We've gone and done it guys. We have created the world's ugliest fence.

Well... perhaps not THE ugliest, but you know, it's a contender.

It all started with a pile of pallets...

You see, we need another pen, specifically for our sheep.

We also do not have the hundreds of dollars to spare for said fencing materials. Have you all priced fencing, posts and hardware?! It breaks the bank! Needless to say, we are in the mood to get good and thrifty. Perhaps too thrifty... Time will tell.

My husband works at a store that has piles of pallets leftover from stock deliveries. They just pile up and up.

He had the idea one day to use them to make a fence! Our first idea, (still a great idea, I think, just not free), was to buy T-posts, and pound them in the ground in such a way that we could just set the pallet over them. All in a line. Now, the problem with this idea is that it requires us to purchase a butt-load of T-posts. A BUTT LOAD guys! That'a LOT! That would never do. Instead, he thought, why not try making a fence where we place a couple pallets side-by-side, with a sideways pallet every so often for stability. I was skeptical, but he was so excited to try it... so why not?

This is not a terrible idea. As we went along, it seemed fairly sturdy.

No, it will not blow over in the wind, or anything like that, BUT I was not happy with how strong it was at the point where we screwed the two pallets together. It was a weak point, and I could just picture the sheep rough-housing, slamming into the weak point, and breaking it apart. No bueno.

We happen to have a pile of scrap wood leftover from when we tore down our semi-rotten porch.

This would make the perfect reinforcement. We are planning on putting one board across each 2-pallet section, eliminating any weak points there. This part will be free as well, woohoo!

Here is how we arranged the corner. He had two extra-heavy pallets, and we put them together like this:

It feels good and solid. Even still, being the corner, we are going to take a 4x4 that we have leftover from a project and screw it into the outside corner in such a way as to solidly reinforce this as well.

We are using leftover screws from another project, as well as nails that were pulled out of the porch we took apart! So far it is totally free of expense, although we ARE running low on long screws and will probably have to purchase a box. There are some pallets that are not in the best of condition, so we will reinforce and repair them as necessary before trusting the pen with the sheep.

This pen is, of course, incomplete. We've used up all the pallets he brought home, so during the work week, he will bring home another stack, and next weekend, we should be able to complete the pen!

We have plans to make a pallet gate and use pallet wood to board up a corner to place feeders and water buckets in such a way that they cannot be tipped over. Nope, it's not a pretty fence AT ALL, but I am hopeful that it will at least be functional!

I can't wait to finish up this pen so I can get Jacob and Lamby into their own separate quarters! It's about stinking time!! I'll update with the finished product, hopefully next week!