We started the new feed lot building!
We have been making do with the tarp barn as a feeding space but it should truly be a storage place. We went through all the pros and cons of the barn in a YouTube video here.
If you've been around awhile you know the story but if you're new I'll give you a quick history. We bought the property in 2016 and the old house had been abandoned for quite some time then. It had been taken over by all kinds of wildlife; raccoons and snakes were the main inhabitants. We said when we bought it that renovating the house into a barn would be on the list but not very high of a priority. We'd get to it when we got to it. Well the time has come.
Levi and various family members started the demo process during the very first COVID lockdown in 2020. There was an addition on the back side of the house that was way past saving; it came off first. Then all the old siding and gutting the interior. We're not big fans of snakes around here and getting the interior walls cleaned out was a major step in driving the snakes away. Essentially we wanted to severely limit the places they could hide. You can find a video detailing all this work on YouTube here.
The feeder barn will be 24' X 40' when it's finished. As of this blog, Levi has about an hour of work left to finish up the perlins on the roof and be ready for tin. The tin for the roof is ordered but hasn't arrived yet. Once the roof is up we'll start chipping away at all the interior stuff - electric, laying water lines and heated waterers and getting ready for concrete. We'd love to have the barn finished and in use by the end of 2022 but time will tell. The video detailing Phase One is up on YouTube here.
We are so thankful to be making progress, although slower than we'd like most days. The addition of a feeder barn will be a huge step in the right direction for where and what we want the farm to be in the future.