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John K Jordan
01-21-2016, 5:05 PM
I fill watering troughs for llamas and alpacas with long water hoses. The troughs are heated so they are not a problem in the winter, but in the past I would stretch the hoses down a hill after every use to let them drain to keep them from freezing.

Last winter I started blowing them out with compressed air instead which is a lot easier. If you have compressed air handy near the end of the hose, this might work for you too.

329916

A few fittings and a valve. Works like a charm!

Never mind if you keep your llamas in the house in the winter. For some strange reason my wife vetoed that idea.

329917

JKJ

Jim Koepke
01-21-2016, 5:16 PM
I provide my own compressed gas.

The wife says I am full of hot air. Though she uses different wording.

jtk

David L Morse
01-21-2016, 5:34 PM
Mine looks like this
329920
but I only use it once a year to blow out the garden irrigation lines.

John K Jordan
01-21-2016, 5:49 PM
That would be cheaper to make. I had a short one at first but modified it this year to make it easy to hold and use with heavy gloves. I refill the tubs about every other day. Fortunately I have an automatic geothermally heated livestock waterer where I keep the horses or I would be using it twice a day! (One horse can drink 8 gallons a day)

JKJ

Tom M King
01-21-2016, 7:02 PM
One of my design factors when designing anything on our farm was a maximum length of hose of 15' from freezeproof hydrant to waterer. In Winter, I use Gatorhyde 5/8"x15'. It has a nickel plated end which makes it tasteless, and the 5/8 x 15 means that one breath can clear it out. I do have compressed air coming to the wash stall, which is behind a half wall to the waterers outside, but don't use it for this. The hose end is warm enough for my lips after water running through it.

John K Jordan
01-21-2016, 8:24 PM
maximum length of hose of 15' from freezeproof hydrant

That would be so nice! The hydrants I put in myself are close to where they are used, one by the chicken yard is about 3' away, another inside the garden fence. The one by the barn was already there when we bought the place and needs hoses 20 and 40 ft to reach the watering tubs. Some day when I run water to my shop I'll put in some extra hydrants.

Fortunately, the winters in TN are usually pretty mild with many days above freezing.

Do you keep horses? My llama/alpaca barn is probably 80 years old but I'm starting on a new barn for the horses and plan on putting in an indoor wash area in an aisle with cross ties. I have the ground leveled and graveled and put in power and water last year. All I need to do now is build the building around them...

JKJ

Tom M King
01-21-2016, 8:31 PM
Yes, we're down to five horses. What are your plans for drainage from the wash stall? I would do mine differently if I redid it, but it's been in concrete for 35 years. Lots of good information at chronicle forums about building horse farms. I've been an active member on those forums since the '90s.

Tom M King
01-21-2016, 8:33 PM
I use 3/4" hoses in non-freezing weather. http://www.factorydirecthose.com/drinkingsafegardenhose

John K Jordan
01-22-2016, 7:05 AM
What are your plans for drainage from the wash stall?

I'm open to enlightenment.

My current plan is a concrete floor covered with rubber mats. An aisle will be 30' long all the way across the barn so we can lead horses straight through from the pasture, or from stalls to the side, to the wash/grooming/tack area and out the other side. The aisle would be sloped from the center of the building about 15' towards a 6' wide rollup door, slightly dished to guide water to the center then to the door. We don't plan to wash indoors unless that door is opened. Just outside the door the gravel slopes away from the building. I might put a narrow grated drain trough just inside the door opening and direct runoff further from the building with a drain pipe. I'm trying to decide on the aisle width and tack room size.

Any suggestions from your experience?


This will be a fairly simple structure, 30x60 ft, 11 ft ceilings. Outdoor run-in shelter 30x12, dividable into two or three stalls as needed, positioned so I can see into them from the house about 500 ft away. A covered 8x16 area on one side will let me feed in the dry. 60' round pen is close.

I've had horses for just over 10 years - three, quarter horses, one mare and two geldings, one blind for about 10 years now. Three is about all my pastures on that side of the farm will support although I have to subdivide that field to keep them from getting too fat in the summer. The horses are not stalled unless temporarily as needed. They have had only a 12x20 run-in shelter in that pasture for years - we currently walk them through the woods to the barn on the "llama" side of the farm for tacking up and outdoor grooming. We have 27 acres with woods trails and access to trails on 150 acres without trailering. Good fun!


JKJ

Erik Loza
01-22-2016, 8:09 AM
I have one of those colied poly Gatorhyde hoses and it's still fairly pliable in the cold weather.

Erik

Bill Orbine
01-22-2016, 8:25 AM
Is there anything wrong with attaching a "T" inline between the faucet and the hose with an air line and valve on the leg of the "T"? After shutting the water off, simply open the air to drain the hose. The idea is not to swap the hose and make the task of draining the hose a bit easier.

John K Jordan
01-22-2016, 11:02 AM
Is there anything wrong with attaching a "T" inline between the faucet and the hose with an air line and valve on the leg of the "T"

I didn't think of that, but for my barn I disconnect the hose each time anyway to fasten a second hose stretched to the other end of the barn. In warm weather I use a brass "Y" valve on the hydrant and keep both hoses attached but can't leave them connected in the winter. Maybe I'll try your "T" idea just in front of the "Y" valve.

JKJ

Tom M King
01-22-2016, 12:29 PM
What you are planning is what I was going to recommend-some sort of surface drain. I put in a 6" PVC pipe underground carrying the water away from the barn, but the grate on top in the wash stall needs to be cleaned often.

One thing that I did that I would do again is made the aisleway 15' wide. I went with 15' so I could use 16' boards for the ceiling joists. It leaves plenty of room, and makes it easy to drive the truck and trailer through. If I come home with a load of hay on the flatbed, I can just park it in the barn until later. The more common 12' would be tight with anything left on the sides in the aisleway. We have an old church pew on one side all the time, and there is still plenty of room to drive through.

Here's a picture of our barn. The open clerestory really makes it comfortable in hot Summer, and we never get much snow to amount to anything. The overhang of the clerestory is 4' over 3' high, so anything blowing in has to be a greater angle than 45. I'd do that part over again too. Our horses rarely stay in the barn too. http://www.starbornhavanese.com/images/barn.jpg

Tom M King
01-22-2016, 12:35 PM
Here's another picture from inside the barn, with sunrise over the lake in the background, and the roundpen walls showing behind the horses: http://www.starbornhavanese.com/images/DSCN4713.JPG

John K Jordan
01-23-2016, 10:19 PM
Nice looking barn! I like the roof system. The drive through aisleway would be helpful but I won't have room for it so the aisle I'm planning will be for leading horses only.

I'll be building something simpler with trusses. It will also have a room for my beekeeping/honey processing and bays to get the tractor and bobcat out of the weather. What ever I build will be better than the little run-in shelter we have now!

JKJ

Joe Kieve
01-24-2016, 10:12 AM
Concerning the old church pew: I'm looking for one to go in my bedroom....in case I have trouble going to sleep.