Barn Preparations Part 1

The winter season on a farm often involves a lot of repair work, planning for the next year, and anything else you didn’t have time for in the height of the growing season. For a farm who hasn’t had their first growing season yet, I’ve found us to be no exception! Chicks will be arriving on the farm at the end of March so there is a whole ton of behind-the-scenes work going on, currently in the form of barn renovations. The little 12x12 barn that used to house our pet goats is being repurposed into a brooder and freezer room, and I wanted to invite you all into how we are making that happen!

The first weekend involved evaluating what we are starting with and finalizing plans.

Also doing a full clean out of what was left over from the last time it was used 5ish years ago.

Then ending the day with a good power wash and feeling the high of good ole manual labor.

The second weekend was spent dry pouring 16 bags of concrete… the least fun part so far.

Leveling it all out… a little more satisfying and less back breaking than unloading 60 lb bags.

And spraying it all down… also did not work as planned and required some patch work, haha!

Weekends 3 and 4 were adding a door for the brooder side, as well as closing in what used to be a 3 sided area (not pictured).

Cutting 2×4s for framing the interior walls. This part was fun because I’ve never used the saw by myself before!

While I was cutting, my dad was screwing in the framing. We ended with removing all wiring in prep for insulation and reconfiguring later.