The big Narrative:

This is built from something called "cattle panels". You can get it at most agricultural supply stores for under $20 a section. Each section is 54 inches wide by 16 foot long. Make sure you have "cattle panels" or something with the same wire size. There are some panels that are made of skinny wire... suitable for restraining vicious chickens and such, but not adequate for this project.

Each 4-ish foot section is made from 1 and a half cattle panels. You cut some panels in half, overlap them by two squares to uncut panels, and wrap electric fnece wire over the overlap to mae a 54" wide by about 23 foot long piece. My version of this thing is 20 feet long, so i needed 5 spliced together pieces.

The width of the shed is 11 feet long. This will give you a peak that is around 8+ feet.

When putting up the first section, a helper is really, really useful. After the first piece is in place, it gets easier to add additional sections. I was able to do the rest myself. I also cut and split 8 cords of wood a year myself. If you have a helper handy for the rest of the sections, that would be a good thing.

The support posts I used are made of 1 1/4 inch iron pipe, each piece being 5 foot long. This stuff is sort of expensive, so if you have something else, improvise! For instance, I later ran into some 5 foot pieces of epoxy coated 1 inch rebar. Apparantly anything shorter than 10 feet of this big stuff is useless for sale and the rebar companies throw it in the dumpster. It might be worth a phone call if there is a rebar company locally. Even if you wind of parting with some cash, it may be cheaper than the iron pipe.

Drive the first two support posts into the ground where you want to start, 11 feet apart. I went in 2 feet, leaving 3 feet above ground. Then erect the first 23 foot fence section in an arch shape. Wire the panel to the support posts. The posts go on the inside, so that the ends of the posts will not abraid the covering whcih will be put on later. I put pipe caps on the ends of the posts to that the sharp ends of the pipe would not stick up and cut the covering.

Once the first posts are wired in place, drive the next two posts where the next to last wire of the fence arch ends. You can wire the fence panel to the posts with a couple of loops of fence wire. Wait untill you add the next section before going crazy with lots of wire.

Now add the next 23 foot eight of panel. Overlap by two squares. Wire the overlapped sections together overy couple of feet. By the way, I used vise grips to hold the start of the wire, and channel locks to tightly wrap the wire around the overlapped secitons of panel.

Firmly wire the overlapped area to the last two posts that you drove.

Add another 23 foot panel section, repeat as above until you have made it as long as you want to make it.

The tarp: I hate those cheap blue things. After one winter, they fall apart and you have blue plastic strands everywhere. They also look terrible. I found some heavy duty Green tarps at a local Discount store. The eyelets are reinforced with heavy plastic grommets, and these things hold up much better than the cheap blue things. They were 24 foot long by 12 foot wide. I put used 2 of them for my 20 foot shed. The 24 foot length goes over the 23 foot lenght of panel nicely. If you build a 20 footer, two 12 foot wide tarps means a 4 foot overlap to keep rain out.

I held the tarp in place with baling string.... always have lots of that stuff. There would up being a couple of bungee cords used to hold the end of the second tarp in place in the middle of the shed. It was easier than trying to tie it... you will understand. Also, I found out later that if there is a heavy wind, the bungee cord lets the tarp open up a bit to releave pressure inside the shed rather than risking blowing the thing away.

You will see a "truss" made of a narrow peice of fence panel. It helps keep the top pointy shaped in heavy ice/snow, so that things run off rahter than staying on top and collapsing things. I have one on the end right now, it is a good thing. I would suggest one every 4 feet.

Also, in heavy snow you may want a little extra support. I just keep some stacks of hay every few feet in the center to hold the peak up. I guess you could get fancier with 4x4's or something.

Let me know if you are comfused about something. If you build one, let me know how it worked out for you. I know this is quicky page. I will add clarifications based on any questions anyone has.

Happy Haying!!!

Rick

P.S...
I'm heading outside to take these pictures at 10:30 this morning. My wife tells me to come quick. What do I see but a Bobcat walking across the lawn. I've heard them at night, but never seen one before. They are not daytime critters. And I have a camera in my hand!!!

The lens was wrong, the film was wrong, the window is dirty, and I had about 4 seconds to do whatever I was going to do before he made it to the woods.

Too bad I didn't have a camera the time I saw the alien space craft! (I am not kidding... Saw one one summer night while I was at work at a tv transmitter on top of a mountain back in 1979. Lots of other people saw it too. Really! Didn't even own a camera back then!)

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