Make-shift Shelter

Vet2Be and I built this make-shift shelter for two of the goats. Hubby didn't realize that when I said we needed one more shelter for winter that I really meant it.

So this one is built out of straw bales that we got for free. Since it is for goats, we had to stack the bales as if they were legos so that they wouldn't be easy to knock over. The boxes are filled with straw and are just like the little, square legos that the kids use to fill in the sides.

Here's a view of the back. Lots of rocks, pieces of cement, and junk holding down the sides of the tarp so it doesn't blow away in the wind storms.

The front entrance. Vet2Be and I call the spot to the left the 'kitchen' because we put their hay inside.

It's very cozy and warm inside. It fits the two goats very well. Annie was born this spring, so she is only about 100lbs now and can walk inside the door without scraping her back. She is being bred to Curly who is two, but still not full grown. They can both stand inside and lay down with a little bit of wiggle room.

We really only need the shelter for a few more weeks while Curly is here. He's just visiting Annie for about a month. We'll probably leave the shelter up all winter, though and throw the straw into the garden in the spring.

Quick and Easy Shelter

A few weeks ago Vet2Be and I built this quick and easy shelter. It did very well through the snow that we had a few days after we put it up. It did surprisingly well in the wind storm that came a few days later.

We were told about this type of shelter from someone who uses them for cattle on the range in the winter. We needed a way to keep the rain and snow off a feeder in this pen. The little red goat house works well for the goats to get out of the weather, but it is much too small to put their food in. It was built for Nigerian Dwarf goats for a fancy facility down the road. They decided that they wanted something different for their Nigies. Commercial operations have a bit more cash available so that they can change their minds. Being the cheapskate that I am, I said that I would love to have it! The full-size dairy buck that we have doesn't have any problems getting on his knees, crawling inside the little goat house, and turning around. It surprises most people who come to visit that two full sized goats can fit inside.

It took Vet2Be and me about an hour to put this up. It took one wire livestock fence panel, two 5' x 8' tarps, lots of 'farmer's friend' (baling twine), three stakes, and two 4' T-posts. It is erected so that the north wind hits the tarps.

We've used it for over a month now and it keeps the hay out of the weather very well. The goats like stand under it to get out of the sun as well as to stay out of the rain. The only thing we would have done differently is to use two wire panels side by side. It would have made the shelter twice as big.

You can see the two T-posts that hold up the fencing in this photo. This side of the fencing is also held down by three 12" metal tent stakes. We can get some fierce winds in our town and I would hate to see this turn into a kite and take off down to the neighbors.

We tied the other end to the existing fencing. If we hadn't had existing fencing we would have used two more T-posts to hold the other side down. You can see the white salt block in the feeder--the goats don't pull the feeder all over the pen with a 50 lb block of salt in it, and the salt block keeps them from using the feeder as a bed.

This is the same type of structure we built for our quick and easy grape arbor (but without the tarps), which worked very well this summer! If I still had little children at home, I would probably put up another one over the sand box in the summer.

I also think it would work well to store wood out of the weather. We use tarps to cover the wood right now, but I think that this would work much better because there would be no tarps sitting on top of the wood pile. If we have time, Vet2Be and I might get around to building one for the wood and then moving the wood-pile. We'll see if there is time before winter hits this weekend.

There is always something more to do!

If you have any other ideas for this type of shelter, I would love to hear them!