It’s a Farm Wonderland

This was one of the first sights that I saw this morning once my eyes could focus as I was waking up.


That would be Grace up on the ROOF of the old chicken coop (the new chick coop). I swear I think she is part gazelle the way that girl can jump. Once she figured out how to do it she was doing it all day.

Well, the fencing is complete. While the goats seem a little miffed at being confined, they can’t complain about being cramped. They have sunny spots and shady spots. They have rocks and hills. They have grass and mulch.


Where they took down some of the old fencing there were two cemented-in posts that I decided to put to good use. We cut them off down lower to the ground, and I made a play ramp for the goats. They LOVE it. I have never seen Princess Grace so excited. Tennessee Fainting goats, because of their myatonia, are rather stiff-legged. Because of that they are not big jumpers. Last night, however, she was jumping and kicking up her heels with joy at this new playground. It made me happy just to see her so happy. Today Evan and I went a step further and covered the board with roofing paper. The shingle material gives them great traction and will help to keep their hooves trim, kind of like a nail file would.


Princess Kate was so excited she frolicked around on the roofs of the old red coop too! This was highly unusual and frisky behavior for our usual shy and stiff Kate.

Just to show you how big Kiki and Grace have gotten, I’ll show you these pictures, once again proving that it is nearly impossible to get a good photo of baby goats. Or me for that matter. They are in constant motion.

The ‘silo’ chicken run between the goat house and chicken coop is under construction now. This will allow the chickens enclosed access into the goat house, but won’t allow the goats to get into the chicken coop (the chicken food makes them sick). I’m not sure that they’ll use this much is good weather, but it will be highly trafficked in the winter as they travel back and forth to lay their eggs in the goat house – which for some strange reason is much preferred to laying eggs in their nesting boxes.

The nesting boxes got a fancy valance I made. I’m hoping to entice them to lay more eggs in there and less in the goat house.

And even grumpy old Melina had a tender moment with the babies. The photograph is terrible, but it was so sweet I just have to put it here anyway. I’m almost ready to have them all start sleeping together. I think when I finally completely wean them, which should be within the next week or two, they’ll be ready to move in with the big girls.

The baby chicks are over a week old now and doing great. They seem to love being in the old coop, and are getting tiny wing feathers.


And this is what Evan and I are working on now:


They are jumping platforms. We’ve set posts into the ground at varying levels and I’ve screwed 3/4″ A/C plywood squared onto the posts. On top of that we’ll add some of that roofing paper for traction. In the middle of the platforms is an big old cable spool my sister got for me. It had a hole in the middle that I covered with plywood so nobody got a lef stuck in there. Hopefully they’ll have a lot of fun using them, and should provide exercise and entertainment in their new confined space.

I just don’t think life could get much better than it does here if you’re a goat.