Baby chicks have arrived (again)! Our 36 Cornish Roasters arrived early this morning along with F3’s order. We got the call at 5:11am and drug ourselves to the post office. We ordered enough to score a “double-wide” box this time! As usual they tumbled out of their shipping box and went right to work eating and drinking like little fiends.
I also realized I had forgotten to mention that this past weekend we went to a bakery that was selling off food grade barrels (from storing artificial sweetener) for rain water catchement. It was a steal compared to the $80 or so most folks charge for olive barrels that have been turned in to rain water catchement so we stocked up and got a couple for F3 as well.
We are excited to work on this project since it will (hopefully) alleviate the need for hauling quite as much water up and down the hill, especially now that the pink flock is up there by the goats. The goal is to catch the water in large enough quantities and then truck it up the hill to keep us going for as long as possible. We are only starting with a few while we work out the system. I’m hoping to be able to build a gutter system on the goat barn so we can collect water up there as well.
Seed starting is under way in our kitchen. In an effort to spare some counter space I got out my trusty folding craft table and have it strategically placed under the skylights. I had quite good luck starting seeds under the skylights instead of supplemental lights last year so I’m trying it again, although I’m starting earlier this year. We’ll see how it goes. I’m using a warming mat on and off since we heat with the wood stove meaning the house temperatures aren’t particularly consistent. I’m using the GrowVeg.com planting time lines which has been really handy. I have both the backyard garden and the raised beds all laid out. It definitely appeals to the planner in me.
Right now I have some greens, leeks, and onions starting. The greens, arugula and mustard, are up and the leeks/onions are just starting to emerge. Next up I need to start: eggplant, cabbage, lettuces, and more greens. I need to dig out more seed starting trays though. They are all still buried in the greenhouse and garage.
Our next flock of chickens is due some time this week. We moved “Pat” the rooster up behind the goat barn with the rest of “flock #2″, otherwise known as the pink flock now, so we could clean and sanitize the brooder box. After repeatedly looking for appropriate leg bands for the chickens I gave up and went the zip tie route. It’s cheaper and accessible. As I understand it the challenge is that they can tighten further and cause damage so we’ll keep an eye on them. So “flock #2″ was given the hot pink zip ties. I plan to give our spring break laying flock the yellow zip ties.
“Pat” got his own special blue marker so we can keep an eye on his integration. He really didn’t know what to make of the situation having spent his entire 3 months of life in the brooder box. First he challenged every hen that approached him (and they came right back at him) which resulted in a small cut above his right eye and several mouth’s full of feathers. He seemed to settle down a little when he realized they weren’t out to get him in the first place. We took care of some other chores when an unexpected downpour occurred. We ran up the hill, because we’d left their feeder out of the shelter, to find “Pat” standing around indignantly in the rain. Bengt ushered him in to the roosting range house in the hopes that he’d pick up on the routine the hens had long since figured out.
The crazy downpour definitely left everyone out of sorts. Bengt was shoveling the brooder box contents in to the compost pile and I had come inside and taken off my filthy socks. When I heard the rain start, it was an instant WOOSH and I went running around the house all out of sorts trying to find clean, dry socks and an appropriate coat so I could run outside to help. Later that night, Bengt went to close the chicken coop by the house for the night and only found 10 chickens (12 live in that house). I had trouble believing a predator had made off with TWO hens, particularly when we were around doing chores all day. He made a quick round around the house and discovered two hens snuggled up against our front door (on the porch). It took some orchestration between the two of us to convince (or carry in one’s case) the two nervous, nearly blind hens to walk to the back of the house to the coop in the dark and rain. They probably would have been okay on the front porch, but I can’t imagine they’d have liked it any and I certainly don’t want to encourage it.
So the brooder box is all clean and we have a new bale of shavings standing by. Sometime this week we will get the 5:30am wake up call from the post office informing us our chickens are ready to be picked up. These will be the snowy white meat birds, and are due to be grown enough to move out of the brooder box by 4 weeks, just in time for “flock #3″ or the “yellow flock” to arrive, the last of our laying birds for this year. I’m really not looking forward to two more rounds of “failure to thrive” but what can you do really.
Our “new flock” which maybe I should just start referring to as “flock #2” is now 11 weeks old. It’s crazy to realize they are about 3 months. They are due to start laying at about 6 months old. We came through everything with 21 hens and 1 rooster. Yes, another rooster.
