Barn 4 Completion

This is the farm when you are driving towards it from the Township Rd. going east.  As we always say to people asking for directions, "four big white barns and a tiny square house, you can't miss it!"
And yes, we do have four big white barns but only three of them actually had birds in them, till this past August.  The one that is the most w
est (closest to us in this picture) was just a shell, used for hay storage/tractor storage until now.  The time had come for it to be finished. It started out as a winter project for Andy but once the details were figured out and quota in order it actually had to be totally done for the new chicks to to be placed in August.  So that took up most of Andy's summer, tons of phone calls, trips in to Lethbridge (I helped with that where I could - throwing all the kids in the van and picking up parts) and trip after trip to the local Home Hardware for bolts, drills and drill bits. 

This is how it started - insulation and wood strapping for the vapor barrier.

Stapling plastic over the insulation.

Insulating the front room.

Next came sheet metal.

Soon contractors came for the inlets, chimneys, electrical work and heat.

Lower left corner - feed pans in the making. 

Andy did the plumbing and water system himself.  It's amazing how many talents he has once he has time to discover them!

The bins!  It was fairly exciting!

Concrete pads got poured for the new bins and a crane lifted them into place.

Many hours of specialized work got the controls/alarms/heat/ventilation etc. computers working.

Pulleys hung, lights on, feed pans and water lines strung, we were ready for placement!

 All this was a good thing to us to do, having an empty barn does not benefit anyone.  But we sure were tired by the time we were ready to fill it.   Everything takes longer then originally planned resulting in long evenings of work tying up loose ends.  I also helped occasionally holding pulleys and plates in place so Andy could bolt things in place resulting in children in the work area which is not ideal seeing as Tristan wasn't the only one who ended up with stitches.  Abby also fell onto a nail while Rowan was "helping" her onto the trailer behind the truck which Andy and I were unpacking, resulting in a trip to emerg. for some stitches between her lip and nose.  Poor baby.  All three boys were very helpful and enthusiastic to help with assembling all 320 feed pans and clipping the nipples onto the drinking lines.  It was fun for us to see how happy they were with the finished product and to know that they really helped us.   
Andy says that next time (I exclaim "NEXT TIME????") we will not build during the summer to give us some free time to actually enjoy summer and possibly spend a few days away from here.

But for now, we say to you all 

"Please! Enjoy your wonderful Canadian chicken products!

"Thank a Farmer"

and we are

 "Proud to be a Poultry Producer!" 

...while I go and have a coffee.  ;)