Tarp Rock Nursery

Heading to the Barn

Now that the new baby has settled in, it's time to turn our attention to the next new arrival due at the farm.

With any luck, Eair will be giving birth in April.  Though we still have some time, we decided to start working on sectioning off a new stall for the kids to stay in when they arrive.  This will give them a warm place to be, and keep them away from the bigger goats until the little ones can fend for themselves.

Though outside is snowy and muddy (typical Vermont spring), inside the barn is nice and cozy.  Working together, Christy, the girls and I measured, cut, nailed, and assembled the new stall in no time at all.  Eair and the boys even tried to help by making sure our measurements were accurate.  All that's left to do is to add a gate, a heat lamp, and some bedding, and Tarp Rock Nursery will be ready for our first kids!

Muddy entrance.

Checking measurements.

In the stall.

When One Door Closes...

A nice warm interior.

We have doors!  My wife was able to help me hang the second door this evening.  Our goats now have a nice snug barn to live in tor the winter!

I had to piece bits of the second door together, so a 3rd cross-bar was needed to cover the seams.  When I find another suitable piece of scrap, I'll add one to the first door as well, just so they match.

With the doors closed, and the windows in, the barn is noticeably warmer than the pen outside.  I'm feeling much better about winter coming now.

Open...

...Closed.

Another Door

Time to close up the opening.

The weather continues to get chillier, so I'm making more of an effort to get the barn closed up to keep the animals warm.  The winter windows were put in last week, and the first barn door was put up a few days ago.  Today I had a chance to work on the 2nd door.  The supply of barn board was running low, so I ended up piecing some bits together, but the door itself came out nice and sturdy.  I'm hoping to have it hung within the next day or so.

Lounging in the sun.

Door two is complete.

A New Door

A new door!

There were a few boards left from when we worked on the outer wall.  In fact, there were just enough left to allow me to build a couple of new doors for the north end of the barn.

I was only able to complete one today, but even this will help keep the barn a bit warmer for the goats.  The old hardware that we're using needs a bit more tweaking to get the door to slide properly, however I'm pretty happy with the setup so far.

The goats also seamed to enjoy supervising.  Despite other goat-owners saying that goats don't eat everything, they do try to sample everything, including circular saws, nails, electrical cords...

Laying out the boards.

Eair samples the nails.

Wall Finishing Day!

Nearing the corner!

My father-in-law decided last night that today should be the day to finish the barn wall.  We woke up and got moving early so that we could accomplish as much as possible before he needed to leave for church.

The whole family, goats included, pitched in.  In no time at all, we had the barn wall enclosed, the window frames leveled, squared and hung, the tools and scrap cleaned up, and the interior swept of debris.

We're going to wait a bit before putting the glazing in the windows.  While the temperatures have been cooling down, we'd like to keep giving the animals as much airflow as possible until the cold really hits.

Huge thanks to my father-in-law for being the driving force behind the wall construction.  It looks awesome, and the herd will be toasty warm this winter!

Daddy on a ladder.

Fall weather.

Mommy looking coy.

Finished wall.

All cleaned up!

Nice warm interior for the new stall.

Hooves and Stalls and Walls, Oh My!

Gabriella helps with stall cleanup.

We had a busy day today.  Mom was home, so she and I were able to work on trimming the goats' hoofs.  With all of the moving in the past couple of months, they had unfortunately been neglected and were in bad shape.  I did the holding while Christy did the trimming.  We managed to get all sixteen goat feet trimmed back to where they should be.  We'll now be able to get them back onto a routine care schedule.

Another task accomplished today was cleaning out the goats' stall.  The goats are fairly tidy, but changing out the shavings and straw in their stall every so often helps to keep down odors and pests.  While I raked out the stall and made a discard pile outside of the barn, Gabriella filled buckets so that we could move the pile outside of the fence.  Once everything was cleared out, we all helped put down some lime and new shavings.  The goats, who were outside of the pen eating down the brush around the barn, were very happy to come home to a clean stall.

The exterior of the barn also received some love.  My father-in-law had been working on putting up barn board along the exposed wall.  Later in the night while he was away, I was able to add some more.  The animals should have a nice warm barn before winter hits!

Base boards in place.

Outer boards in place.

Fall at Tarp Rock

Our Autumn view from the house.

While we've been going about our lives, Fall has surrounded us with brilliant colors and a mix of cool and warm temperatures.  I love waking up and looking out at the bright oranges and yellows of the lower meadow.

Though the cold is coming, it's still been warm enough for t-shirts and shorts,  allowing us to work outside to continue closing up the barn for winter.

Elaina enjoying bare feet in October.

Exterior of barn wall in progress.

View to the north.

Work on Stall #2

Stall #2 fence.

 We've been slowly puttering away at getting a second stall ready in the barn so that we can segregate the goats as needed once spring and kidding season come along.  Today Elaina and I worked some more on cleaning it up, and installing the interior fencing.

