Starting to Build a Goat Shelter

We've been talking about getting goats for a little over a year now.  Kayla has really been pushing the topic, probably because she's getting older and the longer we wait, less of her childhood will be spent with them.  It took a little convincing, but once Tim came to terms with the idea, he was just as excited as Kayla and I were.

After months of research and talking with our new farmer buddy in Lebanon who breeds the goats we're going to pick up- we think we covered just about all basis.

Goat behavior
Goat diet
Best food brand for goats
Goat's favorite treats
What goats like to play with
Personality of different goats
Goat breeds
Breeding goats
Milking goats....

yea, we pretty much had everything covered and were ready to get going...


oh! Goat HOUSING!  We couldn't possibly bring baby goats home without proper shelter!

Build a goat barn you say?  No problem, my husband is a genius and can do all things, including building a goat shelter.  And that's just what we're going to do!

A trip to the barn to see what we had for lumber and a few items at Home Depot and we got the start of what will be an awesome structure.  Too bad its super cold out and it's going to SUCK being outside putting this thing together.    We went back and forth about where the best spot for them would be. I wanted them out front so they were the first think you saw pulling up the drive. Tim liked the idea of them being out back so all summer long when we're hanging by the pool we can enjoy them.   So guess what we ended up doing?   Nope, usually I get it my way, this time Tim had the final say, and as much as I HATE to admit it- he was right (just this one time in 17 years of marriage haha).  We decided to set up shop out back and get the construction on its way.  It looks a little lifeless as everything is still very dead and brown, but once the spring comes and we have GREEN it'll be a great little goat home.

Before we actually began, we had taking several large trees down out back the week before.  We had to cut the center of the logs out to allow a pathway for the John Deer to make it back and forth with materials for the new structure we were going to build. Luckily, Tim wears many hats, this day he was a lumberjack.

 Here they come with the tools we need to get rocking and rolling!

This is the spot!  Perfect view of the house and pool.  Time to dig up some big rocks to make the area nice and clear for our new structure!

                                     We know who's REALLY doing all the work here...

  Here's a shot that actually has me in it, hard to tell from all my photos but I was equal parts in                                   building this thing.  Getting anyone to snap photos is usually a chore.

                                           Kayla stepped up and gave her dad a hand.

                          She looks thrilled, doesn't she? haha, she'd kill me if she ever saw this post.

And the framing is just about done! 

Goodbye Rotten Railroad Ties, Hello Gorgeous Stone Wall!

We didn't realize how bad the side retaining wall was rotted out when we moved in.  Last summer, I did some yard cleaning and decided to tackle the job of raking out under all the huge rhodedendrons we have.  I could hardly get my rake under them they were so overgrown and encroaching on that entire hillside.

Didnt take me long- I had Tim fired up with a chainsaw in hand ready to clean it up.  We took two trees out that were so poorly grown, they were just an eyesore.  After taking all that out it really opened up the space, but then we were left with a total nighmare... rotten retaining wall.  We actually had rhoadie roots growing out of one of them and it was pushing it so far off where it should be, the hillside was starting to cave.   We ended up with a much larger project than we had anticipated, although that seems to be the norm around here anymore. It's like peeling away one layer and find another that needs peeled beneath it and so on.

We decided to take out the railroad tie on the bottom as it was damaged the most and replace it with a stone wall.  The awesome part of it is that we were able to hand gather each and every stone that you'll see in this wall from our very own property- which to us, makes it THAT much more special.  Sure, we could've hired guys to come in with a crew and load of stone and bang it out in a day or two.. and pay upwards of $8000, but we prefer to do these things ourselves as the reward of accomplishment is far greater than the end result.

This took us a little over a week, with a few hours here and there throughout the week after work and a few long days over the weekend. We're tickled pink and love the way it looks.  Can't wait to rip out and replace the upper tier next!


After tree trimming and cleaning up was done, but still has the old retaining wall:

 Start of the new wall going in, looking good hunny! XOXO  We had to dig down, lay waterproofing,                                          back fill with gravel and start laying in the tiers.

                         

These were some of the rocks we dug up, cleaned up and brought down for this wall.  And let me tell you- majority of them were heavy as hell.  Some were so heavy we needed to load em in the tractor and dump em.  This was by no means an easy task.  We agree, however it was well worth our efforts.

 The trash pile we later loaded on the trailer and took to the landfill in Honey brook.  Most of these                    were so rotted out they crumbled and fell apart when we tried to move them.
                                               Glad they're no longer an issue!

And no better way to pat ourselves on the backs when it was complete-then with a cold one.  

CHEERS!