Soup up the Coop!

I don't know how we forgot it, but this should have gone on our 2012 To Do List, since we definitely want to get chickens in the spring!

The Chicken Yard
I hope the chickens and goats get along,
since they'll be living side-by-side!

Mike surveyed the state of the chicken coop, which is inside the goat barn.

Here's the To Do list:
-Fix rotting sill and chicken entrance
-Replace some insulation
-Replace some siding
-Paint new siding and anywhere else that needs it
-Replace the fencing

-Add a fenced top to the "Chicken yard"

-Scrub down the inside

Inside the coop

This is going to be one of those projects where we take it a little at a time... needing the weather to cooperate, and hopefully we'll be ready for the little chicks to arrive this spring.

The only thing that might hold us up is that Mike also has to finish reading the "Chicken Book" that I got him.  No chickens are arriving before he's read that book cover to cover!  I took on studying-up on the goats, now it's his turn! :o)


My 7 year old wants us to get the kind of hens that lay multi-colored eggs (like a girl in his class has). 

As long as the kids don't balk (haha) at eating eggs with blue & green shells, that's fine with me! 

And another bonus- it'll save me from having to dye eggs at Easter!

Rolling Rock

Or more accurately, Rolling the Rocks.

We've got TONS of them!  So, we decided to use them to create some flower beds.

To start, we moved them over to along the fence.  (Yet another good use of the tractor!)

That's our little Christmas tree from the front porch.
Not sure where we're going to plant it yet!



Here we are, with the stacking in progress:

It's looking a little rough and scraggly now, but it IS the middle of winter. 

This spring or summer I'll post an update once we get some mulch and plantings in...

Fun for Goats

Right after we moved in, one of the wooden spools that the goats liked to climb onto collapsed.  So, we've been on the lookout for another one (if anyone has any leads, please let me know!)

In the meantime, my mom saw this video on youtube and asked why our goats don't do that... um, let's just say our goats are more "mature" than those little kids!  But it got us thinking- with all of the trees Mike is cutting down, we could make a climber for the goats out of some logs.

Here's what Mike came up with:

The goats scraped/chewed all of the bark off the logs!  But, they wouldn't climb up on top of it.

So, we decided to cut the top flat...

Now I catch Buck up there every day!
The only problem is that every time I approach to get photo, both goats run over to greet me.

So I have a bunch like this:

But I'm glad Buck's liking it.

However, it looks like Tink isn't convinced yet- I guess she likes to keep her hooves on the ground!



Update:  I FINALLY got a photo of Buck sitting up there.  It was the first of the warm days (spring on the way!) and he wasn't moving for ANYTHING!

Barn Round Up #3- The Horse Barn

We don't have horses, but we do have a pretty cool horse barn!

Although this barn is in the best shape of the three, there are still a number of things that need to be fixed up.

Barn from the back

For instance, the wood sliding doors on both sides of the barn are rotting. 

Mike is hoping he & his brother can work on that later this year.

Check out the inside- It's really just in need of a good, thorough cleaning!
(It's too cold now, but hopefully this spring & summer it will all come together!)

There are three horse stalls

We're using one stall to store some
toys for the winter.





There's also a heated tack room that's primarily used by the two outside cats.

We keep their food in there, as well as their kitty beds.

They are able to access it by kitty doors (I'm sure this is where Mike got the idea for our in-house kitty door!)

The ugly brown chair needs to go, but I didn't have the heart to take it away from the kitties in the winter (in case they want to snuggle up there). 

But this spring/summer, when we have the dumpster for the kitchen demo... it's out of here!

Behind the barn is a paddock. 

Not quite sure what we'll do back there yet. 

Last summer we put the kids' blow-up pirate pool back there.  The sand made it almost beach-like... okay, maybe that's a little bit of a stretch! ;o)

The To Do list for this barn:

Clean, clean, clean

Fix both sliding doors

Organize the tack room (and toss the brown chair!)

Basement Stairway- FINALLY painted!

It took longer than I hoped (a solid week) but it's done!

From the top of the stairs, looking down...

BEFORE 
[shudder]

AFTER

SO much brighter!

I used some old fashioned bread pans to store some cleaners.  I'm going to be on the look-out for more of those at yard sales!

From the bottom looking up...

BEFORE

AFTER 



I feel so much better now that this is done.  It's much more organized!

 I spray painted a couple of odd items for storage, to make them look more uniform.

(I was annoyed that the shower caddy got all rusty after only 2 weeks in the shower, but after a coat of black Rustoleum, it's just fine for storing extra dust rags, sponges, etc.)

And do you see the crockery on the second shelf???

My friend's mom gave them to me and I absolutely LOVE them! 

I can't wait until the kitchen is done so that I can display them properly!

Here's a close up:

Related posts:

Basement Stair Rail

Trimming it up- Basement stairwell

Basement stairway- paint prepping

Some in-progress photos of the painting (for the record):