Salt feeder broken and fixed

Last month, when I was still irrigating the pasture, I discovered the wooden salt feeder in the middle pasture had been broken.  When irrigating near the feeder I move the feeder from its location that has posts to a spot away from the irrigation water.  Because I would eventually move the irrigation line back to this spot before ending the irrigation work, I left the feeder away from the metal posts.  A number of times I had to tip the feeder upright and put the salt back into it as the cattle tipped the feeder over.  I guess Haynes decided to "play" with the feeder one day and broke it all apart.  He must have rolled and rolled the feeder as it was some distance away from the salt block.

The previous several days Haynes was hanging right next to Red in the middle pasture as she must have been in heat.  This day he was not near Red.  So, time to "play" or take out one's frustration on an object.

Before fixing the feeder I waited until I was done with irrigation.  Then I worked on this and that putting off the repair of the feeder.  It shouldn't take long to do.  Ya... right.  I should know better that things take longer.

Work over three afternoons.  I thought I would be done the first afternoon and would just nail stuff together.  Nope.  I needed more boards to replace some boards.  Then it got dark.  I'll be done the next day.  Nope.  I discovered that I had to take ALL the boards apart.  What Haynes didn't take apart needed to be taken apart for me to rebuild the feeder in a way to make the repair last.  And I found some nails didn't want to come out of the wood.  Normally nails may bend when going into hard wood, not when you try to pound them out of wood.  It was like the nails were welded into the wood.  Some nails I ended up breaking off and leaving the part in the wood to stay in the wood.

And I had to get some more boards to replace the legs that had acted as legs to the feeder.  Then it got dark and I had to stop for the day.

Because I had started when the cattle were in the pastures, when not working on the feeder I hung the bucket with the nails and tools on a tree branch as seen in the photo below.

This afternoon I finished the rebuild of the feeder. I put dividers in the feeder in case I have more than one salt block. The feeder is solid and should last a long time.  I put the feeder back between the metal posts.