We finally finished most of the things we needed to do before cold weather set in and as usual, we finished two days into the freezing weather. We closed off the upper loft area by installing two eight foot long 2x4’s at floor level on the steps and then cut a piece of Celotex Tuff-R, 2 inch thick foam insulation the length and width of the stairway and laid it down to cover the opening to the loft. That stopped the abusive cold air the just poured down the steps instantly. We then closed off the Alpaca door with a tarp and closed off the front door for the winter. All entry to the barn will now be through the rear, leeward side of the barn. These three things alone will reduce the cold the animals have to bear throughout the freezing winter. Once the Alpaca’s are here and winter rolls around, we will close off their door inside with a heavy cloth material similar to a quilt and teach them to push past it to enter or exit, but we don’t have to worry this winter, because we are boarding them at the ladies farm that we bought them from…….. Possibly until April or so. We didn’t care to take them earlier because we were late with the pasture fence, gates and finishing off the stable area. We also didn’t have time with all the building, to make arrangements to purchase the proper amount of hay for the Alpaca’s and store it for the winter, so leaving them at Coxsackie was a good choice and an excellent service for us.
Everyone in the old and new barns are under heat lamps and the old barn was at 40 degrees all day long, but the new barn was at 26 degrees until we finished closing off the leaky doors and the loft, then the temperature started to raise. I hope we can achieve 40 degrees in there too. If that would happen all the world would be right.
