|
|
|
 |
|
We discovered that building a barn involves a lot more than erecting walls, a ceiling and a couple of doors:
|
| |
|
|
|
1. Survey
Money well spent to know your property lines – it's expensive to move a fence.
|
| |
|
|
|
2. Clear Harmful Trees
Leaves that fall from cherry trees contain arsenic, which is poisonous to alpacas. They all had to go.
|
| |
|
|
|
3. Stump Removal
Use of a stump grinder, rather than uprooting a tree, reduced the size of the hole since roots remain in the ground.
|
| |
|
|
|
4. Wood Chipping
Seen the movie "Fargo"? Then you know about wood chippers. We kept this one busy grinding up more than 100 felled trees.
|
| |
|
|
|
5. Build A Fence
First, braces were placed at specific, critical intervals to secure the tension on the wire. Next, posts were positioned evenly between the braces and fencing was stretched and secured to the posts. We chose a no-climb fence that's 4' high to keep our alpacas in and most varmints out.
|
| |
|
|
|
6. Determine Where The Barn Will Go
Once you know the perimeter lines, determine the best, most level place and positioning for the barn. For us, facing southeast was best.
|
| |
7. Now We Build A Barn
Lumber, lumber and lumber.
|
| |
|
|
|
Finishing touches to add longer life.
|
| |
8. Water
Automatic waterers were our choice. We put water in each pen in the barns since the alpacas have access to their pen no matter what pasture they're in.
|
| |
9. Electric
As for electric in the barn, we have no exposed wire, and every outlet has a cover to minimize hay dust accumulation, which could cause a fire. Because we have more than a few power outages, we opted for a powerful propane gas fueled generator to keep power going in the barn as well as parts of our house.
|
| |
|
|
|
10. TA-DA!
In Sum: Be sure to get an estimate in writing before construction begins. Know that you will go over your budget, and construction will take longer than you think. Hey, its cheaper to build it right, than to build it over.
|
| |
|
|
|
