There are two main issues with keeping animals on pasture all year around here. One is the heat and dryness for 3 months every summer. The other is the cold and wetness for 9 months every winter.
Other than that, it’s a cinch.
Since our pasture doesn’t have any trees (yet) we are constructing mobile shelters to move around the pasture as the animals move. This will provide shade during the summer and a wind block/rain cover during the winter. Right now the goal is to have three of them, one for the cows/sheep, one for the pigs, and one for poultry. This will allow us to have a three-species leader/follower rotation. In order to simplify things, they are going to have a similar footprint and structure, although the poultry one will have hardware cloth as an added barrier against small predators.
The first step was attaching the calf panels to the bottom of the frame.
Then bending it over to form an arch and attaching it to the other side of the bottom frame.
Then add the side board for the bottom of the frame.
Unfortunately, we ran into a snag setting it upright because Daddy was trying to tip it up with two small helpers instead of waiting for one big helper. We lost 20 minutes or so fixing the resulting damage, and then it was time to move on to the next task.
God willing we return to that early this week.
Little Farm in the Big City 