When we first came to the farm, the barn stalls were all set up for horses – large stalls, sturdily built… but really not very convenient to muck out using anything but human power, since there was no way the tractor was going to make it through the 4′ stall doors.

Add 25 goats and a long wet winter to the mix, and what you have is a rather overwhelming amount of bedding that needs to be removed from the stalls.  We were looking at either some construction, or a very unpopular work party event!

We’ve batted around several ways to reconfigure the barn and the stalls so that it works better for our needs (we don’t intend to keep horses anytime soon, as much as I would love to), and Thaddeus finally got the chance this week to get to work on making it a reality.

The new 12′ stall fronts are entirely removable, being just two pinned gates supported by a removable 4×4 post in the center.  This allows us to use each stall as a large single stall OR to drop in a divider longways that would give us two narrow stalls at 6′ wide each – great for kidding season and the occasional solitary confinement.

When the gates and post are removed, though, the entire stall is open to the aisle, allowing the tractor relatively easy access.

Yes, this was a job that REALLY needed doing…