Wednesday, October 05, 2016

Horses, Pallets and Barns

The room mate and I (mostly the room mate though) are putting up a pallet barn. My old mare that I rescued in California doesn't do well in the wintertime here. She's a California girl after all and used to the mild weather all year long. So I dreamt up an inexpensive way to help keep her and her little pal warmer during the winter. I went and collected pallets from the two towns close to me. It took a while to figure out where I could get loads of good ones. I initially collected 42 of them. So far the barn has cost just over two hundred dollars for 2 X 4's and 2X 6's. We won't add in the equipment I had to buy to make it easier! (That stuff just goes with owning a farm anyway, so it's an expense I would have had whether I built a barn or not.)

My first dream barn was twenty feet by ten feet, and then I got realistic for the time we had to build it. The barn is now ten by ten feet, which should be enough for a horse and a half. I will have to train the old mare that this is a good thing. She's a nervous girl and doesn't like being confined. I will just give her her favorite foods in the whole world to show her that the barn can be a good thing. I am sure that she will go in on her own when the rains and winds are coming down on her. She's been spending the cooler nights with her butt backed up against my bedroom wall and I am sure that can't be good for the house!

The pallet barn half way done:




It does look a little wonky in spots, but keep in mind these are pallets that were thrown together for one time use and not engineered for a building. They are definitely not square by all means. But nailing them together in several places and then putting up the roof will make it stable (ha ha...get it? Stable.) I have metal sheeting that I picked up at a recycling store last year just for this purpose. I am also going to put the sheeting all around the outside walls and that will make it even more sturdy.

I'm so excited! The room mate has been such a great help to me around here!
Next year I want to put up a hay barn, and if the two horses don't get along in the one space we will build another horse barn too.

1 comment:

Linda in Calif. said...

This pallet barn is so interesting. I'm surprised that it will be okay to have those big gaps - but then I don't know anything about horses! I do know how much work it would be to rebuild those pallets so there are not gaps, and that the wood is dry and some slats would split. Love your stable joke!