Cow Barn

We spent most of last week building what started as a cow shed and turned into a cow barn. We first had to clear the area of all grass to make a smooth dirt floor. We needed to dig six 2x2' holes each 3' deep by hand. We first filled small holes with water so that the dirt was softened before taking hand shovels and digging the rest of the way. Granite pillars were placed into the holes and are the supports for the barn.

Placing the pillars

The barn is made from eucalyptus branches tied together with coconut fiber rope the roof is made from large, dried coconut palms that are braided called keet.

Putting the roof in place with wire and coconut fiber rope.

After the first day, we had a large portion of the structure completed. We were really excited about our productivity on our first day of building until the next morning when we learned that the shed was too small! We had to take down nearly everything that we had done the previous day, remove the pillars and dig three new holes to make the structure three feet wider. This set our building back about a day, but because the barn was bigger, we were able to add a lofted floor so that Babuna, the full time farm hand, can sleep above the cows (he was very excited about this, since his family of 4 all sleeps in the same room).

(Nearly) finished cow barn!