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Oh my. I'm glad no one got smooshed. Well, I'm sure Steve felt a little smooshed, but I'm glad he was uninjured. I'm sure it was pretty hilarious once you knew everyone was fine!
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I love my poly domes. But we get wind here that can blow them away even though I've tried to stake them down.
Not a fan of metal siding for animals. Saw a baby horse get cut on it once. But goats eat wood. There's no winning.
I don't drink beer, but if I did, I'd prefer Dos Equis. Stay thirsty my friends!
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Our Poly-Domes have occasionally blown away despite being staked down too, but not often any more. The one on the hill has five ground stakes, then I piled big rocks all around the lip (some on top of the stake heads) to further hold it down. So far this year it's hasn't budged and we clocked winds at 75 mph last night. There was one time I before I put rocks on the lip that I passed a rope through the vent and tied it off low down to large trees on either side of the hutch. That'll hold the thing down for anything short of a tornado.
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Speaking of things blowing over, we've lost two big pine trees in the last two weeks. The first one blew down in Finn and Sputnik's pen and thankfully blew against another tree. Phil and I went out later with the tractor, chains, and a chainsaw and pulled it down in a controlled fall so it wouldn't be able to crush any goats if the wind picked up and blew it down further.
Then this afternoon we went to put the goats to bed and the biggest tree in the girls' pen was on its side. It must have fallen down sometime during the day because I can't imagine I wouldn't have seen it on the ground when I let them out in the morning. It broke off about five feet up and thankfully fell just a few feet shy of the electric fence. It wasn't close to any sheds. So now both goat pens have a very large supply of yummy fresh pine needs snacks. But personally I wouldn't mind if the wind left my live trees alone. I have enough dead ones from the drought last year. I don't need to lose any more!
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Ya I actually called the polydome dealer in my area. A basic one is $250. Which I think is a steal, cant build or buy anything that tough for that cheap!! We has them on my dairy farm in Vermont and never had any issues any time of year.
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Great job on the re-build! I'd call that "rustic modern". The goats don't care as long as they can hide from the weather.
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My yurt-style polydome cracked. Its a big crack right near the door frame and it was caused by Bacchus no doubt while the weather was very cold.
I don't drink beer, but if I did, I'd prefer Dos Equis. Stay thirsty my friends!
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Oh wow! I'm amazed that it could crack even when cold! They seem almost indestructible. I slashed one of ours open along the side with the front blade of the tractor one time, but the dome was staked down so it couldn't bounce away, and the blade on the tractor is really sharp! I was able to patch it by screwing a piece of plastic over the slit (which was only about 15" long).
Chat
. So being a cheap redneck I had noticed a pine tree that had fallen across the road and been cleared. It seemed like the right diameter to build stuff so I went and took some nice 7 ft sections. I got it to the goat pen and redneck milled some lumber. I then braced and reframed the shed. It ended up being better than I thought it would be. I am going to finish reframing when I get off shift.
