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July 2009
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Radiant Heat
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Date: Saturday July 25, 2009
Some of you may be thinking, Radiant heat? Really? For the Alpaca Barn?
Well, not so much for the alpacas, more for the two-legged farmers working in the barn. This weekend, after moving the 150 yards of sand and gravel around, we began preparing for the pouring of the concrete floor in the barn. One-third of the barn will contain a vet room, grain storage area, and an office. This is where we are adding a concrete floor and radiant heat.
Saturday morning Farmer Steve and I set out to the task.
Step 1: roll out the Tech-Foil. This is a thick material with a vapor barrier on one side, air bubbles in the middle (looks like bubble wrap, but doesn't pop...bummer), and a foil cover on the other side. The foil side should face the direction where you want the heat reflected to. SO...it is placed between the ground surface and the tubing.
Step 2: Roll out wire mesh. This process is quite time consuming. You must roll out the mesh and bend it slightly so it lays flat. As it has been in a roll for most of its life, post manufacturing, it can be difficult. At least it was difficult for me. Farmer Steve seemed to have no problem identifying exactly where one needed to bend the mesh so it all laid flat.
Once the mesh is laid out, we must tie the pieces of mesh together where they overlap. The mesh is only 4 feet wide, our space is roughly 10 feet, so we made two trips with the mesh. Cutting mesh around pipes and stair bollards.
Step 3: Lay out the tubing in zones. We have created two Zones here. One for the vet room, one for the office. The tubing then is tied down ever few feet with wire ties. (I spent the first hour or so cutting wire into 8 inch pieces, 350 of them to use as ties for this process.)
What you see in the photo above is the station where the different controls will be. Each of the tube ends are marked - OS, OR, VS, VR (Office - Supply, Office - Return, VetRoom -Supply, VetRoom - Return). Once we pour the concrete we wouldn't know which line was for which area.
Step 4: Concrete spacers. The mesh needs to be raised off the ground surface so the mesh sort of floats in the concrete. These little concrete spacers were placed about two feet apart then tied to the wire mesh.
We purchased these little spacers online. We purchased them originally for the barn foundation pour at a really great price. They come in quite handy. If you are looking for the supplier of this product, please contact me or Steve privately via email.
Here is a closer shot of the spacer under the mesh, atop the tech-foil.
Concrete pour begins Friday morning, 7 a.m. My hamstrings are tighter than drums today from all the stooping work of Saturday. But that job is DONE!
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Dirt
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Date: Monday July 20, 2009
Farmer Steve and I spent Friday through Tuesday, during our non-work hours, moving over 150-yards of dirt and gravel around the barn. We had to bring up the grade as much as 13-inches in some spots. Most of the work was done with the tractor, but we still had to wield our shovels to get the dirt into the stalls. Once we were all done, we realized we may actually benefit from another 60 or so yards.
It looks so much nicer with all this clean fill around the foundation. The alpacas, well, those girls were not thrilled with the change. Took them two days to go into the barn on the nice soft sand floor. Silly girls.
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2009 Summer on the Hillside Series
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Date: Sunday July 12, 2009
This summer Only
Abenaqui Alpacas Presents a Summer on the Hillside performance featuring:
Ham Anderson
Britney Sparerib
Reese Withasideofapplesauce
Roast McGowan
Anne Hash
We picked up our piglets. These dozers are in full swing already grubbing out the roots and vegetation. Our hillside is loaded with beech shoots and puckah brush1, interspersed with leaverite2 boulders and cobbles.
They are small, a little timid, but are respecting the fence and using the boxes. I also think they are using the pig nipples to get water.
All five are females.
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1. Pucka-Brush: random brush and undergrowth (occasionaly littered with prickers bushes and saplings) that you don't want any part of.
2. Leaverite: Boulders and rock outcrops that are not going anywhere. "Move that one? Heck no, we'll leaverite there, near the puckah-brush. Don't worry, its not in the dooryard."
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We love it when family comes to visit. We don't always get to leave the farm, either due to deadlines with needing to accomplish certain tasks when the weather is right, or we are waiting for a baby cria to arrive.
On Saturday (18th) Farmer Steve's parents came up for a visit. It was a dreary day, not the best to be playing at the farm, but heck, this summer nice days are hard to come by.
