Winter Projects

My to do list for this winter is large.  My first project is to finish enclosing the goat-buck house.  I converted an old deck my children and I built for the trailer Pam and I lived in while we built our house.  We lived for two plus years in a large travel trailer and the porch was a life saver, giving us a clean, dry entry way plus a place to story things.  After moving into our house we used it to store firewood and when we started keeping male goats, I enclosed three of the sides for the boys.  Too much rain gets in so I'm going to enclose more of it.  They need a dry place somewhat out of the wind for when the weather is nasty.  Because they spend so much of their time under the eve of the barn near where the girls live, I'm also going to make a little shelter there.

Our old home while building the house - the deck is now the buck house

Our old deck with the year's squash harvest

Next on my list is a greenhouse.  Today I will go to the county planning department in Coupeville to turn in our plans along with the paperwork for the building permit. The greenhouse will be attached to the east side of our barn, 24' wide and 18' deep.  The site has very good sun exposure.  My estimate for the cost is about $2,000.  Covering will be a product called Soleex, a flexible, insulated twin-wall polyethylene product which is said to last over 20 years.  We'll have inside raised growing beds along the east and south sides of the greenhouse to allow us to grow tomatoes, peppers and basil (crops we have not been able to grow in our garden) and benches to start all of our vegetables and Pam's flowers.  The county planning department told me it takes six to eight weeks to get the permit, so I have a little wait on that.

Our barn after completion - the greenhouse will be on the right side

Next on the list is a new chicken coop.  Our girls are entering their third year of life and even though their eggs are getting really large, production is dropping off.  We need a place to grow the next set of girls so we think a new wing to the existing house is the way to go.  If we get chicks in the spring they will be laying by fall.  We'll then butcher the older girls, making stewing hens out of them.