Saturday, July 7, 2012

Goat House and Yard--Old and New

Well, I promised you some pictures of the goat house, and here I am to show you!  This project was made with mostly new materials, but we did get a little bit of reusing in here, too.  And yes, that makes me very happy.  Last weekend my husband and I roofed it, then I did the painting and all the fancy-schmancy stuff.  Those girls should have some snazzy digs, right?

Ok, ready?  Front shot:


As you can see, I went with yellow.  I love yellow!!  Which is good, since Minerva decided she wanted to wear it.  I had thought to go with green, but husband said yellow, and you know, he gets so little say in things, I just had to give him one.  :)  I love the yellow.  It was a good choice.

Wait, you say?  You can see something written on the front there?  How very observant of you to notice!  Yes, I did pretty it up a bit with some writing.  You know I love that sort of thing.  Would you like to see what it says?

Yes?  Ok then!


Taa daa!

Why yes, that did take a long time to do, standing on a chair with unhelpful goat people trying to knock me off/eat the paint/chew the brush/take my chair.  Thank you for asking!

I had gotten the house (and Minerva) painted yellow and put up the trim, and thought it needed something.  Enter the reused part.  Or part of the reused part.


Shutters!  Made from pallets!  Woot!!  And painted turquoise, of course, the same turquoise I used on the duck house.  So I reused that too! 

But the best reused thing?  The roof.
Can you tell what it is?


How about now? 

I bet not, it's a toughie.  It's an old pool! 

My parents got a new pool installed and were generous and gave us the sides from the old one.  We cut it down to size and put it up there.  Eventually I will paint it.  I used the same pool metal for the roof of the duck house, so it's gotten quite a bit of mileage.  It makes a fabulous roof.  I am thrilled!

Once the house was done, I thought the yard needed something.  The girls already had a play area,

Minerva models and scratches herself at the same time.  How does she do it?
which is the bottom of the old duck house, with a pallet on top to be a step up to the top pallet deck, which is behind Minerva's big head.  Then there's the Leaning Pallet of Scratchability, and the balance beam.  This is all well and good, and we also have this:

Oh, I declare!  I am SOOOOOO lovely!

Which is being demurely modeled by Lilly.  It is, of course, the Mini-Platform-On-A-Stump with tire and platform step up.  Glamor!

But also in the yard were two old chairs that I got from the side of the road last year (yes, I pick things up from the side of the road all the time).  They were in there from when the goat house was built--for people to sit on.  But the goats liked them so much, I left them there.  They were boring and drab and brown, and I thought "You know what those chairs need?  Fuschia".

Turkeys do not model as well as goats.

Could I have been more right?  I don't think so! 

They needed fuschia, so I went out and got a cheapie paint sample and painted them up.  Then I sprayed them with protective spray, and screwed them to the trees, because the girls also enjoy knocking them over.


So now there are the two Standing Chairs in the yard, nicely fuschia-ed up, for me to sit on and get knocked off of because they are, in fact, the Standing Chairs and not the Sitting Chairs, silly human lady. 

But I digress.

The inside of the house remains the same,

Seems I caught Lilly mid-poop.  Sorry.
two hayracks, no waiting.  But I did discover why the hay is always flat on the left side, there.

Minerva will demonstrate for us.

She goes from the mineral tray,

to the hayrack,


and stands in


the hay.


Ah yes, Minerva is a pest.  In fact, she's learned to escape the confines of the yard, so we now have this

AND this

 on the gate.  Clever girl.  So far it seems to be working, but keep your fingers crossed.  She's persistent.

She's ruined escaping for ALL of us!  Selfish!

And there you have it, Goat House Extraordinaire.  I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Stay cool!

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12 comments:

  1. I know how you feel about the escapees. I finally enclosed my several acre goat lot in two strands of electric fence. I hated to do it but the goats would not stay in! Some would push under, the Boers would climb over! And, to make it worse, they taught the others how to climb out! Goats can get out of almost anything. They better be thankful I love them as much as I do! :)

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  2. They are persistent! But yes, they are easy to love, and that's why we keep them, I think!

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  3. What a wonderful space your goats have. It's a wonder they want to escape at all ;-)

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  4. Reading all I can about escapee goats. I want to get some, and wondering what sort of prep I need to do before they come in. Or, am I nuts??
    ~~Lori

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    1. Oh, I meant to add.... brilliant use of the old pool side. We have some rolled up in the garden, waiting to go to the scrap metal recycling place, but it looks like now I'll keep it! Thanks for the inspiration. What did you cut it with? Just a pair of tin snips? The stuff is THICK and heavy!
      ~~Lori

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  5. Some snazzy digs for the goats indeed! Like the painting on the top too. You really put some time and thought into all that! Love how the goats climb into the hay rack!

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  6. Bee Girl--Thanks so much!

    Lori--You need a metal blade for your circular saw to cut it. And that part sucks, I warn you now. But after that it's not too bad.

    Sweetland--I liked to personalize it for them because I like them so much. And Minerva is a pain--she's always the one in trouble!

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  7. Lori and Jocelyn...we used something we called a "cut-off" blade to cut metal with the circ saw (it looks like a disk instead of a jaggedy blade). It works great!!

    I think every herd has a "Minerva"....mine's name is Jasper. He got his nose painted red while I did the fence...silly goat! I felt so bad, but now I feel better that I'm not the only one letting my goats get into messes.

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  8. We used this to cut the pool. Watch out though!!! The shards can hurt if you don't use eye protection. Have arms and legs covered too. Cuts like hot knife through butter though!!

    http://www.plumbersurplus.com/Prod/Freud-Tools-D0648F-6-1-2-48T-Diablo-Ferrous-Metal-Table-Saw-Blade/200827/Cat/753?gclid=COazkpKKjbECFcHb4Aod2TNPDw

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  9. I love your choice of colors! And my goats want to come over and play. What a lucky bunch of goats you have : )

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  10. What a lovely space for your goats! Love the yellow!

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  11. Great idea to recycle the pool. Love that banner! Fushia is perfect for that chair!

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