Yesterday, I heard him moo for the first time.  He doesn’t sound like an adult cow.  He actually sounds like those baby toys that have cow sounds.

He was muddy from being born in a mud puddle, so we got a curry comb to help get the mud out.  My husband fixed up a bucket holder to put the food and water buckets into. We also put a bench inside his shed so the kids can sit out there with him.  He already follows them around when they go out with him.

He is a week old Holstein calf.  He was pretty tramatized by the trip to our house (about half a mile), but this morning he seems to be feeling much better and ate well from the bottle.  She hasn’t figured out what to name him yet.  I think something like hamburger would be good so she’ll remember what his purpose is in life and not get too attached to him.    But, it is probably too late for that because it is only 1:00 and she has already been out there 3 times to sit with him.  We won’t actually be the ones to eat him at least.  None of us have any experience with cows, so this should be a very educational summer.

We wanted the shed to be portable so we decided to put it on some wood skids to make it easier to move.  We contacted a local municipal utility company to find out if they had any used cross-arms from power poles we could have.  They had just done an upgrade of a high voltage line and had some nice long used 4×6 cross-arms left over.   Those were cut down to 12 foot lengths with the ends tapered making the shed easier to drag.   Next he needed to fasten the two skids together with some 2×6 treated boards.  This is where the $6 comes into play.  We couldn’t think of any way to get free boards so my husband went to Sutherland’s to get them.  We had just gotten our Friends of the Family reward check so the boards and lag bolts to hold them together only cost 6 dollars instead of 20.  He notched the 4×6 skids and bolted the 2×6’s to them.He then bolted the frame to the skids.  Next he cut the sheet metal for the sides and the roof, then screwed it to the frame.  Since we don’t know where the calf we will get is coming from yet, its disposition is a mystery.  We didn’t want a wild calf kicking dents in our new shed from the inside out so he used 1×8 wood dividers from the compost bin to put halfway up the inside walls.  While he was at it, he put in the foam insulation he got when he brought home the sheet metal.  To do this my husband screwed a 2×2 to the horizontal pieces of the frame that are halfway up the sides.  He cut the foam insulation to fit inside the frame and then nailed the 1×8 boards vertically over the insulation.

After this was done, all that was left was to attach some chain to the skids so it could be dragged into position in the field.  And this is our 6 dollar loafing shed.