And, I'm always looking ahead to the next season. As a prisoner of the moment, it's easy to say that fall feels like the busiest season, but really it's spring. Lambing, kidding, preping and and planting the garden and greenhouse, milking potentially more animals than the year before and things I'm probably forgetting because I don't want to think of them right now. I'm always trying to think of a way to make that part of life run a little smoother.
Since we will be breeding 4 ewes-1 more than last year and 2 goats-the same a last year (more on that later), I wanted to reconfigure our barn into more separate pens to accommodate all the moms and lambs/kids. Our barn was set up for 2 horses to each have a big stall, not a bunch of small livestock having a bunch of offspring each year, but now it is!
Before Keith's dad got here, I demolished the wall between the 2 stalls to get the job going, I just didn't see it going as far as it did!
This is the new outside of the barn. We enclosed the space where the white boards are to give me more space, and of course the new fence was also being completed during all of this so there is a sturdy new gate to lock the chickens in (most of the time)!
So, let go in the barn, shall we!
There are now 4 separate stalls in the barn that will be used for any number of things depending on what time of year it is. Right now I'm using 3 of them, one for each goat to have to herself at night, but that will change in April/May when Margo, Cupid and (probably not) Snowy will have kids/lambs and be in milk.
I was just hoping that while Keith's dad was here we could get the new smaller stalls built, but somehow that didn't take as long as I thought it would, so more projects were added!
A new milking room! A new milk stand! At the moment, this is the biggest change for me and I love it everyday!
This used to be the outside of the barn, now it's my double milk stall. The morning after it was built, I popped Frannie and Margo up there and milked them both at the same time! It took a few more mornings to work all the kinks out, but now all three of us are used to it! I can't wait until next year! Cupid will be putting out her usual gallon or 1 1/2 gallon of milk a day, then Margo should give more that this seasons 2 quarts because it will be her second time in milk. But didn't you say you're going to breed Snowy too-what about her? you ask...
oh Snowy. I had a talk to the vet about her. He said that since we exposed her last year and she didn't have kids, there's a good chance she can't have kids. Either they can do some expensive tests to find out or we can just put her back out with Randy again this year. So, we'll try to breed her again, expecting her not to actually reproduce. After that it's figuring out what to do with a milk goat that will never be in milk-I'm thinking of training her to be a pack goat, but we'll see.
And did you notice the kittens in the background? Those are sisters Blue and Brie. Hopefully they will be good mousers, but for now that are good milkers, helping lap up any milk that ends on the milk stall in the morning. Blue is patiently waiting on Margo's side of the stall for a taste!
And while Blue is waiting for milk, Brie is getting all the snuggles from Bear and BJ!
And I mentioned the fence! Our fence it finished! Since it's goat proof, I've got to imagine it's zombie proof too! I love how open it feels now, I can so easily see into the garden or the animal pens.
I love that Keith's buck antlers got remounted to our classy new gate! I'm trying to think of a name for what feels like my new garden...so far all I can think of are prison references-any other suggestions?
