The goats stall in the barn!

Today I just wanted to share the goat's stall with you! My husband built it inside the old pole barn with some help from my brother! I'm so happy with how it turned out. It seemed so much smaller before we brought the girls home because they were just so tiny in it! I keep them in here at night but during the day all the animals come in and out as they please to get out of the wind and this cold weather!

Building the floor! 

After he added the door! 

Then he built a fun jungle gym for them inside so they had lots of room to climb and play and sleep! He added chicken wire behind it so they couldn't jump our or hurt themselves! 

Their hay is in that plastic bin with holes so they can get it without making a big mess. They really don't waste that much of it. I have 2 bowls under it on the crate so what does fall out goes in there to easily clean up. Then their mineral block, and more minerals and baking soda in the black section. A pail of water and a chair for me to sit in when I visit and play with them! Although they use the chair more than I do! 

He had this great idea to create a sliding door to let them in and out of. I still need to paint it! The only hassle is that hay, mud, poop and all that gets stuck in the track and I have to clean it out to close it all the way. But it's easy to let them in and out of! 

There it is! The goats room and play area inside the barn! Next time I'll be sharing what the outside pen looks like and what they all have out their to play on! It's changed a few times as we adjust to having our herd living together! 

Thanks for reading! ~The Vela Homestead

Welcoming home Brooklyn and Bailey! Twin nigerian dwarf goat doelings!

Hi ya'll! I'm so excited to be writing this blog today! Well, I'm always excited to write new blogs about my little ladies, but today, I get to talk about our twin Nigerian Dwarf Goat doelings! Brooklyn and Bailey! They are just the sweetest little girls! I thought I was nervous getting chickens, but goats have taken things to a whole other level! Rumens, bloat, bottles! There is so much to know and to look out for. Once again I joined every goat group on Facebook that I could find, bought tons of books and visited countless websites searching and reading for hours on what to do, and what not to do, and just like with the chickens there was so much conflicting information out there it made my head spin! After researching it was time to look for our new goaties! Wethers, doelings, bucklings? Kids or adult? After searching some sale sites I found the perfect little pair for our family! I didn't want to start with newborns and bottle babies. I wanted them to stay with mom first. Which is what we did. Out girls were born on July 1st 2017 and were just as cute as ever! I really wanted girls with blue eyes, and because they were twins they were born together and could always be together! I thought that would also make the transition to our farm a little easier because they would stay together. Anyway, at 1 week old we got to meet the girls for the first time! I couldn't believe how teeny tiny they were!

Bailey!

Brooklyn!

 Aren't they so tiny? 

 I loved them the moment I laid eyes on them!

They didn't come home until they were 8 weeks old! Here are some photos from their first day with us! They explored everything! 

Isn't she the cutest? Brooklyn is always photo ready these days!

I hope you enjoyed seeing our girls! I will be sharing more of their past few months here with us in some future blogs but didn't want to post too many pictures today! Do you have goats? What's your favorite thing about them?

Thanks for reading! ~The Vela Homestead