It’s been rather wet here for the last few days but out of the blue yesterday was lovely, sunny and warm. C and S from the next village popped by on their way back from the bank. We’d arranged to try and put up the new alpaca shelter on Monday as C thought he would be busy on Tuesday. Monday morning the weather was terrible so no shelter. Happily the bank visit passed quicker than expected so did I want to start the shelter that afternoon? You bet I did.
While C went home to change I raced round and collected together everything we would need. Rail spike sledge hammer, drill, screwdriver, metaposts, the kit of parts I’d started last week, dumped it all into the trailer and set off for the field.
It took C about an hour to get the meta posts hammered in and the basic frame screwed together. It was so much easier with the two of us; it’s the little things such as when you are on your own drilling the pilot hole and then fixing the screw requires going up and down the step ladders to change pieces of equipment and pick up the screw where as I was able to pass things up, and hold onto the tools not being used. I swear that if we were really meant to do DIY we would have been born with at least one other pair of hands.
After that it was on with the cladding. C zoomed off round the shelter leaving me a bit redundant so I grabbed the lasure (wood treatment) and followed him round painting as fast as I could.
It turned out that I’m three pieces of cladding short to complete the shelter so rather than put up the wood we have and then find I can’t get similar we decided to not put up the last section, which will be at the front right. I’ll buy more cladding this afternoon and when we have the next dry spell I’ll pop that on – yes it’s raining again today.
Hazel, as you can see came to check out the new building. The piece of wood on the ground at the front is part of the roof. I’ve yet to decide what I’m going to use for the roof and it’s final placement will depend on what I choose and how long those roofing pieces are but once I make the decision it shouldn’t take more than a day to finish.
It’s so kind of C to come and help out with this as it took the work from what would have been a long day for me down to 4 hours to produce what you see above. C will be back sometime, as long as the weather gets better to saw off the overlapping edges. The panels are constructed in situ because the ground isn’t level and it allows for that and any twist that may occur as the metaposts go in. It may not be the best looking structure but it’s not something that’s supposed to stand for centuries and as I’ve remarked before my alpacas have yet to use the one I made for them a year ago. However I think they will use this one as there is currently no other shade in these fields and it will take a bit of time for trees to grow.
While C went home to change I raced round and collected together everything we would need. Rail spike sledge hammer, drill, screwdriver, metaposts, the kit of parts I’d started last week, dumped it all into the trailer and set off for the field.
It took C about an hour to get the meta posts hammered in and the basic frame screwed together. It was so much easier with the two of us; it’s the little things such as when you are on your own drilling the pilot hole and then fixing the screw requires going up and down the step ladders to change pieces of equipment and pick up the screw where as I was able to pass things up, and hold onto the tools not being used. I swear that if we were really meant to do DIY we would have been born with at least one other pair of hands.
After that it was on with the cladding. C zoomed off round the shelter leaving me a bit redundant so I grabbed the lasure (wood treatment) and followed him round painting as fast as I could.
It turned out that I’m three pieces of cladding short to complete the shelter so rather than put up the wood we have and then find I can’t get similar we decided to not put up the last section, which will be at the front right. I’ll buy more cladding this afternoon and when we have the next dry spell I’ll pop that on – yes it’s raining again today.
Hazel, as you can see came to check out the new building. The piece of wood on the ground at the front is part of the roof. I’ve yet to decide what I’m going to use for the roof and it’s final placement will depend on what I choose and how long those roofing pieces are but once I make the decision it shouldn’t take more than a day to finish.
It’s so kind of C to come and help out with this as it took the work from what would have been a long day for me down to 4 hours to produce what you see above. C will be back sometime, as long as the weather gets better to saw off the overlapping edges. The panels are constructed in situ because the ground isn’t level and it allows for that and any twist that may occur as the metaposts go in. It may not be the best looking structure but it’s not something that’s supposed to stand for centuries and as I’ve remarked before my alpacas have yet to use the one I made for them a year ago. However I think they will use this one as there is currently no other shade in these fields and it will take a bit of time for trees to grow.
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