Repurposing at it's best on the ranch...

Our building arrives~

 When we first started our ranch we always said we were going to keep things tidey and not have "stuff" piling up around buildings and sheds like you see sometimes with farms and ranches.  Easy to be judgemental when you don't know what you are talking about!  Now after years of practical experience and too many times saying "I wish we still had that!", we have learned to appreciate repurposing items until there truly is no useful life left.  We have lots of great examples around now to show many items that have a new purpose far from the original intent.


Deb and Roger discussing "okay now what?"

One of our more recent projects has been the need for a good hen house.  Our hens spent last winter in a converted dog run covered in tarps, which was never expected to be used as long as it has, but it definitely has done the job.  So the new hen house started with a "free" 8'x12' shed.  All we had to do was get it off the truck in one piece.  The big buff guys who hefted it on the truck did not come with the delivery and getting it on the truck was much simpler then getting it off after its little trek through the country getting to our place.  With the help of some very good friends and ingenuity of our friend Roger, we did get if off the truck fairly intact.  You can read all about this little piece of the project here.   

alpaca fiber stuffed walls~

Once the building was safely off the truck and re-shored up so it sat as square as possible, we wanted to put some insulation in the walls.  We used 3rds from our alpaca shearing, which is the legs, belly and tail fiber that we don't normally use for anything and packed it in before adding our wall boards.  This worked amazingly well and you could feel the cooler difference inside over the summer and we expect the hens to be very comfortable on cold winter days. 

This is Richard, he and his wife Gloria
stopped by in their RV as Harvest Host
guests~

We wanted to install a window also, but weren't really sure how to do this the way this shed was put together...not to mention the fact that neither of us had ever done it.  We just happened to have an old window that we had picked up a few years back at an antique shop thinking we could use it for something in our little ranch store, but we never did.  As it also happens, the window dimensions fit perfectly between 2 studs....AND...as it had it, we had a ranch visitor who just happened to be a retired carpenter and wanted to help. 

In all, we have had some help with the work or donation to the project from many many good friends.  It has taken much longer then we ever anticipated, but only spending an afternoon a weekend and not even on a steady weekly basis does tend to drag out a project that grows with new things to add as fast as things get completed.  Plus we had a season of cria birthing, breeding, summer ranch routine, etc.  Winter is looming in on us quickly, the weather is cooling and rain is becoming too prevalent way too soon.  So with a final push a long weekend to dedicate to completing this it is finally finished.  I think I could write a book on every little thing we ended up doing to this little shed, but that might get boring to most.  I am more of a visual person and have documented our progress as best as possible through photos and uploaded them in this set.  It is amazing to see the transformation and seasonal changes since the shed was first delivered.  I love that we were able to utilize so many items that were scraps, salvage or donations to the cause.

The hens are now in their new home just in time for our first flurries of snow and cold cold frozen temps.  We also learned that though the hens loved coming down to check on what we were doing while we were working on it, they weren't too keen on being rehomed themselves.  After a week they are settling in and we no longer have to go on a daily egg hunt to find out where they've hidden their eggs for us!

Before & After....in the beginning I admittedly had some doubt of
what we would end up with....in the end, I couldn't be happier with
the results!

A Working Ranch...

 

These little faces are great motivation in keeping everything
on a working ranch moving forward!


I have really always liked the sound of being a "working ranch".  It never occurred to me when we started just what exactly that meant and that what it really meant to me would change over the years.  By next spring we will have owned alpacas for 10 years and there have certainly been a lot of changes that have influenced what that does mean to us.  What it really means is that YOU are working all the time!  Whether we see the signs in the weather and scenery telling us the seasons are changing, we always have our seasonal events to care for the alpacas and keep the ranch working.  Fall seems like the biggest scramble in preparation for winters, which seem to be more unpredictable in harshness and length every year.  So for the ranch to keep working through winter we need to bring in hay, for our herd we like to put 12 tons, which we need to creatively fit into our space only designed for 3!  This is also the final push to have all the shelters prepared, fields mowed and any other required pasture maintenance.  For the house, this is also the time we bring in firewood, our preferred heating method over the oil furnaces in our old house.  This is typically about 8 or more cords per year.  We have evolved our methods of dealing with this daunting task every year.  The cost of split wood has risen so drastically, we now have logs delivered.  Luckily we have good friends that like to come over and work with us, and a wonderful neighbor with a super duty splitter he lets us use!

