Donkey Shed - Done!

Wendigo has a serious side.  Sometimes I call to her and she yips and joyfully runs full speed to me.  Sometimes I call to her and she looks me in the eye and refuses to budge.  She's learning that sitting calmly while we are eating is more likely to earn her a bite than if she jumps and whines.  She likes to be brushed and played with, but I get the feeling that she would prefer not to be picked up now that she's a mature puppy of eight weeks, although she tolerates being snuggled with good grace.  We mustered the courage to give her the second vaccine shot ourselves last night, after watching videos online about how to grab the skin on her neck and use the syringe.  She wasn't as nervous as I would have been if Brandon came at me with a needle!   

I feel like we have taken full advantage of Brandon's summer break.  We've learned to give puppies shots, to build a donkey fence, operate a bobcat, fence in the garden, build a clothes line, butcher chickens, trap opossums (not foxes!), bake an angel food cake, and even built a shed for our future donkey and his imaginary friends.  Once again, we scavenged though our collection of cast-off building supplies, and decided to use some beautiful pressure treated six-by-six posts, given to us by friends after their deck project, to build a wall to protect the donkey from the west wind.    

Brandon used an auger to dig deep holes to place the posts on the back side of the long wall of the corn crib.  

Once the posts were tamped in solid, we used some nice painted lumber that was given to us by other friends after their house renovations.  Once we spread the word that we were willing to come get any unwanted lumber, we've been given enough to build the entire shed.  We made it the width of the metal roofing pieces they sell at Lowe's, which hopefully will be big enough for a small cow, if we decided to get one.  

The shed will be open on both ends, and we hope to put a gate on each end, and one in the middle, so we can corral beasts into one of two areas, and have entry and exit points on both ends.  There's a small cedar tree growing with a hackberry sapling near one end, and of course, it was in the way.  We debated cutting them down, but since this field doesn't have any other trees for shade, we did some pruning and left them in place.  I'm sure the donkey won't mind that they look sort of goofy.  

The flock and I have been so uptight about the fox, that when we heard the guineas sound the alarm and saw the mamma hen puff her feathers and charge something in the half finished shed, we reacted in full fox attack mode, and I charged the neighbors little dogs in such a way that they ran all the way home with their tails tucked. Ooops, sorry guys.   

Dad and Brandon were able to get all the rafters installed in no time, and using some nice wide barn wood we salvaged from a friends cabin remodel, Brandon created a wall on the west side of the shed.  Bad weather blows from that direction, and the hot evening sun as well, so the wall will be better protection than standing in the open.  

Brandon and I laugh that apparently, we only know how to build one type of outbuilding, and we are running out of walls to make our additions on.  The outhouse, wood shed, chicken coop, and now the donkey shed are all based on the same design - a slanted roof supported on one side by a building and propped on posts on the other.  The size of the building is based on the length of the sheets of roofing.  

This one has a little twist though, since we used a couple of pieces of clear plastic in addition to the metal roofing.  

Look - our donkey shed has sky-lights!  How fancy.