Porcine Pallet Palace

Throughout the past week Farmer John has been making preparations for moving the pigs outside. A pasture was cleared and he has electric fence around it. On Saturday we worked on a new pig fort. They will need some shelter once they are out of the barn. 

Let me preface the following photos/text - we had no idea what we were doing, no plans, no forethought, no engineering abilities, and no money to spend on this particular project. 

Farmer John gathered some pallets from behind Tractor Supply in town and around the farm buildings. We set them up and slid some boards through the openings to keep them together. We also anchored them to some T-posts with baling twine. At this point I was kicking myself for not paying more attention during all my knot-tying classes at Northland College!

Farmer John pretended he was a pig to see how sturdy the structure was. Turns out, we needed more T-posts and baling twine with better knots. Somewhere in here we got pretty frustrated, took a break, and re-worked some of the plans. 

Farmer John scavenged one of the old hand-rails from the walking bridge to form the highest part of the roof.   

We pulled a tarp over it and tied it in place. We are hoping we tied it at an angle that will shed water. 

The true test will come soon when the pigs make their big move outdoors. An afternoon's worth of work might be knocked down with the push of a few strong snouts.