winter shelter

[picklespickles]

it is very windy today. and the wind is coming off a strange angle, too. like at one corner of my house. usually, always, comes off the other side. so who knows what the weather will do.

anyway. checked billygoat and dog companion housing and it looks superb even with wind. one end of tarp was flipping a little, so i put logs around the bottom of it again that they had pushed around while playing.

because it had flipped up a little, though, i could see them in there under the tarp from over my fence. they were so cute. and just hanging out. you could tell they thought it was their home. the dog was stretched out and looking interestingly at the billygoat who must have been saying something very important.

yeah. my stinky babies are safe in their hobo housing!

 

[nccountrygirl]

I use cable ties to lock my tarp down, it works great. No more flapping in the wind.

 

[picklespickles]

i don't honestly know what a cable tie is.....

 

[picklespickles]

it has been snowing early this morning. so of course it is warmer right now. i do like that.

the boy goat and the dog were out in it. they seem to use the shelter more for wind. and the goat for rain. the dog doesnt' care about rain.

it's funny how snow seems so much colder if you think about it, but when you experience it, it's actually happening during a warm period with the cloud cover and such. gets really cold here when the clouds blow away up against those blue, blue skies.

i have been pacing out where i'm going to put "stalls" for lack of a better word in the barn. i think i'll go with the basic structure itself for right now and make grand use of corners. also, will leave the abandoned couch in there as the oldest nanny goat loves a soft spot. it is she who sits on the blue recliner on my porch.

then, there has got to be a protective wall for the duck to get out of the way of all the hubbub.

i don't intend to feed them inside as i figure just more poop to clean up that way.

there is a window that i like looking out of sometime. wonder if i can put a plastic lawn chair high up enough on a nail or something that it might be safe to pull down and sit in in the evenings. could happen.

i was able to get most of the last of the sharp framing off the door way so in case the waterfowl wander in there their feet will be safe. it's all off the bottom and the low sides but still some on the top. actually considering trying to cut through the metal and just leaving the last bit on the top. would have to be easier on my back. crow bar carey, here.

 

[IHeartChickens]

I just loved reading this thread from beginning to end. I love the way you write Pickles. I can see everything in my mind's eye the way you describe it.

 

[nccountrygirl]

Quote:
pickles, they are know by many names, wire ties, cable ties, they are plastic ties that you pull into itself, they lock shut. You can get them at any Lowes or even Big Lots has them. Laura

http://images.search.yahoo.com/sear...&tt=28,297&oid=ab556ba2b67adcf8&ei=ISO-8859-1

 

[picklespickles]

cool. thanks to you both.

 

[picklespickles]

the second installment of meet the animals.......

meet the geese


who are the geese. well, originally they were hideous geese who attacked the people who owned them. that is why i was able to trade one old chicken for two large geese. lol.

not knowing anything about geese, when i first saw them and mr goose looked at me like he might bite, i automatically reached out and clamped my hand on his beak. no you don't.

i held til he pulled away. then he just stood there and hung out. the guy kept looking at me. since i had just met him five seconds ago, i said UH, WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT.

he said, um, you are the first person that goose never attacked.

i thought, well, i am a left leaning bleeding heart liberal but that doesn't mean i'm going to be a bleeding LEGGED liberal from some darn goose biting me. lol. i mean really.

so, they've come to live here. they swim in the mud hole it took me a billion years to dig and they love it. they hang out with the duck and boss the chickens.

they honk. and then they honk somemore. then they go wade in the mudhole or fall asleep on the dirt pile and i love them again.

like kids. you hate them when they're awake. but asleep, well, they're not so bad. the boy goose was truly almost thanksgiving dinner but he pulled that aren't i cute when i'm asleep thing and save himself a lot more than he will ever know.

will probably eat his babies, my grandbabies, next year, though.

 

[picklespickles]

it turns out that the dog and goat do indeed like their hobo hut enough to stay. while i was gone for a day and a half (?) due to work and family they got out.

last time i had to be away for a day, i tied the gate shut which they had newly learned to undo. well, they haven't done it since for the whole week, so i figured well, it was just a fluke.

but as it turned out, the dog stayed in his yard even with the gate wide open. not saying she didnt' go out and visit anyone, but she was truly in her yard when i pulled up. yeah. she is being tamed from wild street dog. (warning don't try this at home. lol.) the neighbor actually she said she enjoyed my dog visting her dog so send her over anytime.

and billygoat. well.........lucky for me billygoat both thinks with his stomach (where i come in) and something else (where the girl goats come in). he was just hanging outside their fence smoking a cigarette asking them out to the movies when the neighbors saw him and stuck him in the girls fence. goodness only knows what ensued, well, i do know, but uh, yeah. well.......... go to the x movie and you can figure it out. today, he is back in his yard, mooning over his day of infamy in the movie business. one girl looks through the fence longingly at him and you can tell she's glad she got her ticket punched.

 

[johnnyjack]

whats new pickles? you ok