Sunday, January 30, 2011

An Animal Weekend

I've spent two whole days repairing and improving my little barn. I've been wanting to do this for ages and the time has come!

It was such a beautiful weekend - especially today. I put the baby dove and my daughter's parakeets outside to catch some much-needed vitamin D. Then I went straight to work on the barn.





My barn is made out of chipwood. I've painted it with oil paint 5 times in 10 years and it continues to flake. I started covering it with tar paper yesterday but had to stop when I ran out of staples. I got the right side done, and the door.



Since I was out of staples, I decided to replace the bottom board on the door. I also put new nails on the interior door braces, so now it's a little more solid. Animals are rough on things!!



Today all the little animals were excited - especially the chickens. Chickens are very curious little creatures and want to be near you, believe it or not. They were all scratching around in an area that had been blocked off to them for a while. I started rolling out the tar paper and measuring. I had lots of company.




Here is Tinkerbell just on the outside of the pen where I was working. She wanted to make sure I was doing things to her satisfaction. She stayed near me most of the day.



This was the difficult side. I had to take apart the entire pen. Removing the wood posts from the barn was hard. But what was harder was getting the little "pop" door off - and back on so the hole lined up.



Lilly and Lola are checking out my toolbox...

They are so close to me here...and decided to come in.



They insisted on being in the chicken pen once I got it reconfigured. Maybe they liked the cozy size.






Lilly got quite close to me several time.s



And don't you know she started chewing the tar paper off! Little stinker!!

The girls see Princess outside the fence. Their hackles stood straight up and Lilly kept snorting a warning to Princess. Lola was stomping. Look at their little tails straight up in the air.




Before I got the goats, this tar paper would have been all I needed to do. Now that the two little goats are here, I'll eventually put some siding over the paper. But till then, I'll need to protect the paper so will be getting some tall chicken wire tomorrow to staple on top of the paper. Ugh - my figers are so sore already.

The trees need to have their trunks wrapped in wire. Goats love to chew trees...and most everything else.
I'm going to have to wire off these big roots, or they'll get destroyed. This is one of the major shade providers and is an important tree in the pasture.


I really wanted to do a little stitching tonight but my hands are sore from working with tar paper and wire. And my fingers are a little swollen and stiff. I need to go to bed but don't feel tired or sleepy yet. I guess once I crawl into my bed with clean sheets, I'll fall asleep soon - I hope.

Poor Princess is absolutely exhausted from being outside all day. Poor old girl.

I hope you all had a good weekend and some nice weather too!

8 comments:

Kritter Keeper at Farm Tails said...

oh wow, you really worked hard! bad little goats for chewing your paper..lol, that is kind of funny. we don't have goats but they are so cute!

Amy, a redeemed sheep said...

I am very impressed with all of your hard work!

Patty Sumner said...

Wow! Lots of work accomplished. It looks as if Lily and Lola have taken to you and their new home. Take care of those animals...after all, God did make us caretakers of those type of things. What a good example you are. Blessings!

Tammy@T's Daily Treasures said...

Wow Phyllis! You were busy. Hard work indeed! Looks it was perfect weather for it though. All those animals are so lucky to have you to care for them. I am sure with all the work you did, your adrenaline was pumping -- but I bet it felt good to slip into a nice, warm, comfortable bed. Hope your hands are feeling much better today. Best wishes and blessings, Tammy

Soggibottom said...

Love to see all the animals. You have GOATS ? :-) Oh, got to come back here. :-) x x x

Anonymous said...

Phyllis, every time I read your animal posts I just want to hug you! AND all your critters too!
Hugs, Diane

Cat said...

Funny how you have such an audience when you work - such good company! Rest up those fingers/hands now!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for stopping by! Too bad the little goats couldn't help you by putting the tar paper 'up' instead of helping you by taking it down! My sister has nigerian dwarfs and they are very cute :) Hopefully your fingers are feeling better now!