Our New Corral

We decided a few months back that we were going to need a corral. Currently, the goats and pigs have been occupying our garden. It was our intention to let the animals roam free on our fenced 5 acres when we first got them. Come to find out, the goats just love to eat my roses, climb on my van, and basically find mischief of one kind or another. And the pigs, given the choice, would hide out and never be seen again. So, they ended up in the garden.

It was a temporary way to contain them. And it worked great. During their stay, they cleaned the garden of its weeds, churned up the earth, and fertilized, fertilized, fertilized. But, the time had come to relocate them and reclaim our spot for our coming strawberry and carrot plants! :)

Originally, this was going to be a JL project. However, through a bit of advice from our local farming friends, we decided to hire the work done. Our ground is basically rock. Rock with a tiny bit of sandy dirty sprinkled here and there in a thin layer on top. Digging the holes for the fence posts would have most likely sent JL into an early grave. So we had a local company come out and give us an estimate. Turns out, they could do it for about the same cost, and in a fraction of the time!

The main reason we hired this project: To have a cool Tractor parked on our ranch. KIDDING!
Actually, it took a tractor to dig into our rock dirt! I'm so glad JL didn't try to do this with only a pic!
Although, once he saw the tractor, all he wanted to do was drive it!
What does it take to dig in our soil? 5,000 lbs in each tire, and a bunch of torque.
Tah-Dah! We had 15 of these.
We got our estimate on a Tuesday, they began work on Wednesday and by Friday they were mostly done! They had 2 other jobs over the weekend, but bright an early Monday morning they showed up and completed their work. The animals moved in that afternoon!

Isabel was the first one in to test out the new space.
Shot from the south side, looking into the smallest of the two areas. This is where the goats/pigs will live from now on!
JL doing a quick walk through. He removed the protective coverings we've had on our perimeter plants. They were suppose to keep the deer from eating them, but instead the deer just ate around the covering. With the billies going in by them now, we figure they might as well have at 'em.
James doing his impersonation of a goat.
The billies took to it right away.
Shot from the front - looking up along the longest side of the corral.
Everyone tried it out! Turns out, a corral is great for kids too!
At this rate, I figure we won't need a babysitter. Ever again.
Luke saying hello.
After a little encouragement, the pigs are loving their new home too!