Fall Project for the Boss/long/lots of pics

[Roundhouse]

I figured I'd do a write-up of a project I did this fall.

My wife teaches agriculture here and runs a school farm she established a few years ago. The cattle herd has grown in order to supply the beef needs of the school lunch program. Around the end of summer she says "I've got more steers this year and they're outgrowing the calf hutches, I need to put a up a shelter in the south pasture like the one in the north pasture, can you help me with that?"

A little background on us. I knew almost nothing about farming before meeting her. She grew up on a dairy farm in southern Wisconsin and you could say it's in her blood. I grew up in Upper Michigan where loggers outnumber farmers. I know a little more 20 years into our relation but the school farm remains her baby. At the same time, I've been steadily developing a small sawmill setup in my native UP.

You see, I had been bragging about a new skid steer shed I just built at the sawmill. I do like building so I agreed to take on the job of planning and building a new shelter at the farm. The challenge became getting the shelter built ahead of winter cold and snow. This honey-do project was a way for me to contribute to the farm and to recognize how indulgent my wife has been about the sawmill and all that has gone with it over 4 years.

Given the tight timeline the first option was to buy the lumber "off the shelf" once I drew up the plans. After a few trips to Menards we had a lot of the dimensional framing lumber and tin. The existing shelter in the other pasture was in place long before this iteration of the farm started and served as a rough inspiration for this one (with more than a few differences). When shopping store bought there wasn't a good equivalent to barn board planks for lining the interior walls of the shelter. We priced pine 1 x 12 x 12s but weren't excited by either the price or suitability.

At the beginning of October I had bought another 10 acres a half mile from my sawmill, my wife just rolled her eyes at the time. Rounding up materials I had my chance, "I should just cut a couple trees off the new lot and mill them into planks". Given the savings she was all in. I got to show the relevance of sawmilling and value of owning a little timber. Plus, I was itching to spend a little more time on the new lot. Here is a look at the new lot, not the nicest trees on the property but a glimpse at the mixed nature of the stand, a lot of age diversity, hardwood and softwood.



My lot has an old skidder trail running the length of it. That trail will be improved into a decent driveway with a cabin at the end of it. Unfortunately, by the time I owned the lot we were half way through a very wet fall. I had my eye on a number of Aspen halfway back on the lot, I figured I'd run them back to the road with my tractor. That was a fine plan until I made one trip partway in the trail and sunk the tractor up to the loader frame in mud on the way back out. After an afternoon spent getting the tractor unstuck it was time for plan B.



Plan B involved picking out a couple decent Eastern Hemlocks that were very close to the road where I could load them quickly without any more mud drama. I got them dropped just before dark.



The next day they were bucked to length (4 12 footers) and moved to the mill without getting stuck again. Another purchase this fall was an old pole trailer from the city utility, I've already found a couple uses for it this fall and it worked slick for getting these moved over to the mill.



With short days and work the next day I was running short on time. The second log was milled after dark and 6 late night hours to get home. I had about half of what I needed for the project, probably OK, a full load of the wet boards would have been pretty heavy. Once the boards were off the trailer I stacked them at the farm to be handy during the build.



Two weeks later I made another trip to the mill to saw up the other two logs. Without having to move them to the mill I didn't have to burn the midnight oil and actually remembered to take a few pictures. I will say hefting around 12' planks reinforced my preference for my normal 8 and 10 foot lengths but I was committed to the 12' size and the idea of covering the shelter walls from corner to corner.



Most of the planks were 8" or 10" wide.






The boards went from the mill onto the trailer, a couple days and a couple hundred miles later, I was offloading the second batch at the farm.



Getting closer to winter I opted to stack and sticker this batch inside the shed.



Building in an active pasture posed a set of challenges. As a way to mitigate this I assembled the walls outside of the pasture where I could get them properly squared up. I attached enough planks to stabilize the wall during the move without making it too heavy to manage. I did fit and number the lose boards ahead of time so they would fit between the bottom two boards and the top one.



There is a John Deere 3032 with a loader at the farm that I used for moving the walls. Each wall would be stood up and I would hook the bucket through it lifting the forward edge, the back edge would slide along on the ground as I drove. Moving the walls was pretty slick, the biggest challenge was having enough helpers to staff the gates, first into the north pasture keeping the steers in, then from the north pasture into the south pasture, keeping the big steers out of the small steer pasture and vice versa.



