Monthly Barn Report: November

Monthly Barn Report: November is brought to you by some much needed sunshine and a little relief from the rain. In that the rainfall was at a normal level compared to October! With clear skies the temperatures dropped and you could really tell that fall was ending. Not that we ever get really cold in Oregon, so I can’t complain, but an extra layer was definitely needed! At the beginning of the month the manure tank walls continued to take shape. So much rebar again and just a very meticulous job.   November 11th saw the last concrete poured in the barn! That was definitely an exciting day, we have yet to count how many yards of concrete are in that barn. I’m not quite sure I want to know. It wouldn’t be the last concrete trucks we were to see as we still have the final pour to go for the walls of the manure tank. That last sidewalk, pads for feed tanks, generator and around the small manure tank was great to check off the list. We moved the feed tanks over on November 14th. On November 19th we got the most exciting sticker of our life! After waiting so long with the energy company to approve our plan we then had to wait on the county. In order for plan to go ahead it had to approved by the county and inspected. With a whole lot of backstory I’ll just skip over it took over a month and a million headaches and dollars later we had our pretty green sticker. Isn’t it nice?!? With that green sticker the power company could now move forward with actually getting us power. At the beginning of November it had been discussed that we aim for a Thanksgiving weekend start up. With the holidays coming up it meant vital members of the crew would be taking planned vacation days. With the power debacle it was obvious that wasn’t going to happen. We again came to terms with our start up date being in 2017.  Moving on from that disappointment, everything kept moving along. November 21st we poured the walls to the manure tank. This time the pour went much smoother with no delay in the trucks arriving. We might have done a little mini happy dance to see the last concrete truck driving away down the driveway! The last week of November brought the final construction project. Being lucky in the temperate climate we live in, in Oregon, the barn is completely open. The southern end of the barn became obvious that is needed to enclosed to keep out the weather that blows from that end. We live in a little valley and when storms and hard rains get blown in it comes from the south. Enclosing this end will allow for things to stay dry by keeping out that blowing rain. As we move into the barn we will definitely explore the option if curtains or some other wind break is needed for the winter months. We decided to go with the same metal color as the office and it was all completed November 29th. At the end of Monthly Barn Report: November it was great to find us finished with construction! The interior of the barn still has work to be cow ready but it was nice to have one crew completely done. It really feels like we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with December.