The Great Goat Adventure - Part 2....The Goat Shed

So....I told you last time about how we installed the fence for the goats.  Well, let me tell you about my finest achievement....the goat shed!!!

My oldest daughter, Brianna, and I decided that we were going to build it inexpensively (well, truth be told, our pocketbook decided that we would build it inexpensively!!), so we read about using old wooden pallets.

Farmer Willie took off for the feed stores, plant stores and tractor supply stores to gather pallets that they were getting rid of.  Finding pallets was actually a bit more difficult than I thought it would be.  It seems that most places recycle their pallets (which is good for the environment, but makes it a bit more difficult if you are looking for free pallets!).

Luckily for me, my dad kept his eyes open and found me some as well!!

Pallets are accumulated....now we move to step two....planning!

Well, when you are building a goat shed with pallets, the first step in planning is to look at what materials you have....check!

Then you move into the sketching it out, planning what you need part.....ummmm, I don't like doing that so we skipped that portion!!!  :)  (drives Farmer Willie C-R-A-Z-Y!!)

Alrighty, so we have a bunch of pallets, screws, nuts and bolts and we set to work!!  For the walls, we lined up two pallets for each side wall, three for the back wall, and bolted them together.

We made three walls like this and then attached the walls to each other at 90* angles using L brackets.

Oops!  Look who snuck into the photos!!  Cutie pie!!

Anyways, back to the shed....after attaching the three walls together, we attached one more pallet in the front for a half wall.  I know that I am not describing it well, so just take a look!!

Why oh why do they have to make a point to take pictures of me when I am not looking my normal, chic self??!!??

Okay, so you see the 1/2 wall in the front with the opening for the door.

Next we attached some wood pieces to the front "beams" to raise the front of the roof a bit in order to assist with drainage.  After that we started to add the roof boards.

Let me tell you, I have always hated the part of building where you have to take exact measurements and then cut these crazy accurate angles in order to make the roof.  Then I discovered the....BRACKET section at Lowe's!!! 

Oh my goodness, I can attach anything to anything and NEVER have to cut an angle!!!!

Anyways, Bri and I used the brackets to attach the roof boards and it looked something like this....

After attaching the vertical roof boards, we came back through and attached some horizontal ones that we could attach the metal roofing material to.

I used some scrap wood that we had for the 2x4's, but I did have to go and purchase the brackets and metal roofing.



Then it was time for the roof to go on!  In my opinion, this was the most difficult part as it was hard to screw through the metal and then into the wood, even though Bri and I used screws that were made for that.  Oh, and if you use metal for roofing, be careful!!  The edges are sharp!!!

 

 So now we have walls and a roof, but you might have noticed that there were large gaps in-between the boards of the pallets.  We wanted some gaps to promote air flow, but not so many that they were not protected from rain.

We were not too worried about cold wind as we live in Texas and we don't have much of that around these parts!!  :)

To cover the gaps, we pulled boards off of extra pallets and attached them to the walls.

 Let me tell you, pulling those boards off of the extra pallets was WAYYYY more difficult than it looked!!  Those pallets are made to stay together!!!

So after we covered the outside of the shed, we were ready for some paint!  Well, at this point all of the girls wanted to be involved!  And, or course, what color should it be but RED!!!

So after a day full of hard work we were dirty...

Had gone a little crazy....

 Were a bit more cautious when picking up wood....

 And totally tuckered out!!!

But we had FUN....



And had a deep sense of satisfaction...

 

When we were able to look at this....

And know that it would keep these girls....

SAFE and having FUN!!

Proverbs 27:23, 26 "Be diligent to know the state of your flocks, And attend to your herds.  The lambs will provide your clothing, and the goats the price of the field."

The Great Goat Adventure - Part 1....The Fence!!

Hooray!!  They are finally here!!

Meet Nancy and April.....




This is Miss Nancy....

And...this is Miss April!!

 

They are La Mancha dairy goats and they are just the sweetest things!!

It took a couple of months for us to prepare for their arrival, but they are here now and filling our fridge with lots of yummy goat milk!

In preparation for their addition to our farm family, we had to install fencing and a goat shed.  That was a job! 

 

My sweet neighbor came over and used her tractor to dig our corner post holes!!



Okay, so her tractor is a bit larger than mine is!!

After digging the holes for all of the corner posts we went to work installing them.  After we set the first post, we decided to cover the post, fence and entire goating endeavor with prayer!  So we each wrote a verse, note, or prayer on the first post installed.

