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Prepare a Small Alpaca Farm

 First thing, for any farm of ANY size, you gotta have a truck, preferably an <i>Island Car</i> (beater pickup) type vehicle like this one.   Get your power lines marked so you'll know where its safe and not safe to put the fence.   Try NOT to have your wood pile right where the barn is going to go :(   Put in the stakes, then stretch some string for your post marks. We're going with a barn footprint of 12x30 feet. 
 ...then change your mind and point the shelter another way.   When you start the digging, always have a cute puppy to help.   OOPS! don't forget to remove old trees BEFORE building!   Cover your holes, even though the rain finds its way in anyway. Actually, we hit the water table at 2 feet! 
 Burn up a bunch of brush, if you can get it to burn.   Hmm.... it may take a while.    ...a long while   Then buy some $1300 worth of framing wood, and have it delivered. 
 Cover the wood cause you KNOW it will rain again tomorrow. This is the Pacific NorthWet.   After some tiring digging of 8 holes, start to set and cement your poles. Don't forget to get really dirty. It adds to the experience...   Go visit your animals. Hey! This is my spot!    Vet does a little backend checking, which is audibly NOT appreciated by the recipient. 
 Back at the barn...slap on a roof ($750 metal, wide rib) and sides just before another rain comes. Leave a 10 foot space for a barn door in the back. See all barn parts <a href="barn_parts.html" target="_blank">here</a>.   Put up some siding and paint.   Going for the board and batton look...but the cedar boards were just too much money, so using t1-11 plywood.   Figure out how to get this door to work. 
 Brace the back of the door. It's pretty heavy!   Yeah, this should be enough space for a few animals. We can add in any of three directions if need be. The front fascia is heavy so we can built right onto it.   Need to finish off the front battons, then its time to fill the barn!   These poles are FLAT on the bottom. They simply pound the things into the ground! 
 Row of poles ready for the fencing.   Fence it up! Looking good. Now we have to work on the pasture grass.   Decided we liked these gates. They're called That's it for early prep. See the Virtual Visit and other galler y collections for pics of how it all turned out." border=1>