We have been planning our first barn for years. It was going to be a huge Monitor style barn, or maybe it would have an attached indoor riding arena. Then we started pricing out the barns and reality hit. A small wooden Monitor style barn was $70,000. A riding arena would be six figures!
We looked at many options after that:
- Maybe just a small barn to use for feed storage and goat kidding stalls – we priced one out for $18,000 and it was only 20×20 feet.
- coverall style buildings were way more expensive than we had expected. And the wind here would destroy the fabric covers in no time.
- We requested quotes from many barn builders on the internet. The quotes came back in the $50,000 to $70,000 range.
Eventually, we stumbled upon Horny Industries on Facebook. We liked the look of their barns, and their prices looked far more reasonable.
I drove to Ponoka to meet with the owner, Trevor Nahorney, in June 2021, and placed the order for our 36 x 40 foot steel barn. We had originally wanted 48 ft length, but the Nahorney delivery trailer is 40 ft long. Trevor sketched out the plans and, with a 50% deposit, we were about to become barn owners.
You will notice that we have two stalls, that are 12×14, to accommodate a couple of large horses. We changed the 12×12 stall opening to a 12 foot gate that can close off the stall, or swing open to close off the aisle. The rest of the barn will be organized to accommodate goats, kidding stalls, feed storage, Hay storage, and storage of some weather safe equipment.
The Wait
They had a backlog of orders, so our barn delivery was planned for December 2021. But, as happens with these things, there were a few delays:
- There were supply issues, as expected with Covid and the flooding in BC.
- The Nahorney clan all came down with Covid and were unable to work on the buildings for a couple of weeks.
- Then, once our barn was ready for delivery, there were weather issues. First we had a cold snap and the weather hovered between -20 and -35 Degrees Celsius for 2 weeks. Then we had some significant winds. Half a barn does not travel well down the highway during high winds.
Finally on Friday, January 28, 2022, the first half of our barn was delivered.
Delivery
I was surprised that they only had a flat deck, no tilt… Unloading the barn sections was exciting. We had borrowed our neighbour’s tractor, because my tractor is not nearly big enough to lift the structure off the truck. (I am so thankful to have such wonderful neighbours!)
They used the tractor to lift the back of the barn section, then jacked the front up with jack stands. Then drove the truck out from under it and carefully lowered it using the tractor.
Our driveways are totally covered in ice, and very slippery. We had been trying to scarify the ice a bit using the teeth on our box blade. That helped a bit, but it was still treacherous. Because of the slippery conditions, they unloaded the large sections close to the house, then slid them down the hill to the barn site.
Trevor Nahorney and his sons worked on Saturday to deliver the second half of the barn, and set it up.
Barn Set Up
The two sides of the barn were slid into place and fastened together. Then the ridge cap was installed on the roof, and the building was complete.
The Nahorney’s were even nice enough to move our big round bale into one of the stalls for us! Our little tractor is not capable of lifting a big round bale. Do you remember what happened the last time I tried to move a round bale? It Burst
Here is our new barn:
Extra goat shelters
After we placed our order, we decided that it would be nice to have a couple of extra little goat shelters that match the siding on the barn… So we ordered those as well. They were delivered at the same time as the barn sections.
Not quite complete
We still need to do a big lumber order and finish the kick walls and stall dividers. Horny Industries welded channels all around the building to hold the lumber, so we can add or remove walls as needed. Our gravel pad wasn’t quite level, so we will need to get another truckload of road crush.
We will get on that as soon as we have a few $$$ and some nice weather.
I am so excited…. Now to fill the barn!
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