More Goaty Ghetto

The goat ghetto now has the siding up. It turned out pretty good, I think, considering that it was entirely constructed using junk / reclaimed materials. It's not a typical Shawn & Lisa project, but we also didn't spend $$ on it, like we often end up doing!

Shawn really likes it, he thinks its like a fantasy Orc building... I personally think it looks like a troll build it. I suppose it DOES have a style... junk pile style... isn't that kinda like shabby chic? haha We did intentionally make it look kinda rustic... it suited the building materials we used and heck, it makes my husband happy. He had a lot of fun with this project. Helpers that have fun make it way easier to get help in the future ;)

The only money we have into it is the deck screws. The 2x3 framing wood was free from one of Shawn's coworkers... the planking was off one of our nasty falling down outbuildings. We found 3 pieces of old plywood that will make the roof. 2 will sit side by side and the third will sit over where the two other join. (We actually did something similar with the original goat hut and its worked wonderfully to keep the wet and snow out.)

There's built in ventilation, a few knot holes and then space at the top on both of the short ends... those gaps are actually on purpose for ventilation.. .seriously :) Its the same sort of ventilation technique we used in the other goat hut.

Shawn and I sit in that goat hut quite frequently with our goats and the ventilation is remarkable, without being drafty. If ever one of the goats regurges cud right in your face (happens often!! and its stinky!) the smell quickly dissipates ... but its also not drafty.

Last evening for instance, it was very cold and very windy and we sat out with the goats for a while... in our outside clothes, we were quite comfy sitting still in the shelter for like 45 minutes, but as soon as we got back out in the wind, we got chilled and headed inside the house.

I'm really amazed at how well that shelter works and I'm hoping for similar results with the new one.

The original goat hut is two pieces, approx 4x4 feet, giving them about 8x4 feet. The new one is smaller, its about 4x6 feet and narrower at the top. It should still give them plenty of room. In the old one, they really only use the back 4x4 space for sleeping and even then there's enough room for Shawn, me and two sleeping goats.

The 4x6 should be fine, considering that once this shelter gets put into use, its should (in theory) be warm enough for their water bucket and hay to be outside most of the time. Right now, those two things take up most of the front of the 4x4 shelter once two goats are eating there.

It should be fine temporarily, anyhow. In the future it may house different livestock any how, but we'll see.

Anyhow, the weather still sucks here... was -14 C last night with the wind chill around -22C. It's just unbelievable the amount of snow we have and keep getting. Saturday morning brought us about 5 cm that was not in the forecast. It was supposed to be 6 c and sunny... not here.. nuh uh.

Oh well, another month and we should start seeing some warmer more spring like weather. I HOPE!!

That's it for now...
L