Repurposing at it's best on the ranch...

Our building arrives~

 When we first started our ranch we always said we were going to keep things tidey and not have "stuff" piling up around buildings and sheds like you see sometimes with farms and ranches.  Easy to be judgemental when you don't know what you are talking about!  Now after years of practical experience and too many times saying "I wish we still had that!", we have learned to appreciate repurposing items until there truly is no useful life left.  We have lots of great examples around now to show many items that have a new purpose far from the original intent.


Deb and Roger discussing "okay now what?"

One of our more recent projects has been the need for a good hen house.  Our hens spent last winter in a converted dog run covered in tarps, which was never expected to be used as long as it has, but it definitely has done the job.  So the new hen house started with a "free" 8'x12' shed.  All we had to do was get it off the truck in one piece.  The big buff guys who hefted it on the truck did not come with the delivery and getting it on the truck was much simpler then getting it off after its little trek through the country getting to our place.  With the help of some very good friends and ingenuity of our friend Roger, we did get if off the truck fairly intact.  You can read all about this little piece of the project here.   

alpaca fiber stuffed walls~

Once the building was safely off the truck and re-shored up so it sat as square as possible, we wanted to put some insulation in the walls.  We used 3rds from our alpaca shearing, which is the legs, belly and tail fiber that we don't normally use for anything and packed it in before adding our wall boards.  This worked amazingly well and you could feel the cooler difference inside over the summer and we expect the hens to be very comfortable on cold winter days. 

This is Richard, he and his wife Gloria
stopped by in their RV as Harvest Host
guests~

We wanted to install a window also, but weren't really sure how to do this the way this shed was put together...not to mention the fact that neither of us had ever done it.  We just happened to have an old window that we had picked up a few years back at an antique shop thinking we could use it for something in our little ranch store, but we never did.  As it also happens, the window dimensions fit perfectly between 2 studs....AND...as it had it, we had a ranch visitor who just happened to be a retired carpenter and wanted to help. 

In all, we have had some help with the work or donation to the project from many many good friends.  It has taken much longer then we ever anticipated, but only spending an afternoon a weekend and not even on a steady weekly basis does tend to drag out a project that grows with new things to add as fast as things get completed.  Plus we had a season of cria birthing, breeding, summer ranch routine, etc.  Winter is looming in on us quickly, the weather is cooling and rain is becoming too prevalent way too soon.  So with a final push a long weekend to dedicate to completing this it is finally finished.  I think I could write a book on every little thing we ended up doing to this little shed, but that might get boring to most.  I am more of a visual person and have documented our progress as best as possible through photos and uploaded them in this set.  It is amazing to see the transformation and seasonal changes since the shed was first delivered.  I love that we were able to utilize so many items that were scraps, salvage or donations to the cause.

The hens are now in their new home just in time for our first flurries of snow and cold cold frozen temps.  We also learned that though the hens loved coming down to check on what we were doing while we were working on it, they weren't too keen on being rehomed themselves.  After a week they are settling in and we no longer have to go on a daily egg hunt to find out where they've hidden their eggs for us!

Before & After....in the beginning I admittedly had some doubt of
what we would end up with....in the end, I couldn't be happier with
the results!