DIY - Pig House
Posted on June 5th, 2006 By scott at 1:08 pm (All, Four legs, Saws, Two legs)
Another weekend, more animal additions (four spring pigs), more DIY projects. I have built a pig house. It’s low to the ground, holds four pigs and cheap.
My carpentry skills waffle between criminally negligent and child-like. Laura had insisted I buy extra lumber and that almost wasn’t enough, which means the chickens get more perches.
I’m sure there is a gene that allows you to eye-ball and imagine things, and then you build it or plan it. I’m missing that gene (I’m also missing the math gene that allows me to do fractions).
We have not witnessed the pigs go into the structure. They have climbed up its sides — with me, on the other side of the fence, cringing with each cloven hoof-fall, and yelling: “I don’t make sturdy things.”
Click here for proper out-building construction.
Brad K. said,
June 5, 2006 at 8:37 pm
About carpentry skills — I think practice at scale drawing your project, in a notebook or on scratch paper will help the fastest. Most learning goes faster with feedback, so as you get things put together, draw an ‘as built’ plan on the next page. Being able to see the things that went different than your initial plan, and especially finding where measurements go awry (as in, measure to the outside of the boards…) will help.
Keeping a notebook lets you review your progress.
As you doodle out your plan, make up a materials list to go with it. And include the materials used on the ‘as built’ plan, too. Then review to see if you could have planned your cuts to use fewer initial pieces, and get less scrap.
I suspect that you will find the notebook idea pretty valuable. Especially since at some point you are going to want to add onto a project — and having the plans handy can save a bunch of re-measuring.
“Measure twice, cut once”
Enjoy!
scott said,
June 6, 2006 at 6:02 am
Thanks for the advice. I measure many times and never trust a single measurement. I tend to cut the same board more than once. I’ll have to ask my wife to shoot a photo of my crooked gate.