The Little Goat Shack Gets an Addition

This past week Don agreed to add a covered area to the goat shack so if we ever do get rain their hay will stay dry.  We did get a little rain last night.  The goats waste a lot of hay.  I've read that they typically waste 25%.  I'm mixing coastal hay with alfalfa.  They seem to throw out mostly coastal hay since they have a definite preference for the alfalfa.

That adds up to a good amount of money, so that motivated Don to build the cover. 

I'm still using the 2 tubs I've repurposed.

 I'm shopping for the perfect hay rack. But once I buy one, that will probably lead to having to buy a different one when the first proves to not work as well as I thought it would. So I just keep shopping and getting by with the tubs.  At least the hay stays dry.  If anyone has information on a hay rack that I can fasten to the wall and the goats won't waste it, feel free to send your suggestion.  I would appreciate it.

Now I need to scrape off the old paint and paint.  I wanted to paint it pink and the grandsons wanted orange, so we compromised with Sunny Park yellow.  It is a very bright yellow.

Finished Building the Goat House

Sunday afternoon was the big day to finish the house for Dottie Belle and Gypsy.

Yes, Don turned the camera on me.

All we needed to do was one plank on a side, trim it, and shingle the roof  Oh yeah, try to square it up.  We had to brace the doorway corners, because the little house was shaky and way out of square. Not a big job, right.

Well, we were exhausted afterwards anyway. 

I learned that I do not want to become a roofer!  But I can now say that I have roofed a house. (small goat house)

Now I have to scrape off the old paint, since we used mostly reclaim wood and paint it.  The grandsons want to paint it orange. They want everything to be orange.  I want it to be pink. But the boys are offended by that. I not really sure they want to admit that the goats are females.  So, Don said to paint it yellow.  I think it will be yellow, but that is still a couple of weeks away.

Before we worked on the goat house, we planted 6 tomato plants.  It's late, but I had decided to pass this year.  But Don insisted and said he would help plant them. We are trying a kind called Solar Flare.  They are suppose to take the heat.  I usually do all the vegetable gardening. I started it as a hobby, then it became an expectation, so I lost my enthusiasm.  You know how that goes.  So the garden is not really clean.  We just cleared out enough for the 6 tomato plants and put ground cloth on it to maybe hinder the growth of a couple of the weeds. I'm sort of freaked out by how terrible it looks, but whatever.  Who knows, this small effort may produce more that all the prep I usually do.  It will win the tacky award.

Getting a Reluctant Husband Involved in My Project

Having the goats and Schnauzers in the same yard just increases the chances for Diva to escape.  She escaped again and ran off in the same direction. This time it was daylight and 2 teenage boys intercepted her. Thanks goodness!  In people years, Diva is 91.  But 2 humans who are 50 & 60 something can not out run her.

The project for this weekend was build a goat house.  All we really need is to get the fence put up for the goat yard and they can stay in the goatgloo.  But since I need the help and cooperation of my dear husband, I will take what I get, when I can get it.  Saturday we were at Lowe's buying lumber, nails, roofing shingles and tools.

Gypsy encouraging Don.

Dottie Belle and Gypsy checking it out.

The sleeping shelf in the back

Don was up before I was Sunday and I found him in the backyard near the future goat yard.  He was ripping apart his first attempt at the back wall of the goat house.  He was so ready to quit--in a very bad mood. What had I gotten him into?  Thank goodness his mood improved after I got out there and helped.  Mostly he is frustrated because he is a perfectionist and this little goat house is going to be far from perfect.  But I said that Dottie Belle, Gypsy and I don't care what it looks like; just shelter from the rain and a place to sleep.  I even did some nailing.  Of course Don drove at least 3 nails to my 1--likely an even higher ratio.  He even complained that I was leaving hammer marks on the wood and if I kept doing that he was going to quit.  He really wanted a reason to quit.  The wood siding we are putting on the house is reclaimed from my daughter's house.  So my hammer marks just add to the antiquing.  Don is likely worried that anyone who looks at it will think he made the hammer marks.  Whereas I'm just proud that I actually drove a few nails!!!

My ideal goat house.

I pulled up a picture from the internet of what I want the goat house to look like. As we were working, I told Don to go look at it on the computer. He had seen it several months ago.  He did and came back to report that ours will not resemble that one.  That was not news to me.  But there will be steps so Dottie Belle and Gypsy can get on top.

Nailing on the felt.

Later in the day, my grandson Connor and his friend Michael helped out.  I think Grampa enjoyed that.  Doing things like that with grandchildren is what they will remember about their grandparents--not the hammer marks or how crooked the goat house is.  The boys lost interests about an hour or so and soon Don did too.  But we have made great progress in just one day.

Back wall up and we finished this side.