A few weeks ago we moved them out of the brooder box and in to the fenced garden as a holding spot until we could go pull some temporary fencing for them up behind the goat barn (today’s chore). One of the last chickens I picked up to carry from the brooder to the backyard screamed something awful when I had a hold of her. It was a bit strange, but not entirely unusual. Just as I released her over the fence with the other’s I saw a gaping wound at the base of her tail feathers. I was mortified as I realized I had blood on my hands and jacket sleeve. No wonder she was screaming, I had been holding her such that I was probably touching the wound. I started yelling for Bengt in a panic (don’t all these stories involve me yelling to Bengt in a panic?) and he came around with the last two chickens. I pointed out the one with the wound and we watched as another hen walked right up and starting pecking at the bloody area. The one with the wound just went in to a submissive pose and allowed it. Chickens are so mean! Bengt went in to the garden to retrieve her and we immediately went in to chicken hospital mode. Once he had her I took a look at the wound and it was about the size of a half dollar and there was no skin. You could clearly see the muscle structure entirely exposed. It was terrifying. We put her back in to the brooder box and raced off to the feed store to look for antibiotics and get her clean shavings. The best I could come up with to do was to give her a clean environment, boost her natural healing process, and hope. So we did exactly that. We couldn’t find an appropriate antibiotic so we gave her a dose of tetracycline before realizing that it wasn’t going to really help (it’s for respiratory infections) and quit. We tried to find iodine tincture to rinse the wound, but it’s nearly impossible to purchase these days since it can be used for nefarious purposes and eventually I gave up in utter frustration. As the days went by she appeared to be healing so we just kept her isolated and let her body do its own thing.
A week or so later some friends and I were outside and heard a strangled crowing sound. I thought it was Boots, our current rooster, on the other side of the house but it seemed like it was coming from the garage. I was certain that the chicken in the brooder box was a hen (I don’t know why) so I dismissed it. The next weekend we were stacking wood and filling the wood bin and it started up again. This time it was clearly coming from the garage. Sure enough I caught “her” in the act. Darn it! I’ve never known a rooster to crow so early, but granted my experience is somewhat limited. He was only about 2 months old at the most. I don’t need another rooster! Add to that, that it appears to be an Americana rooster. We have a somewhat love/hate relationship with the Americana/Araucana chickens. They lay beautiful eggs and the variety of plumage makes them interesting to look at but they are a light breed so even the rooster is hardly worth slaughtering and we haven’t found them to be particularly hardier or, uhm, strong on predator evasion? We often joke about the saying ‘you only have to run faster than the slowest’… they are clearly often the slowest.
So the new rooster is still in the garage and likes to crow at us in the evenings when we come and go doing chores. We are trying to decide on a name for the rooster. So far we’ve toyed with “Pat” on account of the ambiguous identity. We closely examined his wound a few nights ago and it is all covered with skin and emerging feathers except a small spot about the size of pencil eraser that still has a scab on it. It’s going on 4 weeks now I believe. We plan on keeping keep isolated until the next flock of baby chicks arrives (the meat birds) and are hoping we can reintegrate him with his flock after that. We certainly don’t “need” another rooster but hopefully he’ll help protect them… that is if they don’t try to kill him again.
We celebrated the return of the sun this year with a dinner among friends and family and a resolution for the coming year. Our resolution is to not purchase any meat of unknown origin/treatment (and by that I really mean origin/treatment that we agree with). The big thing we are currently challenged by is pork. We don’t have any friends raising pigs that we are aware of and haven’t ventured in to that yet ourselves. It wouldn’t be quite so bad but our daughters managed to eat through the last three packages of bacon while they were here so we are out. It’s nearly impossible to find sustainably raised bacon because the demand far outstrips the supply and is completely out of balance with the idea of utilizing the whole pig. People just consume far more bacon than they do other pork products. We know of at least one farm locally that sells pork belly during the market season and year-round from the farm. Since it’s not cured or smoked people don’t seem to know what to do with it so it’s generally available. So we will probably embark on trying to make our own bacon in the near future to fill the gap and/or look to purchase a half pig this year.
