Sunday, October 30, 2016

Sunday Reading - Quite The Project





The work frenzy continues apace despite as I said having to pick up ghetto lottery's slack although this time I guess it is legitimate vacation time. What ya wanna bet he calls in sick tomorrow (Monday) morning though.

I have the ram's shelter almost completely built. Actually the hardest parts are two thirds done and I only have one wall left to finish before I can put the roof on.




Here's the inside East corner. I am overlapping the top triangle piece so making the side a bit lower is fine and it allows it to overlap the concrete a little too.




This is the same corner from the outside. It has turned into much more of an ethnic engineering project than I anticipated but well what project around here doesn't turn into more than I bargained for?

I am now attempting to figure out how to deal with the wind problem and the ram resting his thunderous bulk against the wall and pushing it out over time. I think I am going to sink some short posts into the ground and brace the sides somehow.




Eventually I am going to add a small access door in this corner from outside the pen but I am also going to leave a window like opening to allow airflow through the shelter in the hopes we won't get wind going in the open door and having no where to go but blowing the roofing off. Also leaving this open will allow us to feed hay and grain inside the shelter when it is raining or snowing.

I am not worried about wind or air getting to the ram. I mean he is a ram and this is central Missouri so there ain't much that can hit him as far as cold he can't handle with ease. It's the rain, snow and direct sun I need to protect him from.

I still need to finish the West wall, cut and install the top triangle part of each side wall and then finish putting the roof studs and sheet metal across the top but most of the hard work is done. The entire shelter will be 14' x 8' and 5' high on the back sloping down to 4' in the front.

Should be enough room for the ram and five or six ewes when the time comes. If they need extra space I can always open up the control paddock and allow them into the corner stall as well.

My only concern is that I haven't built it sturdy enough. It's amazing how rough on stuff that ram can be.

I should be able to finish the shelter up tomorrow and then hopefully get the fence put up Tuesday. I would have had this done by now if I hadn't had to work an extra 20 hours this week above my normal schedule but such is life..... and life always seems to happen at the most inopportune times anymore.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!


6 comments:

  1. Looks good and should last. Maybe you could put some boards on the inside just up from the floor kind of like wooden guard rail to keep pressure off of the wall. I don't know sheep but I had goats and they would go out of their way to destroy their own shelter, kind of like Ferguson I guess.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I wonder if rams and goat bucks have the same destructive power? We've went to building the buck shelter out of the cheapest stuff we can find and PLAN on having to re-do it every fall.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Are you going to line the inner walls with plank or rub bars? I alway had rub bars on barn or shed walls for my cattle, if I got Lumber on sale I would solid plank the wall about 4 feet up, then they cows could rub or whatever and it didn't push the outer walls off the studs. I like you simple idea though. I think a shed like this would be great for shelter in our back pastures.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Looks good Preppy. For what it is worth, I have discovered that most of my projects turn into some kind of on the spot engineering examples...

    ReplyDelete
  5. You build like my father, PP!

    (Errr... that IS a compliment).

    ReplyDelete
  6. PP,

    I think Mr. Ram and his harem will love their new digs!!!
    Don't you just hate employee's who don't like to work?

    ReplyDelete

Leave a comment. We like comments. Sometimes we have even been known to feed Trolls.