August 7 & 8th – Barn Raising Weekend

Wow! What a weekend.  We got considerably more done than I was hoping for.  Our barn crew of 12 family members and friends started to arrived at 8:00 a.m.  Son Michael, daughter Jennifer and Son-in-law Taylor (along with grandaughter Kylie) came from Indy and Flora.   My dad and his brother-in-law, John along with my two brothers Todd and Trent and my sister Tammy came from Nappanee.  Friend and fellow suri owners Brianne and Darin Haupert along with Darrin’s dad Noel came from Rossville and Wabash.  Good friend Phil Hutchinson came from Carmel.  Last but not least, mother-in-law Nelda came from next door to help with food and drink.

I was really amazed on how everyone pitched in and found a job to do.  They all worked more like a well-seasoned barn crew than a bunch of rookies!  It was really a fun day.  There is something special about accomplishing a task with people you love that is very satisfying.  My heartfelt thanks to everyone that helped!  We all felt great (although a little sore) at the end of the day.

The video below chronicles the day’s activity:

July 24 – Son Michael Helping

Our son Michael helps assemble the rest of the bents.

July 8, 2010 – Digging the Footers

Welcome to the Heritage Farm Alpacas Blog!  This blog will chronicle the construction of  our new post and beam barn.  We took delivery of the material on June 17 during the wettest part of the year!  It was a major challenge getting the lumber unloaded.  I got stuck twice with the 12 ton forklift I used to unload the two semi trailers.  When I say stuck, I mean really stuck! I had the machine down to the undercarriage – about 3 feet deep!  I had to call a neighbor with a big quad dually 4 x 4 tractor to pull it out.

Because of the weather, the concrete contractors were delayed in getting the footers in.  They finally started July 8.  Below is a video of digging the footers.

July 22, 2010 – Slab & Bents

The slab is done and the driveway is in.  Beginning to assemble the “bents” which are really cross sections of the barns post and beam construction.  Watch the video as Tim describes how it goes together.