Construction Progress Update

The landscape around here looks a whole lot different since we broke ground March 30th, so I thought it was well over due to share with you a construction progress update!

The earth moving was finally completed by the first week of April. This included digging out the footing for our manure tank as well, which is massive as you can see below.

If dirt is a little boys paradise then my boys have been in heaven! There was an endless amount of exploring, climbing, and discovering going on in the dirt piles. Even the dogs got in on the fun. The piles of dirt we ended up with were massive. I’m talking SO much dirt! Luckily the neighbor wanted some fill for a couple of locations so he hauled out countless loads. With help from more friends with heavy equipment we got the remaining dirt relocated to some other spots to open up around the construction site.

With everything ready on the site the crew showed up to get to the first job. Digging, forming and pouring the footings for the upright beams to anchor into. It looked a little funny with a whole bunch of little squares dug around everywhere by the excavator. They formed the hole up with two by fours and made a rebar grid for each. Once they were all done, 45 in all, it was time for concrete trucks. It was fun to see the first of what will be many concrete trucks pull in. My Dad was laughing it was nice to see a concrete truck pull in and have it be the first day ever he didn’t have a long day of work ahead of him! So we poured our first concrete for the barn April 18th.

The next couple weeks were kind of quiet as the crew went back to the shop to prefab the beams and trusses. Ben and I were even able to sneak in a quick get away to Seattle. We decided to go with steel construction for our new facility for a number of reasons, but one of those included ease of construction. The first truck brought almost all the beams out on May 4th. It kind of looked like a funny porcupine once they got them all set into the footings. Which was a fun process watching them pick up and set each one.

Finally all the prefabbing was finished and three trucks so far this week have brought the rest of the barn. Of course it rained over the weekend creating a mucky mess, but luckily Monday through Wednesday were dry. And just like that since Monday it is looking like a barn! I’m literally shocked every time I go back up there with how quickly things have progressed. I feel like I need to just hang out up there all day to get all the changes in photos. So exciting to see the bones of it coming together.

They may not be as excited as I am, but I really enjoyed seeing the cows watch the construction when we moved them into a closer pasture on Tuesday. It was literally the most perfect spring day for Oregon and seeing so much progress taking place was so exciting! This is why we are doing this, for them, to provide them with the best possible care we can. A future the Ladies and all of us are looking forward to!

While Tuesday was gorgeous, Wednesday blew in the clouds and looks like a nice long week of rain in the forecast ahead. Getting the frame up so the roof can go on means we can pour concrete with mostly no worry about what weather Oregon might throw at us. The first loads of gravel starting arriving on Wednesday too in preparation for pouring. If we have a ton of concrete to pour that means tons of gravel underneath. The days of multiple crews on the site have already begun.

Whew! Alright I know that was a lot to process, if you’ve made it this far, thanks! I’m going to try to keep up with progress weekly here on the blog. But finding time with my keyboard during the busy summer months can be quite the challenge. So make sure your following along on Instagram to catch all the action while it’s happening! Thank you so much for following along with our progress.