New Digs

Meet Edie and Alobar – our brother and sister Nubian/Boer goats. They are about a year and a half old and they’ll need a new place to stay once we move. I’d also like to introduce you to our hodge-podge flock of chickens. They too are in the market for a new home at the old farm.

There is an existing structure that was once used as a chicken coop though I’d guess there haven’t been chickens in it for about thirty years.

Here it is. It needs some work.

I don’t have a before picture of how it originally looked inside when we first started but rest assured – it has come a LONG way in the last couple of weeks. The first steps were to clean it out. Mike worked tirelessly removing junk, brushing and scraping off old dirt and grime, patching holes, painting, and framing in the sections where the chickens and goats (temporarily) will live.

After it was cleaned up we started assembling the essentials. First, we salvaged the nesting boxes. After I pressure washed them we discovered that they’re still in decent shape. We’ll patch up the rusted parts and give them a coat of paint and these babies will be as good as new!

Next up – the roost. Mike is a genius and put it on hinges so we can lift it up when we’re cleaning out the coop. Pretty smart.

Instead of chicken wire we used a plastic netting that has a little more give and is a bit easier to work with. We unrolled, cut, and stapled it to the frame.

On the other side we’re setting up some temporary goat housing. We’ll eventually build a new barn or alter an existing structure for a more permanent home but for a couple of weeks they’ll be shacking up with the birds.

My cousin stopped over and helped get the goat section set up.

Our last project of the weekend was getting a shelf up on the back wall that we’ll use for feed and hay. I’m happy to report this was a reduce/reuse/recycle project and we were able to fashion the shelf out of an old door we found.

As you can see we still have some patch work to do. Then we’ll start rehabbing the outside, replacing broken windows and getting a new roof on this building.

The animals are moving in in just a week. Eep!