if one is good

will two be better?

Sambucus certainly thinks so.

Yo! We gonna do this thing, or what?

Yes, Bui. We are going to add a second section to the new shelter, before the paint is even dry on the original. So to speak. If there was any paint involved. Which there is not. Anyway.

It would have been easier to build a double-panel shelter in the first place, with a continuous floor. But I didn't want to risk wasting money and materials on an experimental design. If the single-panel worked well, perhaps in the Spring a larger floored shelter would be built.

I didn't expect to feel so confident about its usefulness right away. But I did. I do. Already.

So yesterday afternoon I made another set of joists and connected another arched stockpanel to the first. The only real decision was whether to tear out the first floor and replace it with 9-foot planks that would run the entire depth, or to make a second floor section that would butt against the first but not be connected to it.

This feels weird. I like the first floor better!

Seriously!  Worst.Cavalletti.Ever!!  

Can you guess which I did? Here's a hint: I hate to waste lumber and I hate to waste time pulling nails out of lumber so it can be saved for another project. Especially nails that were driven less than one week ago.

Right! Separate floor, coming up.

The only "plus" to having the two separate floors (by the way, if I have one talent it is finding the "plus") is that there are now two bungalow "modules" that can be quickly disconnected to make two single-panel shelters if needed.

It began to rain during the above pictures, so the tarp went up and the floor went down quickly. Betula helped, remaining at my elbow even as I was driving nails into the very boards beneath his feet and my knees. This was quite surprising, as goats do not enjoy loud or percussive noises. I was touched by the voluntary participation. Way to teamwork, Bet!

No picture of the end result, because by the time I had picked up tools, it was nearly dark. But when I got to the house and looked out the window, both young mamas and their girls were already settled right down in their improved shelter. Success!

~~~

Pssst!

Tired of goat bungalows and falling foliage, dear readers?

Take heart: there will be a little giveaway coming up very soon!

~~~~~

wordless wednesday

~~~~~

destiny

LOL for a Monday! http://t.co/ZSIr4wbLGA

  — Muriel B (@QuiltingMuriel) October 28, 2013

Reading this on twitter made me laugh out loud.

Which brought Piper charging across the room, tail wagging, to fling herself down directly in front of my chair.

 Enough said?

 ~~~~~

free books

This may be one of those things that everybody already knows about. I am quite often late to the party.

Except that one time when I was hours early because I had the time wrong, and those people never invited me again, which makes me feel a bit foolish and sad.

Ahem.

Onward.

Here's something I find quite useful from time to time. And the price is definitely right!

Audiobooks are daily fare here, but a while back I wanted to read a book that was only available as a e-book. Rats. I don't have a Kindle or a tablet. My cellphone is a very basic pay-for-use, and while it may be smarter than me, it is certainly not a "smartphone." (To be honest, I'm not even sure what makes a smartphone "smart." Maybe my next phone will tell me.)

But I really wanted to read that book. So after doing a little poking around on the internet, I discovered and downloaded the free Kindle Reading App for my laptop.

Because here's what I didn't know: Amazon offers a free Kindle Reading application for all sorts of not-a-Kindle devices. See here, and click to embiggen:

It was So Easy. Also, Fast.

Also - did I mention? - Free.

And in keeping with the "free" theme running through this post, here's the bonus: you can also download free books from Amazon.

Amazon sells a quadrazillion books, of course, but they also offer loads of free e-books - thousands! - in all sorts of categories; everything from Jane Austen to gardening books. The list changes frequently. The search function works well.

For example, this morning I searched for "free kindle books canning preserving." Here are the search results, again with the clicking and embiggening:

Important: many books are free for a very short time and will soon revert to their usual price. So if you see something interesting, best download it immediately. I missed out on a book about dehydrating last week, but today I'll download several books on preserving.

These e-books will live quietly in my laptop library, perhaps until a snowy evening spent planning the next garden and feeding the woodstove.

