Goat Barn Remodel (again)

I see I haven't written anything since before the winter solstice.  The shortest days of winter leading up to the holidays affect me that way.  Not really Seasonal Affective Disorder but just that general malaise that seems to infiltrate in as winter settles in.  Maybe it is my body's way to rest up after many busy months on the farm.  However, this second week of January has felt more like spring than winter so I took the opportunity to resume work on my goat-barn remodel.  A brief review....last spring we built a "summer barn" and fenced in new pasture for the goats.  You can read about that here (or just look at the next picture).

Original barn.

This summer, I started rethinking my goat management.  I wanted to downsize my milking herd, and consolidate milking, feed storage and doe housing into one structure.  I concluded that the summer barn would be the location that would work the best since it is connected to a fenced pasture and is convenient to the house and electricity.  After I moved the goats to a different barn for the winter, I resumed work on it here and there in October and November with the goal of getting a roof over the addition for the milk and feed rooms. I pretty much stopped when it reached this point although in early December I was able to add a few floor joists where my ladder is positioned.  Looking at the pictures you can see that the barn has several different floor levels.  This is mostly because it started out as a small shed in our backyard. In order to keep it from dominating the landscape, I kept it as low as feasible but tall enough that I could walk around inside without cracking my head on the rafters.  In order to add an additional roof in front, I had to drop the floor to retain headroom.  The other complicating factor was that it really wasn't designed to have an addition so the framing was difficult. I think the moral of this story is that sometimes it is good to have a long-term plan.




While the building is somewhat "open", I'll share my plans with you.  The area in front where there is a floor showing will be the feed storage area. From this area I will be able to feed hay directly to the goats.  I am planning to build hay feeders that will allow the hay to fall on the "clean" side of the floor to minimize waste.  The feed room is about 8 x 10.  I can store a few bales of hay and a couple of cans for alfalfa pellets and grain.  It will have an outside entrance to facilitate bring feed in without help from the goats. The area under me with no floor (yet) is going to be the milk room.  It will be closed off from the rest of the barn so that it will stay clean.  It will have a bit of storage for goat supplies and I am planning to have a heat source that I can turn on while I am milking on cold days.  It will have an entrance for me through the feed room and an entrance for the goats from the "barn" side.  The milk room is a bit smaller and is about 6 x 10. The area to the back is for the goats.  The entire barn is about 17 x 17.

Well lo and behold, now in early January we are experiencing one of those warm spells that makes my construction juices start flowing and since it was supposed to last for a week or so I decided this was an excellent time to resume work.  My goals for the week were to complete the floor for the milk room, put siding up on the outer walls to keep the weather out, frame the interior walls for the feed and milk rooms, and paint the milk and feed room floors.  As of yesterday I completed those goals and I think it will be warm enough today to put a second coat of paint on the floor.  Winter is set to resume in a day or so and I am thankful for the opportunity to get outside and shake off those winter doldrums, even if it is just for a few days.  Oh and by the way, here are a few pictures of the barn in its current state.

Goat entrance (board gate) and feed room entrance (where extension cord is).

View from feed room door.  The area straight ahead is for the goats.
The stud wall on the right is  the milk room wall.
The plywood "wall" in the middle is just temporary storage for sheet goods.
That area will be pen for the goats.

Painted floor for the feed room (foreground) and milk room (background).
The board floor is goat area.

The framing for the wall between the milk and feed rooms remains to be constructed.

Just for fun I was looking for a picture and came across this one taken three years ago today.

Our waterfall Jan 13, 2010.

Today it is supposed to reach 70 degrees.

Drawer Pulls and Such

When Don and I bought our current farm in 1996, it had a house that was not really livable but too good to tear down.  We decided to rebuild the old place while we were living in the 7-sided house just a few miles down the road.  We completed sections of the house in stages over the course of years and finally moved in during 001. 

We discovered that when one is trying to get a house to the point of being able to move in, a few little teeny-tiny things seem to get put on the back burner...like steps to the upstairs, well in fact the entire upstairs, and a kitchen.  We slept in every corner of our downstairs (very open floor plan) as we worked on completing various projects, such as a kitchen.  We did have a temporary cooking space in our sunroom that consisted of a hot plate on a sagging table.  It was pretty bare-bones for people that live too far from town for take-out.  So as you might imagine, just getting to the point of having a kitchen became a high priority.  We designed and built all our cabinets and planed all the lumber for the floor, a process that kept us cooking in the temporary kitchen for a good while longer than we wanted.  When it was finally "finished" we abandoned the old kitchen with great glee, except the new kitchen wasn't quite finished.  I embraced the "openness" of my pull-out shelves and dared Don to put doors on them.  He conceded that point but we both agreed it woud be a nice touch to actually get oak drawer fronts attached to the drawer frames. That conversation was so long ago now that I don't even remember what year it was.  Poor Don, who likes to actually finish things and is living with a person who can overlook minor details, finally took the bull by the horns and decided to finish the drawer fronts with or without my blessing.  Don cut rough-sawn oak, planed and put a finish on the drawer fronts and set them aside so we could discuss "hardware".  That was last year.  Somebody who shall remain nameless, dragged her feet, never providing input on hardware so last month Don, in a last attempt to engage me, presented me with his options for drawer pulls.  We settled on the rustic look and lo and behold we now have drawer fronts!  Thank you Don!  They look wonderful except now we both have to retrain ourselves to use them.


Our kitchen.

Cabinets without drawer fronts.

Cabinets with drawer fronts.



Oak drawer fronts with willow handles.

Pottery, Furniture, and a Good Time Part 2

Thanksgiving weekend found us on the banks of the Coal River at Lower Falls near St. Albans, WV at another pottery open house.  Christie Berry of the Brass Bell Pottery graciously invites us to spend the weekend of Thanksgiving with her at her camp/studio/gallery so we can sell our soap and rustic furniture during her open house.  Christie is a talented artist in several media but her pottery is her passion.  Some of her signature vases and trays feature a raised acorn/oak leaf motif.  She is also becoming well known for her other designs as well.  It is always fun to see familiar faces that come to buy Christie's wonderful stoneware and also our furniture and this year, our soap.  If you missed it this year, please come and browse the gallery with me.

The Brass Bell studio and gallery.



Christie's pottery and my rustic lamp.
























Gold pottery.



Lovely sage green stoneware.

Some of our rustic furniture.

Soap of various kinds.

More stoneware.

Don's hand-carved bowls on a rustic table.

One of Christie's many unique designs.

I hope you enjoyed your tour.  Please plan to join us next year at Lower Falls for for a fun and relaxing shopping experience.  Come spend black Friday and shop-small Saturday with us and just maybe there will be fresh oatmeal cookies to munch on while you stroll the gallery if you get there before we eat them all!