I am putting on some photos of some of the stuff we have done over the past few days, we have been working since Frank got home Oct 5th. We visited family for a couple of wks, other than that we have been here going through projects.
This gate has the inside latch shown, and two outside hooks. If you are in, its hard for someone to unlock the side you locked. But if someone locks you in, you cant get out. This is the gate for the north barn and yard. We built a chicken room into this barn and are going to build kidding stalls, while we worked in here the kids had to find a way in and out without letting goats in. So they devised this latch pull with hay twine and a stick. Its very easy to unlock just by pulling and their little hands can re-lock from outside.
The feed barn from above, I am standing on hay bales to take the picture. The hay room (the one I am in) has 4ft high walls we built and 2 swinging, hinged doors. The room holds hay and grain so the goats dont have access to it. The room the goats are in has their feeder, grain bowls and clips, salt block and minerals. This barn is closed at night and they are locked into the sleep yard.
Just a good picture... They could see me in the hay room and they were hopeful about some grain. In the back is pepsi, then Arizona and Autumn side by side (white saanens), next is Junebug, the brown nub and then you can see the rears of Scout and Nona.
This is our new puppy, well we bought her in September. She wouldnt stand up proper for a photo, she kept sneaking up to the camera. She laid down here bc I said no and her heart was hurt! She is half anatolian shepherd and half great pyrenees. She is a LGD, livestock guard dog. Bred and born in a goat barn, she lived there until we bought her at 8 wks old. She loves goats and already herds them. Her name is Darling Monster.\
Her collar is new and she is attempting to take it off, she doesnt like it at all. She is outside of the feed barn here, at the climbing stumps.
Another feed barn picture, this is the local goat haunt on cold or rainy days. The goats also come in here if we do, to see what we have for them. If its nothing they will wander off again after awhile, they like to eat the trees and hay in the back pasture.
This is herb storage, I have a new batch ready to mix. I keep the herbs in a cooler and give out a couple tablespoons per wk per goat and we stay worm free. The cooler is hard to break into, and its waterproof. The herbs are too expensive to lose.
This is the hay room, we will refill it with 2 more tons on monday. We can fill this room quite a bit, and the overflow can go in the south barn front room. It is used for hay, straw and for any tack items. I dont think its called tack bc it isnt horses, but I cant be sure. Furthermore, I dont care either way. Its tack to me, stuff I use for goats like leads, extra collars etc.
This is how Frank set up my mineral feeder. We have used blocks, and we have used loose. The loose works best, and they do not waste it. However I dont want it wet so he put the fence piece in the barn on the wall. Its very tight, you cant pull the feeder off without pulling the fence piece forward a bit so they dont knock it down. I grain the boys in the same type of feeder as I dont want to go in and hook them up to leads as I do for the does. These rubber buckets on the wall are for their grain, they dont rip or break when the goats pull at them or step on them. The leads keep everyone hooked up so I can be sure of grain and herb quantities and also I get a chance to clean up.
This is scout, our little nubian. We are not sure why she doesnt grow well but she absolutely doesnt. She is tiny compared to Autumn who is many months younger, and Jezz (to the right of scout) is quite a bit bigger as well and she is younger also. This is disturbing...
Lila, our new goat. She is Autumn's dam, but we bought her later. Oh she is Ottos damn also as Autumn and Otto are siblings...She is registered as they are, and her owner needed a quick home for her. She has founder, excess hoof growth that can be painful, but we are fixing that. Weekly hoof trimmings will make this better, as long as we keep at it and pay attention. She was a great milker and is bred to our new buck Ynot! She will be giving us pretty white baby(ies) in 5 months.
This is her daughter, Autumn, who is in heat just today. I havent noticed her being in heat prior but our new buck has taught us a lot about heat. Goats are not always obvious about it, I thought they would be. Our new buck caused all of our does to act differently in heat, which was comforting! We have to weigh Autumn this evening and if she is 80 pounds, we will put her in with him. Autumn is a lovely saanen goat, I hope she grows as large as her mother.
Our new grain storage system, we bought the food grade 55 gal barrels for 20 each from a man in Topeka. We had to clean them, and they are obviously not new. But they seal well, and they keep moisture and pests out of the grain. We are able to store months worth of grain now. The boys can have grain right by their pen in this barrel because the girls cannot get into it. The chicken grain is in one, right by their coop. Its a simple way to not go to the store weekly, which I hate to do. We were storing extra feed in the shop, but we need the shop space so here it is!
Okay thats it for now. I have a lot more updating and a lot more pictures. I wont blog as much now that Frank is home, as I was blogging for him all last yr.
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