Getting a Little More Organized!

We completed building an equipment barn Spring of 2004 and once the barn was completed, we thought; “Finally! We now have a “location” for everything including those little nuts and bolts, hoes and shovels, soil mix and irrigation parts”; however, that didn’t prove true.  We had a barn for dry storage and equipment, but every time we’re bush hogging and break a shear pin, we still spend a couple hours looking for a new one among all our hundreds of nuts and bolts.  When our irrigation sprinkler heads in the greenhouse wear out we spend another hour looking for replacement heads.  A couple years ago we bought a few used greenhouses and all the parts that go with the greenhouses – basically with the 6 greenhouses we inherited a zillion little parts – what we needed was shelving for all the little parts that we have lying around the barn.  So our first winter project for 2007 was to build a loft and shelves for the storage of parts.  So this upcoming spring and summer when we go a huntin’ for a part we will find it in 5 minutes!   Think of what we can accomplish on the farm by not spending a quarter of our time searching for things!

Below you will see how full the shelves are beneath the loft!

 
 As part of getting organized, we decided we should utilize the vertical space of our barn.  We built the equipment sheds of our barn up to 14 foot high, so that we can back a trailer full of hay because as you know, every time you cut and bail hay, it rains.  We determined that we didn’t need all 8 equipment bays for hay and decided to sacrifice the vertical space in one equipment bay and with a loft for storage of bulky things like chicken brooding pens, shade cloth, duct pipe and row covers.  Under this loft, we have a row of shelves that we thought we would never fill up.  But guess what, we had these new shelves loaded the following weekend after completing the project.  So we built another shelf.  Now we HOPE to have enough storage space to last us through this upcoming summer.  What used to take 2 full bays of storage (each bay being 14 foot X 14 foot) now takes a fraction of one bay.

Below you will see we have already filled the loft!