Come One...Come All, as you are all invited to the Grand Opening of our new Barn for our Llamas, Alpacas, and miniature Goats.

It has taken me 6 months to complete this project, from beginning to end, and while I cannot say I am 100 % satisfied with the end results, I will say I am okay with the finished project. I am not a carpenter by trade. I do know to measure twice, and cut once. Prior to this project, the biggest thing I built by myself was a oversized chicken coop, that some folks in our area think is nicer than the homes they live in

This barn is 48' long and 30' wide, and is what is called a RCA (raised center aisle) or Monitor barn. There is not a single piece of OSB wood in this barn. It is all exterior grade 1/2 " plywood, on top of 2 x 6 purlins, and those purlins are nailed to 6 x 6 pressure treated posts. Basically it is a pole barn, or pole building, framed with 2 x 6 purlins, sheathed in 1/2 " plywood (no OSB), then wrapped in felt paper (tar paper...15 lb.) amd then finished with 28 guage metal roofing and metal siding.

I did not use anyone else's plans or a kit to do this. It was all thought up in my head...before the lightning strike...and other than the initial sketch drawing of what I wanted it to look like, all the rest was kept in my head, so it was an effort each day to remember...duh...what do I do next?

I even installed gutters the entire 48' length of both sides, and ran the gutters into 55 gallon rain barrels, which then overflow into 110 gallon watering troughs for the animals.

Today was the day I worked on finishing all the electrical...all the LED interior lighting...and the outlets...and the exterior LED motion sensor lights over the front doors. And...it must have come out okay, because I did not shock myself

Tomorrow I pick up 36 bales of hay, and 3 bales of straw. There is a special built hay storage room in the new barn, and a special room for their grain and other feeds. There is even a hospital ward stall, in case we need to separate one or more of the animals from the rest of them.

So, Hornblower...Black Betty...Big Dawg...Steve0080...Phantom6B...Limbuck...and everyone else...yes...even YOU...are invited to ride several thousands of miles to watch our Llamas, Alpacas, and Goats wander into the new Barn, and poop for the first time inside the new barn.

It should be exciting

I will post pictures of the finished barn later Saturday, when we can show the animals with all their party hats on, and balloons tied to their tails.



Oh, and BTW, I did not do this project 100 % by myself, but...I did do 93.14159 % of the work. You knew I had to get that in...didn't ya ?