2 Goats and a Barn

Goats and Barns? Two unrelated topics that are joined together  here for the convenience of having to only make one post.
At Acorn a small crew of us have been hard at work this past month building a new barn. Its two stories tall and 30 by 32 feet. The first floor is framed with post and beams and the second floor is stud wall framing. We are parking tractors and keeping garden tools on the first floor and the second floor is a massive new drying space.

Also, we recently got two goats. We bought them from a nearby goat rancher we are friends with. The breed of goats is Kiko, a type from New Zealand. Whalers would leave goats on the island and in between trips come and harvest the goats for meat. The goats became quiet feral and after a long while they were rounded up and selected for various qualities. The Kiko are very hardy foragers and have high tolerance to worms and wet climates. We keep them in a stationary overnight paddock and we have a rotating day paddock that we bring them too that we move every two days to fresh browse

Filling in the forms for the post anchors.

Fancy homemade welded post anchors

It begins to take form.

Sitting the notched beams

The tractor was essential for lifting the heavy oak beams.

Placing the gable truss.

The second truss is placed.

Celebratory Truss raisers

The roof is nearly done

View from the roof

Phase one of the barn is complete.

The goats overnight paddock, the structure is an old hog shed.

There they are!

Fresh browse for the goats. They prefer broadleaf plants over grass. The powerline strip has been great for that.

After the goats have cleared out an area.