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Goatbarn


In 2009, we stepped up our goat infrastructure in a big way by building a proper barn in our goat pasture (previous to this we used Quonset-type huts like that seen here).

The basic concept was to build a barn that straddled our east and west goat pastures, which can be separated from each other by closing a gate. The central section of the barn is wide enough to store three round bales of hay side-by-side, and is as deep as it is wide. The main doorway was designed to be wide enough to roll a round bale through. The sides of the barn are enclosed shelters for the goats, one per pasture. Each shelter has a manger and a feed trough, both of which can be filled from the middle section, and is big enough to shelter about six goats.

Construction details can be found by clicking on the individual picures below.


Preliminary site prep viewed from the north.  Stakes outline future center section of barn.
goatbarn_100109_a.jpg: 229 kb
Preliminary site prep viewed from the northeast.  Stakes outline footprint of all three sections of the barn.
goatbarn_100109_b.jpg: 236 kb
Preliminary site prep viewed from the north.  Stakes outline footprint of all three sections of the barn.
goatbarn_100109_c.jpg: 242 kb
Viewed from the north. Holes have been dug for all corner posts for the three sections.  The eastmost 2 and westmost 2 postholes (for the side section outer walls) are nominally 1.5 feet deep and the rest (middle section walls) are nominally 2 feet deep; all are 16 inches in diameter.
goatbarn_100109_d.jpg: 237 kb
Detail of how posts were to be positioned, and how holes were dug relative to the desired siting of the posts.  All strings were leveled prior to setting of any posts, and string levels were re-checked as individual posts were set. The bottom of each posthole was leveled by tamping and the exact depth was adjusted so that the distance from the leveled strings to the bottom of the whole was the same for all of the posts.
goatbarn_100109_e.jpg: 141 kb
Viewed from the northwest.  The four corner posts for the center section of the barn have been set in concrete, leveled, and braced.  These posts are ten-foot long six-by-sixes, set nominally two feet deep.
goatbarn_100109_f.jpg: 219 kb
Detail of a leveled post and one of the handier pieces of inexpensive gear: a post level.
goatbarn_100109_g.jpg: 288 kb
Viewed from the northeast.  The four corner posts for the outer walls of the side sections of the barn have been set in concrete, leveled, and braced.  These posts are eight-foot long six-by-sixes, set nominally 1.5 feet deep.
goatbarn_100209_b.jpg: 204 kb
Viewed from the north.  The four corner posts for the outer walls of the side sections of the barn have been set in concrete, leveled, and braced.  These posts are eight-foot long six-by-sixes, set nominally 1.5 feet deep.
goatbarn_100209_c.jpg: 209 kb
Viewed from the east.  Temporary supports (two-by-fours) have been run along the tops of the four corner posts of the center section, and the holes have been sited, dug and fine-tuned for depth for the remaining posts for the center section.  The ten-foot-long six-by-six posts have been pre-positioned preparatory to being set in concrete.
goatbarn_100309_a.jpg: 198 kb
Hell yeah.
goatbarn_100309_b.jpg: 322 kb
Viewed from the northeast.  The remaining posts for the center section have been set in concrete, leveled and secured to the temporary supports.  These are ten-foot-long six-by-six posts.
goatbarn_100309_c.jpg: 203 kb


Click on any of the thumbnail images above to see the full-sized image.



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Last updated 11 December 2019.
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