My father-in-law, last evening, brought home a load of barn boards and began closing in the open wall along the exterior.  He also found some old windows in the upper barn that we can use to let light in, but still close the barn off to the elements this winter.

Start of the outer wall.

Door Hardware

I finally got smart this morning.  Several days ago, when I wanted to trim the opening to the barn, I tried using my jigsaw with a line stretched between two screws as a guide.  The jigsaw blade wasn't long enough, however, to cut through both layers of barn board.

This morning, just as I was waking up, it occurred to me that I could attach a batten across the opening, then use my circular saw to cut through the wood.  The base of the saw would run along the batten, creating a nice straight line.  Why I hadn't thought of this obvious approach before is beyond me.

So, once breakfast and morning drop offs were done, I searched the barn for a piece of thin straight wood to use as a guide.  I affixed this in place with screws, just above my original line, keeping the width between the saw blade and the edge of my saw base in mind.

Cutting took just a few minutes.  I finally have a nice even line above the barn opening.  With that done, I cleaned up the wood scraps and tools, then dug out the old barn door hardware that we salvaged.  A quick set of measurements showed that the door rails were eight feet long, and that our opening is eight feet wide.  Two rails, then, would allow us to have two four-foot doors that will be able to slide to either side.

After a run to town to pick up screws and a few other supplies, I dug out the ladder and attached the door rail.  The next step will be to build some new doors, but that will need to wait for another day.

Cutting guide.

A straight line!

Door hardware.

Ladder's-eye view.

Rail in place!

First Frost

Frost in the field.

This morning we woke up to the first frost of the season.  Even our poor duck, Quackers, had his house covered in a very light mist of chilliness.  London, our new duck, sadly flew the coop, literally, the day after we got her, so Quackers is by himself again.

Once things warmed up, it was time to do some more work on the barn.  Above the entrance, the barn boards were left different lengths.  I strung a line across the doorway, leveled it, and started to cut the boards to make an even line, but unfortunately the blade to my jigsaw was too short to cut through both layers.  I'll have to return to it again once I pick up a longer blade.

Once the doorway is cut nicely, we have some old hardware salvaged from another barn that we'll be able to install.  This will allow us to close the barn up against the snow and cold this winter, keeping the goats nice and warm.

Chilled duck.

More barn work.

Barn Maintenance

Kidding stall?

Today was a nice day to go out and work on the barn.  My main focus was to try to clean up the area next to our finished goat pen, so that in the spring we can use it for either kidding, or just as an extra pen if needed.  That section of the barn has been used for storage of random board and wood bits, though, and it open to the outside, so it's going to take some work.

In the morning, Elaina, clad in PJs, entertained the goats while I cleaned out the wood.  Most of it was rotten and falling apart, but a few boards were still in decent shape.  As seen in the photos, the corner of the barn has some missing pieces, and is open to the outer fence.  We discovered this one day when the goats ate down the bush that was there, then walked out through the openings.  When we discovered the issue, I blocked it off with some plywood, but since we discovered some good boards, I went ahead and made a more permanent fix.  I'd still like to get some barn boards that match the rest of the wall, but this should work fine for the winter.

Little helper.

Open corner.

Enclosed corner.

New Feeder

The boys try out the new feeder.

Not much farm work today.  I did manage to remove the ex-horse feeder from one section of the barn and repurpose it for the goats by hanging in their stall at a lower height.  It definitely works better than the plastic bin that we had hanging there previously.

Other work for the day included general cleaning up around the barn, and fixing some of the barn boards that were lifting away from the exterior.  In the process I managed to get stung by a wasp that lived in one of the multiple nests in the barn eaves, so evening was dedicated to eradicating stingy flying things.  Before winter comes, I'll need to patch the barn in a few more spots to make it warmer for the goats, but it was nice to get even a small section put back in place.

New Fence

Gabriella rolls the old fence.

Today we finally completed the permanent fence for the goats.  The fence attaches to the back of the barn, moves out into the field, up toward the house, then back to a newly built gate at the front of the barn.

The new space gives the boys and girl about twice as much area to graze in as they had with the temporary fence.  For now, the cattle panels will be stored in the barn.  We may use them to set up a "field trip" area in another part of the pasture where we can move the goats for a day or two to eat down the grass.

Elaina takes Hoover and Eiar for a walk.

View from inside the barn.

The boys try to figure out the gate latch.

Time to play!

More Barn Work

Horse (soon to be goat) barn.

This evening we went up to my in-laws to do some more work on the barn in preparation for moving our goats.  Mostly this consisted of filling in holes in the dirt floor, patching open open spaces in the walls, and putting down a nice clean bed of wood shavings for the animals.  We also closed off the storage section of the barn.

Things are looking good for the move.  We'll bring the goat's current fence along with us when we move them, along with their water buckets, mineral feeder, and so on.

Christy and Elaina finish leveling the stall.

The girls make the goat pen into an impromptu dance floor.