I was searching under Farm & Garden for Monterey on craigslist when I came across an ad for used Street Sweeper Brushes. Horses, cows, and goats like to scratch on them, so I responded, thinking the horses would enjoy it. The ad disappeared so I figured they were gone, but I got an email back that the owner of A1 Street Sweeper in Salinas had 3 to sell. He confirmed later that all the people on his waitlist were not responding back, so he said to come over.

I went to Salinas on Saturday, December 5 and decided to get all three of them; 2 for me and 1 for my friend with goats.

Each one was really heavy so we unloaded and rolled them into the horse corral. They were stored there for a week, and I dug out old locust posts that the former owner used as an outdoor camping bed. I wanted to reframe the space and remove old wood.

On Wednesday, December 16, I bought 3 bags of cement, 3′ cardboard tube, and heavy duty bracket which I mixed and installed. I already had a 10′ 4×4 saved from when we torn apart the deck. I was going to cut it down for a 6′ tall post, but then came up with the idea of going tall to eventually add a roof for a rain paddock.

On Saturday, December 19, I built a platform for the brush to sit on. The brush measured about 24″ wide with a 9″ hole in the middle. I doubled up on 2×4 rough cut, milled redwood for a thick platform, 12” off the ground.

In order to get it up, we put the brush through the 4×4, lined it up with the bracket, and hoisted it up. We had to do it 3 times before we got it. I screwed in 7 bolts per side, and it is very secure for the horses to lean on. Now, we have another one to do once we see if the horses show interest. We have to remove more locust posts and clear old telephone polls before we can do more.