If You Want It Done Right Part 2

In case you missed it, I wrote about our saga with local fence builder Maury Fence Company back in August. Maury Fence Company thankfully only built about one mile of our six miles of fence. I cannot imagine having to face rebuilding all six miles of fence. You can read my original post about our fence saga here.

After purchasing and then using our new post driver to rebuild a short section of fence this summer, Jason decided the first order of business before we rebuilt more fence was getting the post driver where it could be mounted on the front of one of the tractors instead of on the three point hitch at the back. After spending tons of time making his neck sore looking backwards it became quickly obvious to us why most of the fencing companies found a way to mount their post drivers on the front of the tractor. Jason worked with a local welder to have a plate custom made for the front of one of our tractors. Once the plate was ready he removed the front end loader and used the plate to mount the post driver on the front of the tractor.

He accomplished all of this in early October. We then proceeded to find every excuse possible to avoid rebuilding this fence.  Given that we're always non-stop busy we did not struggle to find reasons to avoid building a new fence. A few days ago Jason said we had to stop avoiding the fence project. The weather has been consistently gorgeous with days in the mid 60's, and we needed to take advantage of these days before they finally come to an end.

I refer to all of these time consuming, frustrating farm projects that require to be in each other's faces for hours on end while we work together "marriage building projects." For the last five days we've spent a couple of hours a day working on our marriage building project. The first two days were rough. I was running the tractor while Jason operated the post driver. With two cooks in the kitchen it should come as no surprise that things were getting a bit testy at times. Finally on day three I started largely ignoring Jason's instructions and he did the same to me. Unsurprisingly, we've worked in relatively nice harmony since then and we've gotten much more efficient.

Since we only have an our or two per day to devote to this we're not setting any records. We've set 120 posts so far. We are about 30 posts away from reaching a corner. The plan is to start nailing up the boards on that section of the fence, then we will start again on a new section. Part of me wants the weather to get cold and wet so we can stop. The other part of me wants the weather to stay nice so we can get this done and hopefully never do it again. My nightmare is that it gets cold and wet and I still find myself on the tractor pounding fence posts. I guess time will tell which scenario plays out.

Watching Jason drive a post

the fruits of our labor

Ewen, fencing supervisor

Alfie and Art

Baby, Elfin and Homer

Lofty and Renzo

Blu and B-Rad waiting for breakfast on a frosty morning

Roho and Rubrico

Nemo and Taco

Romeo and Silver

Cuffie and Charlotte were blending in with the morning frost

Hesse and Havana

Remmy, Merlin and Cino

Asterik

Dolly, Calimba and MyLight

Traveller and Lily

Toledo napping, Rubrico and Ripley eating hay

a closer look at Toledo

Johnny and Rocky

Under Construction . . . Again

Yesterday we broke ground on our third hay barn. I'm still kind of taken aback that we will now be the proud owners of not 1, not 2, but 3 hay barns. A long time ago we set a goal of being able to store a year's worth of hay at our farm, and it has taken us almost six years to reach that goal. Once hay barn number three is completed we should be able to store a year's supply of hay onsite. In drought years where we have to feed hay through the growing season we would fall short of our goal, but in most years we should finally be able to store our coveted 365 day supply of hay. 

Like any good livestock people, be it horses, cattle, sheep, goats, etc. we are of the opinion that more is better when it comes to having hay on hand. It helps us sleep better at night knowing that we have an ample supply of hay. Our two hay barns were making us pretty happy but hopefully having three hay barns will get us to a zen place when it comes to hay storage. 

The main reason we wanted a third hay barn is simply to allow us to have a higher degree of control over the quality of hay we purchase. When we can purchase hay and take immediate delivery of it we can be a lot fussier about what we buy. When February rolls around and everyone else's hay supplies are running low, we (hopefully) won't be having to purchase whatever hay is still available, but instead will be gleefully feeding hay out of our nicely stocked 3rd hay barn. Jason and I are absolutely giddy about this. 

As we do every year, we have put aside a certain amount of money each month in our farm savings account to be in a position to purchase a year's supply of hay during the months of May through August. We hope to purchase as much as possible during May and June as first cut hay, and then second cut hay, tends to be the best hay in our area. Our goal is to buy as much first cut hay as possible, and then fill the rest of our needs with second cut hay. That means we need to be in a position to purchase a 365 day supply of hay within a 90 day window. 

