Horse enclosure update completed.

Barn end before horse enclosure update.

Barn creek side before horse enclosure update.

  Well we managed to get the horse feeding area completed today.  Gannon and I have worked on it the last two days.  We tightened and patched the old side with the material salvaged from the end we cut off.  I dig it down with the tractor so it should drain away from the barn.  The same goes for the runoff from the roof now.  It should just drain down to the back creek. 

Barn creek side opening and new end after horse enclosure completed.

There was a pause at lunch time to go get the bull again.  He is still finding ways to get outside the fence.  He lifted the panel down near the schoolhouse.  Gannon and I had pounded some metal posts into the side of the creek to keep him from pushing the fence out easily.  I cannot put them in the creek bottom as this is a spring runoff creek.   It is dry now but it won't be that way in the spring.  I wired the panels to the fence posts so he cannot just lift the panels with his horns.  We will see how long it takes him to get out now. 

I had needed to fix the barn door entryway where we enter the sheep side, as this is where the newborn sheep have been falling out of the barn last winter.  Gannon has been digging out the old milk cow area (we had sheep there year before last).  Which means I needed to install some steps to get up into the barn.  We used the old pallets I had laying around and made a set of stairs to get into the barn.  I also screwed in  a board so the newborn sheep cannot fall out of the barn. 

One of the things I still want to fix before winter comes is the two doors on this end of the barn near the new horse enclosure entrance.  They need to be redone.  I think I can salvage about half the door but not sure I have enough old wood to make it all out of aged wood.  It sure looks better when I can do that.  I did measure the openings before I started and thought I had two identically sized stalls.  It doesn't look that way in the picture.  My center post is at 7 feet 7 inches from each wall.  At least that was were I measured from before we dug the hole for the rock and got the post on it.  I never checked after that.  I didn't want to know as I was not going to change it again. 

Gannon still needs to finish digging out the old milk cow area but the steps look great and work awesome.   We will start putting old metal roofing on the barn next week.  This side can be done relatively safely.