This weekend, we bought a goat pen!
Good thing, too...since NEXT weekend, we're getting GOATS!
We'll be picking up two Nigerian Dwarf wethers (castrated males), who are roughly 8 weeks old. I promise lots of baby goat pictures when they arrive!
But first, they need a pen! What we're looking at above is the back corner of our property. In the left hand side of this picture is the big mobile coop that will house 50+ hens.
I took down the existing old, beat up welded wire fence that ran along the back property line. That'll get replaced within the next few days once I grab another load of steel t-posts (and before the goats arrive).
Then it was time to start digging post holes! The corner posts are all 4 x 4 x 8 ft wooden posts, with t-posts spaced in between them. Well, all corners except the one near that tree....too many roots there, that corner is a t-post.
Then come the cattle panels, which are 16 feet by 50 inches high. Everything is held together with galvanized fence wire.
There are two additional wooden posts about 55 inches off the back fence that will have pallet gates - one to go from the yard to the goat pen, and one to go from the goat pen into the chicken run.
So, we're in good shape for next weekend when the goats arrive, especially since I took Friday off.
Left to do:
1) Put up back welded wire fence
2) Install two pallet gates
3) Install temporary fence on 3 sides to keep baby goats from squeezing out of cattle panels.
I like the picture below, as it gives a nice view of the layout as things start to come together.
The picture is taken from the back right (north-east) corner of the property, standing along the side fence line about 10 feet from the back property line.
You can see the posts along that right that will soon have gates, the goat pen, the big mobile coop, our compost pile, and our red shed. You can also see FOUR other chicken coops...one against the shed, one behind the compost heap, one behind the mobile coop, and one tiny blue one (home to a few bantams) between the shed and the mobile coop.
Why goats? They're just going to be pets...we weren't interested in breeding, milking, showing, or any of that. They're cute, can be walked on a leash around the neighborhood, and should be fun to watch and play with.
I also love that they can eat a lot of woody browse...and convert it to manure to be added to the compost piles. We don't have a lot of land that needs clearing (or much land in general), but I'm sure we'll find plenty of nice snacks for them in the yard and the woods behind us.
So, a busy weekend, but a productive one! And the start to lots of exciting stuff to come!
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