A New Shed for the Bullpen

I started to tell you last week about our new construction project in the back pasture that we call the "bullpen."  It's where we keep the males of the bovine and goat persuasion segregated from the females in order to control breeding times so that the babies come when we want them to come.  The bullpen has no barn, no enclosure to get out of the rain.  It is bordered by woods that provide overhanging shade.  We can and do run them into the barn through a gate that's adjacent if weather gets too bad.

For Nicky the bull, it's not a big deal.  For Popcorn, the billy, he doesn't like the rain and is prone to getting hoof rot.  Tricia asked that we build a small lean-to or shed to provide protection from the elements to the animals in the bullpen.  That project has been on the list for a couple of months and this week, we decided to begin so that we would have it done before the north wind starts to blow and weather deteriorates.

Four 4x4 posts were set in the corners and cemented in.  Curious onlookers supervised the process and got in the way.  I had to move them out of the bullpen after my patience ran a little thin.

I looked at several plans, but none were exactly what I was looking for.  I ended up having no plans and would just play in by ear, wing it, and see how it comes out.  I took measurements and composed my materials list and drove to Stine Lumber to get necessary supplies - about $300 worth, although I did use some lumber I had stashed away in the barn rafters.  Side supports went up.  These add support but also will anchor the tin sides of the shed.

I'm no carpenter - not even on my best day.  I just kind of throw things together.  I used a level and tried my best to make things square.  Experience has taught me that the animals don't care about quality construction as long as it is functional.  The remainder of the walls go up as well as the boards that will support the sloping roof.

The roof rafters, I guess you'd call them are now on, supported by 3 inch screws.  The roof will open to the south, providing protection from the north winds of winter.

The roof is up and now the walls start going in.

The south side will remain wide open, but the other three sides will be closed off.  I assume later on we could gate off the opening, if the need arises.

Russ came by the house Saturday afternoon and helped me cut the tin into 5 foot sections and begin hanging the walls.  I couldn't have done this part alone.

Here's our completed shed.  It's small, yet it will provide a respite from cold winds and rain in the winter.

Here's a look from the west side.  A west side story, you might call it.

The project is complete.  Now it's time to get in the garden and start working on the fall/winter planting.

A New Project That Must Be Completed Before Winter

So that we can quarantine animals, we have a portion of the pasture fenced off in an area we call "the bull pen."  You see, the quarantining I'm talking about is not due to illness, but due to the wanton desires of the male species.  If you don't keep the males separated from the females, we've found that things get a little dangerous.  Wild hanky-panky notwithstanding, if you don't separate the males from the females, you cannot control the breeding date.

We generally keep the bull in the bull pasture until we see a cow or heifer go in heat and then we'll put her in the bull pen with the pull for a day of courtship and romance.  But it's not just the male of the bovine persuasion.  We keep the billy goat, Popcorn, in the bull pen, too.  For similar reasons, but for another as well.  Billy goats are, well, there's not a nice way to put it.  They're gross.  During their season of lust, they pee on themselves, all over their beard, and it stinks.  We don't want to be anywhere around them.

So here's where the project comes into play.  Goats aren't real fond of rainy weather.  The bull pen is gated into the barn, but the barn has the cows and heifer and also the does there.  We need to build some sort of small lean-to shed so that the billy goat and bull can get in out of the weather.  Nothing too big and nothing fancy and certainly nothing expensive.  So I decided to put up an 8x8 simple shed.  It will be closed on three sides and open to the south side.  In winter, it will provide a respite from the rain and north winds. 

Saturday, I enlisted Russ' help and we used a post-hole digger to place four 8 foot 4x4's into the ground in the bull pen and anchored them in with Quik Crete.  I kept the bull and the billy goat out of the bull pen for 24 hours to give the cement time to cure.  Nicky, the bull, has a propensity for rubbing his head on things, and I didn't want him to push the posts after we had worked hard to level them.  After 24 hours I put the bull and the billy back in the bull pen.

They were curious as to what the project was.  What are these posts in our pasture?  I felt sure they would set out to destroy the work we started, but so far, the posts have held firm.

I'll work on this as time allows, day by day, until we have a shelter for the Nicky and Popcorn.  Everyone needs to be able to get out of the rain, right?

The Fire Pit Patio

It's almost "fire pit season."  That's the time of year that we build fires in the fire pit and sit outside and stare into the flames.  Peaceful.  Relaxing.  The photo below shows our fire pit.  The river rock square is a trip and fall hazard.  We normally put benches on the inside of the square and then back up when the fire is roaring.  The rocks do nothing but remind us that we have Build Fire Pit Patio as an item on our to do list.

Might as well do it since the weather is conducive to a little manual labor.  We marked out the size of our proposed patio, squared it up and got ready to drive in stakes to mark our corners and build our form.

I got out a mattock and began to work up a two inch indention in the rock-hard soil.

Finally we had it all done and moved the dirt out of the way in wagons!  That was more work than I thought it was going to be.

The form was constructed and we went to the local hardware store and bought 80 pound bags of gravel mix concrete.

