The Goldilocks Windows

Designing and building a tiny self contained house disguised as a wing, with a chicken coop as its influence,  has been both a challenge and a delight.  Of course I am not doing the actual building. I was speaking metaphorically. The Kiwi Builder is doing all the building with a sure input to the structural logic of some of my designs too. One conversation had him telling me if I put a window that big in another wall the whole thing will fall on my head. Oh.

Here you can see the Goldilocks Windows. These will not fall on our heads. I designed the goldilocks windows to collect the first rays of the sun rising into the morning, and also allow that morning sunlight to come in these windows, out through the patio doors then drift straight into the main house during the winter.  

There is another rectangular window in this east wall too which will light the bed. (Not too big)You will see that later on. All the windows are framed but still boarded up so the Kiwi Builder can work in all weathers. 

These are South facing walls.  More invisible windows here too. The recycled glasshouse will  lean onto the main house, that little window you see on the left will be turned into a door – magic. The glass house will create the third wall of a South facing patio. I read that in the winter if you leave the interior glasshouse door open the glasshouse will help heat your house. That would be nice.

We began our vegetable study today. 

Below is a shot of stage two of the draft free pen. The babies tuck in there and Mama sleeps in the entrance watching over them.  Eliminating any draft at all. They are now sleeping without their light. I have stopped it for two reasons. The fire risk being the main one. The second reason is that I think a heat lamp makes the lambs sleepy and lethargic. Now that  it is off for most of the day they are up feeding from their mother much more often.

Today I opened the lambs door halfway so they could all get into the big middle pen.   Mama had to  get out. She started to call to get out of the little pen this morning.  Her babies are getting all bouncy and excited and they need room to move, so would I. Mama and I are so much alike.

Did I tell you that I hate pigeons. Pigeons are messier than peacocks. 

The loft where all the hay was stored is starting to look frighteningly empty.  I have more hay coming in three weeks, we just need to muddle through until then.  The little lambs are already chewing on hay, good little lambies.

Kupa likes to perch under the big barn light. I know he is there to collect a tiny bit of warmth from the bulb but it really does look like he is hogging the spot light. 

Good morning.

We had a little storm in the night with a drop of snow, a howling wind and as I was going back to bed after midnight it started to rain ice. So the last feeding session was a slippery affair!

I am off out again now. It is 5.30 am. I have overslept by an hour. I never use an alarm. I just ensure last thing that I tell my brain how many hours sleep I can have. After the last feed I took off my inside out clothes, (clothes are always inside out or right way round in a rolling sequence through the night as I pull them off, lay them down in order and put them back on in the dark 4 hours later.) Anyway I forgot to tell myself to wake up in four hours and count the hours on my fingers (this is how I set my brain alarm) so  simply slept until my normal wake up time.

It is an unusual talent.

So off I go now.  I will need a hammer to break free the frozen door to the barn! My bottle of warm milk for the lambs sitting in the bucket of warm water for Mama and my hand warmers. Then I will come back in to rouse the milking assistant and gather the milking paraphernalia and we will proceed with the morning.

Have a lovely day.

celi