 Then, as a family, we prayed over it.

And now we were ready to roll!!

 
 Some of the holes needed widened, so there was still some grunt work to do!

After getting the holes ready we added river rock to help level the posts.  This is followed by an alternate pattern of concrete and water until the hole is full. 

We put our 8 foot posts 3 feet into the ground to increase the sturdiness of the fence.  Goats are known for being fence escape artists!!

Then it was time to insert the posts and level them.  William, Emi, and Brianna did the digging and pouring while Kalli and I were in charge of leveling.

 
Tori was in charge of taking pictures and taking care of the house for that week!!  She is not an outdoor kinda gal!!  :)

 

We were so blessed that William was able to take off work for the week to install the fence.  And it took almost every minute of that week!

It was dirty, hard work.....

And we were exhausted at the end of each day!!!

But spending the week with cuties like this....

And this....

 

And these.....

And ending up with a well-crafted goat fence that looks like this....

Makes it all worth it!!!!

In my next blog post, I will show you how we built the goat shed out of old wooden pallets!!

Do I REALLY Believe?

My first hint happened several years ago.  We had gone out to eat and my oldest daughter, who was around 12 at the time, started crying in the car after dinner.

Well, if you happen to have daughters, you will know that this is nothing new!  Someone is crying all of the time!  I was a bit surprised to see who was crying as she usually was the least dramatic of the four.

So being the good mom and all, I asked her what was wrong, her reply changed my life.

"I am so sad because our waiter was so kind and friendly and I am afraid that he might not be a Christian and end up spending eternity in Hell."

We spent about thirty minutes trying to help her feel better. 

We tried to explain that usually friendly people believe in God....that is what makes them friendly (total untrue pile of poop!). 

Then we moved on to the explanation that if he was not a Christian, he is so nice that we were sure SOMEONE would tell him about Christ. 

We ended the dramatic session by praying that God would send someone to tell him about Christ if he did not already know. 

Then it happened...you know,......the still small voice that you sometimes hear whisper when you are really quiet, or you hear it shouting when you are really wrong....said...."I just did."

"I sent someone to tell him, but they did not speak."

My mind went into defense mode.  I mean, what in the world did God expect me to do?  Just ask him?!  I would look like an idiot.  "Hello Mr. Waiter, do you know that Jesus died for you and wants to offer you eternal life?"  Really??!!

I was able to quiet the voice enough to eventually forget about it....for a while.

Several years later we took a family mission trip.  My thoughts were that we would go, help do what we could, and come home feeling pretty good about ourselves.

A couple of things happened to change my thoughts.

1.  The organization we went through believes mission trips are for full frontal evangelism.  You might do some work to help around a bit, but the main purpose is to form relationships and share Jesus.  Unfortunately I found that out AFTER we had already paid all of our money!

2.  Months before the trip we began to pray a dangerous prayer.  The one where you ask God to help you see others the way He sees them.  To feel the way He feels.  It sounded good at the time.

3.  God was faithful, as He always is, and we did see and feel the way He did and we fell in love with the people we went there to witness to. 

A strange thing happens when you love people the way that God loves.  You begin to care about their eternity.  It becomes what you think about most during the day.  You pray about it over and over.  You find it hard to function in your everyday life because you realize that there is so much work to be done...the harvest is plenty, but the workers are few.

And then you realize the opportunities that you wasted as you lived all those years not caring about people's souls.  You mourn for all of the days that have passed and you did not further the kingdom.

Where before, donating some food, clothing, or money was more than enough, you now see it as just a way to quiet the voice.

The voice saying..."I sent someone to tell them, but they did not speak."

Will I sometimes look like an idiot?  You bet!
Will I screw up and say something stupid?  Been there, done that!
Will I go to bed some nights amazed at my inadequacy?  Yes!

But I will not go back.  I won't go back to not caring or to being so selfish that I care more about what I am thought of in this temporary realm as opposed to the eternal. 

There are times that I begin to slide.  I get busy and the day to day chores attempt to swallow up any thoughts I have about tomorrow.  They choke tomorrow out with today.

But now I know the voice.  I hear it and I allow Him to overwhelm me. 

I believe.  I REALLY believe that there is a heaven and there is a hell.  I REALLY believe that Jesus is the only way to spend eternity in heaven in the presence of God.  I REALLY believe that we are all equal, special and loved by God and He wants each of us there with Him.

I REALLY believe it. 

Do You?  If you do, you won't be able to keep your mouth shut and not speak any longer.