Well, not too long ago, we had a very fun Sunday! The first part of the day was spent enclosing in our little pallet goat barn that we made this summer. As you can see, it was not quite ready for winter! This front plastic took a whipping with a bit of a storm and needed to be re-stapled up and we wanted to enclose the building in plywood to really make it nice and warm for our little goat family.
Jessy measuring the chubby goaties… we had to make sure the height and weight was right and as small as we could make it. To keep the cold wind out!
The pigs were all very interested in what was going on. They never get anything fun, they say.
We bought six big sheets of heavy plywood… we plan on building this little shelter up a little at a time. It seems to be very nice for them so far, they love it. But we have plans to dress it up and make it even more functional.
Time out for a little lunch! Actually, we fed everyone to keep them all busy!!!
Goaties like to get in the way!
JPEG and PDF are doing awesome, they are so cute! Fuzzy!!!
Looking nicer!!! We want to roof the thing with some remanent steel panels from the steel roofing place in the next village over! They have it often at super good prices… It wouldn’t cost too much to roof this little building. It’s 8 x 16 in size.
Starting to look better! The panels really make it super nice and block the winds a great deal. We left the top bit with just the heavy plastic to let light in for them. They really like it and will spend a lot of time in there lounging where it’s dry and warm and free of wind! It’s cozy… 
Maverick is checking out the progress. He is such a pretty boy! 
The last panel we cut out a little hole door. It’s really too small for us to get through easily, so we made it hinged so that if we wanted to, we could unlatch it and go in. And in the summertime, we can take that panel off and store it, so the whole little barn is open.
It’s not super pretty but it’s effective. We will keep at it and in the spring will add some more boards and paint it. Just keep at it. Right now, we are mostly concerned about the animals welfare and comfort, not their decorating needs. Sam really loves it!
Buttercup thinks it needs cable TV and a mini snack bar…
When we can, we’d like to do the same to the ram shack up front. However, their shelter has this super heavy billboard plastic/vinyl on it and it’s super warm. They had their place up last winter and were quite comfy in there. It’s not the prettiest, but we hope to gussy it up a bit more as we continue on. Almost all of our wind and weather comes from the south and southwest, so we oriented the buildings to avoid that wind. It makes them very nice.
Well, as if goat barn fixing up wasn’t enough fun, we decided to throw in super duper heavy cast iron wood stove retrieval to the mix! Our lovely friends Tim and Mary had this old wood stove in their basement that they were not using and gave to us! We were so thankful. Problem was, how to get it home! We tried to lift it and it was just way too heavy for us girls. And there would be no way we could get it into the bed of our truck. 
So we asked our friend Josiah and he said, sure, he had a low flat trailer, a heavy duty wheelie cart thing and some friends! So off we went… after making plans and all. They got it in the trailer pretty darn fast! It’s amazing how just having the right equipment makes everything so much easier…
Once at the house, it was just a little bit of manhandling and up three big steps to get it in place! Gosh, how nice is it to have friends that don’t mind helping out for a little gas money and lunch!!! It’s wonderful… 
And there she is. A nice little Englander wood stove! Needs a little brushing up, and a bit of pipe to make the connections to our old chimney and all, but she looks like a bright copper penny to me! It will really help in the cold, cold months to add some warmth to our homestead!
That’s how a crazy day around here can go! From goat barns to wood stove installations! Just fun, fun, fun!!! Thanks guys!!
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