We decided to set a “January resolution” as well. Partly out of necessity. We had decided we would wait until after the holidays and try to do some overhauls on our spending so we could try to save some money to reinvest in to the property. Couple that with the travel expenses, septic repairs, and truck repairs in the last 6 weeks or so and we could really do with a good dose of belt-tightening. So for January we have resolved not to buy any food or go out to eat. Realistically it’s not zero, but as little as possible (for example, we need flour so we will buy that or buy wheat berries to mill our own). Through the winter we often “slack” and get a weekly delivery of organic produce to fill in some of the gaps (it’s not all local, sadly). We are keeping the weekly produce delivery, but it’s a relatively low cost and good value. It also has the effect of keeping us out of veggie ruts and forcing us to try new things. We figure that the challenge should have positive effects on both our wallet and our waistlines. We also could use a little eating down on the freezer/pantry. I tend to buy stuff on deals and stockpile like the end of the world is coming. We want to make room in the freezer for a nice local spring lamb or two and that pig I mentioned. It’s also hard to justify growing/canning more food when we still have plenty from the previous year (or two).
I’ve been plotting and planning for this year’s back yard garden already. I’m using growveg.com which looks very promising. We are also discussing building raised beds for the front yard garden instead of using all of the containers. They work relatively well but look like a cluttered mess. I’ve resolved to only buy seeds that are really needed this year. The last two years I’ve gone browsing through the seed catalogs in the dead of winter and ended up with all kinds of things I don’t need (they are sneaky that way, sending the catalogs when you are yearning for just about anything green and growing). So far eggplants and celery are the only thing on my list that I need to buy. To help avoid the over purchasing I’m also going to pick them up at the local garden store instead of mail order so I can’t justify making the shipping costs worth it as a reason to buy more seed.
The new flock of baby chicks is just about a month old now and doing great. They are whizzing around the brooder box still and we had to upgrade their feeder and water fount to larger sizes to keep them from emptying them while we were at work. We were just discussing this morning where they are going to range and the housing situation. We may free range them even though I had originally decided not to, just because we really need to do more clearing before we have space to fence and the tractor has been out of commission for several months (seems like a trend around here).
So far this winter has been really good for our current laying flock. Of the original 13 purchased we have all but 1, but we still have 1 from last year’s flock. It seems like we’ve typically lost more than that. We started with 12 or 13 last year and by the time they were laying we only had 8 hens and 1 rooster. We currently have 11 hens and 1 rooster. Egg sales have been going very well and we have far more demand than supply most of the time. It always disappoints me to tell someone I can’t sell them eggs because I think they are just the most wonderful things and everyone that wants them should get an opportunity. So I look forward to the new flock starting to lay and giving me more inventory to work with.
We are still planning on getting another flock this spring and I’m hoping to include a few laying and/or meat ducks in the order as well as some chickens for meat again. We won’t be doing the cornish-x again so I haven’t quite decided on how I want to approach things. I can either get a straight run of the hens we want and hope the roo to hen ratio isn’t too far off, or we can order sexed roos and hens individually. I think it costs about the same either way. I’m also eliciting assistance from our oldest daughter (10 later this January) in helping to select some of the laying hens. I’m excited to see what she chooses. At some point we need to invest in an incubator and just hatch our own chicks. We’ll get there eventually.
I’m practically counting the days until mid-February when I can start my seeds!
This will be a bit of a catch up post. 
I’ve posted a few new pictures of the new laying flock at 3 weeks of age. They are getting quite active now. We’ll give them another week before opening up the other half of the brooder box. For now we’ve been keeping them enclosed to half the box partly to conserve heat because it’s been so cold. They are getting quite a few feathers in, but their little neck and arm pits are still down and you can see down poking out in between their tiny little feathers.
The weather has been unseasonably cold and dry. We dropped down as low as 10 degrees a couple nights, with several being in the 13 -16 degree range. The goats are in their coats and get hot water once a day, and an evening check to break the ice on their water bucket if it’s frozen. The “big girl” chickens have one of the brooder lights hanging in their coop for some extra warmth. They don’t seem too phased by things though. Their hanging fount (waterer) keeps freezing over so I’ve been putting a small feed bucket of hot water on the back patio for them each morning.
One morning I got up to see Sassy scratching around by the greenhouse. It was quite early and I was surprised that Bengt might have let them out that early. I said, ’oh, you let the chickens out already?’ and he looked at me quizzically and said he hadn’t. Well it turned out that he hadn’t counted the chickens when he put them in the night before and Sassy can tend to straggle behind. She had managed to spend the entire night outside of the coop and the low was 16 degrees! We ran out and opened the coop and she happily went inside, had some breakfast, and laid an egg. I suspect I know where she may have found a nice place to spend the evening…
The well pressure switch froze again. This happened during the winter holidays last year when we got about 4 feet of snow. Several other issues compounded the situation leaving us with out drinkable or hot water for a good part of a week. This time we were a bit more versed in the mechanics of all of it and I quickly granted Bengt permission to take the greenhouse heater to put in the well house. The water was flowing again with in 10-15 minutes and the hot water cleared up quickly thereafter. We either need to permanently fix this problem or get in the habit of making some adjustments to the well house for fall and spring. A permanent fix would involve relocating the water heater or the well so I suspect that we’ll just need to get used to it.
