Some one asked me how Donald and I got into farming the other day. I have been thinking about how to answer that. I suppose the short answer is that we had some horses that needed good quality hay, so we decided that we would have to grow our own to get what we wanted. We ended up selling the surplus and people were so happy with our hay the word spread and the demand increased.
The longer version would involve the building of a barn, a lawsuit, and general frustration with the food produced and sold to us in this country (including that from other countries as well). As I stated in an original post, we intended to run a show barn and breeding facility. We designed a barn and the property layout for this purpose. The barn included a breeding barn attached to the main raised center aisle barn with tack, utility, and feed rooms. The interior was wood paneled with various niceties for ease of use and practicality. We signed a contract in 2004 with Arizona MD Barn Company to have the barn built. We subcontracted the concrete with the company recommended by the owner of Arizona MD Barn Company, as they had worked together through the years. And the process was to begin.
We had some trouble getting the concrete guy to commit to a date, and the barn materials were ready for delivery. The barn guy said they would go ahead and deliver, they did it all the time, and the concrete would be done soon anyway. Remember he was in communication with the concrete guy on a regular basis. The materials were delivered in July 2005. There were many redrawings of the barn plan. The owner hand-drew the plans everytime there was a correction to be made. He would then make another error that would require a new drawing. It was rather comical at the time. What we didn't realize was that all these copies would end up getting intermixed, so the accurate drawing was never drawn. There were further code changes that year, so the engineering was slow as well.
Just after the delivery of the materials, Donald realized that we had extra parts (obviously large items that were identifiable like palpation chutes), and missing parts (feeders, doors, and other identifiable parts). He sent me an email, as I was in Oregon with the girls until September, telling me of this fact and that he would contact AZ MD Barns to let them know we needed to do an inventory of the materials. When the materials were delivered they were unloaded from a couple trucks and no bill of lading or other document was signed or received. We had know idea whether we had the essential parts or not. Of course not being in the barn building business, we had no idea what some of the parts were anyway.
The owner was in Texas and said it wasn't a problem that the barn we ordered would be built. We felt reassured and continued to finalize the concrete installation. We finally got Wimer Concrete out in October of 2005. Needless to say we were irritated with both companies as they were in cahoots and were putting us off. In the meantime, the ranch was hit with a microburst. That's a mini-tornado in the desert. We had 90 mph winds that threw barn parts all over the desert. The wind was so powerful it ripped a mare motel out of the ground and blew it a half mile north of us. It looked like a dead spider with all its legs crumpled. Donald called the owner of AZ MD Barns and was once again reassured that we would get our barn.
The moment the concrete was complete, it started cracking. They tried to tell me that it was normal. It was terrible. I had videotaped the pouring of the concrete for Donald for he was away for work and couldn't be there. If you know anything about concrete you know it can't be too wet and you don't throw dirt into it as you are pouring it. The job was too big for this crew and they couldn't keep up and the temperatures were working against them too. As it turned out they had not put the metal mesh in the concrete, but had opted for a fiber material. They didn't order the concrete with that either. It was a disaster.
After researching our options, we had an inspector come out and he told us that the concrete was not acceptable. We filed a claim with the Register of Contractors and Donald had to go to the hearing without an attorney. They twisted everything around and decided that we had blocked access to Wimer Concrete to come on the property to do repairs. Repairs? We had to tear out the entire pour and have it disposed of in truck loads. We didn't pay Wimer a dime, thank goodness. We were still out the expense of the removal, and still didn't have our barn.
We had a friend in Oregon that poured concrete and asked his advise. He wanted to come down and spend some time in Arizona and visit family and get out of the cold for a bit, and said he'd come help us out. So he and his son stayed with us on the ranch and we got the concrete poured. It was perfect. Not a single crack. Don't let anyone tell you it can't be done. We have the concrete to prove it.
In the meantime, the barn guy finally came out to the property. We really wanted an inventory of the materials. We just didn't want to have something crucial missing. There were parts that he had directed his workers to come and take with out notifying us. We were panicked that someone was stealing the materials. When we called him he told us that they had taken them. At this point we had no idea what was left of our materials or as it turned out some materials that others had ordered and were unloaded on our property.
