Thursday, September 5, 2024

5 Years In The Making

 Before we start.

Please watch my movie, The Pez Outlaw on Netflix & Amazon Prime.


I have been waiting at least 5yrs to do these 2 builds.

It has taken all that time to aquire the materials to do this.
Bought the poles a couple years ago. The final pieces to the puzzle was the reclaimed lumber from the old round pen.
So a little rain & mudd is not gonna stop me.
People keep asking, Are You Gonna Cement Those Poles?
Nope, Can't afford it. Also, you may not have noticed but those 10ft poles are 8 1/4 to 8 1/2 inch pole Heavily Wolmenized.
The poles you buy at the lumber stores are treated 1/10 of what these are. I'm using 8 of them per building. They are milled square at the bottoms & planted on a sandy base.

The last component was when Mom said go ahead & tear down the round pen, before it falls Down.

I will use the salvaged 2x8s for the horse Kick Wall.

A Kck Wall is the lower section of a horse shelter or building that insures if a horse kicks it that as with tin they don't cut there legs up.

1st picture is where Hawk & Gabes Leantoo will go.
We are 2 days into Salvage operation.
28 of 7 1/2ft 2x8s so far.
God Bless Sawsalls.



Location of New Build.


Phase 1.




At the end of Day 2 of Build.
That was a very long day.





End of day 3.
Got the last 3 poles set.
Another very long day. 8 pm finnish.
Lucky Me, I get to do it all again on the second building.





End of Day 6 photos.
All salvage wood for internal & external Kick walls are done.





Progress on Horse Siesta Shacks.
Some more rafters & perlins.





Finnished all the roof rafters yesterday.
There was math involved.
Boooo, Hissss.




For the people who know a little something about Building things.
You may ask. Why did you use 2x4s & not 2x6s for the roof rafters.
Cost!. I build with the sum of the parts combining for the Strength.
The roof sheeting will be 3/4 OSB.
Also I have an old Horse Siesta Shack, Over 50 years Old.
2x4s for roof rafters. Still standing strong.

Cool thing. 1st pic shows the 2x12x16 foot Header Board. Menards diddn't have what I wanted when Josh went to get me a dozen missing pieces. So they gave him a deal on that piece. Happy Days, what a gorgeous Header Board. Laurie I got one just like it for Red & Marnie.
We are now doing Final Prep for 3/4 OSB sheeting.





Gonna put cheater board up to place all sheets of OSB.
Think I will even put a short 2x4 spinner board on cheater board to hold it in place. Goin Full Rube Goldberge on it.
Plus use the tractor to set in place. At most I will need to flip them up. Roof will be just sliding them. At my age I use every possible way to do it like a Lazy man.
I carry nothing I can push in a cart or on the tractor.




There are days that I feel like the cartoon character Bullwinkle.
That's another story though.
Siesta Shack update.
Moriah Newman (my Daughter) was here.
Hey Baby I need a spotter. Gotta do proof of concept & it's a bit Sketchy. You can't help or the concept is a fail.
So I began moving 3/4 inch thick 4x8ft sheets of OSB onto the sides & roof of the Horse Shack. Got 6 sheets on.
I'm a big fan of using my tractor to get things real close then flip them or slide them on.
For the most part everything worked, even at 9ft in the air.
I don't work with helpers because at my age everybody is younger & then I work to fast, Young peoples slow is my fast.
Last 7 sheets of OSB go on today. Because I have to mow the lawn tomorrow.





Reality check.
Even though I bought the materials for these 2 Siesta Shacks over the last 5yrs. Each shack will probably have cost $1,500.00 each.
Lumber, Poles, Screws, Shingles & stain.
Here's the Bomb though. If I had had them Built It would in all likelyhood have cost 3 to 4 Thousand dollars each.
The big expense would have been the Exterior & interior Kick walls that I used salvage lumber for.
Most horse shacks are built using tin siding & the gap on inner stalls between boards is a lot more tha 1.5 inches.
One horse puts there leg through that tin exterior & your vet bill will be a couple thousand. I've seen it.
2. interior kick wall at more than 1.5 inch gap. Horses do crazy stuff.
Which can & does result in them getting there legs tangled in bigger gaps. Again Big Vet Bill.
So I build with interior & exterior kick walls now.
If I use tin on an exterior wall. I put a 3/4 inch sheet of backer board behind it.
I cheap out everywhere I can, but not on 4ft high Kick walls.