Once the walls were in the pasture I had to act quickly, the cattle were all over it, literally, not just curious but climbing and standing on the walls. The corners were pre-drilled for lag screws so once they were stood up I tacked the corners together. As soon as I was done the steers resumed their detailed inspection tasting each and every board.



To bring the loose boards into the pasture I used the tractor again, this time stacking the boards on top of the bucket and reaching over the fence so I could grab each board and install it without having to stack them again or go through the gate for each board. Of course the "boys" were instantly attracted to the new material and came over for a taste.



Once I had all the interior boards installed I framed up the roof.



The first half was nearly done with tin on top, side and back. Some bedding has been added and you can see my first customers lounging inside. At left you can see the two hutches they are outgrowing. We got really lucky with the weather, October's snows were replaced with a very mild and dry November. The biggest issue ended up being soft mucky ground.



The second half was essentially a repeat of all the steps. I did have to move a little fill around to this side level with the other side. It was approximately 500 sq ft of Eastern Hemlock used to cover the inside walls.



Another look at the lumber in place. You can see a faint impression of the tractor tires from moving the walls, otherwise the planks are just darkening a bit as they dry. Our good weather lasted into December and I was able to comfortably wrap up this project. Pretty satisfying to go from buying land in early October, harvesting trees, milling the lumber, building a shelter that's in service just two short months later.



I am happy with how the shelter turned out. Quite surprised with how squarely everything came together on such unstable ground (and other matter). Most of the steers became rather indifferent to my presence over the days and hours I spent with them building. There were a few that became steady assistants each day following me around, seeking ear scratches, and knocking over my ladder. I came to expect the antics with the ladder, if I had to leave the pasture for something I would make sure the ladder wasn't in a place where it would come down across the fence.



It wasn't too long after I wrapped it up that winter arrived with snow and cold. The cattle have taken to it but just as importantly my wife approves of the final product. There has already been mention of other shelters for hogs etc. as the farm grows. I said that's fine but any smaller shelters will be built outside the pen or completed before the animals move in.

Happy New Year to everyone else here in the FF. It's a must-read every day even though I usually run out of time to post anything myself.

[Haleiwa]

I hope that I'm wrong,  but with Holsteins in a wooden building you will probably have to fasten expanded metal over the wood or they will eat holes in it.  It looks nice,  but dairy steers are brutal on lumber.

[WDH]

Very inspirational!

[thecfarm]

Looks good. I made a horse run in, just like what you did. The horses would face it when it was snowing, but not go in it.  :  We fed them in it, but they used it more in the summer to get away form the flies than as a shelter to get out of the weather.
I had goats that I was doing something in the pen. They would carry off anything they could carry!!! Be it nails, screw drivers, anything they could get in their mouths.

[samandothers]

Good going!  Way to stay focused and motivated, of course wives help with motivation.   Nice tractor for moving wood.  Thanks for sharing and stay safe!

[firefighter ontheside]

I like it.  Would make a good pattern for a wood drying shed too.

[doc henderson]

great job.  I even sighed a little looking at the pics.  very satisfying!

[Iwawoodwork]

Great chronological pictorial story.   That shed would be a good saw shed if one side had a 20' opening and the other could be tool and sharpening shed. The way you did it the structure could be prebuilt and trailered to a remote property.  good looking shed all should be proud.

[Roundhouse]

I hope that I'm wrong,  but with Holsteins in a wooden building you will probably have to fasten expanded metal over the wood or they will eat holes in it.  It looks nice,  but dairy steers are brutal on lumber.

We've been keeping an eye on it. I tried to carefully place any wane inside and harder to reach. Their interest in the boards has seemed to decrease the drier they get. I do have a few extra boards on hand should they really get a foothold and tear any of it up. The wood in the old shelter has never needed repair/replacement but that's no guarantee.

For those noting the potential as a drying/milling shed, believe me the thought has crossed my mind. With the reliance on store bought materials, the retail portion of this tallied just over $2200. If I make one for me I'll shoot for 99% milled lumber with the biggest out of pocket cost being tin and fasteners.

[DocGP]

Anything to get mom more on board keeps life more content!!

Looks great!!

Doc