Pig shed from discards!

It was time… Our piggies needed a new home.

Last year they had done so much damage to the hillside that they were on that the fence was in danger of sliding down the bank.  We only have pigs from March til July (don’t ask me why we had them til October last year, I might scream). So, this year, we decided to put them into our little sheep “corral” (made out of livestock panels) that was about 16’x40′, flat, with a ram-shackled stall to keep them dry.  We strung hot wire hooked to the solar panel and thought we were set.  Well, with the rain this season, that flat area turned into quicksand.  The poor piggies spent all their hours in the stall unless they came out to eat.  When we went to feed them, we had to keep our feet in motion.  If we stood still for 1 second, we were embedded in the mud and couldn’t get out.  It didn’t help that if I was stuck, Lyndsey and Steve were laughing at me, and if they were stuck, I was laughing at them.

So, after the foster horse we were taking care of left, I talked Steve into using the turnout we’d built for him.  It is about 25′ wide by 100′ long, so much more room to run and it had dried out since nothing had been on it for a few weeks.  One problem tho… No shed, and no chance of moving the ramshackle one.  Steve said “Oh, they don’t need one, the weather will be nice…” One thing you need to know about me.  I like to know my animals have shelter.  It doesn’t matter if they use it or not, but I want to know it’s available. A friend of ours said “Just put up a temporary thing…”  Why would I do the work for that if we are going to use it again?

We are broke, flat out! No money to spend for construction materials at all.  So, I got to thinking (watch out) and decided to use one of my favorite things (next to duct tape)~Pallets… Hubby said “That won’t work”.  Boy, don’t tell me that! I drew up a diagram using 8 broken bricks that I had scavenged from my moms,  pallets (for free) and odds and ends of plywood we had around.  I helped him put it together and I am happy.  It’s not square (please don’t comment on the front board at an angle, HE did that!) and it’s not real pretty, but the pigs have more room to sleep than they did, its off the ground thanks to the bricks, so it won’t rot too quickly, and once we get tin on the roof (taken from the neighbors trash pile) it’ll be pretty much weather proof.

The only thing new in this “trash shed” is the screws (and I think some of those we reused also).  Pigs are happy to be out of the mud and it makes chore time so much easier.