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Friday, January 6, 2012

Goats! Trees! And an Impending Project!

The goats have been very happy for the past couple of days because they were given a special treat!  Or should I say treet?

The road on which I live had a large machine go by a few weeks ago that did some pretty major trimming along the side of the road.   Unfortunately, this trimming involved a lot of trees with pretty wide trunks, including a lovely old apple tree.  I don't know why the county felt a need to get quite so vigourous with their brush cutting, but the outcome was a massive mess of branches and lots of young spruce trees that were cut off at the base.

I gathered quite a few of these felled trees and dragged them up to the barn, because the goats love spruce, so it was a free food source that was pre-cut for me to haul up to the hungry herd!  As you can see, they are very pleased.
Oh wait, no, I guess you can't see.  Word to the wise.  When you're trying to take pictures in a cold barn, you can't breathe out at the time time you snap the picture, otherwise all you take a picture of is a plume of breath that is making a little cloud in front of the lens!

Here we go - wee Westley to the left and Fezzik to the right, along with the sheep in the background, all having a good gnawing on a spruce!
Wee Fezzik has been doing well with his winter turtleneck-coat on and seems to be at least maintaining his weight despite the cold, which was what I had hoped for.  He still gets his special molasses oats treat every day to keep the weight on him as much as I can without giving him a case of the runs!

Moving on, you may recall, if you are a regular reader, that a while ago we bought cabinets to re-do the kitchen here.  We're not quite ready to do that project yet, but when we bought those cabinets, we bought a few extra units so that we could install some in my upstairs "studio" area, giving me places to store yarn, spinning fibre, dye materials, and other goodies.  It is with much excitement that I can tell you that the project to install these cabinets is set for Sunday!  Woohoo!!

Here are the cabinets that we have moved upstairs in preparation for the project!  There are two like the cabinet facing the camera on the left.  Nice big drawer and cupboard.  Then there is a smaller one (narrower) that is the same height.
 This is the sink cabinet unit.  Eventually we will get a nicer sink but one thing at a time!
Here is where they'll be installed (the chaos zone). We'll get rid of this grungy old half-baked plywood counter and put in the cabinets and a nice piece of second hand countertop (which already had a sink hole!) that we were able to get.  It is a nice dark greenish looking laminate.  Easy to clean.
All those bottles under the sink are my fibre dyes and detergents, etc.  The microwave is for dyeing also.  All our bathroom stuff is also there because our bathroom doesn't have a sink yet, so we have to use this one for that too.  Anyway, I can't wait to do the project and get things put away in their proper, organized places.  I'll be sure to show some pictures after our work!

12 comments:

Michelle said...

Yay for free food, cabinet space, and progress!!!

Michelle said...

Claire, in case you didn't subscribe to comments, I just replied with a link to adult duck slippers!

Chai Chai said...

Fiber goats wearing coats? It must be REALLY cold there!

Marigold said...

Onward and upward! Can't wait to see how it looks! How nice that you found a green countertop - ought to go well with things. Your goaties are getting a double treat - greens AND bark! Yes! The bark is the best part and has all the good-for-you minerals. Yum!

brokenteepee said...

The cabinets are gorgeous! What a lovely tree-t for all of the goats and sheep. I am a very jealous goat.

The publicist said that I should tell you that when she was building the yurt (well the male person) when they needed a sink for the kitchen they went to a recycle store where people take the stuff from home renovations and house demolitions and she got a nice double stainless steel sink for only $35!!!! It had a few scratches but it would have gotten them soon anyway if she had bought a brand new one. She hopes you have a place like that near you 'cause they have good stuff.

Millie said...

I think you should tell my human that we should get some lovely treets like that too!

Anonymous said...

You amaze me with how creative you are and all those wonderful knitting projects you complete while living in the midst of a half (or less) renovated home. It's looking up!

denise f said...

If Richard wants a (working)vacation down here in San Diego, I could certainly use the help!!! And, Claire, 2012 is going to be a VERY good year for you and yours. Trust me. I know these things!

Alison said...

Trying to come up with a way to send you our Christmas tree (which was supposed to come down last weekend...).

IsobelleGoLightly said...

I want a tree-t tooooo! I'd come up there and blast everyone out of the way with my fat - er strong half Boer body! Tee hee.

My lady giggled when you said you had your fiber things mixed with the bathroom things. What happens when you want to take a bath and you mix up a bubble bath soap with a dye? eeeek. Tee hee hee. xoxoxoxo

Lin said...

I wish I could send my Christmas tree to you too. We have our tree cut up in the yard for some mulch, but I know your goaties would enjoy it more than the plants. :(

Looks CHILLY there! EEEK!

Mimi Foxmorton said...

I wish I could send my sink to you.
We have a vintage in the basement that was in "the old house" which would be 45 plus years ago when we moved. Quite lovely, deep reddish enamel with cupboards. It's sat still there all these years.

TREE-TS are GRRRREAT!
(so are you!)
:)