Rescue Journal

Needed: someone with visual-spatial skills....

Jean · Nov 6, 2006

...or at least a brain that hasn't turned to mush.

Carol and I looked at the barn yesterday and figured out a way to install a gate that could block off Carl's old alcove to make a stall for the sheep, but could also swing across the barn "aisle" to produce one larger pen that includes the area right in front of Petunia's stall.

So this morning (during the monsoon) we load up the gate at my place and drag it into the SAINTS barn. Once again, we discuss how it will be installed, and I truck off to pick up a few things I'll need. By the time I get back, Carol has gone to her paid job and I set to work installing the gate. Two more trips to the building supply place (one of these days I'll be able to envision all the screws, washers, and other hardware I need before I actually begin the task), several very soggy jackets later, and a satisfying couple of hours in the barn with Petunia to entertain me (today she settled in Spritely's stall), and the gate was in place across one dimension, and I was preparing the wall for the second latch on the other dimension when Carol came home on her lunch hour. She and I worked at making the necessary alterations when suddenly it hit her: the sheep were going to have to bend their fat, wooly bodies into a 45 degree angle in order to get into their stall - the gate permitted people to get around it, but sheep???? Aaaacckkk!

Good thing we both have a sense of humour. I took down the gate while she ran off to pick up Thomas from the vet, and by the time she returned the gate was an ordinary single-purpose gate closing off Carl's alcove for the sheep.

So much for creative ideas and multi-purpose gates. Unless we get some sheep that are hinged in the middle, we better keep our construction efforts simple!

I can't wait to see what Carol's designed for me to build in the rabbit room!

Comments

Jean

LOL!!!! :) :) :)

Maybe you're a visual learner - I'll SHOW you next time we're both there. Bottom line is...we can have a gate that lets the sheep into their pen (without them needing to bend in the middle), closes off their pen, and can close off the larger section as we planned. If you still like that idea, I will change it next weekend.

carol

yeah right jean...i can just see it...not. gideons stall is right next to toonies so he would be 11:55, and if toonie is 12 o'clock then the back barn doors are 3 oclock and the sheep would be six o'clock and the front barn doors would be 9 o'clock, you have been reading digital clocks for a long time haven't you?
as to the rest i don't get that either. but then i suck at envisioning 45 degree anythings...i just know our sheep don't and won't bend in the middle and now they don't have to.
i'm happy.

Jean

Carol - think about it! if the gate went three directions before (which it did), it would go three directions again - the three we need! Envision it like a clock where the hand (the latch end of the gate) can point to 12 (Toonies patio), 3 (sheep stall) or 9 (Gideon's stall) but not 6 (Spritely's stall). But if you shift the face of the clock 45 degrees, then the hand can point to 12 (Toonies patio), 9 (Gideon's stall) or 6 (Spritely's stall) but not 3 (sheep stall). I just needed to shift the part of the hinge on the wall by 45 degrees - ie to the other face of the corner post! I don't know why I couldn't see that before!!!

This is a good example of being Freddy-like. I'm banging my head against the wall.

carol

huh???

Jean

Groan - Carol, I am so stupid!!! I just realized if I had switched the wall-side latch plate to the other corner of the same 4x4, it would have worked!!!! DUH!!! The way we had the gate the first time, it could go flat against the sheeps' wall, or out across the sheeps' pen, or across the aisle. If I'd just move the plate round to the other surface, the gate would have gone flat against Spritely's stall, or across the barn aisle, or across the sheep's pen. Then you would open it flat to Spritely's stall to let the sheep in, and close the gate behind them. aaggggghhhhh!!!! I hate it when the obvious escapes me! I can change it again next weekend, if you want.