There’s always big projects and small projects on the homestead. It often bothers me that we have a 1,000 things going on and nothing is ever started and finished in one big swing. But I’ve learned that the farm is ALWAYS bigger than the man and it’s best to be flexible if you want to get anything done. And every once in a while you find a small project that you can knock out quickly and move on. Our recent mobile water and mineral stand project was one.

Wood pallets used to be a common, free, resource for homestead projects. They’re still very useful. But with the Pinterest-lead DIY boom, you don’t find them for free very often anymore. It’s more like treasure hunting than easy-pickings. We’ve learned to do a lot of networking to scare up low-cost building resources for projects. Mr. Fix-It is in the construction industry with his other job and sometimes gets a call to “come pick it up if you want it” for this or that–wood pallets, old doors and windows, scrap metal siding…we’ve happened into a lot of useful stuff over the years when people know we’re interested.

There’s also a knack keeping your eyes open and to “just ask.” Sometimes it doesn’t pan out. But sometimes you happen to hit someone at just the right moment when they’re trying to get rid of a pile of something and you just happen to have a truck to haul it out of their way! (Just a hint…I’ve had good luck with this at big home improvement stores on a busy summer Saturday in the garden department!)

So this summer we’ve had a pile of pallets to get a few things done.

One sunny evening when we were geared up to work on the truck but ended up with the wrong parts, Mr. Fix-It turned his energy (aka total frustration!) to a quick project that was so far down on our list I had forgotten about it!

A small mobile stand for the livestock water trough and mineral feeder, with a roof for shading the water.

He used one long, solid pallet for the base. He detached a couple horizontal baseboards from the bottom to re-use later. Some of the horizontal boards and the perpendicular baseboards were left as supports. They provide the easy access for the tractor forks the same way the original does for a forklift in a warehouse.

Then he cut a second pallet into two side walls. Mr. Fix-It set the height to get a couple extra boards out of the side pallets. The project was nailed together–mostly because we have a big pile of nails someone blessed us with. Screws would work too, and would usually be our first choice.

The horizontal baseboards from the bottom were re-purposed into rafters for the roof. Extra pallet wood from the side walls was used for cross-braces.

We dug out some scrap metal siding from one of our farm junk piles (which is getting a little low lately…sigh…) for the roof.

Mr. Fix-It had to do a little creative piecing to fit the roof together with what we had available. We used screws to attach the metal roofing.

The stand fits a 100-gallon water trough and our recycled tire mineral feeder perfectly. Just FYI, the tire mineral feeder is the sturdiest option we’ve found for multi-species, multi-age free-range access.

So, why shade your water and mineral?

• Keeps the water temperature lower so the animals are more interested in drinking and staying hydrated on hot days. You can see we put a backup water trough beside the stand–the temperature is noticeably different and the animals pretty much stopped using the uncovered one immediately. Even the smaller animals that have to climb up the stand to reach prefer the covered trough.
• Reduces the water lost to evaporation. I didn’t think this would be a big deal, but since we’ve had them side by side for weeks now, I can say that I think we’ve probably cut our evaporation loss in at least 1/3rd. Maybe more. And since they’re drinking more because it’s cooler, that works out to be pretty important since we average 95 degrees and up for most of July and August.
• Reduces mineral loss to mold or water runoff. This is true, but it’s also just easier than sloshing a heavy tire full of water and mildewy mineral mix around to clean it and rotate it in the fields. Less loss, but way less mess too.

Homesteading takes a lot of building and fabricating creativity. I have a Mr. Fix-It to manage that portion of the work here. Not only is he very knowledgeable, but he enjoys (when we have the right parts and tools in hand, at least!) the construction side of things. It’s a creative outlet in the farm work for him. I blog, he builds. {smile}

But if you don’t have a Mr. Fix-It (yet!), or you’re trying to learn to be the Mr. Fix-It…we do have these books on our shelf that I can recommend for getting started…

Building Small Barns, Sheds, and Shelters…don’t let the cover fool you, there are small structure plans in here too. It does a great job explaining how all the pieces (windows, doors, etc.) are made individually to work in the overall building and is definitely geared toward the DIYer. It’s a great construction primer if you’re not the kind that can just visual disassemble and then physically reassemble anything (like my husband).

 

How to Build Animal Housing…I always recommend books by Carol Ekarius. She takes a very practical approach and does a good job of highlighting places where you should invest in materials and places where you can best use low-cost options. She also addresses housing design needs from a holistic health perspective, which you can also read about in our Understanding Health and Wellness post and Buildings and Shelters post.

 

How to Build Small Barns and Outbuildings…We have this one too. We have a different definition of “small”. {smile} I think this book has great information and is absolutely geared toward the DIYer. We’ve used it to design and cost out a large pole barn. I think that’s the only caveat I have about recommending it. This book is about large, garage-size or bigger structures. It’s not goat pens or water stands.

Do you have any construction projects in the works right now? Or any great tips and resources to share? Especially any ideas for finding low-cost building supplies!