Our new life at Our Promised Land Farm is becoming even more rewarding and fulfilling than I imagined it could. Like the rest of my family, I never imagined that I would end up on an acreage raising animals. My career was as an operations manager in the transportation industry. It was a job I grew into and, at times excelled at, but always took stress from. When I was laid off from my last employer in that field I vowed never to re-enter it if at all possible and, by God's blessings, I haven't.
Those of you on Facebook have already seen the pics of the chicken coop. Those of you not on Facebook get to be bored by my sillyness for the first time! ha ha ha
This is the chicken coop, on a trailer, as brought over from our good friend's place. By the time I took this picture I had already added one 2x4 on the bottom in the front to hold it together so it could be removed from the trailer.
This is how the chicken coop looks today. We dropped it on a base of cinder blocks so it would be tall enough for me to walk into comfortably. I had a ball adding all kinds of support, roosts, ladders, screening, tin, nest boxes and a walk in door to the coop. Bubba was very gracious and only helped when I asked. I wanted this to be 'my' project; control freak that I am, and he indulged me.
The only new product used in the remodel are the cinder blocks the coop sits on. I bought screws, nails and paint but no other building materials. I re-used wood salvaged from our remodel and brought the nest boxes up from the coop we dismantled out back. I used a plastic, accordian style closet door, from the remodel, to make the exterior door on the nest boxes. That way its big, light weight and water proof. ;-)
I mounted the nest boxes on the outside to maximize interior space and made the door for outside access to eggs.
I'm a 43 year old little girl who can't wait to show her Daddy what she built!!! HA HA HA HA
We've put up 6' fence around it and will be shopping for laying hens next week.
Today we took another step in raising goats. We brought home an amazing billy from the auction. I wasn't patient enough to find one on private sale and was really impressed with the look of this animal. He appears to be a cross of Spanish and Boer. He weighs nearly 100 lbs and is extremely muscular. The funniest thing about him is that he walks like a chicken. He leads each step with his head jutting it out in front of him.
We unloaded him into a rigid panneled pen connected to the barn and soon found out his potential ..... LOL I made the rooky mistake of placing a wedge of hay in a make shift feeder on the fence. He tested it first then used it as a ladder to jump up and over. Once we contained him for a couple hours in the larger pen with the entire herd he calmed down and is now moving through the pasture with the nannies. He's not attempting to "do his job" yet, is still acclimating to his new environment.
We contained the herd to the center pasture with access only to the neighbors property on both sides and to our other pastures front and back. Hopefully, that way he won't be so inclined to run and won't have immediate access to the road if he breaks through. We'll be keeping a pretty close eye on him; both to insure he's doing what he's supposed to be doing and to insure he's still on the property and hasn't headed to greener pastures. ;-)
I love my life!!!!
More later ........
PRAY OFTEN
LIVE WELL
LAUGH OFTEN
LOVE MUCH
