Lorihadams-- hi guys...been busy!

[Natalie's Nesters]

Wow! Barn envy! It looks like a goat palace!

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Gorgeous barn!!!

 

[AL]

that is awesomeness! 100% !

 

[lorihadams]

Yeah, I'm hoping that we will be able to break even in a few years. I plan on making/selling soap and drinking the milk ourselves and making cheese. I'm hoping that the money from the sale of the kids will pay for the feed bill for the year and won't cost us anything out of pocket.

We just found orchard grass/clover hay for $5 a square bale and I'm hoping that will work for now. I am going to see if I can find alfalfa pellets to mix with their grain rations and they will have plenty of pasture. Nigerians are gaining in popularity around here because of their small size and year round heat cycles so we can stagger the breeding so that we always have a doe in milk all year. Our breeder has some really good lines to draw from and we plan on rebreeding our does to her selection of bucks in the future. She charges a $50 stud fee.

Hubby is proud of it. All the labor was done by us but if I had to guess we probably have around $5k in it total, not counting the fencing which was probably another $1k total. It's all paid for though. The good thing is that once it's done it's done, right?

We've got enough leftover lumber to take back to buy the other slides for the door on the hay side. We also have enough in scrap pieces leftover to do the stanchion and feeder ourselves. I'm looking at getting 20 bales of hay so that will be $100. I'm gonna check on grain prices today when I go get chicken feed today. I have to check with the breeder to see what brand she is feeding right now. We're excited.

We are also looking at getting some almond trees to plant in the front yard. I have been really trying to use edibles as landscaping and trying not to buy a lot of plants. My neighbor came over yesterday with a big box of daylilies that she thinned out of her patch yesterday and all the liriope in the flower beds came from thinning the plants from our old house. They are pretty low maintenance and don't need supplimentary watering either and they will stay green all year long.

I have a $75 gift card to TSC and I plan on getting goat supplies with it. I'm excited....now if I can just stay away from the chicks and ducks at TSC today I'll be good.

 

[glenolam]

$75 buys a lot of chicks, ducks and feed...... Jess sayin'!

 

[lorihadams]

Must resist the fuzzy butts....must resist the fuzzy butts.....must resist the fuzzy butts......do you think that if I say it enough it will work???

 

[BeccaOH]

Congrats on the barn. Looks great!

 

[justusnak]

WOW! That barn is beautifull!!! Ohhh, I am sooo jealous!! I want a pretty barn...mine is just practical..and barely that! Congrats....and a job WELL DONE!!!

 

[keljonma]

Here you go everyone! If you remember we bought the shed a 12x16 for $1700 from someone in another county which was about half of what we would have paid new. We then put lean tos on it on each side also 12x16. We framed up both lean tos and put on matching T-111 and put in some salvaged windows from a friend's house on hinges (they open inward)-2 on the barn side and just one on the shady side of the hay storage side. We bought a sliding door rail and made a door for the sides out of 2x4s and T-111 so that the door will slide open a full 8 ft if needed to make cleaning the barn easier and loading up the hay easier too. I won't even tell you how much this has cost us but my husband is adamant about it being "professional looking" because we plan to sell off any extra kids and they will all be registered and come from exceptional dairy lines. Our breeder has gotten as much as $600 for a doeling from some of her lines, ours are more around the $400 range and $300 for the bucks. The shed will be my milking parlor as well as storage for my gardening supplies, goat milking supplies, and beekeeping supplies. We plan on running electric to it at the same time we run electric to the garage.

We are going to stain it the same color as the shed this week and build a little porch on the front as well as a gated/fenced area that connects to the steps when I take them from the barn to milk.

I'm excited....the inside is full of materials right now cause we got rained out yesterday and just threw everything in but once it gets further then I'll take pics of the inside.

So, here it is!!!
http://i686.photobucket.com/albums/vv225/lorihadams/100_4668.jpg

Just wonderful! Congratulations!

 

[ksalvagno]

Very nice barn! Great job!