Winterizing

 
Jeremiah and I installed the new tarps on the front of the barn this weekend. They are re-purposed used billboard tarps that we cut, installed grommets on and hung up.

I don't mind the open front barn much at all. I love it 3 seasons out of the year. I don't love it in the winter! However, the winter clothes we put on the barn should solve a lot of the issues I was having last winter. One of them was the wind. Cold is one thing. Wind with a side order of cold is quite another. Secondly, rain and snow during the worst of storms can blow half way into this 40' deep barn! That's somewhat of an issue when the goats only get the front 20', know what I mean?

We reconfigured the barn out of necessity for hay storage. If you'll remember, last year we removed all the old wood that had been used to keep horses stalled in the front half and hay was stored in the back 1/4 and the tack room in the other 1/4. I didn't like that the goats could (and did) congregate in the back 1/4 of the barn once we changed it, it was really hard to clean out and so we've changed it yet again they're delegated back to the front portion but they get both sides. I'll also get 2 kidding stalls instead of just the one now. Plus too, with all that hay in the back of the barn (which is the north side) it's built in insulation so it should be that much warmer in there come winter! We're so smart right?

Anyway, we have some tarps to install on the 2 lean to structures that house the bucks but we ran out of grommets and I'll have to order more. Lowes carries them but you have to buy the whole kit. We have two now. I don't need any of the tools to install the grommets. I need JUST the grommets!

We got one last load of hay in this morning (Monday). It was delivered this time! We have enough for sure but in my ongoing quest to find the least inexpensive way to keep the animals fed in the most optimal way, I wanted to try some prairie hay instead of the brome and alfalfa I have been feeding for the past year. Prairie is usually a bit cheaper especially in the round bales like we bought. I have over 100 square bales of brome in the barn that I'll probably sell when the first snow hits as I won't need all of it. We still have 100 bales of alfalfa in the shop sitting on the trailer that we need to unload!

It's a good feeling though, especially with the lack of hay everywhere, that we're overstocked for winter. It's such a huge loads off of our minds, I tell ya. It's taken a year to find good suppliers for hay and has been one of the major hurdles for us but we can finally let out a sigh of relief.