Sweet Pea Currant Tomatoes
I had been harvesting currant tomatoes up until as recently as a week ago from a volunteer plant in the greenhouse. It hadn’t really dawned on me that the volunteer was rooted in the ground so as soon as all this dramatically cold and dry weather hit the plant was a goner. It’s probably for the best though. We got the first electric bill with the greenhouse heater running and it was about 3 times normal. Ouch! The tomatoes were a lovely treat but not worth that much. It was certainly nice while it lasted though. I’m going to try growing some tomatoes intentionally in the greenhouse eventually.
So I suspect Sassy spent the night in the space under the now, well heated, well house.
To add to our winter “fun” our septic pump blew up this weekend. There’s been some challenges with the system (read: a lot of hacks), but it finally gave up. We don’t know how much the very cold weather contributed to it, but we are on limited water use until a new pump arrives today or tomorrow. We are sucking it up (and digging in to our credit cards) and having all of the known issues with the system addressed. It’s really unfortunate and the timing couldn’t be much worse, but the septic serviceman made a strong point that resonated well with Bengt: If a septic system is maintained properly, over it’s life it will STILL be cheaper than the municipal sewer in these parts. Hopefully this will be it for a few years for us.
We’ve been cooking over our wood stove more and more this winter as I try to get the hang of it or get the courage. It’s not a cook stove by any means, but it’s not too bad. I made my first attempt at biscuits last week and they turned out okay. It just makes more sense to use the heat for the house for other functions as well.
That’s a better segue, than from our septic woes… I also thought I’d share a recipe I just typed up for a friend. It’s a staple for us for a variety of reasons, not least of which is that it’s fast, tasty, and highlights high quality eggs!
(From “How to Cook Everything”)
Spaghetti alla Carbonara
Time: 30 minutes
Makes about 4 servings
1 TBSP olive oil
4 ounces minched bacon, preferably slab bacon, or pancetta
2 eggs
1 cup fresh grated parmsan cheese, plus more
1 pound spaghetti, linguine, or other long pasta
Salt and freshly ground black peper to taste
- Combine the olive oil and bacon in a medium skillet over medium
heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is crisp.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Warm a large bowl
in the oven, or by filling it with very hot water.
- Beat the eggs and Parmesan together in teh warm bowl. Salt the
boiling water and cook the pasta until it is tender but firm. when it
is done, drain it and toss it immediately with the egg-cheese mixture;
add the bacon and any fat remaining in the skillet. Add lots of
pepper; taste and add salt and more pepper if necessary. Serve
immediately, passing more grated Parmesan at the table.
Wednesday afternoon, I found myself kneeling in a 3×5 foot shed with a 1500 watt space heater between my legs, a small LED flashlight in my teeth, and my back up against a propane powered hot water heater. The majority of the words coming from my mouth were expletives. Occasionally dashing out of the shed around to the front of our house and shouting, “TURN ON THE BATHTUB!” and running back to the shed. This continued for close to two hours. When I returned to the house my knees and back hurt.
You might ordinarily assume that my behavior was a result of mental illness, some bizarre prayer ritual, or a really quirky exercise routine. In this instance, though, I was attempting to return water service to our house.
The extraordinarily low temperatures we’ve had over the past few days (an archive of this month’s data from the weather station on our roof are available here: http://www.miscfarm.com/weather/NOAA/NOAA-2008-12.txt — note the lows on the 15th and 16th) froze a few of our pipes, including those surrounding the well pump pressure switch.
The pressure switch regulates the operation of our submersible well pump, based on the pressure that’s built up in two 75G tanks and the house pipes. By design, when the pressure drops below 35/40 PSI, the ‘cut in’ function of the switch is triggered and the pump runs until the pressure switch reaches the ‘cut out’ pressure (~60 PSI, in our case). It’s how our “water pressure” (at the faucet) is maintained.