Our area is in a pretty good spring drought right now which makes me wonder what hay supplies will be like this year. Hopefully the rain will finally start heading our way and Mother Nature can not mess up our best laid hay plans. Regardless, we're happy to soon be able to store an additional 15 semi-trailer loads of hay. 

______________________________

Johnny watching the posts being put in for the new hay barn

the posts are set

work has started on the roof

Hemi, Thomas and Apollo take 1 . . . 

. . . and take 2

Donovan, Oskar and Ripley 

Chance and Trigger 

Convey and Homer 

Toledo and Johnny

Roho and Gus 

Dolly

Merlin

Calimba

Charlotte

Renatta 

Cino and Havana

Five Years . . . Continued

In May we hit the five year mark of officially building out our new-at-the-time farm. I shared some before and after pictures of the first part of the farm in this post. The parts of the farm in that post can be seen from the road. The majority of our farm cannot be seen from the road. The comment we hear the most from locals when they drive all the way down our driveway is "I had no idea all of this was back here." There are two more barns and four run-in sheds that are invisible from the road.  

Since Jason and I are gluttons for punishment we continue to think about other things we could build. We would like to build a third hay barn. You can never store too much hay. Right now we have to go to all three barns looking for things at times as the tools are scattered around everywhere. A structure dedicated solely for parking equipment would certainly be a nice addition. We are having a storage/workshop building constructed soon so all of the big tools, air compressor and air tools, etc. can all be located in the same place. 

Farms are magnets for stuff. Big stuff like tractors and implements, little stuff like hand tools, and medium-sized stuff. Sadly most of the stuff is needed. Not on a daily basis but when you need it you need it right then. All this stuff needs a place to go and even with three barns we find ourselves bursting at the seams. So it seems we will forever be building barns, sheds, fences, running water and electrical lines, and generally engaging in activities that tend to make us grumpy.

_________________________________

Fencing in the barnyard around the second barn; The second and third barns are both multi-purpose barns. The main part of the barn is hay storage, and they have shedrows on the sides for stalls.

Building the run-in shed near the second barn

the second barn under construction

This is the same area as the pictures above, around the second hay barn, taken from the opposite ange.

Completed hay barn with shed-row taken from the same angle as above.

Looking into the pasture next to the second barn. The before picture.

The after picture of the view above. You can see the some of the pasture fencing, the run-in shed, and the roof of the second barn.

Looking at the same pasture as the above picture, I was just standing farther down the driveway when I took this picture. 

Some of the perimeter fence around the farm under construction. We had to have a lot of work done with a bulldozer to clear paths for fences.

The driveway entrance to the third and final barn under construction. 

Looking into the barnyard area to the third barn from the opposite direction. There is one of our countless gravel piles waiting to be spread. We've had about 100 loads of gravel spread around the farm in various places. On the driveway, around the barns, and around the gates in the pastures. We should own a gravel pit. 

The gates into the third barn as it looks today. 

Heading down the driveway towards the third barn.

The beginnings of the barnyard area around the third and final barn taken from the opposite direction.

The "after" picture of the same view in the picture above.

New fence being built along the driveway

What the same stretch of driveway looks like now

One of the curves in the driveway shortly after the fence was built

the same curve in the driveway with an actual driveway

another curve in the driveway with new fencing

what the same curve above looks like today

more new fencing

"after" view of the picture above

 One of the big trees next to our driveway before there was a fence or a driveway

Jason sitting by the tree after the fences were built

the same tree in the driveway; picture taken in January 2013

the tree after our ice storm in March 2015

Thre tree next to the driveway on the right side is the same tree in the pictures above; a different view.

A couple of views of the front two barns and first three run-in sheds taken from the back half of the farm

_____________________________________

Lightning and Slinky

Jason with Walden and Fabrizzio

O'Reilly and Jason

Silver playing with the halters

George found the perfect place to scratch both his neck and his rump

Hesse and Remmy

Stormy, Clatyon and Oskar

Mick and B-Rad grooming

Sebastian and Johnny