Running out of room at the Inn

I don't know how we managed, but even though we only have one kidding/laboring pen and one kid "lock-up" pen, there seemed to be juuuusssst enough room in the barn for everybody.

I ended up making the main aisle of the barn a kidding stall by closing the front doors so there were actually three kidding areas in the barn.  Which was good as I had put Lily in the impromptu area just about an hour and a half before she popped out her kids last week and then used it for rearranging other goats for Penny's kidding yesterday.

Anyways, even with the barely adequate room in the barn, I still have one more pregnant goat.  But I'm actually going to get a little bit of a rest now since she's not due until the 21st of March.

We're going to be needing more goat shelters and lounging areas.  Right now we have the large goat hut, four "dog" houses (one in Herman's pen, which he refuses to use even in the sleet/rain) and the three blue barrels.  Last week I had a crazy idea that I'd build a quick lean-to on the goat/chicken shed while Paul was at work (oh, it will only take a few hours. shit.) but have learned (slowly....very slowly) that things take much, much, MUCH longer to do than I initially anticipate.

So instead of building a "real" lean-to on the side of the shed, I made myself a hoop house using some salvaged tarp, four t-posts, a bent cattle panel and stuck the blue barrels underneath it to help support it from the weight of baby goats wanting to jump on the hoop structure (imagine that).

Pickles and her two kids, lounging away.

This won't be ideal for really cold, windy nights but it will be just fine to provide an additional "lounging" area for the goats and the twenty million kids.  And it looks just hillbilly enough to fit right in here.