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Goat Barn Preliminaries
The goat barn is going to be our building project this summer. Or perhaps I should say, starting on the goat barn is going to be our building project this summer. It will be the biggest thing we've undertaken so far. It will require a lot of time and money, so we'll just do like we always do and take it one step at a time.
Before we can actually get started, several things have needed to be done first. One has been a place to store hay. We used to store it in one of the two original outbuildings.
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| Photo from “Homestead Haying” (May 2013) before adding tarp walls. |
It looked better in those days and has since been torn down to make way for the new barn. The new barn will have a hay loft. In the meantime, we decided to make a hoop house for temporary hay storage.
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| After we tore out the old front porch floor, Dan used the boards to make a base. |
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| 6 ft by 12 ft is enough room for three round bales of hay |
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| Covered with multiple layers of plastic and tarps it's not very aesthetic, but it's functional (in more ways than one) |
The other thing we need to do is to trim back this old oak tree.
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| Dan's truck is parked on the concrete slab which will become my milking room and the center of the barn. A sketch of our round barn plans can be found here. |
Like it's sister tree, it is old and loses a lot of limbs. The last thing we need is for it to come down on the new barn some stormy night. Dan plans to cut back the branches enough so that won't happen. This will be some of next winter's firewood.
Even though there is no building activity yet, we think about this project constantly. Once Dan puts the finishing touches on the bay window, our attention will turn to the barn in all seriousness.
Source: http://www.5acresandadream.com/2015/03/goat-barn-preliminaries.html