Pouring concrete is hard.  The last time I did it I threw out my back mixing it with a shovel and shoveling it into place.  There has to be an easier way.  We found on You Tube a method called "Dry Pouring Concrete.  After watching the videos, we felt like this was the thing to do.  I'll show you the process.

First, you pour the bags of concrete into the form.  Use a long 2 x 4 to screed.  Our problem was that our form was bigger than any 2x4 that we had.  This meant that we were unable to level it properly, even going side to side from the corners.  I would have liked it to have been smoother, but it wasn't to be.  Once we had it as level as we were going to get it, we used a paint roller to smooth out the bigger ridges.

The powder is there.  Now you take a water hose and set it to mist.  Mist the concrete until it turns a darker color gray.

In exactly an hour, you do mist it again.  An hour following that, you set the garden hose sprayer to "shower" and shower the concrete real good.  An hour later you do it again.  An hour later you do it again.  (For every inch of thickness, you shower it in one hour intervals.)

Once that was done, we decided to dress it up a little by soldiering pavers on the surrounding edges.  We laid a base of sand and leveled the pavers with the slab.

We were going to put a plastic edging around the entire thing, but decided to make a concrete retainer.  We used the 'dry pour' method with this as well.  We poured the concrete powder and used a concrete edging tool to put the powder at a 45 degree angle about halfway up the paver.  We misted and sprayed.  This edge will keep the pavers from sliding.

Between the pavers, we poured polymeric sand, packing it in, sweeping it in and then used a leaf blower to blow off the excess.  Then we showered it in.

I pulled the dirt over the outer concrete retainer so that it met with the edge of the pavers.  We like the way it turned out.

We intend on spending many upcoming evenings outside enjoying the new fire pit patio.  It's not a perfect construction project, by any stretch of the imagination, but the job is complete and I'm sure we'll enjoy it.

Paving the Way

The night before last, we talked a bit about making sure your foundation is firm, and we talked about destruction.  Tonight, coincidentally, we'll be talking about a firm foundation, but will shift gears from destruction to construction.

For many years now, Tricia has wanted a front sidewalk.  I have a good wife.  Some other wives want a lot more, but mine, well, she wants a sidewalk.  Over the years she's always said, "Why do people have front doors and NOT use them?  We need a sidewalk leading to the front door to welcome guests."  So we put on our list to put in a sidewalk.  We had contractor come pour the concrete for the sidewalk and leave space to accent part of the walk with bricks.  We had saved the bricks from when our house was constructed twenty years ago and used those to incorporate into the sidewalk.

We are not skilled brick masons.  We've never done this before.  We learned from watching a YouTube video.  Let's show you what we did.  First, we experimented with different designs of brick patterns.  We settled on a criss-crossed pattern with two bricks in perpendicular arrangement and then three bricks parallel.  Belle voted on that design as her favorite.

We measured placement of the bricks so they were even and marked where they were to line up on the concrete with a carpenter's pencil.  Then we started to remove the bricks and prepare for mortaring them in.

The mortar mix was combined with sand and water and then, using a trowel, we spread the mortar on the bottom and began placing the bricks in alignment with our markings.

This was somewhat of a tedious process.  I used a level to ensure that the bricks were level with the sidewalk.  Sometimes I would have to pick the brick up and trowel in more mortar.  Other times I would use the level to squish the brick down into the mortar to be level.

We don't have a mixer, so we made one by cutting a big tub.  We mixed up several batches of mortar mix in the tub because the next job would require a lot more mortar than just lining the bottom where the bricks would sit.

In addition to the two lines of brick accents, we chose to have an arch of bricks at the start of the sidewalk to mirror the arched brick steps.  This took some time to place the bricks at the correct angle.  The gentleman pouring the concrete left us a wide gap to enable us to have room to set the bricks correctly.  This wide gap required a lot of mortar to fill.

You can see how the sidewalk lines up with the brick stairs.

Once the bricks are set, we used a grout bag to fill all the cracks with mortar.  I didn't know what a grout bag is, but it is similar to the bag you use in baking to pipe frosting on top of cupcakes or between layers of a layer cake.  We loaded the grout bag with mortar mix and twisted the top closed.  Then we squeezed out the mortar between the bricks. Tricia smoothed it out with her fingers.

It didn't take long to do.  You can spot the mortar bag in the center of the photo below.

Once dry, I used a wire brush to get the excess mortar off of the bricks and to smooth any irregularities.

Russ and I applied some elbow grease to clean a lot of the mortar off of the bricks.  We didn't want it to look too cleaned up, so we left some mortar on the bricks, giving it an aged look.

And finally, we were done.  We are pleased with the way it came out.

It is not perfect.  It has "character."  There were a few things we could have done differently, including understanding all the directions before getting started.  We didn't follow the directions after we piped in the mortar mix.  We also should have cleaned the mortar prior to it completely drying.

But all in all, we are happy with it and now we have a little confidence to take on other projects.  We hope that our sidewalk is a welcoming path for guests coming to our front door.