Caustic Burno":25830sfz said:
First to CB - thanks my friend - I do truly appreciate what you did and do.
Enjoy that hunting trip.
Now to the shelter.
It is about 34 feet wide, 16 feet deep, 6 feet high at the back and about 14 high at the front. The nail holes in the used tin are not a problem and very little water drips in as the slope is quite steep.
It is 13 years old.
We were broke - BSE came to Canada and the US of A refused to buy our cattle - nearly all others countries closed their borders to our cattle - despite no health issues in our herd - so I sold cattle for as little as 2 cents a pound and never topped 35 cents a pound for the first couple years after the border closed. I needed shelter and I needed it fast because we were expanding when the troubles came. There are two of these on the farm and one nice store bought one that is far prettier but gets much less use.
I honestly went out in the bush and cut down trees for poles - limbed them and built this structure. I did not use a tape measure for the vertical boards - I simply put them all up and trimmed them off with a chainsaw. I could not afford to level the ground so I built it along the grade as seen from the back view - cows do not care if it is level.
Honestly this was done with Cedar trees for vertical poles and rafters. The boards were found at the dump and ten bucks bought them. The tin came from a collapsed barn down the road in exchange for cleaning the barn up and burning it. The nails came from the hardware store. I had no money for bolts to put up the front header so I begged some 12 inch spikes off a neighbour and before pounding them into the post I put a couple of big washers on them to hold everything in once they were pounded in. It took a sledge hammer to get them in but I got it done.
Pretty is nice - functional works and animals do not look at fit and trim and colour.
This is the first shelter you see coming up the laneway. There are many shelters on the place and a large barn and a 40 x 80 shop with a heated section in it. But this shelter is the one I am proudest of - it is the one that showed the world I was not going to go down because of some bull schitte man made frigging political decision to break certain farmers and ranchers because of false science and an American immigrant who came to Canada and caused the collapse of the cattle industry.
Until YOU have to sit down and watch your friends and neighbours get collected up by the banks and bury your neighbours kid when when he shoots himself because he is busted by BSE - you have no idea how determined you can be. This shelter also represents the hard side of me - the side people love to diss at times on this site - but only after you have been there will you ever understand.
I put this up to show a kid that it CAN be done - all you got to do is WANT IT.
So mandelke86 this is for you - put your man pants on and go for it - no one will know if you pass or fail but you - so give it your best shot.
There is a life to be made in cattle and I wish you well.
Good luck and best to you.
Bez