Windy Night

Wednesday night a big wind storm blew through our area. Many trees fell down, and we lost power for a few hours. There wasn't too much damage at the farm. A dead tree fell on the garden fence, but Paul said he didn't think it hurt it much. I haven't been out to check for myself yet. The wind also picked up a wooden pallet and dropped it on the electric fence. Paul removed it before the goats and dog had figured out that they could get out.

Ice is Heavy

It rained and then snowed most of yesterday, and all that ice and snow was heavy enough to collapse the goat house. It was a hoop structure, with a wooden base and two cattle panels making the hoops. It might have been ok, except that last winter the goats managed to get on top of it and bent up the panels so that the top is a bit flatter than it should be. One of the goats was trapped under the house, but we got her out and she doesn't seem to be injured. Even once we scraped all the ice and snow off of the roof, it still didn't want to go back to something even resembling the right shape. Fortunately, there was a pile of fence posts out there that we hadn't done anything with yet, and we used those to brace one side so that it's mostly upright.

Given that the panels are so bent up, and the wooden base needs to be repaired as well, I plan to retire this house after this winter is over. The panels can go towards making a corral and the lumber will go into other projects.

Brrr...