Early Wednesday morning, Kat’s shower died halfway through her morning routine… it just stopped. We came to the conclusion that the water mains from the pump had frozen. We relocated a small space heater from the greenhouse to the garage, aiming it at the exposed galvanized pipe, and took off for work. We returned at 4 in the afternoon (around sunset) and my adventure ensued. After presumably thawing the pipes with a space heater, we still faced no water pressure in the house. I checked the well house and discovered some very chilly pipes, including drain valve that was frozen solid. Moved the space heater, again, this time to the well house… after the drain valve had visibly thawed, I flipped an L-shaped bail to reset the pressure switch. The encouraging snap of an electric arc and the needle moved from the ambient tank pressure (30 PSI) straight up to 70 PSI, only to drop back to 30, a second later. Another attempt with similar results.
After re-reading some information I’d found a few months back and a call to my father, who lived off-grid for 12 years and just knows this stuff, I was determined to figure it out. That’s where this post began… on my knees, with a small wrench, trying to adjust the ‘cut in’ pressure downward enough to get the pump running without hand-holding. I gave up. I spent some time with my new friend this morning, then, around noon, caved and called a service company. Late afternoon, I called to see if they were going to be able to make it. “Sure, he’s in your area and should be there in a couple hours.” Around 7:30, I talked to the service guy and he made it pretty clear that he wasn’t going to attempt to drive out into the sticks with the roads unplowed.
Thursday, we awoke to 7 inches of snow. Determined to gain running water, again, I decided to spend some more quality time with my friend, the pressure switch. There’s no way these ‘snow wimp’ service guys were going to drive out here. I was convinced that something had become lodged under the diaphragm/pressure plate and it just needed to be cleaned.
After all, I’m a smart guy and somewhat mechanically inclined, right? This is what I wanted, right? Yeah, we’re working to become self sufficient and I just need to persevere, right?
I flipped the breaker to kill the pump circuit and made my way out to the well house. I took a picture of the switch without the cover, so I’d remember the wiring. 20 minutes later, I’d pulled the wiring off the switch, drained the last couple gallons out of the well tanks, and unscrewed the switch. I brought it inside, removed the screws from the bottom, pried the switch open, and pulled out the rubber diaphragm. No gunk. Huh… there goes that theory. I reassembled it, put it back in place, reconnected it to the house wiring, flipped the circuit back on, and went back out there.
After an hour of futzing with the two adjustment screws, I had it cycling pretty reliably. The radical change in pressure had shaken loose some rust and corrosion, but hell, it’s water, right?
Punchline to the story? Sometime between the pipes freezing on Wednesday morning and this Thursday afternoon, we ran out of propane. The company that we’d contacted to refill the tank every 2 months, somehow lost our account. So, after all this hoopla, I still don’t get a hot shower.
A few things I’ve learned from this:
- The pressure switch is a really simple and elegant electo-mechanical device.
- Having the propane hot water heater and well tanks in the same shed is a poor idea. Too little ventilation and the thermocouple on the water heater will burn out. Too much and the pipes/tank/switch will freeze in the winter.
- We really could survive here with very little from the outside (no, we’re not survivalists). While it’d degrade our quality of life some, we could boil water from the creek on the wood stove.
- 3 conductor 10 gauge romex is a pain in the butt, in enclosed spaces.
- Sometimes, even paying someone to do it doesn’t mean it’s going to get done. Just do it yourself, city boy.
A couple helpful links:
http://pumpsandtanks.com/faq_page.htm
http://www.inspect-ny.com/water/Water_Pump_Control_Repair.htm
First Snow of Winter
This is our first full winter will all the animals. The chickens weren’t out in the coop until this spring/summer and while we brought Molly, our first dairy goat, home in February 2008 we had snow but temperatures weren’t terribly low. With the weather dropping in to the teens over the past week this is how we’ve been managing to keep everyone comfortable:
Chickens
I let the chickens out when the temperature was around freezing on Sunday but they did not show any interest in getting their feet cold. They would actually fly from object to object to avoid the snow even though it was only 3 inches deep or so. They spent most of the day roosting on the potato boxes that are being stored next to the far side of the house. Unbeknown to us at the time we placed them on either side of the dryer vent. The chickens happily roosted on the boxes keeping toasty warm as I do the week’s laundry on Sundays. A few took up playing in the dirt in the front flower bed under the eaves. I’ve kept them indoors the last few days with temperatures in the teens and 20’s as I’m concerned about frost bite since most of our’s are single comb breeds.
