Many of you are already aware that the doe barn has been a challenge for us for quite some time. We have made many repairs to keep it going, but then in the last storm, it was reduced to a pile of rubble.
Bailey and I looked at several options, and talked a good while with her Daddy. We decided to use some skids Charlie had brought home fro the base (they were going to throw them away), along with uprights and roofing, to construct a shelter that would keep out the elements but not get too hot during the Summer. Bailey got busy drawing plans, and with me on Spring Break from teaching college this week, Charlie agreed to spend time setting it up with us. We might not have it all set up right away, but since we believe Silver to be bred, we cannot rely on the shelter of the kidding pen for much longer!
Charlie works really late, and we got started tearing the old barn down and gave him a chance to sleep a bit. We had framed out the inside of the shed before to keep it working as a barn, so we had to take it apart as best we could.
Here she is pulling old screws and moving the railroad ties from the edge so we could move fence panels.
The does are protesting their temporary smaller digs by squeezing all of them into the little brown house in the kidding pen and giving dirty looks...
The presently have about half of what they usually do, but plenty of food, water and she. They will be glad to have their toys back when we finish though!
Charlie used the quad to drag the skids in, then the boys helped stack the metal for reuse and the railroad ties for later evaluation.
It looks rather empty there! Although you likely have to look hard to see it, the farm Quality Assurance team (aka the Geese) came through for a first walk through, as they do with every project around here.
After the skids were drug in, we worked as a team to put them in place on bricks, and braced them in place since we had been unable to pick up the uprights first. The uprights will be attached Thursday, and then we will add the roof supports and the third wall of their structure.
Though accidentally, it looks like the does will gain some living and playing pace from the makeover, which I imagine they will love once their other toys go back in!
We are still reforming this panel, which was twisted int he mess when the storm hit the barn. Bailey constructed this section of the temporary pen so the does have as much access as possible to the smaller play area.
This is their temporary pen, about 20x40 for the three does. We cannot wait to see this project come together!
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