Still Sick, But Got Lots Done

Just wanted to start this post with a big Happy Birthday to Kyle! Hope its been a great day!

Shawn and I are still sick... I feel slightly better than I did yesterday, but still crummy.

In spite of that, I still got lots done today... I read the TSC flyer first thing this morning and this week they have steel t bar posts on sale! So off to Arnprior to pick up 30 t bars. (Clearly, that won't be enough, but its a start and they were plenty heavy given the way I felt. Guess what is on MY Christmas list this year!!)

While at TSC, I also bought two little goat sized black rubber feed pans and a small black rubber water bucket. I have larger of both those things, but they are really draft horse sized.... a goat could sleep in the rubber feed pan I have. My bigger water buckets will become more useful as they grow, but for now, they can have something reasonably sized that they should be able to reach.

Then I went to the feed store in Kinburn and inquired about hay and straw.... they don't sell it, but one of their employees does.... so I made arrangements for him to bring me 20 bales of hay and 10 bales of straw tomorrow evening. He happened to have 4 bales of hay with him on his truck, so I got to see it... its beautiful 2nd cut.... really more appropriate for horses than goats, but it was handy and easy to arrange. I may look elsewhere for more in the future as this is a bit pricey also... though, really, how much hay are the little buggers gonna be eating for a while anyhow? I'll be surprised if I use more than a bale a week in the beginning.

Last night we picked up all the wood we need to make a shelter... we will work on that tomorrow... we would've started tonight, but we both felt crappy and we only have about an hour before dark now, which SUCKS! Plus, we had to clean out the white building where the lawn mower used to live, as that will temporarily be my hay and straw storage area. It's cleaned up now and will do temporarily... I hope it'll hold 30 bales. Nothing like not really being prepared to bring the animals home, eh? (We really didn't expect to pick them up so soon... we figured near the end of the month... but the seller seems to be getting antsy to have them gone.)

So tomorrow, we have to move the chainlink dog fence, as the goats are going to stay in that temporarily, til the rest of the fencing goes up and they have someone to look out for them. Chainlink will be harder for predators to get through... at least that's my hope. Then we'll slap the shelter together and put it inside the chainlink area. I'm going to add a gate to the opening of the shelter and then the goats can be locked up in there at night also. That's the plan, anyhow, who knows how it'll actually work??

They just seem so little to be fending for themselves and they are used to having mom's protection as well as llamas and sheep in the same area. I keep thinking that I should bring 'em in the house and put them in dog crates overnight ;) Maybe when it gets really cold. haha

Anyhow, that's it for now... time to rest so tomorrow we can finish up our goat prep. Oh and we're going to see about a donkey tomorrow afternoon... I almost forgot!!

Oh and we put on the furnace tonight... it was 61 F in the house and there might be frost tonight... it was getting awful chilly. It seems to work, but I wouldn't say its a real workhorse... similar to the air conditioning (not surprisingly) the heat trickles out... but its better than NO heat... we've lived THAT before!!!