When he looked over the materials after the storm, he told us that boxes of fasteners were missing. Now these would be 12" square boxes filled with nuts and bolts and such, not something the wind could blow but a few feet. We had no idea what he was talking about. We had never seen such boxes.
He suggested that they were stolen. Donald asked who would want to steal such a box? He immediately retorted that maybe we had taken them. How absurd? Why would we want to delay the construction of the barn, and what would we do with them? Is there a blackmarket for barn parts? Unless they worked in a field building barns there wouldn't be any use for these. Perhaps one of his guys would have stolen them? I suggested this in a later phone call, when he again suggested that we had taken the boxes!
He later sent us a bill to replace the missing parts, in order to construct the barn. We told him we were not inclined to pay for them again since we didn't know if they ever arrived on the property. We had no inventory. He had decided to charge us for the parts again.
It was now the spring of 2006 and the second concrete pour was completed. After the first pour we had contacted the barn guy and told him we weren't sure about the concrete and asked if he would advise us. He never responded. After we rejected the first pour, we got a threatening letter from an attorney stating that a lien on the property would be put into effect by Arizona MD Barns. We were confused, as we had been actively preparing for the barn installation and expected to have the installation as we had contracted. Everything had been paid as the contract dictated.
Arizona MD Barn Company was refusing to build the barn now. They claimed that they didn't trust that we would pay in the last payment. Everything had been paid on time through the process. He had gotten enough money to cover the cost of the materials with a big profit. The remaining cost would be for the labor to construct the barn. He wouldn't lose a thing at this point if he just refused to build.
We met with an attorney to be advised. He suggested we hire a third party to construct the barn to find out what was missing, since we had no idea. And we would file a breach of contract claim against Arizona MD Barn Company.
Barn construction companies aren't a dime a dozen. This was a large complicated barn, so it took some searching to find someone willing to take the job. In my research, I some how got the address of the owner of the MD Barn Enterprises. I wrote him a letter in desperation explaining the situation and our feelings of helplessness regarding any progress with the owner of Arizona MD Barn Company in resolving this issue.
We hired another barn construction company to determine what was missing and what was damaged through the construction of the barn. Remember the materials had been lying in the desert since July 2005. It was now January 2007. Weather and termites had had some damaging effect on the wood panels for the interior of the barn. Donald and I were wandering the property looking at the mess when we discovered a pile of wall panels. The cardboard that separated the panels had deteriorated to the point that we could see in between the panels just barely. What we discovered was the top panel was a solid wall, but underneath were the panels that had the openings for the stall doors, so there was a space under the top panel. Low and behold, the missing fasteners that the barn guy was trying to make us pay for again! We notified him immediately, but he would not acknowledge us. We were told by his attorney that he would not construct the barn.
By the time the third party finished the barn, the owner of the MD Enterprises had contacted our barn guy and told him to get the missing parts to us. We had UPS, DHL and FedEx trucks coming non-stop with more barn materials. We had to pay the third party to erect the barn, knowing that it was possible that they may be missing something crucial that would not enable them to finish. They were able to get the barn up, but it was such a disappointment.
The termite and water damage was terrible. The owner of the MD Enterprises contacted me to make sure we were happy with the barn. I was honest and sent him pictures. He immediately contacted the head of manufacturing out of California and sent someone to evaluate the damages. When he arrived he took a look at the barn and made a list of parts that needed to be replaced. The list was longer than ours. He then ordered the CA crew to bring the missing parts and replace them at no cost.
It was the summer of 2007 when the barn was completed. We loved and still love the barn. It is a beautiful building. But what the owner of Arizona MD Barns had done was wrong. So we continued with our suit against him.
The legal system is a fiasco. We did our depositions and we all decided to have an arbitration hearing for the decision. The arbitrator found in our favor. The barn guy appealed. We were to have a jury trial. When we arrived, the court had not selected a jury and wanted to know if we could have the judge decide. At this point, we all just wanted to get it over with. We went through the trial.
The judge took almost five months to make her decision. It was not in our favor. So we appealed. That's where we are now in 2011.
I have skipped over some of the details, because it is really more of a book than a blog post. Needless to say, circumstances caused us to rethink our objectives. Farming was underway, so we expanded, adding more fields and tried other grass hays. We decided to add some livestock, poultry and garden produce. That is the long version of how we got into farming.
