A Productive "Boys' Night"

Last night, the girls and I headed to Little Rock to see the touring Broadway production of Wicked!  It was absolutely amazing!  Girl 1, my little dancer, was enthralled the entire time.  Girl 2 was less than thrilled by the mushy song but was otherwise on the edge of her seat and cackling so loudly during the funny bits that she had others around us laughing with her.  I love getting to experience things like this with my kiddos.  

While we were living it up, the boys were enjoying a much more productive boys' night.  John bought Little Boy dinner and few goodies as they shopped for lumber and then came home to construct this "together" in the backyard.

(Notice Milkshake in this photo.  We call her our "in" cat.  It doesn't matter what you're doing; she want to be "in"-- in your lap, in the milk pail, in the garden, in your way, in the new goat shelter, in the photo.)

When we move our animals over to the new farm, we plan to use a rotational grazing method (if you're unfamiliar with this concept, just Google it.  Joel Salatin's face may just pop up. :).  

And while goats are pretty hardy animals, they get all prissy when it starts to rain (snow, sleet, or whatever) and run for cover.  It's actually really funny to watch.  They'll spend all day slowly grazing and lolling about in the field then at the first detection of a raindrop they nearly barrel into each other as they madly scramble to shelter.  So, we need to create a couple portable animal shelters that can be easily moved around the farm to protect these drama queens from *gasp* getting wet.  

My ever-so-resourceful husband engineered this solution.  He used three welded-wire hog panels that we had lying around the backyard, zip-tied them together, and bowed them up covered-wagon-style to fit the wheeled frame he constructed.

All it lacks to be complete is a tarp-like covering, and we have Freckle Face Farms to thank for this ingenious idea:  we plan to use an old discarded billboard cover.  They are weather-proof, highly durable, large, and cheap. And, they're an environmentally-friendly option since they would otherwise just be waste.  Perhaps best of all, they're lightweight.  Our chicken tractors have metal roofs, which do a great job but add weight to the tractors.  This goat shelter is light enough that, using the hook John installed on one end, it can easily be moved about the yard/farm by one person.

Stay tuned for the pic of the finished product!  

So, the boys may have more to show for their night together, but we girls had a blast at our show and are well on our way to having the entire musical memorized, thanks to our souvenir CD purchase.  :)