Next up: Project #187 of 589,934

Late-breaking update.....

So much for adding pictures. For some reason, the camera only kept one of this morning's pictures. Hopefully it was because the batteries were low, not from me dropping it a few days ago!

So the pic is of the goat hut moved forward, after we worked a bit harder than planned to detach the patio. You can see Lassie's ass as she looks inside to see if we finally installed hot & cold running water. You can also see the huge mound of hay that accumulated in it over the winter. The idea with letting it stack up in a small area is that the bottom layers start to compost and generate heat for the critters laying on top. If you keep freshening it with more bedding when you notice it getting a little funky, it really doesn't smell bad. Mostly like hay. But once we broke up the pile to rake it out of the way...hoo mama!! The temp fencing is up and the big red hens were holding a grudge about not being able to lay in the hut. But by the time we went to town for groceries (and the best Mexican food north of Mexico), they had laid 2 eggs in their nest boxes.

We pounded in some stakes about where the barn will go, and tomorrow it's time to get mathematical on it, with string and square and level and such. A little more planting too, and nettle picking. We got the ingredients for nettle braggot, and brought the brew store guy the next-to-the-last bottle of plain braggot. I can't wait to get another carboy bubbling!

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Well.....yesterday was a complete downpour, so no outside work at all. Today dawned (if you can call it that) dank, gray, and threatening rain. But as I peeled my not-quite-hungover eyes open, it looked brighter than usual. Also conspicuous was the lack of raindrops hitting the window. SO much for sleeping in and goofing off. Of course the cat-trample wake-up-and-feed-me-breakfast from Newt didn't help either.

So....we're booting up, the old fashioned way, with rubber knee-highs, and heading out to the home paddock. First we'll walk the goat hut forward out of the way of the building site. That will involve crawling inside with a screw gun to detach the patio roof. Then we'll fence off a good part of it with cattle panel so the naughty little pests (goats) can't do surprise site insepctions while the posts and such are setting up. We also need to run the panels so the chickens can't go where the goat hut is. They've taken to laying in it, and Chappelle has discovered that eggs are fun to play with. We've lost 4 to his antics so far.