Building Permit Approval!

After what seemed like a ridiculous amount of time my town’s building department has apparently run out of ways to stall and has finally approved my incredibly beautiful plans for a new goat house & chicken coop. I nearly jumped for joy. I don’t think the town wanted to approve them. I think it took so long because they were trying to find some way to deny the permit. But I know that my friend (and architect) and I had crossed every ‘T’ and dotted every ‘i’ and followed every zoning regulation so that there was no way the plan could be denied. I’m not doing anything wrong. I’m just doing something different. They don’t like that too much here. I could be wrong now, but when my builder went to the Health Department for a meeting last week the secretary said to them “She can’t do that! It’s like trying to put a chicken coop on Park Avenue.” Well come on now. That’s getting a little bit carried away. But I do understand what she means, which is why I am building this the way that I am. I could have gone and bought some pre-fab structure at an Amish Shed store, but I wanted something that served my needs and looked beautiful. I don’t want my neighbors to be unhappy. I truly appreciate the fact that they all enjoy my animals. I think they will be pleased with these new buildings. The best thing is, whenever I finally get to move to the real farm, the thing comes apart in sections and I’m taking it with me!

The Front Elevation of the new goat house & chicken coop

On April 28th I drive down to Emmitsburg, Maryland to Whitmore Farm where I will pick up my adorable Tennessee Fainting Goat doeling. Since I’ll be driving almost 600 miles round trip for her, I figured I may as well get more bang for my buck and pick up some of their beautiful heritage breed chicks, so I ordered some of those as well. Some of the breeds they have I already own, like real heritage stock Ameraucana and Delaware hens. But they also have the extremely hard-to-find Marans and Welsummers that lay the darkest olive brown eggs you’ve ever seen, and Ancona hens, which are an unusual black chicken with a white V-shaped tip on 1/2 to 1/3 of their feathers (giving them a reverse Dalmation look) that lay large bright white eggs. It should be a noisy ride home with lots of bleeting and peeping going on.

My New Tennessee Fainting Goat Doeling

And the chicks are getting so big that I might move them outside to the small brooder coop in the next few days. They’ve got most of their wing feathers now and have started flying out of their cardboard enclosure. I’ve had to put a window screen over it to keep them in. That little yellow one (in the second photo) just kills me — she is always looking at me with the most intense curiosity. And that grey one in the third photo is a troublemaker — she’s the one that was always flying out. The one in the fourth photo I believe is my Corn Flakes rooster that I ordered. I hope he doesn’t crow!

The barn doors for the new coop and goat house came today and that was exiting. Now I’m searching for solar lighting and fans for the barn, researching milking stands and other things I’ll need.

It’s going to be a busy summer here!