And at that point, if a book doesn't look useful, a click will delete it. So much better than dusting the bookshelves (not a high priority task here, as you might imagine) and trying to decide - again - whether to keep a book I haven't opened since 1989.

If you haven't tried this app and would like to check it out, here's a link that should take you there.

Have fun! And if you find any special treasures, please come back and share them in the comments :)

~~~~~

floored

Stockpanel shelters are very useful to me: they are inexpensive, quick to construct, and can be taken apart and reassembled in a different location or configuration. And this is key: as long as I can drive fenceposts and out-wrestle the wonderful but awkward 16' stock panels, I can put up these arched bungalows by myself – Requirement #1 for most projects here.

Recognize these tykes? It's Violet and Lily of the Valley, at just 5 days old. Their Mama, LeShodu, gave birth to them in that crude-but-cozy, rainproof, bug-screened bungalow.

The basic idea is simple, and you've probably seem similar shelters used for everything from extending a growing season to housing a flock of hens. Google "stock panel hoop house" and prepare to be inspired. Many designs are much nicer than mine, and maybe someday I'll come up with something that does more than keep the goats comfortable. But that will be Someday.

"2x4 local roughcut: Check."

Meanwhile, despite the rough-and-ready appearance of my goat bungalows, the goats seem to enjoy them. I've built them wide and low, narrow and tall, one panel or two panels deep, with and without gates, with rain flaps and bugscreens, etc., etc. With each new shelter, I tinker with some aspect of the design and then spend the next few seasons watching to see what works structurally (especially with snow), and what features the goats utilize.

My goats have multiple options for shelter, but generally spend most of their time outside anyway - even on the current cold nights, for example, they are choosing to sleep out in the paddock. But rain is a problem. Goats don't like to get wet and it is not healthy for them, so it's very important that they can get under cover when they choose. And since unnecessary squabbling between the goats puts an equally unnecessary line between my eyebrows, I'd rather just build extra shelters than have goats pushing each other around over one "best" spot.

Violet and Lily again - all grown up! - assessing materials.

One problem with shelters built on the ground: during long wet seasons, the ground gets soggy. Continually adding extra hay for bedding is costly, wasteful, and not terribly effective anyway. I tried putting a piece of plywood under the bedding in the a-frame chalet last year, but it wasn't much of an answer - turned into sort of a muck-and-plywood sandwich.

This Spring, I added a 4" high plywood platform in the middle of one bungalow, and got much closer to a solution. The platform has been both popular with the goats (LeShodu considers it her Royal Dais, but others have a turn) and effective in regards to mud. Also - bonus! - it created a very easy way to collect straight goat poop every day. A couple of swipes and a shovelful of pellets go straight into the nearest garden, a few strides away.

"Post-driver: Check."

My latest design modification is something I've never seen or heard of, and it may or may not be a good idea. We'll see! It's a simple wooden floor that is tied in to the stockpanel "walls" for maximum stability and function, and which is also raised slightly off the ground to reduce the time the wood will be in contact with moisture during wet seasons. (Snow is a different matter, but also not a real concern in terms of soggy ground.)

This week I built the prototype.

Ta-dah!

Of course, I had help. Lots and lots of help.

I used a couple of lead ropes to hold the bent panel in an arch while I fitted the first joist. Tsuga tried several approaches to untying that knot. Can you see the determined set of her jaw?

The inspectors, carefully checking clearances:
Acer, the ceiling, Betula, the floor.

~~~

Not quite finished, but time for a Test Drive!

~~~

One goat...

Two goats...

Three goats and a fourth on the way...

I built this floored protoype as a single-panel shelter, to limit the time and materials wasted if it's a bust. I thought maybe one of the does would claim it as a "private luxury apartment" for herself and her kid/s. It will be funny if a big group decides to abandon the larger shelters and cram themselves into this small one!

Let the testing begin.

~~~~~