on the new goat barn!

The horse barn is slowly and steadily being converted to the goat barn. I would like to have the whole thing finished already, but I reckon that these things take time and finish when they are ready to be finished. The girls have a new stall in there, as does Isaac. Isaac seems pretty happy in his, but the girls are totally freaking out. They truly are like 4 year old humans. As long as they can see me, they stop crying. The minute I go out of view, they start bawling again. All day long. It will take them a while to get used to their new home, and I know that once they do, they will be way happier there. Or maybe it's me that will be happier!

Anyway, yesterday I bought the fixings for the electric fence I want to put up, and started working on it a bit. I am going to divide the pasture into 2 sections, one for the girls and their babies (if they ever have them, that is!) and the other for Flower and Isaac, until Isaac starts getting horny and then I'll have to move him farther away from the girls. Richard, in the meantime, will have his own little section in the barn, and will pasture to the side where he won't actually be too close to the girls, yet will be able to see them. So many people isolate the bucks from the rest of the herd and they just die of loneliness. I'm not willing for that to happen. Flower and Isaac will be in the pen next to him, so they'll have contact with each other. Isaac is less of a butt than Richard, and hopefully he won't like the taste of wool. I think it gets a little old for Flower to have Richard tasting her whenever he gets bored or hungry! What a nuthead.

Once the fencing is finished, I'll start working on the chicken house that the girls have totally destroyed. What a mess that place is! I think I'll open most of it up and build a lot of nests for the hens that want to set. The new girls will be laying soon, so we'll have plenty of eggs for selling.

I'm going to get rid of the fencing in the front of the barn, and put in some new deer fencing in the back. They can forage in the trees without us having to worry about the fox and coyotes getting them. It will make things SO MUCH nicer. It's very exciting to think about!

The turkey hens will go in the now chicken coop, and I'll build nests for them to set as well. The male turkeys will stay where they are for the moment, as they are going to be Thanksgiving dinners. (Not looking forward to that!)

Then, once that is all done, I'll be able to reconvert Flower and Richard's house to the wood shed, and start working on the wood supply. Ok, now I'm freaking myself out with all the work that needs to be done. And this isn't even counting my dissertation work that I haven't been doing! AHhhhhhhh!

It's so great to know that everything gets done when it needs to get done. And anything that does get done makes life around here that much sweeter!

Here are some other pictures that Benj took:

Station:



Isaac chilling:



Ted:



Which reminds me, the ducks have a new nest that I can't find. All those eggs sitting there, infertile, that could be in my frying pan. Bummer! They are SO sneaky!