# My Journey in Pig Raising Chapter 1: Fence Building ****PIC HEAVY****



## wannabefarmer (Feb 3, 2013)

My husband is great and has always been so supportive of me and all my animal ideas no matter how outrageous they are.  I recently decided that I wanted to raise my own pigs and he was, of course, on board.  I did tons of research on fencing and how to do it as cheap and effective as possible.  I came across some video's and picture's of pallet fences and thought it was a great idea.  For about a week I drove all around my town looking for pallets behind businesses, constructions sites, dumpsters etc.  When I found some, I asked if I could have them and more often than not they were more than happy to give them to me.  At the end of the week I ended up with about 35 pallets and a heck of a lot of scrap wood.  The pallets were all in great shape and very sturdy, not to mention FREE!!



DH and I went to the hardware store to buy a few supplies ie. screws, nails.  While there we realized we had to buy something to attach the pallets to each other.  Our first idea was hinges but they were $7.99 a hinge and we would need about 40 hinges.  We were NOT going to spend $320 on hinges alone.  After speaking with the salesman he told us he had a box of 30 hinges in the back that a customer had returned unused.  He said he would sell them to us for $2.00 a hinge.  SOLD!!! 



After we bought some lightweight t-posts for stability, a couple of sawhorses, and the screws we only spend $156.00.  We still need to buy the electric fence and the piglets but so far I think we've kept it pretty cheap. 





Stayed tuned for Chapter 2: The Piglet Arrival





Here are the pics:



Pallets








 More pallets












We laid all the pallets out in the square shape.  5 pallets long and 5 pallets deep.












Pics of the hinges. 





















The hinges worked great for the corners














First side done











Hubby working hard














Almost done.  Putting last pallet on.












All squared up!!










Putting t-posts in for added stability


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## brentr (Feb 3, 2013)

Looks good.  you going to just cover a corner with plywood for a roof to give them some shade/rain protection?


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## wannabefarmer (Feb 3, 2013)

That'll be part of Chapter 2.  We have extra pallets left so we are making a 3 sided shelter with some scrap metal roofing.  Didn't quite get to building that part yesterday.  The sun starting setting and the hubby had to work so we called it quits after the fence was built.


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## bonbean01 (Feb 3, 2013)




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## EllieMay (Apr 26, 2013)

Nice job!
Looking forward to more pics!


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## Sippie (May 30, 2013)

Looks great. Pallets are something that we can always find around here. They are pretty strong too!!


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## Dino (Jul 10, 2013)

Nice!


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## Dani4Hedgies (Jan 17, 2018)

Would love to see your completed pig pen and any insight you have learned that you would like to pass onto a brand new person looking at getting pigs.


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