Goat coats

Yes that is right, Goats wearing coats. Dr. Seuss would have loved it. This is our first year with our Angora's and i was lucky enough to get a recommendation for a shearer. They are harder to find than you think. The only problem was he could only shear in January. As everyone tells me, 'You can't shear goats in the winter, it is too cold.'
It was either shear now, or not until the fall, which is a no no also. So January 30 dawns cold and clear. The shearing area is ready and so are the coats. My mother and I made 7 polar fleece coats for the goats. The shearer came and stripped my poor babies naked. They shrunk by 2/3s in size and just looked miserable.
We quickly put the coats on them, they didn't look any happier.
New heavy weight coats are in the works.
Bryan has been home for a few extra days so it has been busy. There is more hay in the barn, more wood chopped and stacked and a new clearing for the new household compost pile. We compost as much as we can, 95% of all kitchen scraps, all garden scraps, used hay from the barn, chicken house etc all go into compost. Our household compost has been a corner of the garden, however it never lasts to actually compost. The chickens view this as the daily buffet. During the winter this is not a problem, but spring is really around the corner and soon the chickens will not be welcome in the garden, so it is time to move the buffet. Because the chickens eat the large majority of what goes into the pile, we don't need to actually make a bin, it just gets tossed into a pile. So now a portion of hedgerow is cleared and we will see how the chickens like the new set up.
I was able to clean out the chicken house a bit also. I am amazed at how much dust chickens generate.
We are expecting a batch of new chicks at the beginning of March, and I need to build a broody box. This year it will go in the chicken house not the porch.
We may not be able to see it, but Spring will be coming soon.