Send Noah and the Ark!!

So we got a humdinger of a thunderstorm last night...and let me tell you, that's an intense experience in the dome, LOL!!  I was up a couple times checking for leaks, and putting towels over the windows (installing something to keep the rain out when the screen windows are installed definitely needs to be a priority...).  

When I got up and went to bring the goats their morning snack of grain, this is what I saw:

It's a little hard to see...but there's a MASSIVE, 3-5 inch deep puddle all in front of their pen.  It goes into the front of the pen, too, though it looks like the back corner stayed dry.  

My first thought was that I really need to invest in a good pair of rubber boots!!

Then I started trying to think how to address this issue.  I see two options:

1. Move the goat pen to approximately where I was standing when I took this photo, as that spot is about 2 feet higher than the current location of the pen.

2. Cart over a whole bunch of dirt (which is readily available at the moment, as things were just excavated), and build up the floor inside and outside the pen, with a slope so that water drains away.  

Another possibility would be to decide if I want to start building a more permanent goat shed and try to get the goats moved into that soon-ish...but that would likely mean going further into debt, which I'd like to avoid if I can help it.  If anyone hears of a free 8x12 shed , and knows someone who can move it for cheap, please let me know...that would make a very nice little goat house!  :)  

Anyway, happy Friday, everyone!  

Happy Goats

So I *think* the goat fence is FINALLY hot enough!!  I was able to let the goats out to graze for a good chunk of the morning, which gave me the opportunity to clean out their pen - which was much needed!  

Here's my crew of Oberhaslis:

One of the bucklings:

Lotus, a doeling from this spring:

A buckling:

Another buckling (possible the same one, lol...can't tell unless I can see the horns):

Rhode, my yearling doe.  She's like a puppy dog, and always watches for me to come over and say hi.  She's the one who kept getting out the other day, and I'm pretty sure she just wanted to be near me.

It's a gorgeous day!!

I went back toward their pen, and they ran to catch up, with Rhode leading the way!

Happy goats make for a happy goat owner!!  :P  

Everything... Even the Kitchen Sink

I can't remember if I said this already, but I had three chicks start crowing this past week.  All three will need to be processed at some point, as they are too closely related to the female chicks.  I'm calling this one Stewie...short for Stewpot. 😂

I've also still been wrestling with the goat fence, lol... I bought a bigger solar charger.  I let it charge in the sun for a few days, and finally hooked it up yesterday.  It worked beautifully for a little while... and then Rhode, my yearling doe, figured out that she could jump over a low spot.  In the process of getting her back in, she bumped the wire... and now it's not zapping nearly as well as it was.  This evening I strung some more wire, watered the ground rods, and circled the fence a couple times to see if anything was touching it and shorting it out.  Even after that, it still wasn't hot enough.  Guess I'll try again in the morning once the water has fully soaked in.

In any case, it was a gorgeous evening.  First, there was a pretty sunset...

And then the moon came out.

In other news, I picked up a bunch of supplies yesterday - I'm sure this was the first of many trips to the store for things I didn't realize I would need!!  One purchase was this water jug, which makes washing my hands much easier.  :)

Dad provided another kitchen upgrade...he built me a box to go under my little stove!  :D It will have a drawer in it when it's done, but it already looks a million times better than the styrofoam cooler I had under there. 

Anyway, I'm off to bed... good night, and happy Tuesday!  :) 

Settling In

I'm starting to get settled in... getting used to the nightly routine of getting home, checking on animals, and going to bed.  And then in the morning, walking the dogs, checking on the livestock again, and then cooking breakfast over a little fire.  I'm already much faster at getting the fire going, lol... that first day I almost had to go to Dunkin Donuts instead!!  :P 

Today I had the morning free before work, and I decided to do some cleaning and organizing inside the dome.  Here's the "before" picture: 

Chaos!!  Here's the "after":

Ahh... isn't that SO much better?  The kitchen will still take more work - for example, I need a wooden box under the stove - but this is the basic layout.

If anyone knows how to hook up a propane RV fridge... feel free to come over sometime, and I'll cook you breakfast!  :P 

Happy Saturday!!!

First Breakfast

Lol, still don't have my propane stove hooked up... so this is how I cooked breakfast this morning.  I will not admit how many matches I went through trying to get this little flame going.. but the food was very yummy.  :) 

I'm using a super random assortment of dishes and utensils because I haven't unpacked yet, so I was just scrounging from the tops of boxes.

Now I'm off to add another ground rod to my goat fence, because it definitely is NOT hot enough yet!!!  :o

Happy Thursday!!

I'm Here!!

So I'm currently sitting on the deck of my dome... listening to the evening sounds, and enjoying the cool air (and swatting the occasional mosquito, lol).  The dogs are here with me, and in a few minutes, I'll go to bed...in the dome!!

That's right... I'm moving in!!  :D 

Mind you, I'm not set up to cook yet, and I don't have my dog fence up yet, so I'll be going to Dad and Mom's for breakfast tomorrow, and dropping the dogs off there while I'm at work... but I'm here!!!

I Blame Thane

I blame Thane for this whole farm thing...I've always loved farms and farm animals, but I didn't start seriously pursuing acreage and dreaming of goats, chickens, sheep, cattle, etc., until I got Thane.  Then I thought...hmm...if I have an old-fashioned farm Collie...wouldn't it be cool for him to have livestock to herd?

And thus it began.  It's been a long journey to get to this point, but I am excited to announce that as of today, Butterscotch Farm is home to five charming, adorable Oberhasli goats!!!  :D :D :D

Hopefully soon it will be home to me too...LOL!!  

I am actually hoping to move in over the next couple of days...things will be pretty rustic for a bit, but I'm excited!  And it'll let me get a bit more sleep and put a few less miles on the truck when I'm over there.

Here are a few photos of the progress that has happened since I last posted:

Pastor Hayman brought me the rest of the firewood that my aunt and uncle gave me!  What a huge blessing!

Timothy installed my solar fan...and had some fun while doing so, lol.

Here's the actual fan:

It runs well, but doesn't do nearly as much as I hoped to mitigate the heat.  The dome came with screen windows that can replace the vinyl windows; I just need to come up with a way to modify them so that they won't let the rain in.

Another huge blessing: one friend from church brought his excavator, and another brought his tractor, and they have been working to do some serious clearing and stump pulling for me!

They carved a path from the water pump down into the goat field; previously, this was an almost impassable tangle of downed trees and brush.  I sure appreciated that today when I made a couple trips down to the field with a five-gallon bucket of water in each hand!  

Also, Joe found me a boulder!  Just a bit was sticking out, and he worked at it and worked at it and finally got it out.  

It now lives in front of my dome, and I LOVE it!!  Lol, Dad, Timothy, and I were pumping water from the well and scrubbing the sand off the rock the other day.  :P

Dad and Timothy hung the shade cloth this past Saturday...not sure that does much either, lol.  Maybe I need a bigger one.

I think this was also on Saturday...Dad finished getting my sink hooked up to the gray water system.  It's just a drain - I can dump any non-sewage waste water in there, and it goes down through a pipe into a special ditch.  I don't have running water in the dome; I'll have to bring all water in.  I still need to get the water from my little well tested.

Oh, and Scott, Joe, and Paul managed to use the excavator to get the woodstove inside!  I'm especially grateful for that - that thing is a BEAST!!

And...here's the goober that started all this, LOL!!  I think he's pretty sure that the chickens are squeaky toys.  Sometime in the next day or two I'll need to introduce him to the goats, too....that'll be interesting!  

Happy Monday!!!