Livestock Barn and Pasture Construction

Today, we were working on our livestock barn and the connected pasture. This barn is about 10x20, it is old and slightly debilitated. We are restoring what needs to be restored and adding a pasture (I will add pictures tomorrow morning). The barn will be divided in half. One half, on the northern side, will house our chickens. We are getting 26 chickens on July 2nd. The southern half will house our goats.

-- Before doing anything--

 

Today we drove metal posts into the grown using a sledge hammer and attached some 'dog wire' fencing to the posts. The fence is about 4' high. It will hold goats, and eventually some sheep (hopefully). We also cleaned out the inside of the barn. It was full of old oil bottles, bowling trophies, traffic cones, steel pipes, and a million other little things, not to mention soil, sticks, leaves, and shingles from the decaying roof. It was quite a job!

At the end of the day though, we have a cleaned floor, a finished pasture, and all the lumber we need set up so we can complete the wall this week and put up the divider. Sunday we will be getting a large roll of chicken wire to secure the chick side of the coop against predators. We will have gates on the goat's side. We also are going to be building a milking stand for the goats.

--Finished Pasture--

 

I am getting very excited to bring my goats and chicks home! I can't wait to do my first batch of goat milk soap. However, my next big adventure is dishwasher soap, shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. Watch tomorrow for updated pictures of our livestock barn and for a post on another delectable homemade product!

Update 06/08-

 --Back wall before any work was done.--

So we did some construction to get it all ready for the goats. There is so much work still to do. To the roof, back wall, and some of the side walls yet. However, it is functional, safe and secure! I get to bring home my first two baby goats tonight, Viola and Sebastian. Then sometime in the next month, I will be bringing home Mischief, Ziggy, Celeste, and Fiona. Fiona and Celeste (Celeste is still under debate as to whether I will be getting her) are the mature goats. Celeste is 1 year and Fiona is 4 years. They are both lovely, sweet goats! They are both in milk as well. Excited to try my hand at milking. 





--Beginning to work on the barn divider. It will have a gate to keep the goats on one side, away from the chicken's side, the hay bales, and the bagged goat feed --

--The almost finished divider. We added a gate and will be running chicken wire along it--