completely sealed up for the winter. Then come spring we can start doing "massive" hauling of dirt to bring it up to proper grade.

At this point, once we get it finished, we will have a small section of fence to put back up and then my concern is trying to get water and electric to the building before winter. Not so much worried about getting the building wired, but if I can get the service in, I can put a couple temp outlets in and run extension cords for lights and heat lamps if I have to.

 

[rlk]

Looking good jwstewar. I really like the color.

I also like that someone has kept the work area very neat. Lots of times you see scrap building materials strewn all over the place, which makes for an unsafe building environment.

Do you have access to enough fill dirt to bring everything up to where you want it?

Bob

 

[OhioTC18]

Jim That certainly is looking great.

 

[jwstewar]

Looking good jwstewar. I really like the color.

I also like that someone has kept the work area very neat. Lots of times you see scrap building materials strewn all over the place, which makes for an unsafe building environment.

Do you have access to enough fill dirt to bring everything up to where you want it?

Bob

Monica picked the color. She thought a barn should be red. Kind of settle on the gray roof because A.) it looks good with the red, B.) it will absorb a little bit of heat in the winter but yet not be so hot in the summer

The have done a very good job of keeping the work site very neat. Most cutting is done near the one place but at the end of the day they do a walk around and pick up any little tid-bits from extra cuts or whatever that happened throughout the various places.

I have enough fill that I can get the sides "sealed" up. Should also have enough to build ramps on each side of the three doors. Then over time I will have some fill brought in and my supply of fill will replenish itself as well. The good and bad part about a creek running through your property that keeps filling up.

And Jerry, I'll probably be bugging you on some wiring advice. Got the interior down pretty good. Still trying to figure out exactly which wire I need to run to it from the existing shop - you know, the one you helped set the trusses for.

 

[bczoom]

The have done a very good job of keeping the work site very neat. Most cutting is done near the one place but at the end of the day they do a walk around and pick up any little tid-bits from extra cuts or whatever that happened throughout the various places.

May I suggest you get a magnet and sweep the area when they're done? You'll want to make sure there's no metal shavings, screws or nails on the ground before you go in with your equipment or animals.

Here's one that I picked up that's cheap at $15 and works decent.
http://www.lowes.com/pd_320295-3767...L=?Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=

 

[muleman RIP]

Had not looked at this thread for a while. Looks like the children are doing great showing their goats. Great activity for them to be involved in.

 

[bordercollie]

That is really coming along. Congratulations.!! If you plan to have water inside .. What I learned... is to have a piece of pvc big enough to slide pex through easily. Pex ... I love it - so forgiving . bordercollie

 

[jwstewar]

Barn is almost done. They were there working until after 6:00 last night and with the time change it was dark. All of the metal is on, all 3 doors are hung. Basically he has 3 corner pieces yet to put on and a guide on the one goat door and stops on both of the goat entrances. One thing he has left to do also is something I added through the process, that is the ice dam on the roof. Hadn't really thought about it, but as I was standing there looking at the roof I got to thinking about ice sliding off of it this winter. The one side isn't a big deal, but the side where the goats will be wasn't good. So I'm having him add that to both sides of the barn. Just one of those little things you don't think about.