Their coop has a radiant heater that normally adds approximately 5 degrees to the internal coop temperature. We’ve sealed up some of the ventilation on the coop to preserve more heat but it’s also leading to more ammonia build up from their waste so we may have to revisit that. We get approximately another 5 degress due to practicing “deep litter”. That essentially means the litter in the coop is allowed to breakdown in place and fresh litter is added on top. As the litter breaks down it generates heat. The chickens had managed to bury their thermometer this fall and it was registering temperatures of 80 to 100 degress in the litter when outside temperatures were in the 60’s.
Since our coop is sized for free range chickens it’s not actually large enough to keep the chickens indoors at all times. We have to be careful about our decisions to do so due to the potential for ammonia build up which will cause respiratory illnesses.
The only other concern for any animal is access to fresh water. Due to the internal coop temperatures that’s only been a problem on the night we got down to 14F. The water in the bottom of their metal waterer froze blocking the rest of the water. Running the waterer in hot water the following morning and refilling with warm water fixed the problem and it hasn’t reoccured, but we haven’t seen temperatures that low again yet.
The chickens always have access to pellet food in their coop which under normal circumstances they eat little of. Additionally during these cold spells I’m giving them scratch grains which are basically chicken junk food. It has the effect of giving them a bit more energy and when sprinkled in the coop, encourages them to turn the bedding.
Goats
As per my previous post, we put coats on the goats. Since then we haven’t seen any evidence that they are suffering from the cold. They are cold hardy animals and will warm each other. They prefer not to be in the elements anyway and will stay in their shelter so they are not affected by the wet or snow. They have room to sleep and relieve themselves in different areas in their shelter and their bed area is protected from drafts by an additional wall/roof. Their hay manager is in the shelter as well, giving them no reason to leave normally. They have a 17 gallon plastic water trough that has been forming a thin layer of ice on it over night on only the coldest nights (generally 20 or below). We break the ice and replace a portion of the water with hot tap water a minimum of twice a day.
The goat “shed” is in a heavily wooded area and located underneath a large old evergreen which appears to have the affect of sheltering them and their yard from strong winds and snow fall as well. This wasn’t entirely intentional, but we’ll take it just the same.
The goats always have free access to hay and minerals/vitamins but we are also giving them some additional grains during the inclement weather. Normally grains are given when milking. We are giving them grains now to get them some more concentrated energy to help them in keeping themselves warm.
Molly modeling her coat
We’ve been checking on the goats several times a day with the frequency increasing as the temperatures have dipped to record lows. Molly, our Oberhassli, has a very thick coat (and a layer of fat on account of being a bit spoiled) that seems to be serving her quite well. I haven’t noticed any signs that she’s bothered by the cold. Obsidian, our Nubian, however kidded this year and we milked her until a few weeks ago. She’s been putting on weight and is probably at about her ideal weight, but doesn’t have quite the thick coat that Molly does. We’ve noticed her shivering when we are up to visit them which has worried me. When we aren’t around they spend inclement weather in their “barn” and they sleep together to warm each other, but when she comes in to the yard she starts shivering.
I had seen many reference to goats in coats or sweaters in the winter. Many folks simply use regular human clothes for them with relative success. I decided with this weather that I would feel better if Obie had a coat. Due to our tendency to hoard garish and outlandish scrap fabrics on discount for various Burning Man related projects I knew that we had at least some scraps of fleece in the stash. Fortunately I happened upon several yards of a tie-dye like pattern that Bengt had purchased and quickly guilted him out of it in order to make goat coats.
I used this link as a start, although I think my “design” is simpler: http://kinne.net/goatcoat.htm
I made no darts and no belly flaps. I did use the recommendation to make the ties high on
Molly and Obsidian playing in their coats
one side so they’d be under the coat and less likely to snag or be pulled on though. I left a vent in the front seam to allow for more movement while not sacraficing length. The ties were double stitched and I did a X reinforcement, they shouldn’t come loose easily. They are simply tied in a square knot off to the girl’s side. The ties themsleves are made of scrap fleece in the hopes that it would be more comfortable than alternatives.
Molly’s ended up being a little short (neck to tail), but otherwise they seem to fit well. We did two fittings before I sewed them. I think it worked out pretty well for probably 30 minutes worth of work. We’ll see how clean they actually keep them. The fleece should wash up well, but I don’t have enough fabric to make a second set so I can swap them for washing while it remains cold.
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