Blocks of Straw!!

Papa and I have a new project. A new straw project that is. We've decided, we think :), to keep a cow in milk all year long which means we have to have 2 cows and so we are building a cow/pig barn. We need a pig barn too for the girls over the winter so this is duel purpose. We want a easy building project that will not take years to build, something fairly cheap that is movable. And Straw was the answer! A grain guru up here sells the big 4 by 4 by 8 straw bales for between 30 and 50 dollars each. We got 20 and we're going to build a 24 by 28 (outside measurements) barn that is 2 bales high. The pigs will have their own short door and the cows will have a 4 foot doorway (about). The inside walls will be 8 feet tall by 20 by 16 feet and will have a wall (electric, bale or board) to keep the pigs on their side and the cows on their side. We thought about putting them all together but have heard horror stories of pigs eating cows teats and we really don't want that to happen. This will also be a great farrowing area. We are planning on making 5 more trusses and finishing the whole thing off with a couple of white hay tarps or greenhouse plastic (the really good stuff). We are going to use the same truss design as we already have for the house and so the inside will be really quite roomy. Papa's going to put it all together with the bobcat from work which makes this next machine look like RAMBO!! ANYWAY. Papa called me this morning and said "The bales will be there in a couple of hours. Don't worry they are going to unload them for us.' Whew!! I was a bit worried about the unloading. But sure as shooting I just finished putting my bread in the oven and I hear a beep beeepp beeeep like a bobcat backing up. And sure enough that's what it was. They have the COOLEST bobcat!! I talked to the guys, one was a friend of Papa's, then went and got a tarp out and the camera, and when I got back he had 11 bales unloaded. He took 3 at a time!! It was SO fast. I talked for a bit and then he was done unloading.They had parked on the road and unloaded in the area we still call the 'new driveway' even though it's not a driveway. The bobcat was going back to 'home' I found out because it had a radiator plug up, which is also why the guy was unloading SO fast and on the last load of bales it started to steam and they put the bobcat back on it's trailer (it lifted up the back of the dually pickup when they drove it up!!) and I tarped the bales. I yelled 'Thanks' and they were gone!! I took a picture of the stacked bales covered in the tarp and walked slowly back inside to find that my bread still had 7 minutes left to bake!! Out of 30 minutes. WOW fast!! Lets hope this whole project will keep up!!