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Every time you feel in God's creatures something pleasing and attractive, do not let your attention be arrested by them alone, but, passing them by, transfer your thought to God and say: "O my God, if Thy creations are so full of beauty, delight and joy, how infinitely more full of beauty, delight and joy art Thou Thyself, Creator of all!
- Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

You can’t get to joy by making everything perfect. You can only get there by seeing in every imperfection all that’s joy.
-Ann Voscamp

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Projects

We've been working on a few goat related projects for the last few days. Our new buck pen is nearly finished.
My sweet brother moved this lovely big rock into this space for us using his excavator. His little daughter LOVES the excavator, and now I love it too! :) It was so awesome of him to do this for us. I'd always wanted a real, genuine rock for the goats to play on. It's perfect for the bucks. They love playing king of the hill or napping on the rock.
The white "buck house" is really an old fishing shack. I think it'll work for a while, but at some point it will probably have to be replaced.
And the gate...I'm sure it isn't easy to miss, LOL! Hubby built it VERY solidly, so it would last a while. Here's a gate building tip: If you're ever going to build a gate, make it open IN. After several gates here, we've finally learned our lesson. It is SO much easier to get into a pen if you can "push" the animals away from the opening with the gate as you go in. I'm sure all of you knew that already. I'm a slow learner and not very observant, so I didn't know that, but I'm getting there. :)


This next project, I'm pretty pleased with. It's a hay feeder made of a crib rail. I'm not sure if I blogged about this or not, so if I did, bear with me.
All my trouble with hay feeders began when the goat kids were born this spring. Nothing was safe for them. I nearly had Shamrock get hung in one of the commercial hay feeders, and I've have a friend who had a kid hang herself in one of them. Another friend had a doeling break her leg getting hung up in one, so I took them down and put them on the outside of the wire fencing or security panels. That was safe, but I was never sure the goats were getting enough hay trying to get it through 2x4 inch rectangles.
 I then got a piece of a cattle panel with 6x6 inch squares, bent it into a crescent and attached it to the wall. I hoped that might work to keep the goats out of the hay and be safe, but the kids could get through the squares and quickly adopted it as a safe haven. Of course, they used it as a bathroom as well.
A lady on a forum I belong to had the idea of using a crib rail to make a hay rack, so I decided to try it. I finally got the guts to try out the plan I had formed in my mind for building it. This was my first building project, and I'm really pleased! I only had to have hubby help with two cuts on the table saw, and hanging it on the wall. I've been really wanting to get better at using tools and building things, especially since hubby has said, "This buck pen is my LAST goat building project, and I MEAN last." Okay, I know it's just a hay rack, but it has given me some confidence. I'm pretty sure I'll be trying my hand at some more projects in the future! :)





8 comments:

  1. You are the third Patty I've come across (including myself) doing the homesteading thing! Hmmm....makes me wonder. Very nice building job. I love repurposing things just like that. It's all in how you look at it. Oh and good tip about the gate opening in! I'll be taking that to the farm with me!

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  2. I just took a peek at your blog, and your garden fence is awesome! It all looks really pretty in the photos. You'll have to take a pic. of what it looks like now. I'm sure it's become a jungle!
    Your dog treats look awesome, too. Do you do mail order? :)

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  3. Looks pretty functional to me,and to think it one time it was used for kids--lol--it is easy to play on words around your place,I wonder if that gate idea would work with children.When waiting on my grandson who just had reconstructive knee surgery I was constantly looking for my 18 month old grandson because ,I would bring Patrick in a plate of food or other essential and he would call me back and say "grandma,you forgot someone"the baby would always sneak in without me seeing him .

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  4. :)Cute! You are one busy lady! I LOVE gates for children. I've had as many as three of them in my home at once. So handy, and good for peace of mind. With the washer and dryer in the basement, the gates were the only reason I was able to get any laundry done when the children were small.

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  5. Nice projects! I had to laugh at the rock moving, but I'm sure the goats love it!

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    1. Erin- LOL! I know, it is funny that we moved a huge rock for the goats. It is really fun to watch them play on it though! :) I'd always wished that with all the rocks around here, some of them could have ended up in the goat pens.

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  6. I have a new nickname for you",May Gaskin of the north "--I was reading about her and thought of you

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    1. LOL! You couldn't have given me a better compliment, girlfriend! I love it! :)

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