Winter is Coming
This morning when I went out to do chores, it was totally foggy. It was cold (negative 6 celcius) and I could hardly see the outbuildings.
The frost looked really cool on the fence wires and spider webs.
With the seasons changing, we need to do some upgrades.
Goat Playgrounds
We had not done much for goat Enrichment yet. I decided it was time to add to their big tires with some concrete blocks and pallets covered in roofing shingles.
The shingles and the concrete, in addition to giving them things to jump on and off of, should help keep their hoofs from becoming overgrown.
There is now a little playground area for the bucks and one for the does.
Getting ready for Breeding Season
We want our goats to have their kids in April, when it is starting to warm up a bit. That means that we need to breed them in November.
We had left an empty pasture between the boy and girl pastures to use for breeding, and today their new shelter was delivered. We call it the Love Shack.
I checked out prices and it wasn’t much more expensive to have it custom ordered to my specifications than it would have been for me to build it. And way easier… I messaged a guy off facebook a few days ago, and he delivered it already!
Growing Fodder
With the changing of the seasons, we no longer have branches laden with leaves for the goats to eat each day. I want to be able to continue to provide them with green feed on a regular basis, so we have set up a small fodder growing operation.
We are just trying this out and will let you all know how it goes. It should take about a week for the oats to sprout and grow into a carpet of fodder. We expect that the goats and the chickens will enjoy the fodder.
If it goes well, we can source out some barley, wheat, and/or other seeds to grow.
