Gates, Fences, Waterers, and a Milk Room!

With just a week before the goats arrive, it was my goal to spend the last full working day I have (as other days are homeschooling days) in preparation for them.  We accomplished much yesterday, and if the goats had to come tomorrow, we'd be ready!

This 8 foot gate was purchased for this very opening, but I had a few other ideas about what to do with it...  I wanted to close off the back of my doe barn so that I could let the bucks into the much larger doe pen and the does to have free reign of the property, but still keep the doe barn open to them and without bucks getting in.  Thankfully, this gate didn't work for that, or I'd have put it at the back of the doe barn, slapped some goat panel fencing up in this opening, and not have found some other nifty solutions that presented themselves yesterday!  The 5 foot chain link gate in the background is a gate my mom had just laying around and not in use.  We previously had a 4 foot livestock gate (like the 8 foot one) in that opening, and it didn't fit, and therefore didn't serve much purpose.  (The intended purpose is to make the doe pen smaller at night so there is less space to watch.)  This 5 foot gate works nicely here, and I then had an extra 4 foot gate....

The above gate is also a gate my mom just had laying around and not in use.  I had previously hung a 4 foot gate in this opening (The hole where the chain goes through the post is where one of the gate hangers was!)  It had to be hung too high in order to close, which left a sizable gap at the bottom through which a chicken or baby goat could escape.  This gate, since it is narrower and taller, would have looked awkward anywhere else, but fits great here!  And then I had 2 extra 4 foot gates...

And that's where they went!  They open up without scraping the hillside outside or running into the automatic waterer for the does inside and go together perfectly!  David drilled a hole in the concrete where I can put a bit of rebar when the gates are closed like this in order to secure them shut.  I also need to get a little more chain to fasten them together.  I'm thrilled with how this works!  Definitely worth all the smashed fingernails and cut fingers of screwing in (and unscrewing and salvaging) gate hangers!

Since I'm showing you gates, gates, and more gates, this is the gate between the doe and buck pen ~ the one that I will open to let the bucks into the doe pen when I want to give them more space.  It was there before, but didn't get much use.  Shiphrah is in the background carrying around a chicken like it's a baby, while wearing a princess costume that Great Grandma Downing gave her.  My little chicken princess!

This is the waterer between the buck and breeding pens with the fence all up and the waterer functional!  I had planned on building a wall here around the waterer, and a roof over it so the chickens wouldn't roost on it.  We had the Kimmels over last week and Mark said, "Why don't you just frame it and then put the fence back?  Do the chickens roost on that fence?"  How simple.  And time saving.  And we appreciate the idea!  The only snaffoo here is that the cutoff to the waterer is too low underground for either of us to reach through the access panel with the waterer in place.  David managed with a wrench, but it took a lot of tries from both of us, as we were working blind.  I think there is a special tool with a long handle made just for this purpose.  We'll have to get one!

And finally, my milk room.  (Thanks, Ann, for helping me get it together!)  Yesterday, I built a box around the electrical conduits that came out of the floor and to the breaker box.  It was a disaster waiting to happen when you put a bunch of electric "stuff" in close proximity to a creature as curious as a goat!  Those milk cans in the foreground were previously used as decoration flanking the entrance to the milkroom on the front of the barn, but since rainwater splashed off them, damaging even more of the barn siding, I won't put them back there again.  I think when the goats come and I get some good photos for redoing our logo (Nubian rather than Alpine), I may paint the milk cans and put the logo on them and then use them for decor elsewhere...  front of property?  Flower bed?  Not certain yet, but I love old milk cans, so I'll find something to do with them!  One day, I may get a second milk stand to go where the milk cans are currently sitting, and then two goats can be milked at once. 

I need to clean the grain bins that hang on the milkstand and in the buck pen as well as the mineral feeders and some bucket lids that are just grimy from sitting in the barn.  Mineral feeders need to be rehung, but that's about it!  David built a trap door in the hay loft yesterday that will allow me to feed hay to the does without handling it so much.  It's fancy shmancy and I adore it!  :)  Other than that, we moved all the extra wood (lots of 2x4s and 2x6s) out of the barn and pens, swept (and scraped) the doe barn floor (it could use pressure washing or something, darn chickens!) and David did some mowing and limb cutting...  but I'll share about that later.  :)

We are not totally finished with all that there is to do to this barn...  David bought a ceiling fan made for barns to go in the doe barn and some barn lighting for the doe barn, milk room, and buck barn, and chicken coop.  They have yet to get wired and installed.  We also want to pour some more concrete in the front of the barn.  I imagine that we'll pick a nice day when we can lock the goats out of the barn to finish up the electrical, and a nice day when we can lock the goats in the barn to finish the concrete, but everything that must be in place is ready!  Well, my milk machine is sitting in my living room (all freshly cleaned and shiny!), and tools need to go back in the shed instead of milk room, and I do need to get those mineral feeders rehung...  but we're very close!!!