Here's the Kick in the pants.
Back in 1983 we had our Friend Larry Blizzard build our little 30x40 foot pole barn & it cost at the most $3,500.00
And as I said if I'd had that little 10x16 foot Horse shack built by someone else a good day would probably have been the same amount of money.

Forgot to tell you.
Got the 3 sheets up on the roof & tacked down.
Asked mom. I really would like to get the other 3 on.
It was after 6pm.
Mom said No you are done for today.
Yes Mam.




All the wood is on. Trim work. Roof. Paint.





Today after more than 2 months I do not have to get out & work on the 2 Horse Shelters.
Following picture is of the second identical build.
Only picture that I had of one of the completed shelters.






I have to admit, I'm at a loss for what to do.
Thinking seriously about working on Gabriel & Hawks fencing Project.
All I need to do it is a fancy Storebought Fence Post Whanger.
Old Men need to stay busy.

Dog House Bale Barn

 Before we start.

Please watch my movie, The Pez Outlaw on Netflix & Amazon Prime.


I have more n more conversations with people/w horses. All are getting older n realizing doing small square bales is gettin to be to much work. Age requies an easier way. All are making there way to big round bales where tractors do all the lifting. I really hope that these New Dog House Bale barns are our answer to. HOW!
Open the door, push the bale in with the tractor. Close the door.





4th Revision.

NEW DOGHOUSE BALE BARNS

Much better. All you do is open the door n slide the round bale in.












Doghouse Bale Barn #1.
Finnished, I put its jewelry on yesterday.
Jewelry is hinges n Slide latches.

About the very ingenious Flip Top Bale Barns.
They didn't work out. Great idea in theory, But wood does not like to move. Each Flip top eas opened n closed 24 to 36 times each year. They Broke n got very heavy with age.
So I took what I learned for $36 each n created the Dog House Bale barns. Door opens n each 800lbs round bale just slides in.
The experiment this time is rubber paint to see if the TV lies or not.
Can 5gallons per feeder seal them like rubber.
Each Doghouse Bale Barn Cost approx $500 to build.
Fancy Store bought Bale Barns Cost approx $1,200.00 if you include the platform. Thing is they are extremely heavy to open n floors get wet/ so does hay on bottom or floor.
Doghouse Bale Barns are built 1foot up off the ground n stay dry.

Pictures courtecy of Moriah Newman.

Funny aside.
Darlin Girl (A Master Carpenters Daughter} asked, "Why did you use OSB instead of Plywood?
I made something up, because it never occured to me to use plywood. Um, Plywood is too expensive n peels in Layer.
I don't know if I got Away with that answer or not?

I'm not a carpenter, I only play one on TV.
In truth I'm more of a creater/ Madd scientist.
My wood skills just try to keep up with my imaginization.

I used to make the excuse that the difference between Gailen, Larry n me was that they could afford new material to work with. Truth is so much more than that. I enjoy creation n get bored with proper. I understand what I don't know more n more as I get older. N thats OK.

With age comes Humility.
Each new day reminds you more n more to be humble.



This one is very fun, but Doghouse Bale Barn are better.

Material needed list
10 sheets of 3/4 inch OSB board
4 of 8ft 2x6
3 of 8ft wolmanized 4x4s
a hand full of 2x4s n 2x2s
couple boxes of screws 2 inch
6 door hinges

 I'm starting a project today that would cost $2,000.00 in the real world. My goal is to spend ZERO! It will be the Country Good version of 2 fancy Bale Barns. There will be pictures as I go. Oh yeah n another chapter for Country Good.

The fun part. Normal Plastic Bale Barn lift from one end to insert 4ft by 5ft bales of hay. This is very heavy to lift. Mine is gonna open like a mouth from the middle. Fold open in half's.


















almost forgot to show my coworker on this project


that was the 1st bale barn for Red n the 2 year
old's.

there will be a second one for Bunny n The Wild Bunch, but it will be different.

$50.00 bale barn 2nd prototype







Note the metal pieces at bottom.

I work with salvaged wood n some have crack that lead to breaks. 2nd time I loaded this barn it broke all the way down. Metal strips also donated had been saved just for this.

3rd Revision.

On The Madd Farm Inventor Front.
Finnished Monkey n Gabies new Bale Barn, dragged it into there pasture n loaded it. Made outa big 4x8 ft sheets of red plastic. 1/8th inch thick. ish.
All the boys said was, WOW REALLY RED! N a crack about sunglasses. Everybodies a critic.