We built our barn back in 2009 out of mostly recycled materials from old barns being torn down in the area. It needs some work. Tricia and I have a knock-out list of a few ticky tack things to repair. The "old timey" tin (corrugated metal) they used back then was so much thicker than this new stuff they sell. However, even the good stuff rusts out, especially the tin that butts up against the cows' feed troughs in their milking stalls. I think that the salt rusts it out. In the winter, cold winds from the north blow through these holes, chilling us to the bone.
Now, I could do a professional job and replace that entire piece of tin, but a patch job will do just fine. The cows aren't particularly particular about how it looks. Once the weather levels out, I'll paint it to match. No more holes in the side of the barn.
Those were the only holes in the side of the barn. The remaining holes are in a more troublesome area - the roof! The tin was in marginal shape when we put it up, and it didn't help when hurricane winds deposited a heavy limb on top, busting holes in the roof. Just look at the rusty holes in the roof. You can see the sunlight coming through.
Sunlight isn't the only thing coming through. Rain comes through. Lots and lots of rain and it makes a gigantic mudhole under the northern wing. That's where the animals like to lie up and rest and it's become a mess. Time to try to fix this problem.
The roof tin is in too bad shape to patch. I put two full sheets of tin on top to fully cover the area that was leaking. Tricia climbed up on top of the barn to help me. It ended being a two-person job. Then a rain came through to test or roof job, and I think we fixed the problem. I'll climb back up with some caulk and clean up some seams and screw holes, allowing a few leaks here and there.
According to our calendar, we should have some goats that begin to kid in just a week or so. That means we'll be milking goats again. Our goat milking stanchion that we built quite a few years ago is in pretty good shape, but needs new pegs for locking down the head gate. All it took was a drill, new dowels and some carpenter's glue and we could strike that off the list. Done. Ready for goat milking!
One of the hay racks above the milking stall on the east side was a metal one. It completely rusted out. The milk cows won't be calving until late summer, but I needed to build a new one before that time comes. Might as well get that done while I'm working on these other projects. I had some lumber in the barn that I ripped up and constructed a hay rack that sort of matched the other one. While we're milking them, the cows eat their feed in the trough, but then we'll put hay in the rack that they'll eat on until we're finished milking.
The goats are demonstrating how the older hay rack works in the other milking stall and that's a good opportunity to point out the last barn project we got done. Goats are trouble-makers, especially older billies. Buckwheat likes to head butt and tear everything up. The outer rail of the milking stall below had been broken by buckwheat hitting on it. It actually broke the 4 x 4 off at ground level.
I sawed off the bottom of the 4 x 4, dug a hole with the post hole digger, poured some quickcrete in the hole and used a level to ensure it was square. Once water was poured in and the concrete was allowed to set, I screwed the side rail in.
Mission complete. For now.
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