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

Building our pen and coop!

Yesterday I talked all about our turkeys. Today I'm going to talk about our chickens! First we knew we would need a pen and coop for them to live in, so we had an adorable custom chicken coop made. Michigan can get pretty cold, and I wasn't sure about predators out here, so to be safe I wanted something pretty secure that would lock up nice and tight! My husband, brother and my oldest son built the pen and my daughter and I painted the coop and the boards for the pen! It was a fun group effort to bring this place to life and get it ready for our chicks!
Here is a progression of photos of our pen and coop build! I hope you enjoy!

Before paint!

Building the pen!

Paining boards

Finished pen!

And the coop after paining and adding a flower box! 

I really love the barn red color and all the green grass! Although with 12 chickens the green grass didn't last long :) I hope you enjoyed a tour of our little homestead in the making!



Thanks for reading! ~The Vela Homestead