Guys, we did it! The Ugly Fence Of Doom is finished!!!
Last week I told you about the craziness we were planning and our progress so far.
Well, last weekend we got good and busy and finished up the task! There are a couple details I'd like to add and improve on, but it is a functional sheep-pen now!
As you can see in the photo above, we made a shelter with pallets as part of the fence. It is not large, but plenty big enough for two sheep and a lamb or two to get out of the rain.
One of the improvements I am planning on is to close up the back and sides. Right now, it is still quite warm out, so they only need protection from the rain, but I know winter is fast approaching, and there will be some frosty nights that warrant a little more shelter. Sheep are quite sturdy, and I have no qualms about how they will handle the weather. We are in the south, after all, and 'winter' here is a joke. Still... A place out of the wind is appreciated and helpful.
We used pallets for the sides of the 'shed'.
For the roof, we ran a 2x6 from our dismantled porch down each 'wall', then screwed some purlins across the top. These were made from 1x3 boards that were leftover from our metal roofing project, and were used as purlins there as well. Then, to top it all off, we used siding leftover from putting new siding on our house, as roofing material! Yes, weird, I know. We shall see how that lasts. It is screwed down very well though, so I have high hopes...
The gate was constructed in the space between two 'support' pallets that go perpendicular to the sideways 'fence' pallets.
The gate itself is a pallet which covers the gap. It is on the inside of the support pallets, that way if a sheep wants to be pushy, it will not be able to push it's way out.
View from outside the fence:
When we got to the gate-making part of the job, we only had a couple pallets to choose from.
They were both pretty raggedy, so we just used the better of the two for now. My husband is going to pick up a better pallet for the job, and when he does, we have an actual latch to screw onto it. For now, a bungee cord will do...
We actually had run out of pallets from my husband's store, and had to put an ad on Facebook to find more.
Someone told us our local VIP office supply had plenty for free. He went over in his truck and found this was quite true. In fact, VIP had much nicer pallets than his store did! They were solid, new-looking, made of quality wood. While putting the new ones up, I sorta felt like taking down the completed fence of older pallets, and replacing the them with these nice ones. Felt like it... but not enough to undo all the work we had done!
See, the upright pallets are the new ones. Aren't they pretty!? Uniform, new, and made of very solid wood. What a difference!
There ended up being a nice little corner for their water bucket. We placed the board across the front so they couldn't dump it. They are stinkers like that.
We released the sheep into their pen, and they seemed pretty happy.
They haven't really tried the fence yet, and hopefully they won't. We DID reinforce the pallets with a 2x6 board across each weak point, and they would really have to do something crazy to be able to break out, I think...
The pen is pretty much complete. Like I mentioned, there are a couple more things I'd like to do.
I'm going to cover the sides and back of their shelter, of course. I also think I'd like to use some more leftover boards to make a hay feeder on on section of fence. A covered mineral feeder would be beneficial as well.
Overall, I am happy with how it came out! It's not perfect, and only time will tell how long it will last, but so far, so good!
The sheep seem happy in there anyway. It's not that difficult to please a sheep though. ;)
Yes, there are goats in there too. They are nosy little stinkers like that. They followed me back out of the pen when I was done taking pictures. :)
Thanks for checking in to see the finished product!! Let me know what you think!
Have a wonderful day everyone!! ♥
This work by @SquishySquid is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
