Had a little nice weather this week and it was time to finish up the man shack… our little shed that we built for our ram boys. (Oh, yes and our buck! Sorry Dreamy!) It was fairly finished, but the back sides were still unpainted and looking a little rough. We reused a bunch of boards and pieces of plywood and OSB from around the farm which obviously saved a ton of money, but they all looked a little, well, homemade… I wanted them to be painted, at the very least for this phase one of our build.
I had some very alarming blue paint that I was told never to use again when I tried to paint a gate… and this gallon of dark charcoal color… which painted looks black to me! With the red of the pallets… I thought, hey, perfect boy hut! Sure has a sort of masculine theme going on, eh?
It was very funny to paint it. All the boys were standing in a line, just watching me in amazement. They didn’t want to come too close because each took a whiff of the paint and deemed it nasty. So they stood about 6 feet away, watching every stroke I took with the roller. I guess when you are a sheep or a goat, watching paint dry is sort of fun.
Every so often they would look at each other and make a little grunt or noise and I swear, I was starting to get a little nervous. Like they were judging my work. Ah, such tough critics!
At one point, Travis went inside the fort and was watching me paint from inside! I almost laughed my rear off. It was just funny. I guess you would have had to been there.
Phase Two will be adding slab wood to the sides to make it look like a little log cabin! And a tin roof. Right now there is a heavy sheet plastic down and then a couple large OSB boards to keep it in place and protect the plastic. But it would be adorable with a nice tin roof. And the log siding.
We just loved the two upright posts and have been talking about adding some flags to those posts… just for fun, for a little whimsy! So we ordered a pirate flag, because it’s just fun and a Scottish flag, because they are Shetlands from the far north Scottish Islands! Perfect for a man fort, eh? Arrrrrrr….. all fear the lothesome Shetland Pirate Sheepies!!!
Well, it must be nice and cosy in there because on of our free range hens, Miss Peggy, has been laying eggs in the straw. And every morning, the three boys are in there all snuggled in their straw beds munching their cud and waiting for it to warm up a bit. At first, it was raining out, they would go and set underneath the three maple trees by the northern fenceline and look fairly miserable. I guess because they just were sort of afraid by the man shack… it being new and all.
But one afternoon, it was POURING rain… still fairly warm, but just buckets and Harley, the oldest ram, he just got up and walked over and went in the shack and sat down. Pretty soon, Otis and Travis followed and now they always use it! I guess they just had to have a good reason to and then they decided they like it!
If it gets really cold we will stack some straw bales around the outside on the weather edge and inside a bit to really make a cozy little snow cave for them! I do want to put some lights up around it as well for the holidays! hahah…. I’m sure they will appreciate it.
Still just glad to get this all finished up for the boys and to make it a little more, well finished for all the neighbors to see!
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