Some Shots of the farm before and after all the changes we have made!

Here is a picture from the driveway.  I was a little closer with the older picture but it is a good shot.  The calves in the background of the original babies.  Sally in the back, Precious in the middle, and I am not sure who the other two are.  

Here is a picture of the same side when I was working on the new pig shed.  

Here is that same view now from a quite farther back.  Completely different than before as the pad and the extended cow shed block some of the view of the bottom. 

Here is another great comparison shot.  This is the original shed the cows had to use.  This picture was taken after I put the gravel pad in to feed on.  I was so happy to have solid ground to feed on and a new feeder to feed the cows with.  This lasted me a couple of years.  

Here is a picture from a few feet farther back from the original.  The feeder is the same but there is a second one out on the new pad.  I may need to add a third one this winter.  I will see how they do with two first and go from there.  Notice how gloomy the old shed looks compared to the new one.  The gaps in the wall look huge with the sun in the background but they are really only a 1/8-1/4" wide.  I can also shut the pig barn door and put the tarps up and stop almost all the wind if I need to for extreme cold.  

Here are more shots of the old pad and shed. 

You can even see the original barn doors in the background.  They were quite bad and a pain in the butt to open and close.  

This is a great shot to show how the barn changed yet I have managed to keep the original layout and make it all work.  With the walkway in the pig shed I can still access both side of the barn without having to jump the fence which was a concern with the original layout.  There was no way to get in the pasture without jumping the fence or going through the manure.  That is no longer the case.  

I didn't look for my pig barn drawings but here is one of the original scale drawings for the cow shed.  It changeds some from this with the deletion of the center pole and the feeder staying in its original location.  I need to add a couple of gates to the current setup before herd check this winter to make it work out correctly.

In preparation for the new shed I had to build the pad out to expand the feeding area.  I had a dozer here a couple years ago and spent part of a day cleaning up and moving some soil to level the area up some.  The cows then packed it in for a year before I finished the area and poured the first area of concrete last fall.  

This was last winter right before Christmas.  I leveled up the area outside of the barn in preparation for the current project.  I thought I was close.....I still had a long way to go.  This did however give the cows and mother nature time to settle the area.  I had already raised a large portion of the area by three feet or more so time for settling was needed.

Here is the same area now.  So different.  I am so excited to see how it all does this winter.  It will be quite different to be able to clean the barn and stockpile it instead of fighting the mud and weather.  Not to mention no more fighting the manure to feed the cows.  I can clean as often as I want if it gets messy.  Just shove it all up and stack it for later!

I know the focus of this picture is not the barn but it still gives us quite a good view of the original barn.  This was before I did anything other than set up the gravel area to put the first feeder on.  

I needed to take this picture from farther back to show how the hillside changed with the addition of the new pad but you still get a pretty good comparison. 

 I am still amazed that I have managed to get this much done in such a short amount of time.  Although I started the pig shed and work on the barn 4 years ago I have done the largest portion, the cow shed and feeding pad, in the last 12 months.  I am now looking forward to some much needed time without construction!!!!

I will be wrapping up the fencing portion of the EPRI project this week which will fulfill all the requirements and allow for payment so I can pay all my contractors.  I will still have some gates and boards to install in the corral but that is not necessary to fulfill my contract.  

We have to make about 70 more acres of hay and this years hay season will come to a close.  I am looking forward to that as well.  As I was going through pictures for this post I saw several pics of my hay rake when it was new.  It is definitely showing its age now and I will be looking to upgrade it over the winter.   While it still has a lot of acres of raking left in it, it is starting to need some TLC to keep it going all the time.  Unfortunately I do not have time to repair stuff and I need equipment that is ready to go at a moments notice.  I would love to keep it for a second rake but I do not need it so I will most likely sell it this winter to put the money toward a new one.  

Baby girl is doing awesome now.  She is starting to drink from a bucket now and the kids are training her to lead with a halter rope so they can take her to the fair next year.  I still cannot believe she went from barely alive to the running and playful little heifer that she is now!

We may train my daughters calf as well but that will be much more difficult and take more time.  That will be next spring and summers project!

Another unbelievably long and busy week starting tomorrow morning at 5am......I will talk to everyone next weekend!  I am looking forward to finishing up this years projects and getting to reap the benefits from the extremely long days I have been putting in for the last couple of years.

Kenny