Barn odds and ends

New sheep feeder in barn.

Yesterday was a barn day.  I had Jonathan come out and help me.  The entire barn was full of old wood we had moved out from the hay rooms.  He put all of that in the overhead walkway and storage room over the tack room.  I made a new 8 foot feeder inside the barn where the old jugs we removed were located.  It turned out very nice!  I was pretty happy with it.  It is good enough I may put one on the other side of jugs or the end of the barn.  Time and use will be the real test.  If it holds up well and the sheep use it we may build a few more in the next couple of years. 
 

New upper barn doors, now split in two.

Annmarie wanted me to put double doors on the sheep entrance to the barn when we first moved here.  Instead I put a large single door on top and the fancy 200# bottom door with the slider door built inside of it.  The door was so heavy it was hard to open.  The sheep all jostled and got stuck in the narrow two foot opening.  The track would fill with snow and straw in the winter and freeze solid.  It made for some hard door utilization.  So, now I am rebuilding the doors to be a double door on top and double door on the bottom.  Amazing how that happened.  I am trying to use up all the old boards from the old door. This time the door is only two layers of wood, so hopefully I will have less sag. 

Grain holder and chute installed.

Barn almost ready for winter.

Annmarie also wanted a funnel and bucket holder under our grain bin.  She had envisioned a box sticking out from the bin that you dropped the bucket into.  I had a hard time envisioning the support for that so came up with a new design.  It holds the grain bucket and directs all the grain to the right spot.  We will see how it holds up to a winters use.
Johnathon also spread straw all over the barn floor.  We were going to work the sheep first thing Saturday morning and it makes the footing a whole lot treacherous when offal is being absorbed by the straw.  Other than it being 105 F outside it was a great day.  It was hot!!