The goat house!
Posted by Amateur Teacher on Monday, July 16, 2012
Under: goats
Mister and I had talked about rotating our goats from pasture to pasture and/or letting them browse in the woods. Well, for a week we tied them off on strong dog leads and let them eat their favorite and our nemesis, privet. Ugh, privet is an invasive invasive species and if you live in Georgia you have tons of it running rampant in your woods, in your yard, wherever.
* DO NOT EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER LEAVE YOUR GOATS TIED OFF ANYWHERE UNATTENDED... DID I SAY EVER? EVER.
I know some people say not to even tie your goats off at all, but to each his own. I don't mind as long as I can keep a super close eye on them just in case something were to happen. Our blue heeler, Jessie, is turning out to be quite the herd dog and we feel that the goats are safe with her... but still. Things can happen in the blink of an eye and leave you goatless. So, again I say, never ever tie off your goats if you aren't going to be able to watch them. The week we had them in the shade in the woods munching on brush was a week I did all my canning on the porch less than 100 feet away from Loretta and Lynn. Ok, that's my little disclaimer.
Anyways, after being somewhat paranoid of putting them in the woods and realizing that their regular pasture was winter rye and offering little browsing for them, we decided it was finally time to move them to their neighboring pasture. There was just one little problem... they had no shelter there. Which meant we had to build one. And we meant me... (and the mouse in my pocket, as my Mama would say.) I don't mean that as a slight to my Mister at all. He knows I have no problem with getting dirty and that I like a challenge and, hey, he's on evening shift right now. That leaves me a space from 2:00 in the afternoon to 11:00 at night with no company. What's a girl to do in all that time? Build her goats a house, that's what. (I have a memory of when I was a little girl, before I had even started school, my mama painting our house. I remember playing in the grass and being her helper, watching her up on the ladder. I guess she set a good example that a lady can do anything)
I will go ahead and tell you that they have lived in their house a week now and I am STILL sore from building it. I know, you're going to laugh when you see pictures - it looks so simple. I had no idea that building something with just three walls and a roof, a glorified lean to, could wear a person out so badly!
Mister left me his truck so I could drive around the yard and load up my materials. A friend had given me some brown stain, there was a pile of plywood left here when we moved in - so I used that to make the walls, we had some 4x4's left over from a previous project, and my Daddy had given us some left over metal for the roof. The cost of this project? Blood, sweat, and tears... really just the blood and sweat part... mostly sweat. There was a lot of that. Here's what I loaded all by myself. It made me proud. It also made me hurt.
And here is the finished product! WHAT! WHAT! Not bad, huh? I even pitched the roof myself! Later that night a horrible thunderstorm came and blew the roof off. Isn't that great? I thought it was pretty funny myself and I was thankful that the goats hadn't moved in just yet... I bet they were, too. I faced it to the south and since then we've had several nice thunderstorms and the roof has stayed put. Whew! We will definitely be reinforcing it a little in the near future, though.
So, there's my latest project on the homestead. The goats have now been moved in a whole week. The first night they were not happy about it. At all. I'm trying to get all the building stuff out of the way before school starts back. Next on my list is to transform two pallets into 1. a rabbit hutch and 2. a potting bench. I can't wait to get started! Maybe next Sunday I'll be able to share those with you!
* DO NOT EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER LEAVE YOUR GOATS TIED OFF ANYWHERE UNATTENDED... DID I SAY EVER? EVER.
I know some people say not to even tie your goats off at all, but to each his own. I don't mind as long as I can keep a super close eye on them just in case something were to happen. Our blue heeler, Jessie, is turning out to be quite the herd dog and we feel that the goats are safe with her... but still. Things can happen in the blink of an eye and leave you goatless. So, again I say, never ever tie off your goats if you aren't going to be able to watch them. The week we had them in the shade in the woods munching on brush was a week I did all my canning on the porch less than 100 feet away from Loretta and Lynn. Ok, that's my little disclaimer.
Anyways, after being somewhat paranoid of putting them in the woods and realizing that their regular pasture was winter rye and offering little browsing for them, we decided it was finally time to move them to their neighboring pasture. There was just one little problem... they had no shelter there. Which meant we had to build one. And we meant me... (and the mouse in my pocket, as my Mama would say.) I don't mean that as a slight to my Mister at all. He knows I have no problem with getting dirty and that I like a challenge and, hey, he's on evening shift right now. That leaves me a space from 2:00 in the afternoon to 11:00 at night with no company. What's a girl to do in all that time? Build her goats a house, that's what. (I have a memory of when I was a little girl, before I had even started school, my mama painting our house. I remember playing in the grass and being her helper, watching her up on the ladder. I guess she set a good example that a lady can do anything)
I will go ahead and tell you that they have lived in their house a week now and I am STILL sore from building it. I know, you're going to laugh when you see pictures - it looks so simple. I had no idea that building something with just three walls and a roof, a glorified lean to, could wear a person out so badly!
Mister left me his truck so I could drive around the yard and load up my materials. A friend had given me some brown stain, there was a pile of plywood left here when we moved in - so I used that to make the walls, we had some 4x4's left over from a previous project, and my Daddy had given us some left over metal for the roof. The cost of this project? Blood, sweat, and tears... really just the blood and sweat part... mostly sweat. There was a lot of that. Here's what I loaded all by myself. It made me proud. It also made me hurt.
And here is the finished product! WHAT! WHAT! Not bad, huh? I even pitched the roof myself! Later that night a horrible thunderstorm came and blew the roof off. Isn't that great? I thought it was pretty funny myself and I was thankful that the goats hadn't moved in just yet... I bet they were, too. I faced it to the south and since then we've had several nice thunderstorms and the roof has stayed put. Whew! We will definitely be reinforcing it a little in the near future, though.
So, there's my latest project on the homestead. The goats have now been moved in a whole week. The first night they were not happy about it. At all. I'm trying to get all the building stuff out of the way before school starts back. Next on my list is to transform two pallets into 1. a rabbit hutch and 2. a potting bench. I can't wait to get started! Maybe next Sunday I'll be able to share those with you!
In : goats