The Saga of The Never-ending Project.....Part 1

Ever feel like what should have been a quick and easy project has turned into something else?? Well thats whats been going on at my house for the past couple months. In March, despite several warnings that "goats can read", we decided to take the giant leap of buying meat goats and chickens to help supplement our normal food shopping. I mean really, with hamburger going over 3 bucks a pound and a dozen eggs topping out at 2 dollars , it only makes sense to try and be more self-sufficient in someway, why not meat and eggs? Our intentions were of course pure, provide for our family, reduce our monthly food costs, eat healthier, all good principles, principles worth exploring. So, first things first. As with any animal project, you should make sure you have shelter and a fenced in area, after all, these animals will be providing you with food, they should have proper homes. Everyone tried their hand at ideas for the new goat pen and chicken hutch and in a short amount of time we had enough designs to begin implementing our building plans. First though, we had to go pick up our does. We opted for a shelter built into an old chain link dog kennel that we had received from someone my husband knows.

Dog Kennel with built in shelter

Dale and the girls drove over by Cataldo to pick up our breeder does so that we could start our own little mini-farm. When they arrived home, they had the cutest little girl goats! They were very very upset about having to leave their previous life. The boys carried them into their new home and wow did they raise a ruckus! You would have thought we were killing them the way they were screaming, silly goats. The girls named them Claire Bear and Chloe.

Chloe is in the red and Claire is in the green

At this point we had already started the bigger pen for the wethers and the buck we would be picking up in the next couple weeks. Here are some pictures:

floor foundation

Joshua Helping

Hand mixed concrete pour

finished floor joist system

We finished the foundation and floor joists all in one day which in itself was a minor miracle as it hadn't stopped raining for at least a month. The ground was totally soggy, like an over full sponge that can't take anymore water..squish squish squish. A short side note for you: I don't know if you can tell or not, but my husband is a contractor....this goat barn is very very well built and will not be going anywhere, EVER. I think it would take a major earthquake to move this thing. Anyway we got enough of the goat barn done to be able to pick up the 3 wether goats and a baby buck for our breeding stock. I cant seem to find any pictures at the moment oh well.

We have been working on the goat barn/ chicken pen off and on for 2 months now.  The chickens are very happy running around the yard eating bugs and mice, and the goats stripped every branch they had in their pen. The baby chicks are still in a tub, being way to small to let out to roam right now, and all is well on our mini farm. The chicken coop part of the barn is in the process of being built and is moving right along. We painted the floor a white vinyl paint to make rinsing off easier.  At this moment we have 49 animals if you count the dog,  cats and horses, oh wait we have a turtle also, that makes 50!

Part 2 Coming soon...