Renovations

Since Jason doesn't have enough construction projects going on he spent several hours this weekend doing some renovations to the "goat condo." Most of the year the goat condo is referred to as their open air cabana as it is just a roof and a floor with no sides. This lets them nap off the ground (they hate to get wet and are not fond of the morning dew) but also have some shade while still catching the breeze.

We've been having a spectacular run of fall weather with average temperatures of about 75 during the day. We've had a few ugly days in the 50's but they have been sporadic. However at some point cooler weather will be here to stay so Jason put the sides back on the goat condo. While he was at it he also re-shingled their roof. Nothing but the best for our goats.

Of course none of this really matters. The World's Cutest Fainting Goats sleep in a stall at night and 99% of the time the gate to their paddock is open so they can come in the barn whenever they want to. They tend to want to come in the barn a lot and they leave a path of destruction in their wake. However I guess there is that 1% of the time when the gate isn't open or they aren't in a stall so now they have complete protection from the elements at all times.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

Mina watching Jason work on the renovations. She's trying to decide if she was ok with everything, especially the noise. "Should I faint or am I ok with this?"

Jason was measuring, using the pry bar and nailing with his nail gun

Mina and Jo were keeping an eye on things while Jason was working

Billy and Bubba were also watching the renovations

Jason completely re-shingled the roof

The only thing left is a quick paint job; as usual my suggestion was received with minimal enthusiasm from Jason. I pointed out that we couldn't ask the goats to spend time in a home that was half painted and half unpainted.

Mina and Jo can always find something to get into in the barn. Some days it looks like a tornado has been through the barn. Mina is determined to find something in the feed scoop while Jo does her best to get in an empty bag of feed.


Norman and Traveller are both such cute ponies. I wish the focus was sharper but my camera is temperamental when it comes to taking videos.

A variety of things were going on when I took this picture. Spike was napping, Noble was rolling, O'Reilly, Lightening and Lucky were eating hay and Snappy and Teddy were just hanging out.

Romeo

Sebastian

Happy Grazers; Fuzzy Punch, Clay, B-Rad, Dutch, Wiz, Chili

apparently Cloudy and Olivia have a new friend; this cat has been spotted around the barn a few times

Too bad I couldn't get this picture from a better angle. Faune hanging out, Winston napping, Romeo hanging out back by the fence, Chimano looking at me and Gus rolling.

O'Reilly and Teddy grazing as the sun was coming up; that is Snappy mostly hidden by Teddy

Faune, Asterik, Winston and Sebastian

Noble and Lightening

Tony was staring hard at something

Trigger, Thomas and Apollo

Elfin and Hemi were playing

Construction Update

Run-in shed number two is currently under construction, hopefully to be completed either tomorrow or early next week. Moving day number two should be happening in the next few weeks. I hope it goes as smoothly as moving day number one! After the run-in is completed we will build some cross fencing and move another group of horses. I was thinking today about how much building we have left to do and it gets kind of depressing, especially since I know how much we've already spent. It is a lot more fun to think about what we've done so far.

When we bought the property earlier in the year it was a blank slate. There was absolutely nothing there except grass and trees. No perimeter fence, no old barn, not even a driveway. So far we have built:

- 6,000 feet of fence (only 24,000 feet to go!)
- 2 run-in sheds
- 1 barn
- about 1,000 feet of water lines
- we had to run about 1,500 feet of electric lines
- we put in 1,000 feet of driveway
- about 15 loads of gravel have been delivered and spread between the driveway and other areas

Jason has done a lot of this work himself. He installed all of the water lines by himself with no help. Our contractor built the shell of the barn but Jason has built out the interior of the barn himself with some invaluable help from my Dad on a few of the projects.

A picture of the back of the barn taken a few weeks ago

A close-up of my weather vane and cupola on top of the barn

Front of the barn; I want to put shutters around all of the windows. Jason did not give me a pleasant look when I mentioned this, and started grumbling something along the lines of we have plenty of things to do without worrying about shutters on a barn and never-ending projects.

Front doors of the barn, still in need of painting (as mentioned above the projects NEVER end!)

Door to the feed room/office inside the barn; it is fully insulated and has heat/air

a couple of the stalls; we are waiting for the grills to come in to put over the windows (did I mention the projects never end??)

Wash rack on the left and cross tie area on the right; excuse all of our construction paraphernalia - it has to go somewhere handy while we need it

On to some horse pictures; Justin and Boo

Wiz and Alex

Gus and Faune were keeping a close eye on me while waiting for dinner

Spike, Slinky, O'Reilly and Snappy

Lucky and Teddy

Asterik and Chimano

O'Reilly and Noble (Lucky and Slinky behind them)

Baby

Apollo, Homer and Thomas

Thomas was resting his head on Grand while they hung out

Elfin napping in the sun (a favorite activity of his) while Tony munches on some hay

new faces that I have not had time to introduce lately (bad me); Toledo and Rocky

Valentine ("Tiny") and Rampal

Wet, Windy and Wild

We had a nice rainfall late last night and through the morning this morning. For some reason rain is guaranteed to make the horses wild at feeding time and this morning was no exception. In addition to getting rained on feeding time takes twice as long as it should ( so you get to "enjoy" the rain even more!) as the horses romp and frolic around and generally act like idiots. We call it the rain stupids around here.

The rain cleared out mid morning and then the wind moved in. The rest of the day was windy and blustery with a few periods of sun here and there. The high winds had the same effect at dinner time feeding as the rain did this morning. All in all it was one of those days where the horses were having a grand time while the people were getting a little annoyed at everything taking twice as long as it should!

Chimano splashing around in the puddle that always forms behind my arena after a good rain. Romeo and Gus are watching in the background.

Chimano splashing in the puddle

It is tough to be Bear but some dog has to do it

Lightening and Slinky relaxing

Sebastian and Faune

Levendi and Leo snoozing away

Chance, Hemi and Apollo aren't looking very stressed

Lily and Cuff Links dozing in the afternoon sun

Justin

Chili and Wiz