Last year's log pile, this year's was just delivered yesterday.  Never thought
looking at a pile of logs in my driveway would make me so happy!

Then there are all those other ongoing projects that need to get done, though fortunately, they don't happen every year.  This year one of those has been to clear out some really over grown trees at the front of our house.  We assume these were all planted when the house was built, now going on 40 yrs ago.  We hadn't quite intended to do as much, but sometimes once you get started the project just seems to grow as you go.

View from the field.  The hen house is in progress, as well as the garden, you
can barely see much of the house from the field...until now~

Our growing mountain of debris, still more to add before the chipper comes, the
pile is growing to a daunting size! We'll use what we can for firewood and
 chip up the rest for ground cover.  It's great to be able to see out to the
fields from the front of the house!

We finally got our garden boxes planted this year with 3 years worth of alpaca poo compost.  It was a little experimental to see what responded best in such rich soil.  We learned radishes don't like a high nitrogen soil and they grew like crazy into trees on top and very little radish below, which were like tree bark.  It also seemed a little rich for the lettuce we planted, or we just need to learn to stagger planting so it's not ready to harvest all at once and then goes to seed before you can use it.  Sugar snap peas, green beans, cucumbers, green onions, tomatoes and strawberries grew like crazy.  So crazy we realized we really need to allow more room and be prepared for such a huge harvest!

Our garden boxes September 2011

Hunter, one of the barn cats, will be very happy when the
new hen house is completed.  He is really getting tired of the
hens invading his napping perch in the hay~

I could go on and on because the work truly does never end!  However, there is great return for the work that is done.  Our goal is to be a sustainable farm, where we can support our herd, ourselves and this lifestyle we love.  We are constantly trying to stretch our imagination in re purposing items and having multi-purposes for our fields, what we raise and how we can keep the cycle moving forward to sustain us, our herd and our ranch in the future.  Though it's not for the faint of heart, there are tough times and hard lessons to learn sometimes that happen regardless of preparation.  With all that we learn it just helps us for the next step forward.  I can't think of any better ways to be rewarded by the work and effort put out!

Who doesn't like a good challenge?

Raising alpacas is not all we do here at Moonshadow.  We also started raising chicks last year and have some laying hens.  We'd like to do more and have more options, but space was always limiting and we didn't have a hen house.  So it's always good to have friends in odd places and Deb had an ongoing friendship with someone who wanted all the chicks we could provide at a variety of life stages.  From 4 weeks on up to egg laying age.  For anyone who doesn't know about raising chickens, you can't have all different stages of age living under the same roof.  Hens can get rather aggressive and bullish and really aren't healthy for the young ones to be around.  In fact, they won't survive it.  So we built a brooder box for the hatchlings that has been in our garage, which works well, but creates an amazing dust mess and we would like it outside.  Our laying hens have been living in a converted dog run since last summer, which worked very well for stage 2 and 3 of a hens life.  The problem now is we have no rotation ability to have stage 1 and 2 going simultaneously. 

So back to friends in odd places.  Deb's friend ended up having this building she was willing to provide that could be perfect.  It was an 8'x12' wood building, they would even deliver it!  All we had to do was get it off the truck once it got to our place.  No worries!  This is not the first time we've moved a building.  So for anyone interested in seeing how we did this, we documented it in photos.  We have a great neighbor, Roger, who must have grown up solving puzzles, but is amazing at tackling unique challenges. Click on the link below the picture if you are interested in seeing the slide show off getting the building off the truck.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonshadowalpacas/sets/72157626186560023/show/

Okay, so it's not pretty now, but it made it off the truck and has tons of potential.  Stay tuned as we turn this little shed into a little haven for our hens!